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When we started our, we put in a fab lab or makerspace my last few years at Brookfield

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Central. We posed it every day, you know, things and projects that kids made. And I think

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that first year we had 1500 unique and creative projects that kids not only designed but created

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in there and our hashtag was always what did you make today when we did a post?

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Hello and welcome back to Life's Next Lesson Plan podcast where I continue to pave my

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post education path after three decades as an English teacher. On today's episode I

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chat with Tom Juran who taught design, photography, shop classes and yearbook for 39 years. Mr.

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Juran shares how he embraces purposeful living, gives back to his community and lives a life

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with purpose as an entrepreneur on his own terms. If you're new to the podcast, let

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me just briefly explain its structure. Twice a month I have solo episodes and twice a month

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I have a guest with me so that we can learn together. Our episodes are typically structured

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like the classroom. First we talk a little bit about getting to know each other and then

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we preface the lesson for the day and include some learning and then there will always be

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some action steps for you to engage with the lesson and some links in the show notes. So

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with that said, let's get to today's guest.

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So today I'm happy to welcome Mr. Tom Juran who will in just a minute give you a little

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bit of background on himself. I'm trying to remember he might know better the year that

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we met but I definitely know that we met because of our journalism backgrounds and it was definitely

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through Kempa, the Kettle Marine Press Association which is an organization for schools and advisors

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who are doing journalism at Wisconsin and Illinois organization. And with both of us

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teaching yearbook, we definitely were at some conventions together and our history goes back

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through journalism. But as far as his particular background, I'll let him talk a little bit

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about how long he taught and what he taught and all of those good things. So welcome Tom

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Juran to the podcast.

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Well, Rachel, thanks for having me. Don't ask me about years and how long it seems like

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just yesterday. But yeah, we were on the board together for Kempa and I did that for quite

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a few years as did you. And I'll tell you, I joined Kempa because I took on yearbook

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and I was clueless than what I was doing and I found it as probably the best resource

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I could in teaching to teach journalism, something I had no background in. My background

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was in design and printing so I felt okay with that. But didn't do so well when it came

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to the writing part. And if you were to look back at my first yearbook, that would be very

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evident. So yeah, I was glad to get involved with Kempa. It really, really, really improved

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the quality of our publication. So it's been a while, but I think I've done 25 book, maybe

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24. I'm not sure.

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Oh, wow. Yeah.

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I was going to ask, did you start teaching your book when you were first a teacher or

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did that come later?

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No, when I first started teaching, boy, it was back in the 1900s, but I think it was

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1983 and I was teaching graphic arts and printing down in Woodstock, Illinois. So my background

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was in print, worked for book publishers. So I understood that all this book is printed,

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but beyond maybe designing a cover or a few of those types of things, I didn't have any

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of that journalism background. So the yearbook program at Brookfield Central was kind of

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passed back and forth from advisor to advisor to advisor for quite a few years. And I think

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it was back in the 70s was the only time they really had an advisor for an extended period

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of time. So I was approached, I don't know what year it was, maybe 98, asking if I'd

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like to take on the yearbook. And boy, I didn't hesitate. It was all of my passions. It was

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the printing, it was the photography, which is a big part of my background. It was the

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graphic design and the only piece that I was missing and I didn't know I was missing it

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at the time was journalists. And, you know, can't put out feeling in that whole. So yeah,

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we ran that that program as a extracurricular activity, which is difficult for anyone who's

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done it knows that accountability for kids and whatever when you don't help them in the

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class. So there's literally no time to teach it's just do and we ran that program for probably

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the first 10 years as a club. And then we pushed and pushed and eventually we were able to

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incorporate it into the curriculum. So now it exists as a course both at Brookfield Central

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and Brookfield East, typically one section a year and we, we allow those students to repeat

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that course. I believe unlimited, they can think it as many times as they want. Because

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as you know, it's ever changing. Never the same.

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Right. Yeah, there's a new theme and we start over every year with something fresh. And you

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did that all the way up to retirement, correct?

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I did.

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Okay.

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The final year I turned it over to the new advisor and we co-advised. I still taught the

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class but we turned it over to her so that she could kind of learn the ropes and figure

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out what was going on. And then I was there as an advisor to her kind of role.

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And along with teaching your book, what were some of the other classes that you taught?

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Well, when I first was hired at BC in 96, I was brought on to Pete's photography, which

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was black and white, darkroom based at the time. And they had lost their graphic arts

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and printing program, just lack of interest, lack of an instructor, etc. And they had a

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brand new principal at the time. And I got a call about, oh, I was working down in Illinois,

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I got a call about two weeks prior to the start of the school year saying, hey, we need

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a teacher, we had a late retirement and I just kind of laughed like, yeah, I can't do that.

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Well, they caught me into coming up and taking a look and then I had an offer later that

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day. And that first year I was teaching photography. I was teaching, I think one section of wood

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shop and then, oh, I had a special section of special needs kids that we taught life

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skills to and that kind of rotated and that one scared me to death and turned out to be

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my favorite class that I taught the whole time that I was there. Yeah, we're going to

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find out later in the podcast how your years in the wood shop have affected your current

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life, I think. Yeah, and it did. That program and not the special ed program, but the photography

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and graphic arts programs, those kind of morphed into digital photography. We brought graphics

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back. We put in a new lab. The printing aspect of that kind of died as the technology changed

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and then we moved into more digital design, eventually leading way into the Adobe suite

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of Illustrator Photoshop and InDesign. And then that kind of morphed into digital media

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and our launch program, which is a whole nother and separate episode. Right. Exactly. Yeah,

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no, there's so many successful things have come out of that. So in all of the years that

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you spent teaching, I know we gather thousands and thousands of stories good and bad, but

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do you have a funny or memorable story from the days in the classroom to share with us?

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Oh, it's gotta be really he. Not necessarily. We're adults here. You know, I don't know.

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In prepping for this, I was kind of trying to think it's like, I have a daughter who was it

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like in her fourth year of teaching high school right now. And every time she comes home,

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or every time I used to come home from work when she was still here, she would always prompt me,

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you know, if you wanted to know about the naughty kids every day, that was like the highlight of

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her day was hearing about the naughty kids. And now as she comes home and, you know,

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and we talk, that's always my question to her. And she's more than more than willing to share

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some of those those stories. And it's just funny to hear her sharing those kinds of stories. And

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I've encouraged her to do something I never did and should have and that is write them down,

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document them, you will have the funniest journal book, whatever you want to call it,

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when you get done teaching, because people won't believe half the stuff that happened in the classroom.

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Yeah, I think we say on a daily basis, you can't make this stuff up.

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No, no. And without putting anyone on the spot, you know, there's, there's just so many, you know,

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but I guess when I was thinking about it, you know, I guess, for me, it's more of a sense of

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I'd not in what I've done, but what after she's, I think I'd have her 39 years,

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just to be able to sit back and see what those kids have done, accomplished. And, you know,

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there, there's no yearbook advice, there's out there right now. But every one of those kids

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that I'm still in contact with, thank you, social media. But just the crazy, fun, exciting things

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that they've done, you know, we, it's just amazing, you know, and you've got kids all over the country,

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you know, well, I could say a few around the world that have just taken that, that creativity that,

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that they always had, but then applied it and are doing something they're passionate about

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right now. It just, it's what made my job, you know, I don't want to say tolerable off

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every single day. The kids gave me a retirement party in your book, kids. And I have, I think,

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32 yearbook spreads that the kids made going back when we started, each kid made, made a spread

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kind of commemorating their time and our time together in yearbook, just awesome.

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That is amazing. Yeah, it was, it was fun.

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That is, that's one of the things I'm finding so fun about doing this podcast is my last guest

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before you was a former editor, yearbook journalism editor. And I plan to have many more on because

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their lives are so fascinating. I would love to do any of their jobs that they're doing,

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they're doing such cool things. And it's so fun to talk with both former educators, but also

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the former students, because as you said, they're using all their skills and they're doing such

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amazing things. And it's part of your legacy, which is so cool. Definitely. So do you notice

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when your daughter comes home, I love that full circle moment, how now she's telling you her

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stories. Do you notice in some of her stories, like ways that education you think has changed

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since when you started teaching? And I, I wouldn't probably say the exact opposite of that.

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But I don't know. And I hear all these grumpy old folks like me,

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you know, complaining about the kids nowadays and this and that, you know, I don't see it. It's like

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kids are kids, you know, it's a new and different set of problems. But that, that, that, that energy,

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that craziness, that whatever is still there, you know, different, different set of problems,

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you know, you know, with, with, with technology and everything else. But I, I always firmly

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believe they, it's a kids and I always kind of push back on that notion of, oh my God,

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this freshman class coming in as the worst class we've ever seen. I'm like,

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we've seen the bad ones in the past too. But all in all, for y'all.

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I'm sure that mindset definitely helped you in all the 39 years that you taught for sure. Yeah.

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Yeah. Did you have someone in education who you kind of looked up to, who you liked, how they

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approached what they did in the classroom and that helped you as well? Yeah, I think that one.

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I, so I went to Oak Creek Senior High School back, like I said in the 1900s. I guess I,

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I was super involved in the graphic arts and printing program when I was there. And I had a

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teacher's name was Dave Orlowski, young guy, he was probably two or three years out of college.

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But just super relatable, you know, super motivating, created an atmosphere of a place

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where kids wanted to be. And I guess that's, that's the one thing I took, I shouldn't say one thing.

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But one of the things I took with me when I decided I wanted to start teaching, because

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I just loved everything I was doing in this class. And, you know, I started, I started thinking,

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okay, do I want to go to QuadGraphics and work as a, as a pressman? Do I want to be a graphic

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designer? Do I want to be a photographer? And it was like, yes, yes, and yes. And I was kind of

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decided, what can I, what can I do that allows me to do all those things? And, and teaching became

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quite obvious. And it was funny because, you know, the content kind of went by the wayside

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after a while and it became just more out the kids and then creating that environment where a kid

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wants to be. And I firmly believe at every school, every kid needs a place, whether that's the way

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room, whether that's the choir room, whether that's the woodshop, whether that's the yearbook room,

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you know, every kid needs to have a place where they feel safe, where they feel valued, and

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where they have fun, where they do what they, what they want to do. And then we can expose them to all

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kinds of different things, but just to spark that curiosity and give them that place, you know,

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it just gets so sad when, when you see those kids that they're seniors and they still haven't found

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that place yet. And I guess I always like, or felt that my classroom was that place. And even more

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even more so yearbook, you know, 10 o'clock on a Wednesday night before a deadline trying to get

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things done, that sense of camaraderie and goofiness and problem solving and everything else. And

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those kids didn't have to be there. They wanted to be there. And that made, that made my job

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all that much more successful.

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100%. Yeah, definitely. And I think to those hands-on classes that involve real world skills,

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and they can all kind of work on something that is meaningful to them as well, or you show them

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the application of how it's meaningful. And that is, that is the best part of teaching, because

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then as you said, they go on and create this as part of their next steps as well. So yeah, it's,

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it's always interesting how educators sort of emulate the educator who inspired them as well.

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Yeah. Yeah. So with all of the success and all of the joys that came with being with students,

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because you loved that part of your job, how did you know that it was maybe time for your next

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chapter and time for retirement?

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Well, I can tell you, Rachel, it was, I was probably sitting about five feet away from where I am now

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trying to teach a hands-on course during COVID, sitting in front of a computer screen. And I

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got, really made me realize that that's not me, that's not education, that's not the way I want

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to continue. And it also made me realize the importance of family and the importance of man,

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time, right? And I love teaching, I would have done it for the next 200 years if I could,

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but if I could fit in everything else that I wanted to do in life, you know, so kind of made the

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decision during COVID that, you know, I was gonna, gonna finish up in the next few years.

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If we would have been virtual for, you know, another six months, I probably would have finished that

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year, but decided it was, it was time to move on and to try something new and start checking things

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off, those proverbial bucket lists that I think we all develop our entire lives, you know, of all

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these things that we want to do. So I come from a large family, there's six siblings, and my brother,

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Tim and I are fairly close, and he is a retired oil company exec and an engineer. He and I have

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been talking about what are we going to do in retirement. We both talked about wanting to start

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a business that would allow us to, A, pursue our passion, okay, and things that we like to do,

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that would be woodworking, that would be spending time outdoors, we're both Hunter

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fishermen kind of guys. And we decided that we were gonna start one business, and then the more

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we discussed it, it was like, no, this needs to be two, because number one, we want to be friends

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first, and if we are partners in this business, we don't want this ever to get ugly, we don't want

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this ever to be about the money, we don't want to, you know, do anything that's gonna harm that

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friendship. So we started two businesses. My brother, Tim owns Driflus Hardwoods, it's a custom sawmill

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and tilting operation, producing sustainably harvested hardwoods, and he's out of the Driflus

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area kind of near Soldiers Grove, Gays Mills, a place I'd never even been before until he bought

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some land out there. But he's the tree guy, so he cuts trees, or say we cut trees, we bought a sawmill,

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and we mill that that lumber up. And then I started a sister business, so to speak, or I guess it'd

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be a brother business. And my business is called, well, it depends on the day, it's WIMKE, and

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that's either a we make, which follows along with my maker mindset that I seem to have, or it can

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be WIMKE, a playoff of Wisconsin and Milwaukee, kind of, you know, southeast Wisconsin versus

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southwest Wisconsin, where the mill is. And I guess between the two businesses, we're kind of a

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tree to table business. Tim's business cuts the lumber, drives the lumber, and then I sell his

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lumber for him. But then I also convert. So I'm building furniture, large format tables, some with

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the with with epoxy work in it, live edge shelving, just a lot of large format rather than a piece of

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furniture that's glued up out of 100 different pieces. For my business, you're going to buy one

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solid slab of white oak that's going to become a countertop on your kitchen island. So we've been

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at that well since retirement. So we're going into just finished, I guess, our second year here. We're

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growing. We're busier than we thought we would be. First year was cutting and drying. We didn't have

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much to sell yet, but now we're getting to the place where we're starting to actually have money

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coming in rather than going out. Yeah, imagine that. That's so amazing. So we'll be sure to,

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I will link both your business and your brother's business in the show notes if people want to

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check it out. But I know too that the timing of that and your other project that you're doing

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with your daughter, I think I joked that these people in retirement who I'm interviewing are

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busier in retirement than they were, than they were teaching full time. You definitely fit that

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bill because you're working on a huge undertaking with your daughter that I just love following

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all of your Facebook posts and videos. Could you explain a little bit about the Cadillac Ranch?

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Sure. I can do this without getting too choked up here. Last September, my daughter lost her

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significant other, her boyfriend of eight years, a tragic motorcycle accident. As dads,

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we're always trying to fix everything. I should say as parents, that was something that I couldn't

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fix. It was tough on all of us. There is a house down the street from our house. I've been looking

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at it for 15 years. I've walked past it and said, I'm going to buy that house and flip it. It was

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abandoned. Beautiful 1950s ranch with a land and stone exterior and it had a 1968 Cadillac

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art out in the driveway rusting away and no one lived there. There was no power to the house.

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Didn't know much about it. I tried 10 years ago to find the owner and buy it. I thought,

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hey, I'm a teacher. I got all summer off. I'll flip this thing and I'll make a million dollars.

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That never happened. We ended up tracking down the owner. I asked my daughter first,

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hey, would that be a home that you would be interested in living in? She looked at me like

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it needs a little work. I was like, well, it needs a little more than a little work, but I think we

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can make it happen. It's close by. My sister lives in the back. Just above in her back. Just an

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awful place. We tracked the owner down. We went through three or four months of negotiations.

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We finally bought it. It had three and a half feet of water in the basement. Quite extensive mold

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throughout. I thought I was crazy. Now we're finishing up drywall and it's starting to come

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together. It's been an awesome project. Her being a teacher, we spent all summer together,

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working site by site, gutting it and rebuilding it. We're having a great time.

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Friends and family asked us if we would start a video log of what we're doing.

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It's just turned into the most amazing project. We've had over 25 volunteers that have shown up.

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Friends, family, former colleagues. It's just been amazing. You go to a celebration of life and

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everyone's always like, what can we do? What can we do? What can we do? There's only so many cupcakes

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and pans of lasagna that a family can eat. In this case, it's just amazing because

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everyone has stepped up to help out my daughter. We've had people that have given us weeks worth

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of rotten, horrible work. Filling dumpsters and tearing out moldy drywall. A number of

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my former tech ed colleagues have been there for weeks and weeks helping. One guy who works for

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Habitat for Humanity got his whole crew over two weeks ago and drywall the entire place in a weekend.

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It's just been amazing. That's kept me out of my shop a little bit and a little bit busier than

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I thought I was going to be, but it's a good busy. Absolutely. As you mentioned earlier,

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one of the reasons you wanted more time and left teaching was to have time with family and what

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better bonding experience for you and your daughter. It's brought other people back into your life.

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Like you said, I absolutely every day look forward to logging on to Facebook and seeing the videos.

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Also, you have an adorable puppy, new puppy who gets to visit the ranch along with the older

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brother, I think it is, little golden retriever. Yeah, they're so cute. I look forward to that.

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Just the progress that you guys are making and you go on shopping trips to Ikea and you can see

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her decor ideas that she's picking out. I remember too, there was a day, it was the drywalling.

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You guys were getting ready to drywall and you were like, anybody who wants to learn drywalling.

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I was like, dang it, I wish it wasn't at work because I would love to learn how to drywall.

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I would so drive down there and learn how to drywall. I think that's so cool that you're

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like welcoming anybody who wants to come help and it's just like a village, right? Like a whole

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village helping you. Taylor's got a list of, I think, 10 people that maybe didn't feel like they

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could drain water out of the basement or scrub moldy basement walls that are more than willing to

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come in now and help paint. It's been awesome and I'll be honest, if it was the two of us working

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on this thing, this would have been a three-year project and we've been able to turn this thing

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around in, what, pulp and be done instead. Wow. That's, yeah, that is so, it's just such a great

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story. It's obviously such a tragic event that brought it on and as you said, it's such a positive,

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heartwarming way to turn that into a little bit of a silver lining if you can and bring other

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people who want to help, who want to give back and be part of it. I can't wait to share the link

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with the listeners of where they can find you and where they can watch this project because when it

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gets to the end, it's going to be absolutely unrecognizable to what it was. It was probably one

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of the worst houses I had ever seen. Just like what you're saying in the basement, like how are

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they going to fix that? Oh my gosh. Yeah. It's such a great legacy too for your daughter to have

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and all that time with you as well. We have a little bit more of an unconventional, I think,

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lesson today. I think the lesson is more so just like it's almost things that just naturally,

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organically, sort of fall into your lap based on your interests. You had the interests in

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your maker mindset, sort of using your hands and turning that into an entrepreneurial kind of venture

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and now a family sort of venture with your daughter. When you think about other people

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as they venture into this sort of threshold of leaving the classroom into life after the classroom,

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do you have any sort of advice that you would give for how to make that decision?

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I would and I guess it would be more of an encouragement. You were so spot on that,

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all these retirees say, oh my gosh, I'm 10 times more busy now than I ever was in the classroom.

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To be honest, I couldn't imagine being more busy than to be a teacher and be advising your book

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and or coaching or you're putting 60 plus hours in a week and summer vacation,

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what day goes by when you're not thinking or doing something or you're crinkling the soaks.

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Two of the things that as I was thinking about our lesson and moving into retirement for folks

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would be basically those two things that we talked about. One is that maker mindset. When we

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started our, we put in a fab lab or maker space my last few years at Brookfield Central and we

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posed it every day, things and projects that kids made and I think that first year we had

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1500 unique and creative projects that kids not only designed but created in there and

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our our hashtag was always what did you make today when we did a post and I guess I use that is

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what did I make today or what did I accomplish today because if I don't know, all I did was watch

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TikToks all day which could happen but I don't feel like I'm fulfilled. What did I get done today?

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Not that there's anything wrong with downtime or whatever but you know what wouldn't you accomplish.

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The nice thing about retirement is you don't have to. You can choose what you want to do and when

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you want to do it which is awesome so I would highly recommend it for anyone who's considering

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but not being on a schedule is the only thing or being in control of your own schedule is awesome.

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So I would I would just keep that hashtag in mind on that one. What did you make today?

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And you know some people think okay I'm remodeling I was okay I'm making a home. Well it doesn't

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have to be that. That maker minds that is you know can be anything be a piece of furniture,

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could be carving a bird, it could be making a yearbook spread, it could be writing a dang poll

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you know. Creating a photograph. What did you make today? And I just I just find such

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essential sense of accomplishment in that you know. I sometimes I remember you sharing like

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summer reading lists that you used to have you know and then I don't know if it was you but

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the in the stack of books that's there you know there's a sense of accomplishment in that you

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know so that'd be my number one thing. What did you make today? I love that yeah yeah and then

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and then the other one is this sense of volunteerism you know and paying it forward.

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I know I really believe in thought about but you know some of the folks that have showed up at the

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house you know reminded me of hey remember when you were over and you you helped me tie my bathroom

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or this or that you know I think of even the kids at high school you know I think our biggest club

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at Brookfield Central well it used to be Key Club you know and it's all about volunteering.

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My daughter advises the Chase Club which is the same thing and it's volunteering and just that's

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you know we did a stint I don't know last year down at the Hunger Task Force and those kids just

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got so much out of it you know it was just awesome so you know how do you want to spend your time

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volunteering you know my buddy Frank who is leading the Habitat group you know he's that Habitat

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who three days a week in Lancashire and just loves that he's been doing it for for five years so

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you know I don't know that lesson that will be put together will be put together for for folks is

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how do you get started what are the opportunities there are so many you know and it doesn't have

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to be structured like like Habitat it can be in your own in your own neighborhood you know but

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just that whole hanging forward and and how do I how do I how do I volunteer um and just make

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others lives better yeah I love I love how you framed actually both those things is sort of the

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overarching like what can I make or create and again that might be a garden right for someone

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or yeah they've always wanted to take up painting or you know something as simple as that and then

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just thinking about like how I can spend my time giving back or paying it forward or helping others

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even you know I wouldn't have the skills obviously to do what you're doing but I'd love to jump in

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and and like you said people are helping paint or you have a neighbor lady down the road who

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needs help pulling her weeds you know you notice or something um and you have time in retirement

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right you have time to pick up new hobbies or try new things or help other people because

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you're on your own schedule right I love that so you're going to create for us some sort of list

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of how we can use our maker mindset to spend our time making things and potentially how

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that might spill into giving back to others as well I love that that's those are great action

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steps for the listeners and I'm gonna stop you Rachel when you said you don't have the skill

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that to do whatever I'm gonna I'm gonna I'm gonna cry follow on that I mean YouTube

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is your friend yeah yeah it's just amazing if you have a desire to try something or do something

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there are so many resources out there nowadays for you to to jump in and try something yeah that's

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so awesome and you said tiktok I'm not allowing myself yet to have tiktok but maybe when I have

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more time post teaching I'll allow myself I'll tell you it it's consuming and people think you know

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they have these preconceived notions of what it is um take some of the product advertisements out

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of it but oh my god the inspiration um on the Gatelack Ranch Taylor and I throwing tiktoks

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back and forth on everything from from color ideas to furniture choices to uh last week was

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drywall texture you know um just so much and it fits my like I said my adult ADD and that's

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they're super short and um I don't have to sit through an hour and a half you know YouTube video

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on how to do whatever you know yeah it's really amazing what that platform has become once it

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learns your algorithm like you said sending you DIY projects and things it's it's really curated

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for what you're doing in your life at that point which is awesome yeah that's great um well we really

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appreciate you being on the show today and I'm sure the listeners are looking forward to what

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you're going to put together for them and I'm just so happy that you found a sliver of time with all

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the things that you have going on we'll make sure to again link in the show notes how people can

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learn more about your businesses and if they want to follow you at the Gatelack Ranch and again

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just I really appreciate connecting again Tom and for you being on the show today. Teachers did you

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with their 15% discount. Snag those perks. Thank you so much for joining us today. Next week I will

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be back with a new lesson and more takeaways to apply to your classroom or to your life. If you'd

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like to subscribe to our email newsletter for special offers send us an email at nextlessonplan

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at gmail.com and as a special thank you for listening don't forget to click on the link in

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the show notes for Mr. Durand's action steps on embracing a maker mindset and paying it forward.

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In the meantime please be sure to follow us at life's next lesson plan on Instagram and Facebook

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as well as on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. If you know someone you think might be a great guest for

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See you next week.