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Welcome back to Teaching the Unteachables, where we dive into methods for teaching and learning for professionals like you.

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Are you looking for more resources? Then join us on our live weekly webcast. Learn more at escogroup.org.

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All right, everyone. Thank you for joining us once again. We're hanging out with Mark Conan. Mark, how are you today?

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I'm doing good. So, Mark, tell me a little bit about your role in the industry, because I think we could both resonate on this quite a bit.

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Well, yeah. So I started in this industry as a very young person. I have family business, working for my uncle's business as just a young man, cleaning out trucks and things like that.

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You know, a long time, 27 years or so working there, decided to get into teaching.

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Was that residential HVAC?

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Both residential and commercial.

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Yeah, residential and commercial. And at that time, we didn't do commercial refrigeration as much.

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Yeah.

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That was, we were more commercial air-conditioning and heating. But then I decided to get into teaching.

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I've been teaching for Kaskaskia College in Centralia, Illinois, and I am going on, I just passed up my 10th year.

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Nice. All right. So you have a lot to give back. And one of the things that we keep talking about as we're preparing young educators, you know, one of the things that we've seen at the 2023 National HVACR Education Conference was a huge amount of first-time educators.

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Man, I remember that first year. Do you?

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I do. I remember it well. And if I only knew then what I know now.

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Oh my gosh. I remember my first day, right? So when I came into the field, you know, we get the, you know, hand us the keys. Here's your program. Do you need anything or do you need coffee?

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Like, no, I need resources. I get prepped, you know, so finally I get all dressed up and new clothes, new shoes, everything. Get a nice sport jacket.

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And man, I'm, I'm just going to, I'm going to prepare myself. And it was a CEU class. So in Ohio and in Kentucky, they require CEUs for your license.

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Indiana, we don't even have a license. So I was brought on, you know, so I hired in to do a contractor training and continuing education at the distributor level.

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So I get the class already, man. I'm all fired up.

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No one shows. Oh, not a single person on day one. So it was like, okay, I got all wound up for nothing.

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So for me, it was good. It prepped me a little bit emotionally wise because a lot of times we're not really prepped for it emotionally. Right.

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I mean, we kind of, we come out of the field just, just like you and we walk into the classroom. And so we all have different first experiences. What about you?

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What was your first experience walking into a classroom? You know, so the, the instructor who was there before me, unfortunately was, was let go by the college.

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Just some, some situations arose and I was brought in in January. So the class that was there had already been in session from, yeah, they were already in session.

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And so I came in kind of at a, at a non-traditional time. And so I won't lie. It was a little bit tough because I'm not sure that I was real well liked on day one.

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So, you know, as day two got there and day three got there, quite honestly, a lot of students came up to me and said, Hey man, I like you.

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I said, you like me? He said, well, I'm learning something. It was a good transition that I'll say this on my, you know, as far as looking back at my first day of school of actually having students, that was probably the hardest thing is that all these students, I'm not sure they're going to like me right off the bat.

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They don't teach that coming out of the field.

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They do not.

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So let's think about that. So, you know, we're here to share experiences to prepare, you know, the next generation of educators. So let's dive into some topics that you and I wish we would have been informed of when we walked into that classroom.

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Yeah.

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The first thing I would say is, is, and, you know, maybe this is something that sounds simplistic to us, to a lot of people, but I'm just going to stay with preparing. All right. Be prepared.

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I was thinking of as this was, we talked, you know, about this program that I think there's a song from the Lion King where they say, be prepared. And I can only tell you that, you know, having planning.

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So, you know, there's nothing worse than getting to the, to the class and, you know, your first days or your second days or your hundred day and having no game plan.

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Right.

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And, you know, as I was looking over some of these topics that we're thinking about talking about today, the one thing I kept thinking about is, you know, an instructor who's been there for a few years, you know, if they get this gets a school and something happens and they're not a hundred percent prepared, they can wing it pretty well.

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Right. Cause they've done it half times.

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Because they've done enough, but when you're dealing with an instructor who is brand new, like you and I were at one time, you walk into that classroom and I just would say one hint that you're not prepared, one hint that maybe this is not your favorite topic or a topic that you're the

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It's like they can smell it.

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They can smell it. You're right.

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And so it's, it's, unfortunately, that's what makes things a little bit difficult. So, you know, part of being prepared is, is trying to get yourself organized.

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And so trying to figure out, Hey, what am I doing today? What is the exact topics today? All of that is, is what's really going to, in my mind, make those first first couple of years more successful.

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Absolutely. Cause if we walk in and we just go, okay, today we're going to talk about, let's say wiring diagram sequence of operation, part one, we're going to start at the very beginning.

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If we don't have at least half of our class time already planned out, we may get through that in a short period of time and then be stuck going, okay, I guess we're going to have to go out into the lab and maybe get completely off course.

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So if we prepare our content for the entire class, maybe even over prepare for that class, then we know that we can keep the class on track and not get too far down the rabbit holes.

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Exactly. That's exactly right. You know, again, part of that, where things can go, you know, off to a bad path is, is when we aren't prepared, we don't have a topic that we're, we're, we're ready to talk about or have a, you know, the whole list of topics.

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We're ready to talk about next thing you know, we're, we're getting off topic and talking about, you know, sports or whatever else. And that's not necessarily the thing we're supposed to be talking about in HVAC class.

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So if you have a list and you see these are the things that I need to go through today, we're going to hit those topics and we're, we're going to stay more organized. We're going to stay according to the plan.

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Now with that plan, did you have a kind of a routine that you laid out for the amount of time that is lecture and the amount of time that is actually in lab?

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Yeah, you know, well, we, first of all, our syllabus is going to kind of dictate some of that as far as credit hours. So where I work, we're community college, you know, if it's a three credit hour class, the way ours works, it would be two lecture, two hours of lecture, two hours of lab.

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And, you know, I can't pretend for a second that we can always stick to that because, you know, there are times and this is something I think it's really good for first for the newer instructors to remember is there are times where you as the instructor are going to be like, you know what?

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This is a great topic. This is a great lecture. However, I can show you this a whole lot better if we just go out to the lab right now, we get our hands on it.

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And you see it firsthand because I can explain it to you a hundred times on paper or on the on the on the board or in PowerPoint or whatever your whatever your method is.

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But for some learners, it's going to be a whole lot better if they just get out there and see it. Those kinesthetic learners is is what I'm talking about. A lot of those people are they're going to be a lot better with understanding it if they can get their hands on it.

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Absolutely. And that's another big challenge is understanding how to communicate with the students, understanding on that professional level. OK, so, you know, I want to get you involved in this.

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I want to get you into the lab. But there's also a point where we have to be careful with our relationship boundaries with our students.

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Don't you say? Yes, absolutely. So, you know, you know, one of the topics that I was, you know, kind of want to talk about today was just relationships and relationship building. Yes. You know, building relationships.

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There's there's a couple of different ways that we can look at that from an instructor standpoint. Number one, with the student themselves. So I won't lie. There's lots of times as an instructor that students come to you and say, hey, listen, you know, Mark, I didn't get my stuff done last night.

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I'm going to do this because this happened or this happened or this happens. Sometimes we're listening, you know, we're going to have to listen to what they're what. So maybe they have some problems going on.

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But with that being said, we I think there's also boundaries and the boundaries are I'm not going to go out and have lunch and supper and go to parties or wherever else with my students.

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I think that's a way to end and failure very quickly. Along with again, professional relationships is are great to have with students. I think beyond that, you could be asking for some troubles. Yeah.

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Now, you know, because as our role, you know, we become mentors very quickly in many of us as technicians. You know, we didn't work with a lot of people. We may have been able to help some other people along the way, other technicians. But when we move from the field into the classroom, we immediately become a mentor to a lot of young minds.

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And a lot of those young minds are gravitating towards people who are trying to help them excel in life. And that's what we do. I mean, that's what we that's why we end up in the classroom is we're wanting to give back and we're wanting to help grow young minds and help people grow into, you know, members of our society.

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So that that borderline between professionalism and friendship can be very careful in the classroom.

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That's absolutely correct. Absolutely correct. Yes, because myself, you know, we've we've we run into situations where a person starts to think that, you know, hey, I don't have to do my lab work. I don't have to do my homework because I feel like I'm a friend.

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Yeah, the professor is my buddy now. So let me get away with a little bit.

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When you're on that buddy, maybe have that idea that we're just buddies in this in this situation, this this learning environment. The next thing you know, it's, you know, hey, let's go hang out. And again, what I will say with with a new instructor is I would have to be very careful with that because that could lead you down the wrong the wrong path.

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And, you know, even just when we're talking about communication and learning communication skills, a lot of times it goes the other direction. So if we think about being able to properly communicate with administration, sometimes we're talking on different levels.

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We're focusing on our program and that is the highest priority within our realm. But when we get into the administrative level, a lot of times we're a piece of that puzzle and they have a lot of moving components. So learning how to communicate properly with administration is a key to a successful, you know, program and management of a program.

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No two words have been spoken right there because I think the problem is what you just said is we folk, we're focused on on HVAC. Right. And when you think about, you know, depending on what what kind of facility you work at, if you're my boss in my case as a dean, and if I'm, you know, have an issue and I send it out to the dean or whatever the case may be, or, you know, even if times you have to go further than that, the vice president or something you reach out to, you know, sometimes you just you have to tread cautiously because you have to remember that they have, you know, 20 or 30 programs that they're dealing with every day.

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Whereas you have your one. And so exactly sending emails and communicating with your with your dean or your vice presidents or such is a great idea. I would just say, check your tone and make sure that you're not being aggressive. However, if you have a emergency situation, I think at that point in time, it's something, you know, maybe a different form of communication. So, you know, getting on the phone if in an emergency situation is going to be better than an email any day. Sure.

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We do a lot better if we keep a positive tone with our administrators just seems to work a whole lot better. Now let's think about, you know, you mentioned email. Now I know for myself, you know, I'm a technology junkie. I have always enjoyed the tools of my trade. But when I came out of the field and into the classroom, I had a lot of other new technology I had to learn. You know, I hadn't built a PowerPoint presentation in forever. I hadn't looked at an Excel file. I hadn't looked at a PowerPoint presentation.

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I looked at an Excel spreadsheet and hadn't worked with an Excel spreadsheet in years and documentation and using documentation for the advancement of our program is very critical. And so sometimes those are new skills that we need to pay a lot more attention to as we're entering this new role, this new realm in life.

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Yeah. So, you know, it's interesting that you say that, Clifin, because I was just just talking to some colleagues yesterday at school. And one of my colleagues is actually offering an Excel class over the summer. And she actually came to me and said, hey, listen, do you have any of your students who might want to get in this Excel class? It's going to be offered. It's actually going to be a class. It's the way it's going to be structured. It's a non for credit class. So it's basically free for students to come to it.

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With some limited, very small fees. Right. And I said, I don't know if I'd have anybody interested, but sign me up. Right.

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Because you think about it, I mean, we just like you mentioned before, the tools we're using every day, the gauges and the meter like that. And now we're not Clifton. We're using Excel and Word and PowerPoint. Those are the tools that we use more than anything now. And so I won't lie, I've got I've got some skills with Excel, but I could definitely use a whole lot better. So go along that lines as a new instructor. I think it's very important that you do tell yourself that, hey, I know Excel.

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I know how to do this HVAC stuff. Now do I know how to teach this HVAC stuff? Yeah. And then again, part of the organization that you're going to put into that and and planning might be using things like Excel and Word and PowerPoint.

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And any chance you get to try to move that direction to better yourself is, you know, it's ultimately it's ultimately going to better your student. It is. I mean, if you think about it, you've mentioned it. It's all part of that presentation.

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You know, that student is coming into the class and they're going to perceive things from different media. They're going to perceive that by putting their hands on it in the lab.

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They're going to perceive that by the information that we communicate verbally. But they're also going to see that visually with, you know, presentations and slides and things that we put together.

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And then they're going to have assessments and tests to see how well they're doing along the way. There are a lot of new skills that we tend to have to learn or at least relearn once we get into the classroom.

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For sure. And, you know, the word that you that stands out to me there was assessment. You know, when I became an instructor, when I heard the word assessment, I kept thinking to myself, well, I'm going to take students and, you know, take them to the lab and have them perform on this or have them perform on that.

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And, you know, every once in a while I'd hear that word assessment, assessment. What are you talking about? And I would think to myself, well, I'm assessing my students all the time. I'm giving them exams. I'm giving them quizzes. They have to perform in the lab.

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They're performing work orders on furnaces and heat pumps and such. And then it dawned on me that, you know, listen, this assessment is not just what the students are doing.

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This assessment is what am I, how are they doing and how am I, how am I doing to be instructor and getting that crazy information? I had no idea how ill prepared I was until I got in the classroom.

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I honestly say, and I've had this conversation with many instructors, I didn't become as good of an instructor by natural coincidence. You came that way by figuring out what you needed to get better at and picking up these skills and adding these new skill sets to the ones that we already had.

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Just because we were good technicians doesn't mean that we're good teachers of technician skills.

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Very true. And again, you know, sometimes as an instructor, we give a quiz or we give an exam or just a piece of homework that you may be sitting at home on Saturday grading that piece of homework and you're like, my goodness, why did so many students do so poor on this?

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The reality is this is that class was, you know, we get a presentation on that on Monday and maybe I just wasn't my best on Monday. Maybe I didn't get my point across to the students because generally speaking, when an entire class does not do well on something, it's usually not the entire class.

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It was the presentation or how it was, you know, given that was delivered.

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Yeah, the other delivery. Exactly.

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You know, you mentioned a good topic about grading on Saturday. One thing that I always like to recommend, be cautious of your time so that you don't get into the burnout mode.

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Oh, yeah. So, you know, the burnout mode is something that happens and a lot of people I know there's a lot of people that I work with in this trade prior to being an instructor and they say to me all the time that, you know, you got it made now you sit by the desk all day or you know, whatever.

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And what I'll say is, as most instructors, even the ones that are brand new will know is your emails going off all day long, your phones going off all day long, students are having trouble with this concept or that concept, or maybe they're out at their buddy's house and they're trying to work on a furnace and they're calling you on Saturday.

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And don't get me wrong, I don't always grade on Saturday and Sundays and stuff, but I do on occasion.

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It does sometimes.

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And what we do have to remember is this, is that we also, most of us have families and things like that, that we can't give, you know, 100% of our life to our work. And even though I know that's hard to say, it's hard to come out of my mouth because most of the people who I know who I see in Las Vegas every year when I go from instructor standpoints are workaholics.

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I mean, they just absolutely go, go, go. And so what I will say is it's hard sometimes to not be that workaholic. But I think it's important that you also set back time every week for your family, for your loved ones, and most importantly, yourself.

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And so you've got to take time for yourself to do, I mean, whether it's you like to go fishing or your family likes to go have dinner someplace or you like to go to church on the weekends or whatever that may be, you have to find that time for yourself, for your own quality of life.

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Work-life balance.

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Work-life balance, absolutely.

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Mark Cohen, I sure appreciate your time and we thank you for joining us today on Did You Know?

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Thank you very much. I appreciate you being here.