the computer. Okay, I should be recording. This is the Reading
Instruction Show. I'm your host, Dr. Andy Johnson, and we have a
very special guest with us again, Anna Hammett. Anna, who are
you? What is your background?
Well, my background, this is kind of a tough one. I don't have a
traditional teacher background, I would say I'm not someone that
came out of undergraduate started teaching right away and
have been teaching for the last 30 years. So I did I went to
St. Cloud State, graduated in 98. Did not at all care for my
student teaching experience. It did not feel like a good fit at
all. And moved around a little bit after that I was they did
encourage me to apply for a position there. And I didn't
even apply for it because I thought I am not cut out for
this. So I ended up moving to Iowa, not long after that I did
do some subbing and some long term subbing and the subbing
actually I enjoyed quite a bit but I thought it was just the
temporary nature of the thing and I felt a little freer as a sub.
And it didn't realize it was my student teaching experience not
teaching itself that had kind of soured me on the whole thing.
But I ended up, go ahead.
What's your current situation? Where are you currently?
Oh, my current situation. So I live in Northern Minnesota. I
ended up going back and being a high I was a high school English
teacher. And and right now I'm an MTSS academic and curriculum
specialist in Northern Minnesota. And this is my second year
will be my second year of doing that position.
You mentioned there was a shortage in teaching a high
turnover. What do you think was the cause of that?
I think it's several things. I think that we were headed, we
were headed this way before COVID. And I think COVID sort of
accelerated a lot of things teaching during COVID was very
difficult. Things changed very quickly in education. Normally
things do not change that quickly. And then all of a
sudden we went from, you know, teaching all in person to
teaching some in person, some that were home every other week
and some that were at home all the time. And then trying to
figure out how to make all of that work. And then for our area
to try to figure out how to make all of that work went about 30%
of our students do not have internet access, reliable
internet access, or devices to get online. But yet they're
expected to be learning online. And so that was all very
difficult. And then coming out of COVID. Our students, I think
they just what I'm noticing is a little bit of immaturity.
Definitely. So we talk about the learning loss all the time. And
I was like, you know, gearing up for when we came out of
COVID that I was going to have students that were academically
two years behind. And really academically, my high school
students, they were okay, you know, they weren't academically
two years behind, but I would say they were socially emotionally
two years behind. And they had lost a lot of their ability to
self regulate, and to deal with conflict. And so that was, you
know, I needed to shift gears pretty quickly to fit, you know,
okay, we need to like, spend some time figuring out how we're
going to work together as a community of learners. And then I
think too, there was a lot of conflict in society, and somehow
education got kind of plunked in the middle of this culture war,
having to do with masking and vaccines and everything else. And
that has continued. And so then I think that has also sort of
exacerbated the teacher shortage, because it's difficult. It's a
difficult job. I mean, it's a wonderful job, I love it. But
it's a difficult job to start with. And then when you add, you
know, that kind of conflict and scrutiny and, you know, misinformation.
It's difficult.
People don't realize how hard work teaching is what hard work
is. In your observation, why are some of our good teachers
leaving the classroom?
Stress, I think it's largely stress and a lack of support. Things
get added to our plates constantly, you know, like just,
you know, every time there's a mandate, there's paperwork that
goes along with a mandate, right? So we have more things to do
there. We have more students added to our classrooms all the
time. So when I first started teaching, you know, it typically
have a class size of 25. My class size is now when I was still
in the classroom would be 38, sometimes 40 seniors in a room.
Oh, my goodness.
Yeah, yeah. And it was not uncommon to have quite a few of
them. That as I call them, we're fragile learners that needed a
little bit more of my time, focus, energy and help. So I just
remember one, one class of ninth graders I had, I had 38
students in there. Two of them were needed one on one pairs.
That's what was in their IEP. So I had two pairs in there. And
I had an additional 11 students that were on IEPs for a variety
of reasons. I tended to have a lot of students that needed
support with the you know, emotional behavior kinds of
things. And that's that that's my jam. That's fine. You know, I
love those kids, you know what I mean? But that was that was a
lot, especially with ninth grade, because they're really
still figuring things out. And the solution was that to put
another adult in my room. So my little classroom, you know, I
had 38 students and four adults, I just really felt like the
ringmaster of a circus at that point, you know, and I, we had
to have a severe weather drill. And for my classroom, we had to
go next door into the resource room. Like we're not even going
to sit in here for a severe weather drill. So it's that kind
of stuff where I think, because I'm older, I've been at this for
a little while, it's a little bit easier to take it in stride.
But I think it's a lot tougher for those teachers that are in
their first three to five years. If that was my introduction to
teaching, I don't know that I would have stuck with it, you
know,
38 kids and four adults in a classroom.
Yes. It was a lot, like I said, it felt like the ringmaster of a
circus for sure. Oh my goodness. Well, what is your
experience you enjoy in teaching?
Oh, the students and families, you know, I always, yeah, I just
I feel like, because I left teaching for a while, and then
kind of how I got back into it, I was coaching speech team.
Okay, I realized that I, I had something I could help these
students, you know, that I had something to offer. And so my
first year, I still wasn't sure that I was going to be a teacher.
Yep. And I thought, well, if I can say that at least one kid in
here had a something good happened, because I was the
teacher in this classroom, I'll stick with it. And I had that.
And so every year, I kind of think, do I, is it still me being
in this classroom that is helping these students, you
know? And I think I have a different perspective than a
lot of other teachers. And so I think that that helps as well.
But I do, I enjoy my students, they're goofy, and they're
fun. I just, yeah, I enjoy teaching, you know, if I if all
I had to do was just teach students, you know, all day, that
it would just be a dream job, really.
Isn't that amazing? Teach and be left alone? What's up?
What is it that gets in your way then of teaching? What gets in
the way of your being able to do what you want to do, like teach
students?
Well, you know, there's a lot of different state mandates, you
know, things like that, that it gets to be a challenge. There's
time that gets spent on learning about this, that or the other
thing that we need to be doing. There's different admin, and I've
had great admin, so I don't want to criticize administrators,
but, you know, they'll have an issue with a group of students.
And so they think, well, we need to crack down on all students.
And I don't need my students crack down on. And I, you know, you
know, that kind of thing, I need to be able to, if I have a
student that's going to the bathroom every day, it's not
necessarily because they're being naughty in the bathroom,
sometimes they need a break, right? Sometimes they just need
to get away from the 37 other students in the classroom for a
few minutes, you know, like that kind of thing. So that gets in
the way a little bit. And like, so just the time, you know, every
time we have something else that we have to do. So now we have
like the read act, we have that education bill, which is, you
know, more money is great for education, because obviously I
wouldn't have 38 students in my classroom if there is more money
for teachers. But unfortunately, you know, if there's not more
money for teachers, then it's just more money collecting
information about our students is sometimes what it boils down to.
And how do they collect information about our students? Well,
that's information that I provide. You know, when do I have
time to provide that information and plan my lessons and, you
know, meet with my students that need extra help, you know, and
contact families to talk about what's going on, you know, what
goals and needs do they have for their students that are in my
classroom, like that kind of thing. So there's only so many
hours in the day.
If cracking down on students worked, we'd have classes called
cracking down on students.
I know it's and that's where and I think we still struggle with
this a little bit, but I know it was absolutely an issue. Well,
I consider it an issue this belief that classroom discipline
is a system of control when it is absolutely that did not work
for me. I can't be that person. It's ridiculous. There's no way I
can control the behaviors, or the attention or the focus of all
the students my classroom sense. Sometimes they can't even
control their own behaviors because the coping skills that
they've learned or the coping mechanisms they've learned
aren't serving them.
And so, yeah, the system of control to me is ridiculous. And
so that that belief or that you know, you have to crack down on
them or and I still hear that, you know, when I have when I've
had student teachers or practicum students in my classroom, I
like, well, I know I have to start out strict, so but I can
lighten up later on. And that's just no, and I know they're
still getting that message. And that's not what it's about.
Because you're not rolling your students.
There's chaos on one end of a continuum and control the other.
And there's a structure in between. Yeah, that structure
goes back and forth depending on the students. But management,
as you have said, a big part of this helping them manage their
own behavior.
Yeah, it's their emotions.
Yes. And that's what they need. They need help finding coping
mechanisms that work. Your kid that has his head down and says
hoodie pulled up, telling you to f off in the back of the
classroom, that's a coping mechanism that he has learned
that has served him or he wouldn't still be doing it. And so
it's your job. It's not your job to control that student.
No, it's your job to help that student learn different
different coping mechanisms that is going to help him in his
life. And so that student is that going to accomplish?
Yeah. No, and excluding that student from my classroom also
is not going to help me teach that student, you know, and
demanding compliance from that student is not going to help me.
Demanding compliance from any student is not going to help me
teach that student. And so that was and that was a hard one. I
didn't feel like I had a lot of models of how that could work.
Like what what does that look like if you're not trying to
control your students? And so yeah, so I try to you know, when I
do have practicum students or student teachers, you know, what
you're in your, your it's not what you're in control of, it's
what your responsibility is. And it's your responsibility to
provide a safe learning environment. It's your
responsibility to create a learning community in your
classroom. And it's your responsibility to be aware of
the energy that you bring to that room and the energy your
students are bringing to that room, and then facilitate that
so that it's healthy for everybody. That's really what
it boils down to. But I didn't have a model for that when I was
starting out. Well, that is great. Get us good. Let's go for
that. My undergraduate students often ask me their number one
concern is how do I manage a group of students? So the age is
yours, Anna. What would you say to my pre service undergraduate
students?
Don't worry about like this idea that you have to control them,
you know, get that out of your head. That's not what it's
about. A lot of them, you know, the issue with, because the
students can be, you know, little poops to new people coming
in, like, I'm not going to deny that they will test
boundaries. So you do have to have boundaries, but you have
minimum boundaries. And
ding, your students need to respect themselves and others
and they need to treat themselves and others with
kindness. And that includes you as the teacher. So yeah, you
don't want to be afraid of them. You don't want to be up there
afraid, but you want to be honest with them. And you focus on
control that you have, which is control of your own energy. So
you don't want to be giving off anxious energy, right? You want
to be giving off confident energy. And if you're if you do
that, if you're in control of your own energy and your own
self, so take a breath when you need it. You're going to be fine.
You don't need to worry about controlling them. You want to get
to know them when you get to know them, and you have that sort
of relational piece going on, it's going to be fine.
Oh, this is good stuff.
Also greet them at the door and learn their names quickly.
That's the best advice I can give. And then there's a term for
it pre corrective statements, which I don't love. But once you
get to know me, you know, the ones that are going to struggle a
little bit to transition into your classroom, you can like the
kid that never has a pencil or never has there anything with
them, remind them as they're coming in, you greet them by
name, cheerfully with a smile on your face because smiling is
reciprocal, they'll smile back, and remind them where the pencil
is that they can get, you know, that kind of thing. And then
that kind of sets the stage for the fact that it's your
classroom, you know, and that you have expectations for them
when they enter your classroom. But it's also their
classroom too. So yeah,
I love the smile idea. Oh, yeah, your nervous smile.
Well, it's reciprocal, you know, so when you smile and it's hard
for people to try to, you know, be out for out for you when
they're smiling at you, you know. So yeah, because you are going
to have challenging students. And again, I don't like to even
think of them as challenging students, but fragile, they're
fragile. Okay, whatever reason they're coming to your
classroom as a fragile learner. And you kind of try to figure out
why that is.
And I want to kind of transition to science of reading, but this
idea that you just need to get tough on students,
that never ever works. Only in the movies does that work?
I don't know. I really, it's hard. And then it's hard too. And
I think it's just this self perpetuating thing that happens.
Because you have, you know, you have new teachers, they need to
be observed, you know, by administrators, you know, three
times until they are, you know, on continuing contract three
times a year. And one of the things that administrators look
for is is or or the belief is not all administrators are
looking for this. But the belief is, and honestly, some do,
that every child in your classroom is quiet and paying
attention. Yeah, you know, and that how they pay attention
looks the same as what's expected, you know, that there's
this sort of dominant culture view of how of what paying
attention looks like in its eyes front. And do you know what I
mean, and sitting calmly and not fidgeting and you know, all
these other things, that's just nonsense. And so there's this
belief that if I am going to be seen as a good teacher, that
means all of my kids are quiet. And all of my kids are
facing forward and all of my kids are listening to everything I
say and following every direction and give them. And
it's just not realistic, because if you go into an adult
professional development session, the adults in the room are
not all quiet and you know, facing forward and following
every direction they're given. So why do we expect kids to do
that? Some of us are even looking at their cell phones,
imagine that. Yeah, for sure. Yeah, I have yet to see, you
know, even our administrators come to meetings without their
cell phones out and I know that they have to respond to
emergencies. But you have to understand the students think
they're responding to emergencies too. You know, it's
just kind of the nature of the beast, you know, and yeah. So I
don't know, you know, I honestly, I don't know where it
comes from, but it is I think a self perpetuating thing that
control this is what control looks like. And this is what a
good classroom looks like. It's based on I think isms and it's
based on this white Eurocentric idea that control and
subservience. And I'm going to learn you. It's not something
students do. It's something you do to students. And that is just
so against how children learn. Yeah. And you don't want chaos
either. I have seen, you know, classrooms that are just free
for all and that's not safe for anybody either. You know, it's
not. Yeah, I have expectations. I have expectations. I have
expectations like high expectations for every single
student in my classroom. So it's not that but I they're going to
the high expectations require active learning, you know, and
active learning is not quiet. So classrooms that I love going
in and spending time in our classrooms where students are
talking with each other. Yeah, that's the interesting stuff,
where the teacher creates the structure where they can stand
back and observe and interact. Those are the fun classrooms.
Yeah. And they learn more because you learn more. Yeah,
because your focus you can't focus silently focus even the
most, you know, highly adapted, brilliant student is not going
to focus on a lecture for 60 minutes. It's just impossible. So
they're not taking in there. They're phasing out and phasing
in and phasing out and phasing in and you're just not noticing
it, you know, Eric Jensen, the brain research guy said, you
know, young students can focus for about two to five minutes
for about 12 to 15 minutes at most. Yep. So that doesn't mean
our lessons need to be that long. It just means we need to say
a little bit and have them interact to somehow. Yeah, and
I would tell you know, and I was always honest with my students
about that, like this is, you know, the most that I can expect
you to focus is probably about 10 minutes on me talking and get
anything out of it. But sometimes I talk too much. Yeah,
that's reality because I'm the one up here and I like to talk.
And I love to talk about books, right, and writing and
communication. So I tell them keep an eye on the clock and
tell me when I've hit 10 minutes and then I'm done. And they
were really good about that, you know, and then it was a
concrete thing they knew, right, that she's going to talk and
this is important because we're going to have to do something
with this later. But they have control over how long I'm going
to talk up there to, you know, and it's sort of an agreement
now that we have between us, they got to focus for 10 minutes,
but then after 10 minutes, we're going to do something else
with it. So that works.
Tell me about the science of reading stuff. What is your
what's happened there?
Well, I'm still learning about it, as you know. It seems to me
really reductive. And it disregarding a lot of things
that we know about our brains and how we learn and process and
information. And I think it disregards a lot of neuro
divergence, right? It's looking at this is the way a neuro
typical brain operates. Yeah, so I just think it's missing a lot
of pieces that would actually help our students. But as I said,
I'm still learning about the science of reading. I definitely,
you know, my experience is largely although I'm K12 right
now, my experience is largely with, you know, upper
adolescence. And when I have a 15 year old that's reading at a,
let's say third grade level, although I hate putting labels
on it, because it's only a third grade level, because we've
decided it's a third grade level. But let's say I have a 15
year old that's like, that student needs more than what
the science of reading would have to offer me, you know, and
then I have students that can decode words at the appropriate
grade level. But they don't have the stamina to read the amount
of text that we would expect them to read by the time they're
done with high school. And they don't maybe have the ability to
focus or their working memory is such that they're not able to
hang on to the information long enough to do anything with it.
The science of reading does also not help me teach that
student, you know, ways to reach their goals in life. So that's
my concern with it. Other than sounding outward instruction,
what exactly is the science of reading? What do they promote?
Where they try? What do they want more of and less of?
Well, I think that's what they want more of is
instruction. Yep, sounding out words. I think they want more of
districts purchasing the curriculum from them, you know,
and purchasing professional development from them. Yeah,
that's what I don't know exactly what the end goal is, but
that's what it feels like to me. There's a lot of, oh, different.
I don't know what the bandwagon, that's not the word I'm
looking for, but different trends. All of a sudden, every
teacher in your district needs this amazing professional
development. And all of your concerns as a superintendent
or a principal or whatever will be elated because your teachers
will all of a sudden become master teachers after this, you
know, 100 hours of professional development or whatever it is.
And this feels like another one of those. But maybe there's more
to it. I don't know.
You know, going way back with Madeline Hunter and major and
some of these guys wanted to scientificize teaching, you know,
you prove it. If you just follow the algorithm, learning is, is
guaranteed. And in the end, it was back to the basics. And then
it was no child left behind with the reading first initiative.
And that was a billion dollar boondog. Well, this this read act
and science of reading, this is another wave of that. Let's
learn teachers and follow a teaching recipe. Sorry, not about
me.
Well, that assumes again, that that all of the, you know, the
algorithm is a math equation, and you're plugging in different
sets of numbers all the time. So I talked about having 38
students in my classroom, that's 38 different numbers, it's not
the same number. Right? So you're not gonna, you know, if if
the curriculum is two, and every kid is a different number,
you're not going to get four all the time at the other end of it,
you know, I mean, that's just an impossibility. And it's, it's
illogical to think that that's the way that's going to work. Every
single student has a unique set of needs, challenges and gifts,
you know. And so that's kind of silly. I think to think that
that's the way it's going to work. And it's, it's not to say
that sounding out words is not 100%. That's important, a student
has to be able to decode words. But they also need the schema to
understand the words to not addressing that they need the
vocabulary and the context and and that kind of thing. So
and if you know, if that worked, if sounding out words was the
answer, my class would be sounding out words 101. Yeah. And
my next book would be sounding out words. That's what I call it.
How to get words. Yeah, more complex than that. Oh, it is. I
teach a while I taught a technical writing class. I've
taught it at the college level, because I was a grant writer
for quite a while. So I've taught at the college level. And I've
taught it at the high school level with seniors, you know, and
so some of the things we would do like the plain language, that
government plain language requirement that they don't
seem to follow themselves, right. And so sometimes for fun, we
would rewrite like a, oh, like Facebook's privacy policy or
Google's privacy policy, like what if we rewrote this in
plain language. And the fact is that, you know, I can sound out
every word in Google's privacy policy, most of my students can
sound out every word in Google's privacy policy, it does not
mean that any of us understands it, right. And so if it was just
sounding out words, then we would be able to I would be able to
read every legal brief, the medical journal, scientific
journals, and I would be able to understand the articles that are
in there. And that's just not the case, because I don't have the
background knowledge that's required. You know, so it ignores
all of that.
Well, what would you like parents to know about teaching and or
about teaching reading?
Well, I guess one thing I think about what do I want my parents
to know, or families in general, because a lot of my students
aren't necessarily living with their their parents or even
legal guardians sometimes. But I want them to know that teachers
have the best interests of their students at heart. Nobody gets
into teaching thinking, Well, I'm going to brainwash all these
children, or I'm going to destroy these children's lives, I
want to ruin them, or you know, that is not what it is. And so
what we have, we have teachers, you know, with great
intentions, and we have families with great intentions, and we
have communities with great intentions, but we all seem to
be speaking at cross purposes sometimes. And so I guess what I
would want parents to know is that teaching is difficult. And
we have a lot of demands on our time, but we have the best
intentions for their their student. And that if we could
all come to a conversation with that understanding and assume
good intentions that I think will make a lot more progress. And
as far as teaching reading, I think that for parents, what I
want, if they're concerned, so I'll start at the high school
level, if they're concerned about what their student is
reading, they should have conversations with their student
about that, maybe read the same things that their student is
reading and to also understand that whatever their student
might be reading, they were exposed to a lot more online and
to just kind of pay attention to that kind of thing and to just
get involved with what they're reading, what they're
interested in. And to understand their student needs
mirrors and windows, so to understand other people as well
and other perspectives is important to being to growing up
to be a good human being, because we're raising adults, we're
not raising children. And so that's we kind of need to just
pay attention to that. And then for younger students that are
just learning how to read, I think, as a parent, you just
need to make reading fun for your student. So sitting down and
doing the sounding out words or forcing them to do something
that's painful and aggravating for everyone is not is not
necessarily the best for the family. So just have fun reading
with your learning with your emerging reader, I guess. Does
that make sense? Does. Ears and windows, you are a gold mine.
Let me tell you. Yeah, well, I've been at this for a little
while. So, what do you want to say to state legislatures?
State legislators. Come to my classroom, go to any classroom.
Talk to teachers, talk to students, spend a day either,
you know, job shadowing a teacher or just following a
student around. Spend a couple days at an elementary school,
middle school and a high school and then different
neighborhoods too, you know, not all in the same sort of
socioeconomic because our schools are segregated, whether we
say they are not they are. So spend some time in some
different neighborhood schools and see what's really
happening and what the actual intentions are. I would also
state state legislators this job is hard enough without you
using us to prove a political point or to gain political
points or to raise money for your political campaign. So it'd
be nice if they didn't do that. That would be lovely. Please
stop doing that. Yes. What do you want to say to
administrators? Oh, that's a tough one. Administrators have a
very, very difficult job. I've worked with some really great
administrators. I've worked with some not so great
administrators, but they've all had a very difficult job. So I
think I would say to them the same thing that I would say to
parents just assume good intentions. So if you hear
something about me as a teacher, assume good intentions
until you learn otherwise. Assume when you come into my
classroom that I know what I'm doing. You know, and ask me if
you're I had an administrator once come in to do and after
I'd been teaching and it was his first he was our new building
principal. It's not his first administrative job, but he was
it was the first time as a principal in our building and
he during his observation of me took pictures of my students
and he's like, well, this one was coloring with smelly markers
the whole time you were talking. I'm like, yeah, you know,
she has some sensory needs that help her focus, right? And he's
like, well, none of the other kids seem bothered by it. I'm
like, no, because it's that's the routine, right? So just assume
that I know what I'm doing. Assume that your teachers know
what they're doing and then ask them what support they need.
Don't you know, don't assume that you know what support they
need because the teacher next door to them has a need doesn't
mean that everybody has that need. Does that make sense?
Assume good intention. There's another gold mine of quotes
here. Okay, the last thing, what would you like to say to
Emily Hanford?
Yeah, we're not, I don't know. So I will admit, you know, I'm
I'm kind of doing what I don't want community members to do,
which is assume the contents of a book when they haven't read it.
And I have not listened to her whole thing. So I don't know
that I should really speak to that so much. But my
understanding is she assumes that we were all brainwashed into
doing like just whole language and we never did phonics and is
that about right?
I'm not going to say one word the other, but what a lot of
people think brainwashed.
Liberal professors like me have this agenda to make the world
a social social to to do socialism. That's our
agenda. And to somehow ruin America by teaching whole
language or something. I have no idea. So I, you know, I
haven't listened to it. I heard a synopsis of it on public
radio and kind of rolled my eyes, you know, I think that what I
would tell her is that again, same thing as I would tell
legislators, meet a lot of different teachers, do some
job shadowing, go to different neighborhoods. I think that
she needs to understand we are all doing the best we can with
the information that we have and when we have better
information, we do different and we do better. And brain
research is constantly evolving. And don't assume that we
won our brainwash because we're not idiots. And don't assume
too that we can or would brainwash the children in our
classroom. If I could do that, all of my students would have
A's and they would all bring their materials to class and
turn everything in on time. But you know, that doesn't
happen because we're all individuals with agency.
Well, I want to go ahead. I want to end with what I would
say to Emily Hanford. It is this, people within the
literacy community think you are a joke. And what you are
doing to our children, we're going to feel the impact
five years from now. You're making a career for yourself,
Emily, wonderful for you. You're famous. You're making
lots of money. That is wonderful. Are you going to be
there in five years when these kids still don't know what to
do, still don't know what to read? Emily Hanford, you are a
joke. Sorry about that. I had to get that in. No, that's
okay. I just like I said, I always if because I have had
reading materials that I have given children challenged,
you know, and I always, I read it before you challenge it
and I have not listened to her whole thing, just synopsis
of it. And so I don't, you know, I don't know exactly what
she's saying, except this is my assumption of what she's
saying. And yeah, if you don't know, then don't speak on it.
You know what I mean? So and I don't feel she knows because
what she was saying is not what I've been doing in my
classroom. And it's not what anyone I know has been doing
in their classroom. She's not a literacy, she's a radio
journalist, never taught a class. I doubt she's even read a
research article, let alone talk to a wide variety of
literacy experts. She talks to who will support her
preconceived ideas. Yeah, but anyway, a lot. No, I'm just
people assume a lot about what happens in classrooms. Yes.
And for a year, an entire school year, people had a front row
seat to what I was doing in my classroom, right? And did not
have any complaints or I do you know what I mean? I did not
have families freaking out or you know, so I think people
just need to spend time in classrooms with teachers, not
just assuming that they know what's going on in classrooms.
So the Redacted Minnesota $100 million boom doggle. In five
years, I'm gonna say I told you so. So all our reading
problems should be solved now. Science of reading people here
in Minnesota, you've got the dyslexia stuff jammed down our
throats and you've got science of reading. So we expect now
that all reading problems will be solved. But in five years
when they're not, who are you gonna blame them? What shiny
new product should we buy them? I'm sorry, this is about you.
Well, they'll blame teachers. I were a betting person, that's
what I would bet the blame teachers. We gave you all this
money. You didn't do what we told you to do. We trained you,
but you didn't take that training to the classroom. You
know, that that's what I that was what I would put money on.
Yes, and you're the reason why the economy goes down and why
yes, why yeah. All right, Anna, this has been incredible.
You have so much to give. I hope you spend another 30 years
of classroom. Yeah, I do intend to go back like this. This
job I have now, although I do really, really enjoy supporting
teachers like 100%. I love it and I still get to go in
classrooms. But at some point I do see myself back just
solely teaching in a high school English classroom because it's
just too much fun. What brings me joy is a college instructor
to my graduate classes. When I see students online and I
interact with Flipgrid to see the joy in their eyes, they're
still inspired to go. They love their jobs. That just keeps
me going. So thank you for that, Anna and my other grad
students as well. All right, thank you.