Welcome to the Classroom Narratives Healing in
Education podcast, the space where education
meets resilience. I'm Dr. Joey Weisler, and in
each episode, we dive deep into the personal
stories of educators, students, leaders, and
frontline advocates who are navigating the complexities
within modern education. Whether you're just
starting your teaching journey, or are we seasoned
professionals looking for inspiration, we'll
explore how to foster meaningful change, prevent
burnout, and build trauma -informed communities
within our schools. Now, let's take a seat at
the front of the classroom as we get started.
Welcome to an exclusive segment here as part
of the Classroom Narratives podcast. You are
tuning in at this time to what will be a spread
out series of voices right from the heart of
the system itself, the students. I recently thought
about my favorite text. "The Help", where a protagonist
works to expose the ills of a system, but in
doing so, she must turn towards the very voices
that are being suppressed and cause change to
begin one whisper at a time. In this segment,
and others to match, I revisit not only the students
who formed the heart of the education system,
but the very same students who formed the heart
to my why. All high school graduates and university
students at the time of our recordings, these
students will tap into their pasts with me as
their teacher, some from their time in middle
school. We'll reminisce and talk openly about
what worked, what didn't work, and what calls
to action we can give onto the system to ensure
that every student is equipped for future success.
Now, let's go ahead and get started. Welcome
to the Classroom Narratives podcast, where in
today's series of voices from what I coined to
be from the "Weisler Alumni Club",
come all the way back from my first year of full
-time teaching. The course that I had these students
for was 8th grade English in the South Florida
School District in the 2019 school year. I'm
so privileged to have Mandy Lanier joining the
show with me. And Mandy Lanier is a 19 -year
-old dancer from South Florida with over 13 years
of experience. She's currently pursuing a Bachelor's
of Fine Arts in Dance at the University of Florida
with also a focus on neuroscience. Mandy also
created a dance film called Guys on Every Corner,
which was featured at the ACDA, or the National
Dance Conference of South Carolina, representing
the University of Florida. She shares her dance
performance and collaborations on her YouTube
channel as well as TikTok and collaborates with
other dancers often. She also works as a dance
instructor and a musician as indicated in her
LinkedIn profile. Check it out in the show notes
to learn more about her. Mandy, thank you so
much for joining me and welcome to the show.
It's such a privilege. Thank you. I'm so excited
to be here. Ryan Romero, also known as "DJ Romi".
is a second year communication major student
at Nova Southeastern University in Fort Lauderdale,
Florida. He says to always remember, "Todo es
Alegría", or, "everything is joyful". Ryan, welcome
to the show. How's it going, Professor Weisler?
How you been? Great to see you again. So speaking
in context, fall 2019, my first year of full
-time teaching, is an era that I speak about
quite often on this podcast because this was
a time where we as a community were exiting the
commemoration of the one -year mark of the Stoneman
Douglas tragedy and while our classroom was just
one city over, as we're working to just really
make sense as to what trauma -informed learning
means and meant during that time. So my first
question is, in terms of being a student in the
K -12 system, we can talk about college as well,
but I'm most interested in K -12. How did education
itself either help you or heal you? And especially
in thinking about the trauma behind Stoneman
Douglas or even COVID, how did that shape you?
And where did we succeed you or fail you? And
how can we as a system make it better for other
students? Yeah, well, the system definitely shaped
me in a variety of ways. I would say the biggest
help was the fact that it nurtured my need to
know more. I feel like I was constantly pushed
from a young age especially in middle school
to keep going for more and more and more and
as soon as I would learn something I was pushed
to learn the next thing which I think cultivated
this sort of hunger to know a lot within me that's
been successful and it's been a big help as I've
gotten older. I think something that it failed
to do though was like fully engage us as students.
I feel that for the most part, with the exception
of your class of course, for the most part I
noticed an overuse of like recall -based testing
and I felt like though we were being pushed to
know more and more, it was kind of just so we
could pass the test and make the grade and then
forget about it all later, rather than having
like a scaffolding lesson plan that. We built
upon as we went. This is why when I was in grade
school, I gravitated towards math so much because
I felt that everything I learned, I had to apply
in the next level in order to like continue my
knowledge versus in a lot of other classes, I
could completely memorize something. and then
completely drop it and just keep going which
was I feel like something that we used a lot
in elementary and high school because everyone
was just so obsessed with achieving these grades
and like writing the essay doing the paper doing
this doing that but like nobody was actually
learning so i feel like that was definitely a
massive failure on the education front though
It did push me to be able to learn a lot, which
I'm glad. I feel also through the trauma, I found
the system to be quite unforgiving of everything
that was happening. I did not go to Stoneman
Douglas. I was obviously in middle school. I
didn't live in Parkland. However, I did dance
with one of the people who passed away in that
shooting. Even though all of my teachers and
the higher ups knew that this had occurred, nobody
really cared. Like I didn't get much sympathy
beyond like I didn't get much sympathy, period.
Actually, they would encourage me to go to the
counselor, but like they didn't understand that
maybe sitting in a room with somebody who I wasn't
comfortable with, like wasn't what I wanted.
And I felt like nobody really cared if I was
going through it or not because my grades were
always good. Maybe if I had some sort of academic
drop off, then they would have cared more. But
I felt like I was always just perceived as like
a number throughout everything. And no matter
what was going on in my own life, really like
aside from a couple teachers that I had personal
relationships with, in general, the system didn't
really care because everyone's just a number
to it. And also through COVID. I know it was
very unforgiving through COVID because I watched
so many friends of mine try to combat the burnout
that was happening and their grades were horrible
and nobody cared. No teachers cared about it
and there was not a lot of grace at all and that's
something that a lot of us have had to explain
in college essays. Colleges are definitely a
lot more understanding of what COVID did to everybody
but I felt like Being in middle and high school,
nobody cared that we were all trapped in our
houses in a global pandemic. So long as we were
still getting our work done and getting A's,
like it didn't matter, which is something that
led a lot of people to cheat their way through
everything, which is obviously bad. But I'm going
to start off with a little bit of eighth grade
and then we'll track back till 2020. But in eighth
grade, there was a moment where a group of educators
and my mother, of course, they wanted to push
me up because you saw like my passion for English
and the way that I was excelling in the regular
class and you guys wanted to push me up to honors.
And then there was a certain group that all because
of a test score, they didn't want to push me
up. And I just feel like nobody should be defined
by a test score. A test score in reality does
not mean the world. I'm definitely not a great
test taker. Like I could know the stuff. I could
tell it to you. But once I see that pen and paper
and I hear silence, I can't work in silence personally.
And there's also just the pressure because in
middle school and high school, grades were everything.
Grades start determining what college you go
into. So when I picked up that pen and paper,
pencil and paper, especially in math, it was
just something else. So then tracking back a
little bit onto the COVID year. I really feel
like Zoom was so new at the time, like end of
eighth grade. You know, we started, there was
no Zoom. They would just post the assignments.
You would do them because we all thought we were
going on this two week break. Unfortunately,
that two weeks became two years. So it was definitely
rough because you would get accustomed to just,
oh, let me just google everything. Let's just
get this done quick. I don't have to meet there.
I don't have to sit there. So I think definitely
being in person is a way better environment than
being on Zoom. I'm very extroverted. So that's
definitely like the way I feel. Then when it
came to high school, there was definitely like
a growth when it came to like people that actually
like supported me because the teachers that I
had in high school for English were amazing.
I love them all. Learning should be fun. Learning
shouldn't be like some professors at the university.
It's just them talking. And to me, that's not
learning. You have to come in with like some
sort of way to engage your class, because if
it's not engaging, then what are you paying for?
Thanks for all that you've both shared about
that. So then how can we make the existing system
better for students? And also, what can you share,
if anything, and if willing, to celebrate your
success since the time you were both eighth grade
students in my class five years ago? Just realizing
that students are people too, especially in that
middle school age. I think everybody thinks that
we were like children. And I feel that now I've
earned the right to say this because I am an
adult. I like when I was in middle school, I
was fully as sentient as I am now. Like I did
not. undergo any sort of major like crazy development
maybe I will when I'm 25 and my brain fully develops
maybe I'm still a kid I don't know but like those
young kids they know a lot more than you think
they do and unfortunately like as everyone keeps
getting younger and younger and like cell phones
everything is so readily available these little
kids now are going through things that a lot
of people don't go through until they're way
adult life just because of everything that they're
exposed to so they're like mature enough to have
a real conversation and figure things out and
they're not necessarily a group of people that
need to be told what to do every single second
of every day and they're like actual people so
I think a lot of times I got written off as just
being like a edgy like teenager but at the same
time Like I was a real person having real problems.
I think just recognizing that these kids that
everybody claims to be like, yes, the teachers
are teaching them. But at the same time, there
is a level of like mutual respect that needs
to be achieved where both parties are perceived
as equivalent in their own humanity. Like just
because you're a young child doesn't mean that
you are not good enough to have a real conversation.
Right. Now, teachers often walk into the classroom.
And they put their own voice at the center. And
in doing so, they write off the credibility of
what the students around them may know. And I
think starting at the middle school level where
students have experiences that they can really
contribute meaningfully, it's really important
to acknowledge that the educator can be the thought
leader, but they're not the only thinker in the
room. And others can be around them to facilitate
those dialogues. 100 percent. That's something
as a dance teacher, actually, that I feel like
I've encountered a lot. Most of my dance teachers
since I was probably age 13 have like never,
ever made me. bow down to them as this higher
power it's always been told as a dancer that
we're all equal and they might have more knowledge
and experience than me which is why they're stepping
into this sort of mentorship role but at the
end of the day their job is just to facilitate
growth not to dictate it it's it's been very
successful I met a lot of amazing people here
at the university I just finished my first year
Color commentator for men and women's soccer,
DJ for men and women's basketball, national champs
for men's basketball. Amazing season. I miss
basketball season every day. Work here at the
radio station, production engineer. A little
bit about that is that I basically record, edit
all the liners, PSAs, podcasts, all of that fun
stuff, and then send it over. That gets approved.
It gets put on the Spotify. That's a little bit
what I do here when it comes to production engineering.
I'm also a DJ on the radio and that's been a
lot of fun. But I can't do none of that without
the skills I've learned in mastering the arts
of talking. And people overlook talking as like
you learn talking when you're a little kid. But
no, in reality, you're learning talking every
day because the more you interact with people,
the more you start building. relationships and
you build those relationships and just great
things come out of that in general. And that's
stuff you learn in English class when you're
with your peers. I love that. And I'm thinking
about what was also a takeaway or even like a
life lesson that you've gained from being in
a classroom and how do you still apply it to
your own life? And what advice would you have
to other teachers that are working to really
make a student friendly or student centered classroom?
that you've experienced in the past as well that's
worked for you? Yeah, one of my biggest takeaways
actually did occur in your class. It came from
the outsider's activity, which I'm sure anyone
listening to this might already know what it
is, because I feel like it's been mentioned in
your work before. Let's see, we were reading
of mice and men, and we were doing an activity
on... kind of which characters we could perceive
as the outsiders within the novel. So we talked
a lot about like Curly's wife or just people
who are kind of on the outskirts. And then we
ended up doing this activity where there was
a string involved and everybody had to grab the
string. If they felt alone in some area, there
was a bunch of like question prompts. I don't
remember exactly what they were, but all of the
questions had to do with feeling alone, doubting
yourself, struggling with poor mental health.
There were many, many, many questions. And the
score was for us to grab the string every single
time that we agreed with one of those things.
And then we ended up like. arms tangled everyone's
grabbing the string everyone's holding on to
it and you made this really excellent point to
us about how all of the questions were about
us feeling like an outsider but then in that
moment we were all grabbing the string connected
and our feeling of being outside so it's like
even though we all felt like we were very alone
we were actually all together in that feeling
and I think that's something that I've taken
with me, like, my whole life, and whenever I
hear other people say, too, like, oh, nobody
gets it, like, I'm all alone, I'm like, no, you're
not, like, it just, it helps to know that no
matter how alone you might feel, there's other
people who are also feeling alone, and in that,
you're not alone, even if you're feeling alone
for different reasons, like, that feeling of,
oh, nobody gets me, like, I think everybody has
hit that point at some point, and that is kind
of what unites us all and something else that
I adopted from that lesson I kind of took it
one step further and then every time I would
like feel like I was completely by myself I would
like look up and like find a cloud and like do
the math of how many other people were like also
probably looking at that cloud at the same time
and it kind of gave the same vibe as like holding
on to the string and then seeing everyone else
hold it So yeah, I feel like it was a nice grounding
activity, especially for all of us, like angsty
teenagers in that class. We all felt like nobody
understood us, but we all actually just understood
each other perfectly. We were just all too afraid
to say anything about it. I usually don't say
this in front of people because I don't want
them to think I'm a little bit nerdy, but I loved,
I loved in your classroom and still till this
day, I read it, the telltale heart and the monkey's
paw. I will never forget that. That was amazing.
And that's just, without that, I don't feel like
I would love to like learn English as much if
it wasn't for that. What worked about them? Definitely
that little scavenger hunt you had us do. That's
right. Like I said earlier, I love teachers that
are like immersive and just like are themselves
and they want to have fun too. That's a core
moment for me. Just like the Inside Out movie,
like the little circles. Yes. I'll never forget
that. Like that scavenger hunt was so fun. Like
even just listening to that audio book, because
I personally don't like reading like as much.
I prefer somebody like talking, you know, like,
so let's say I get an assignment for the university.
I literally like if there's no way for me to
read it. I copy and paste and put it into like
Google Translate and I just click. Even if it's
a horrible like voice, I rather read it self
to me. But definitely that that definitely shaped
like a lot of love towards English. And I'm not
a big poem guy. One thing that I would say that
you would do is you would be consistent and definitely
consistency is a key no matter what you do. you
always have to be consistent what i mean by that
is like the phone nap time you would be super
consistent with that the snoopy theme like I
love the classroom changes you know I was always
so excited for the months to pass and see the
different decorations that was super consistent
definitely consistency is a key another key factor
is just the teacher like being themselves there's
some teachers that hold back and follow that
system and you didn't do that You made learning
fun. And if I was never in your classroom, I
feel like I would still be, you know, like just
English is whatever. I probably wouldn't even
be a communication major. Who knows? But definitely
that's that's just one thing you did. Like you
made us students feel like we were worth something
and not just kid in a system that should only
exceed like high expectations, high grades, all
that fun stuff. So talk to us a little bit more
about the types of work that you each had a chance
to produce in school that you still remember
being proud of today. And I mentioned this knowing
that, Mandy, you pursue a lot of activities and
projects around dancing. And Ryan, you spent
your senior year creating a vlog channel that
united your entire class of 2024. Tell us about
some of the projects that you've done that have
still made an impact on each of you today. Overall,
every project that I've done that I've been proud
of has come from a place of passion, being excited
to do a project on whatever it is I'm wanting
to do a project about, and also having the creative
freedom to do what I want. I think, especially
in a school setting, it's important for students
to be able to guide their own learning in a way
that's authentic to them. Obviously some people
might not want to do a documentary film or write
whatever and I think there should be different
avenues for every student to stay in their niche
in terms of what they like to do project -wise
and still put forth their maximum effort because
if I had to write a paper for every single thing
that I've ever learned I would probably not be
as successful as I've been because I don't love
writing papers as much as I like creating films
or dances or doing other things I feel like I
have that outlook on everything so it's nice
in moments where I've been able to apply that.
Also some other projects that I do outside of
school. I have a YouTube channel, subscribe,
everything. I create a lot of dance films, which
I love doing. And all of that is just stuff that
I do for fun. The school system needs to do a
better job of emphasizing the importance of inputting
yourself into the work that you're doing and
finding what works for you and knowing that it's
okay to stay true to that, even if somebody else
is suggesting. you do something else because
at the end of the day especially when you're
in elementary middle and high school I mean people
can make you feel like you have to do it a certain
way but at the end of the day if you do it with
quality they're not going to give you a bad grade
and I feel that that's something I had to learn
on my own because I had so many teachers trying
to force their own methodology onto me but at
some point I just hit a wall and was like, you
know what? I'm doing it the way I want to do
it. If I get an F, I get an F. But at the end
of the day, I was always able to produce quality
work and nobody can discount that. So like, if
you're a student listening to this, just do what
works for you. Obviously don't cheat. Like if
what works for you is chat GBT, like maybe don't
do that, but do what works for you so long as
it has merit and you'll produce work that nobody
can discount. So definitely going into senior
year, I always say the story and I'm just super
proud of it because our class was super divided.
If you were there in person, trust me, you would
see. There would always be little groups here,
little groups there. And the reason why I wanted
to vlog senior year was my mentality going into
this is like, all right, it's our last year.
Some of us may never see each other again. Why
don't we all just come together, enjoy the events,
have fun. Why do we have to argue in our last
year? You're never going to see half of these
people ever again or hear from them. Why is there
to argue? And another part of the reason is all
these people always tell me and I never believed
them. And this is how the same story goes over
and over. You never believe someone until you're
there. I would never believe anyone to say, oh,
senior year goes by super quick. Oh, senior year
is the most fun. You're going to miss it. Well.
They were right. I was wrong. Definitely the
vlogs were a gateway to also, you know, experiment
a little bit because I did do some university
vlogs, but definitely being in the university,
it's a total different environment because you're
not with the same people like every single day
for like every year. But the point of the vlogs
were to, again, bring people together and just
document it. So by... The first pep rally. The
theme was the Wild West. Yes. Okay. I remember.
So the first pep rally was definitely like an
amazing, like I would say video drop because
why? It was spirit week that led into the pep
rally. We had our class group chat with like
most of the students who ever wanted to join.
We just send them the code and that's where like
we would keep each other updated, like send texts.
Oh, do this, do that. Oh, does anybody like.
need help with this and i was in sga and my mom
definitely like still tells me that i should
have went for the ace diploma yes i should have
but i would not have had as much fun as i did
senior year then i would have if i went for that
ace diploma why didn't i go for that it's because
i just wanted to have fun and like i was taking
ace classes sophomore and junior year and that
just took up so much time and i'm like listen
i'm gonna be a senior this is my last year in
charter i've been in charter my whole life i
feel like i deserve some fun so definitely that's
another reason why i started the vlogs too but
if i did take those ace classes I wouldn't be
up there with Mr. Jablonka commentating, him
teaching me the ways of commentating, and that
led to me now commentating our men and women's
soccer here at the university. I wouldn't have
been able to excel my DJ capabilities in practice
while DJing the football games, DJing the basketball
games. I wouldn't be able to bring the class
together in rehearsing for pep rally, trying
to bring fun. Like you said earlier, I live by
the phrase, todo es alegría, everything is joyful.
I wouldn't be able to bring that fund into my
community. And then by the end of the year, everybody
was just so united. Nobody wanted to leave each
other. It was just amazing. And to hear my name
at graduation be mentioned by both speakers of
the JAG Pride Award and the principal is amazing.
I don't know if you remember our class motto
on the wall. The class motto that we had is our
moments matter. And I emphasized. To all the
students, like, you know, when five years from
now, when you're in college, blah, blah, blah.
And they all laughed at me and poo -pooed me
and said, that's his story, won't be mine. And
what we say in psychology, the excuse that we
lean into is that, oh, they're 14, their brains
are underdeveloped. We accept that. But now,
like you said, when you get to that age, once
you go through it, it's like, oh, wow, that guy
from 2019, whoever he was, he was right. Definitely.
I mean, literally just going back to what I said,
like you wouldn't believe the stuff people say
until you actually live it. And that senior year
was definitely like making my moment matter.
I actually on my laptop, I have your quote. that
you had on your wall and that sits on my laptop
uh wall screen it will never leave and it's just
a photo of like all my friends like family uh
people that like i really care about you're you're
on the wallpaper it was work hard not to prove
your critics wrong but to prove your believers
right yep there it is my mom has said this so
many times and i completely agree with her you're
at school throughout your core education more
than you are at home your teachers are like your
mother and father your brother your sister you
spend more time with them than you spend with
your own family at home for five days of the
week unless you're sick but and and that's that's
true i i couldn't have said it or heard it better
myself because Your school is your home and your
core education is what you thrive on. And the
way that you're taught manners at home, like
saying, yes, ma 'am, yes, sir, no, ma 'am, no,
sir, is in reality the way you are taught in
school. That's just the way it works. Absolutely.
And it sounds like what Ryan's saying is that
authenticity is one of the most important factors
that we can have in the classroom. When a teacher
is not being authentic, it's easy to catch on
to. I think when I was starting to lose my interest,
it was very obvious to your class. And I remember
there was one time that Ryan came up to me during
a group activity. Do you remember this conversation?
He said to me, Mr. Weisler, Mr. Weisler, my cousin
wants to go into education. What advice do you
have for her? Do you remember my advice? Don't
do it. What was the advice I told you to give
your cousin? I remember this. You said it would
be easier to be a garbage truck driver than to
be an educator. That's exactly what I said. That's
exactly what you said. I'll never forget that.
Under oath, yep. And I think when you get to
that mentality, it was easy to realize how passionless
or how unhappy the system can make educators
and students at some point. If you could tell
yourself either something from either middle
or high school or say something to a former teacher
that has impacted you in either a positive or
negative sense or both, what would you say to
that person? Essentially, what words of wisdom
would you tell your middle school self? The advice
that I would give myself. First of all, I would
definitely say like calm down. What you're doing
in middle school is not going to impact your
life for better or for worse. And it's OK to
not get 100 on every single assignment. It's
OK to not be the best one at everything. I think
it's actually better to not be the best one at
everything. So I would first say like just chill
out and it's fine and you're going to be fine.
I would also say. Focus on your passions more
than the grade. Make work that you're proud of,
even if that means it not being perfect. If you
are writing something and you're not agreeing
with what you're writing, stop doing that and
change it so you do agree with it. Because at
the end of the day, If you don't get 100 on every
single assignment, it's OK, so long as you're
proud of what you're making. If you're always
getting A's or always getting perfect grades,
but you don't like any of the things that you're
doing to do it, you're going to burn out and
it's going to be really hard to get back on track
in terms of making things that you like and are
proud of. Yeah, so I would definitely tell her
to like not care about the grades so much. and
care a little bit more about actually being proud
of the stuff that I'm making because then the
grade will come if you're proud of what's happening
the grade will come to you you'll get a good
grade if you're really putting your full effort
into everything the grade will come and you'll
be proud of it which is really important versus
if you do the opposite you're just gonna burn
out and not like anything that you're doing and
also not like yourself um let's see what would
I say To my teachers. I think this applies to
basically every teacher that I have had, really.
Almost every single teacher that I've had, their
class has changed me in some way. And I think
it's important for all of them to know that.
Even the teachers that. I disliked or that disliked
me. Their class did change me in some sort of
way, perhaps realizing that I wasn't fond of
certain traits or teaching me what I didn't like,
but every class has taught me something. I think
that's super important to say. And to the teachers
that really took the extra time to get to know
their students and just Let them know that they
understood, even if they didn't really do anything,
just letting them know that they were like present
in their students' lives. I especially thank
them because there's nothing worse than sitting
in a classroom and feeling like you don't mean
jack to your teacher. And I've had teachers that
will tell all of us that. We are all there learning
from them that this is their classroom and that
they don't care whether I get an A or pass the
exam because it's their class. And to those teachers,
I would like to say you're a bad teacher because
you should care about your students. And also
it's a huge reflection on you if we get it or
don't get it. So I think that is something that.
is important but I definitely had a lot more
teachers who were concerned about our lives than
teachers who weren't and for all of those good
job on your career choice you did a good job
because yeah and also my mom is a teacher shout
out Amy um my mother is a teacher and I think
this has given me a very specific mindset when
it comes to meeting teachers and dealing with
them because I know that my teachers are people
too. A lot of students don't think about that
at all, which is completely fair. Honestly, the
only reason I do recognize my teachers as their
own human beings is probably because my mother
was one. And I grew up having her talk about
her students and stuff like that. So I've always
recognized that my teachers are people. I think
my peers could do a better job doing that. Also,
for all my teachers who show who are brave enough
to show their humanity in the classroom, like
keep it up and we see you. And even though not
every student is a dream to have, you are making
an impact on their life regardless. And it's
OK to show that your students that you're a person,
too. They'll probably like you a lot more if
you appeal to their sense of humanity, because
when you lead a class with ego. Everyone hates
it, you know. But when you're a person, everyone
loves it. That's why everyone loved you, Mr.
Weisler, because you had that board and you said,
yesterday I got two hours of sleep. And we all
knew you were telling the truth. You weren't
sitting there telling us, oh, you need to get
eight hours, you need to do this, whatever. You
were just an open, honest person, which is something
that is lacking nowadays on all sides. The more
authentic and real you can be, the more your
students will like you. And if you're a real
person and your students don't like you, they're
just not the right student. You know, better
to be a teacher that you're proud of and have
some students maybe not love you as much than
to be a dictator and all your students pretend
to love you, but secretly they hate you. That's
better. I would just really say just keep being
yourself. Keep being that goofy kid that tries
to bring joy in others and just don't stop waking
up every day and just trying to be better each
and every day. For the teachers that have impacted
me positively, I would definitely say keep being
yourself, keep being like the star you are. You've
definitely helped me grow in my way of communicating
with others, in my way of just being able to
understand writing, being able to be professional
now that I'm in university. And for the one,
because there's only one English teacher that
I just didn't like at all. I'm going to prove
you wrong. And, you know, I hope you're enjoying
life at home with your cats. And is there anything
that we haven't touched on in our conversation
that you wanted to or wish to address or any
final thoughts you have for our listeners? For
anybody listening to this right now, I think
it's important to be your true authentic self,
no matter what, and let that true authentic self
come through in everything that you're doing.
Because As a dancer, I've been taught to let
my own personal movement style slash individuality
come through in every single thing that I do.
And that's been hard, but doing that has made
me better at dancing, first of all, and also
just made me a lot more confident in who I am
as a person. And I think it's important to just
always stay true to that person that you are
and make sure that the things that you're doing
and the choices that you're making are aligning
with that person that you are and who you are
constantly becoming. Because I think a lot of
people feel that they have to act a certain way
for their job or because of whatever class they're
taking or the friends that they have. But honestly,
if you try to be something different, it's never
going to work because also everybody can tell
when you're just putting on a show. So I think
it's really important to let the person that
you are and the person that you're becoming shine
through in everything that you do, not just in
your personality, but in the work that you're
doing in school, at work, interpersonally, heck,
when you're cooking your dinner, like you should
be yourself 100 % of the time. And understand
that that's the most important, because if not,
you're going to accidentally become somebody
that you dislike. I know so many people specifically
in college that are like in finance, and they
believe that in order to become successful in
finance, they have to turn themselves into Patrick
Bateman. And they have to play the game and get
so good at smoothing that they like completely
lose the person they are. But when in reality,
the people who are most successful in that field,
like. understand their own personal beliefs and
values and they stick to them and that's what
people are drawn to so I think that's really
important to like stay true to the person that
you're becoming unbecoming and reinventing all
the time I just want them to gain that one the
teachers deserve more respect because there are
some teachers that do struggle outside of the
classroom and have a lot of stress of stuff that
happens in the classroom and they don't get the
proper respect that they deserve. So definitely
respect your teachers. Definitely, I feel like
all teachers, because I've talked to teachers
before, I've talked to you before. Some teachers
are very open to like formatting their way of
teaching in a different way, if that makes sense.
But definitely just be open with them and be
yourself. Because if... an educator doesn't see
you for who you are like if you're just that
student that just oh like i don't want to be
at school oh i just want to sit in the back of
class be on my phone do nothing don't waste your
time doing that don't waste your time doom scrolling
show your potential and show your educator who
you are and who you can be because teachers are
great teachers are your family thank you so much
for tuning in and we hope you enjoyed our first
round table from the weissler alumni panel and
in the new school year let's focus on the values
of authenticity flexibility and mindfulness as
ways to become united as students and teachers
while making our moments in school matter thank
you for joining us on the classroom narratives
Healing and Education podcast. If today's episode
inspired you or made you think differently, I'd
love to hear from you. Drop a comment or review
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we can transform our scars into stars in education,
one conversation at a time.