#282 – Journey from Freelance Writing to Teaching: Insights from Amanda Lucas
Welcome to another episode of the Spun Today podcast! In this captivating session, host Tony Ortiz sits down with Amanda Lucas, a middle school ELA teacher with a rich tapestry of experiences in both education and writing. Amanda shares her journey from being an aspiring writer and journalist to embracing her role as an educator. As an insightful storyteller, she dives deep into the nuances of teaching different grade levels, from dealing with classroom management to confronting bullying. Amanda also opens up about the challenges of adjusting to digital teaching in a post-Covid world. As a co-host of the Che podcast, she shares her insights on how educators navigate the intricacies of teaching, while still finding room to nurture young minds creatively. Tune in to explore Amanda's unique experiences and discover more about her impactful journey in shaping and inspiring future generations.
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Links referenced in this episode:
I Need An Idea! (A Leli and Emmi Book) https://amzn.to/4hSvjYs
Check out Amanda’s Podcast: Ch! Wherever you listen to podcasts.
iTunes: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/ch/id1443818572
Spotify:https://open.spotify.com/show/3HLRAzQJiplVcsv68Ce0W0?si=YgEBWrKZSfeGK8nnA11dBw
Follow the Podcast on IG: @chcast
Follow Amanda on IG: @itzmeamandalee
Gotham Writers: https://www.writingclasses.com/
Parents Magazine: https://www.parents.com/parents-magazine/
Meredith Corporation: https://www.meredith.com/national-media/brands
Check out Leli’s Magical Stitches: https://vimeo.com/80441330
Articles by Amanda:
https://www.smilesforall.com/first-grade-first-love/
https://www.parents.com/baby/gear/sling/how-to-buy-a-backpack-carrier1/
https://www.parents.com/baby/gear/sling/14-baby-carriers/
Check out Elizabeth Acevedo’s website: http://www.acevedowrites.com/
Some of the books referenced in this episode:
I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter: https://www.amazon.com/Not-Your-Perfect-Mexican-Daughter/dp/1524700517/ref=sr_1_1?crid=7SGY6YEGY648&dchild=1&keywords=i%27m+not+your+perfect+mexican+daughter&qid=1592881345&sprefix=i%27m+not+your+per%2Caps%2C155&sr=8-1
How Tia Lola Came to (Visit) Stay (The Tia Lola Stories): https://www.amazon.com/Lola-Came-Visit-Stay-Stories/dp/0440418704/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=tia+lola&qid=1592881392&sr=8-1
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Melted Cold – A Collection of Short Stories
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transcript
Tony Ortiz [00:00:18]:
What up, folks? What's going on? Welcome to the Spun Today podcast, the podcast that is anchored in writing, but unlimited in scope. I'm your host, Tony Ortiz, and I appreciate you listening. This is episode 156 of the podcast and for this episode I had the privilege of having Mrs. Amanda Lucas on the show. Amanda is a middle school ELA teacher, amongst other things, which I'll get to. And similar to what I like to do when I have a guest on the show that has intimate knowledge of a specific topic or profession that they're involved in or something that they're passionate about, is take a deep dive into that topic. And we definitely did that. Here we get Amanda's perspective on her experiences of teaching different grade levels, meaning kids of different ages, to where she's at now teaching middle school.
Tony Ortiz [00:01:15]:
We speak about her experiences dealing with bullying in the classroom among students and her what some may consider unorthodox approaches to resolving certain issues, which I personally thought were genius approaches that not only help resolve the underlying issues of why those situations happened in the first place, but resolve them in a practical way that at least from my perspective from the outside looking in, students can take with them in into the real world and apply those lessons to their day to day lives while also really harboring this sense of community, you know, treating your classroom as a community and there's this like, sense of like not only like friendship and fellow classmates, but like a family oriented type of approach. Like, you know, we're going to go through the bad and the good together and we're going to work on things together while on top of that tying it all back into her purpose of actually teaching specific to ELA and tying things into writing. So there's layers to it, which I really appreciated, especially after listening back to it while reviewing the episode. So I'm sure you folks will definitely appreciate those stories. And we also spoke about, you know, teaching in different schools and funding that different schools get, which obviously plays a huge role in the education system. We touch on, you know, teachers having their like, favorite students and dealing with bad kids, you know, quote unquote bad kids. You may or may not hear a story of a kid that decided to act out in the unique way of deciding to take his clothes off in front of the class. And just an array of different things that teachers have to deal with that we may or may not appreciate from all those things that I just mentioned.
Tony Ortiz [00:03:10]:
And even dealing with parents go hard parents that might complain about their kid having 96 on a test and you know, arguing to get get them up to 100. For example, we speak about different grading systems and rubrics that teachers use, as well as what freedoms teachers actually have in terms of the coursework, what they can do in their classrooms in terms of like physical decoration. We also speak about having to adjust and teach in a post Covid environment. Whereas most of you know, teachers have gone from the traditional in person teaching in an actual school building to teaching online through environments like Zoom. Let me definitely speak about how that experience has been. So there's definitely a bunch in this episode that was interesting to me and being able to peek behind the curtain of what goes on in the teaching world. Amanda is also a fellow writer shout out to the spontane writing community out there. Prior to becoming a teacher, she did everything from freelance writing to interning for different magazines to becoming the featured article in a edition of Parents magazine with a story that she wrote about her daughter.
Tony Ortiz [00:04:31]:
How dope is that? And that story is about her eldest daughter, back when she was about 4 or 5 years old. Really wanted a sewing machine, which Amanda was against because, you know, a kid and a sewing machine kind of doesn't go. But the grandparents decided to get her that. And as a gift, I believe it was a Christmas gift or birthday gift. You know, she begrudgingly let her daughter use it, you know, after obviously watching the tutorial DVD and figuring out how to use it. And her daughter took to it like a fish and water. And she wound up making these little pillows that Amanda put on online on social media and a bunch of people wanted to buy them and she wound up selling a couple hundred of them. Then Amanda wrote this article about that whole experience and it winds up getting featured in Parents Magazine, which is just like the cherry on top.
Tony Ortiz [00:05:28]:
So it's like a dope, motivating story on several fronts. And I actually want to share an excerpt from Amanda's article with you guys. Quote it scares me to think that if my parents hadn't taken a chance and Guy and Laylee that sewing machine, I may have been the first person to make her doubt her own abilities by refusing to let her try at all. Lele, like every child, is free of the burdens we adults carry around as mental roadblocks that inhibit us from dreaming big and pursuing our goals. End quote. I couldn't agree more. That's definitely a sentiment of me and my goals, a sentiment I expressed through my writing through this podcast, and one that I know is shared by parents and kids everywhere. So I'm sure That's going to resonate with you folks and I want you guys to check out the article.
Tony Ortiz [00:06:24]:
So being that this is episode 156, if you go to spun today.com podcast156, you can read the article in its entirety there. It's a really dope story, so you should definitely check it out. Amanda is also a podcaster. She's the co host of the podcast chair, which by the way is a diagraph. And if you don't know what a diagraph is, you're dumb. Now let me stop. I had no idea what it was. And she actually breaks it down in the very beginning of this episode.
Tony Ortiz [00:07:00]:
So don't feel bad if you didn't know what it was. Put a digraph. It Che is the digraph for the word teach. Don't quote me on that because I'm probably butchering it, but it's something along those lines. She and her co host Mike started this podcast, which is a teaching podcast for teachers that teach. It's definitely a cool show. I will link to it in the episode notes of this episode of the sponsored podcast, so definitely check them out. And last but not least, before we jump into the show, I wanted to give a special shout out to my boy, my guy, Lionel Lucas.
Tony Ortiz [00:07:36]:
Lionel is Amanda's husband as well as a near and dear friend of mine. I've known Lionel for damn a long time. I've known Lionel since I was in, I want to say, like eighth or ninth grade. So definitely thank you to you bro, for having the idea for this episode and putting us together. And Lionel himself is overdue for an appearance on the Spun Today podcast. So we definitely have to make that happen sooner than later. Alright folks, without further ado, but before we dive right into the episode, here is a very quick way that you can help support this show if you so choose. You know that feeling that you get on a Monday when you're sad because the weekend is over and you have nothing to look forward to except for lunch? Have no fear, the Midday Monday Boost letter is here.
Tony Ortiz [00:08:31]:
And you might be thinking, what is the midday Monday boost letter? Sounds like a mouthful. And it is. But it's also more than that. I put together this absolutely free newsletter that I email to all my subscribers every Monday at noon to spread a little joy and happiness. If you choose to subscribe, all you have to do is go to sponsorday.com forward/subscribe and drop in your email address and what you'll get is five things. You'll get a photo of the Week, which who doesn't like looking at dope pictures? You'll also get a podcast of the week. I listen to dozens and dozens of podcasts every single week from a wide variety of shows, and I cherry pick the very best ones and share them with you as my recommendation for that week. Also, in the midday Monday Boost letter, you will find a video of the week, which could be anything from a cool online recipe that I found to a rap battle to a TED Talk or a dope interview.
Tony Ortiz [00:09:34]:
I also share a quote of the week, a little food for thought, as well as a word of the week for my fellow wordsmiths out there. Again, this is all absolutely free and you can get my newsletter by going to spuntery.com subscribe, drop in your email address and you will get the very next one.
Amanda Lucas [00:09:59]:
What's up, folks? What's going on today? We have a treat on the Spun Today podcast. We have Ms. Amanda Lucas, one half of the hosts of the podcast Che, which we were just discussing, which is a podcast about teaching and the education system. And I was asking Amanda if the name of the podcast is Che or Teach. It's Che, and she was just about to explain it to me.
Unidentified [00:10:23]:
So the logo says Teach, right? But the CH is, like, really prominent. It's a funny story. We were, my friends and I, who work together in school, in a school, teacher friends. We were at a picnic in Prospect park and we thought we were never going to see each other again because I just left, right? I had just quit. It was the summer and I was going to another school and two of us, two other teachers were leaving. And so one of my friends was like, we should start a podcast more to keep in touch than anything else. Just to, like, touch base every weekend and talk about, you know, what's going on in our lives and in our schools. And we were joking and we were like, what do we call it? If we did it, what would we call it? Would it be teaching or teachers or tea or ch? And then that was like a joke.
Unidentified [00:11:10]:
We, like, laughed about it. Ch. That would be so funny. And then we thought, ch is a digraph. Right? So what is that?
Amanda Lucas [00:11:17]:
What is that diagram?
Unidentified [00:11:18]:
A digraph is two letters that make one sound, like sh, T, H, C, H. Okay.
Amanda Lucas [00:11:24]:
Okay.
Unidentified [00:11:25]:
What?
Amanda Lucas [00:11:25]:
You're teaching already on the podcast?
Unidentified [00:11:27]:
Yeah. So when you teach kids to read, digraphs are some of the hardest because they're drilled in like W is W and H is huh. So wh. Making one sound for them is hard sometimes. You know what I mean? Or like, ch is actually the hardest one to teach them because the two letters don't sound like themselves at all in that diagraph. So we were like, well, ch is, like, hard to teach, and it's fun to say. And the podcast is about teaching, which is hard, but we're trying to stay positive. So we're just gonna call it ch and it.
Unidentified [00:12:04]:
And everybody is confused, so I don't know if it's gonna stay like that.
Amanda Lucas [00:12:08]:
No. But I like the logo. I listened to an episode, like I was telling you, and the logo definitely, obviously drives home the teach. Because it has the tea.
Unidentified [00:12:16]:
Yeah.
Amanda Lucas [00:12:16]:
On the top left. And it's really cool.
Tony Ortiz [00:12:20]:
That's interesting.
Amanda Lucas [00:12:21]:
All right, so you are a middle school teacher, right?
Unidentified [00:12:25]:
6, 7, 8.
Amanda Lucas [00:12:26]:
6, 7, 8. That was actually one of my questions. If so, I remember, like, when I was in junior high, first of all, when did I switch?
Unidentified [00:12:34]:
This is actually my first year doing middle school.
Amanda Lucas [00:12:36]:
Okay. What were you doing?
Unidentified [00:12:36]:
So I did my very first job teaching was pre K, and then I went to a charter school where I was an assistant teacher in the third grade, and then I taught second, and then I taught first, and now I'm six, seven, eight.
Amanda Lucas [00:12:48]:
Wow. Okay.
Unidentified [00:12:48]:
Yeah.
Amanda Lucas [00:12:49]:
And with. I guess with six, seven, eight, you get all grades, right? Like, all different grades, all three grades.
Unidentified [00:12:56]:
6Th, 7th, and 8th grade. But I only teach ELA, so English language, art.
Amanda Lucas [00:13:00]:
Okay. And how long have you been doing that?
Unidentified [00:13:02]:
Just this year. This is my very first, like, academic year, ends on Monday, actually. So from September until now, this is my first time doing that grade. I'm never going back. Staying there. I love it. It's so good.
Amanda Lucas [00:13:15]:
Oh, really?
Unidentified [00:13:16]:
Yeah.
Amanda Lucas [00:13:16]:
Like, you never went back to the younger.
Unidentified [00:13:17]:
No, no, no. Yeah. I love them. I mean, they're sweet and everything, but it's such a different thing when you can, like, talk to kids about literature and they get it and they understand, like, nuance and stories and. You know what I mean? You can bring it to their real lives, and they do, like, really great projects and stuff.
Amanda Lucas [00:13:33]:
Like, the babies, you're, like, more teaching them reading versus actual how to read. Exactly. Okay.
Unidentified [00:13:39]:
You know what I mean?
Amanda Lucas [00:13:39]:
Yeah. And how long were you teaching the younger grades for?
Unidentified [00:13:43]:
Four years. Four years? Yeah.
Amanda Lucas [00:13:46]:
And is that something you always wanted to do, the teaching or.
Unidentified [00:13:49]:
No? No, actually. So I love this question.
Amanda Lucas [00:13:52]:
We were talking before also about the magazines.
Unidentified [00:13:55]:
Yeah. So I always. It was. It's funny from. I think from the age of nine, I wanted to be a journalist, and it always had to be something with reading and writing because that's what I love. Right. And so I thought I was gonna be a journalist, and I went to college for ela, and when I was getting my English degree, everybody was like, what are you gonna do with an English degree? Right? Like, nobody's gonna get you. They're not gonna pay you.
Unidentified [00:14:18]:
Like, writers don't get paid. They're all struggling artists. And then, like, teachers don' like, you're going to end up teaching. And I was like, hell, no, I'm not going to end up. No, I'm not. Here we are, fast forward. I was like, no, my ELA degree is going to be. I'm going to be, like, a famous writer, and it's going to be amazing.
Amanda Lucas [00:14:36]:
And which you still can be.
Unidentified [00:14:37]:
I mean, here we are, though, currently teaching. So when I was in college, I did an internship at Gotham Writers Workshop. Shout out to them because they're amazing. It is a. A writing workshop, a creative writing workshop for adults in. In the city. It's on, like, 38th and 8th.
Amanda Lucas [00:14:56]:
Okay. And so they're still active, right?
Unidentified [00:14:57]:
Yeah, they're active. They're amazing people. They're fantastic.
Amanda Lucas [00:15:00]:
For the folks listening, I'm gonna link to their website and probably like, IG page or whatever social media they might have in the episode notes of this episode.
Unidentified [00:15:09]:
They're fantastic. Yeah, that's great. So I interned there, and so I would just, like, sign people up for classes and things. But I met the teachers and I met the administration, the administrative team. And when I was there, they gave me as a perk because it was a free internship for college credits, but they gave me classes, and the classes were so expensive. This just brings me back. When I was young, before I did that, before I had the internship, I remember looking at their website and being like, oh, my God, I want to take one of these classes so bad. And at the time I was working at State Farm as a receptionist.
Unidentified [00:15:46]:
I was like, 19, probably. I mean. Yeah, yeah. So I was, like, looking at. Yeah, I was about 19. So I was looking at the website and I was like, damn, I want to take these classes so bad, but they're like $500 and I don't have that. And, you know.
Amanda Lucas [00:16:00]:
Yeah, yeah.
Unidentified [00:16:00]:
And one of my coworkers was like, ask your family to buy it for you. And I was like, nah, I'm not gonna ask nobody. And then I applied for the internship and I got it. And then, like, all the classes were free.
Amanda Lucas [00:16:10]:
That's so awesome.
Unidentified [00:16:10]:
It was amazing. So I was able to do all the classes. I did Memoir. I did children's lit.
Amanda Lucas [00:16:15]:
Did you le form at that point for the institution?
Unidentified [00:16:18]:
So I left State Farm. I went back to school, and I left school for a little bit because I had a baby. Then I went back to school, did the internship, networked, met a bunch of people, and was working on my writing, and it was, like, the time of my life. I loved it. And then the internship was over, and I was like, where am I going from here? Because I don't want to just sign people up for classes. And in order to teach there, you have to have been published like. Like a significant publication, you know, and I hadn't been published yet.
Amanda Lucas [00:16:47]:
Do they have, like, specific metrics for that or, like, what's considered significant, A significant publication?
Unidentified [00:16:54]:
From what I've seen of the teachers that are there, they all have novels out or, like, if they're teaching, you know, article writing or something like that, they have multiple. You know, they have time invested already, like, years doing freelance or either, you know, being a senior editor at a magazine or something like that.
Amanda Lucas [00:17:14]:
Gotcha. Okay. And I like Seasons.
Unidentified [00:17:16]:
Yeah, they were seasoned. Yes.
Amanda Lucas [00:17:17]:
Like, credits behind them.
Unidentified [00:17:18]:
Right, right. And I was, you know, still in school, so it's not like I could have. All I really could have done there, aside from the. The classes and the internship, was, you know, maybe sign more people up and, you know, do that kind of thing. And I wanted to be more active in, like, the writing community, so I was like, what do I do from here? So then I got an internship at.
Amanda Lucas [00:17:39]:
Parenting before we switch over, not to cut you off, but the, like, you mentioned the, like, the classes were liqu. Of the best times of your life. Like, what specifically? Or like, what? Like, what was entailed, like, in a class, like, walk in, like, what are they teaching? How are they teaching you? What are you writing?
Unidentified [00:17:57]:
So they had. The classes were about 10 people. I don't think I've been in a class that had more than 10 people. So they were fairly small. And then you had one of these teachers who was seasoned and knew what they were talking about, and they gave small lessons, like mini lessons on, like, plots and point of view and those kinds. You know, the character development. Yeah, the things that you need to know. Right.
Unidentified [00:18:19]:
But the bigger piece was the booths. They were called booths. So every person in the class has a story that they're actively working on, and you bring in a piece of it that you want to workshop. So up to 10 pages that you want to workshop. So we each had a chance to bring in one or Two sections of our book. So we will go like, once or twice, depending on how many people were in the class. And you would bring in, like, 10 pages, distribute it to the class, and everybody would spend the week analyzing and editing and critiquing for you. And then they will come back in and tell you what they got from it and what can make it better and what questions that they had.
Amanda Lucas [00:18:54]:
So it's like having, like, nine editors.
Unidentified [00:18:56]:
Yeah, it was fantastic. And then it was really fun to read other people's stories too, you know?
Amanda Lucas [00:19:03]:
Yeah.
Unidentified [00:19:03]:
Like, one of the people that I had class with, there was so many stories. Because you're in the heart of New York City and there's people from everywhere who come there and want to share their stories. And they're so interesting, some of them. There's some that I still remember that I'm like, I need to find this book. I don't know what they titled it or what, but it was amazing. Mr. Met, you know the guy who dresses up with the big baseball head?
Amanda Lucas [00:19:26]:
The Mets mascot?
Unidentified [00:19:27]:
Shout out to the Mets. Yeah, the Mets mascot. He was taking a class there.
Amanda Lucas [00:19:31]:
Really?
Unidentified [00:19:32]:
Yeah, he was taking a class and he wanted to write his story about what it was like to be Mr. Met.
Amanda Lucas [00:19:36]:
Did he ever, like, dress up as Mr. Met?
Unidentified [00:19:38]:
No, he didn't bring it. But he was saying that that would have been funny if he had it on and was writing it, like, the.
Amanda Lucas [00:19:44]:
Whole time, just in the back of.
Unidentified [00:19:46]:
The class, he was saying that his identity, like, part of the job was to hide his identity. So nobody was allowed to know who Mr. Met actually was.
Amanda Lucas [00:19:55]:
Wow.
Unidentified [00:19:56]:
So he had so many stories, like, of when he had to travel with the. You know, the whole thing with the. With the costume and hiding his identity, it was just so. It was so funny and so New York, you know, because the things that he had to deal with with like, rowdy fans and angry people and stuff. It was amazing. Yeah. So it was really fun.
Amanda Lucas [00:20:19]:
I can imagine. That's really cool.
Unidentified [00:20:20]:
Yeah.
Amanda Lucas [00:20:21]:
And so the stories that everybody was workshopping, were they, like, topic based? Like, everybody was working on the same type of topic or just like, whatever genre.
Unidentified [00:20:30]:
So, like, if you were doing memoir. Right. Which I took memoir classes, everybody was working on a memoir.
Amanda Lucas [00:20:37]:
Okay.
Unidentified [00:20:37]:
Or like, nonfiction or children's literature, where creative writing was more broad. But it was like a. There was a. Like a fiction class. Yeah. It was all job.
Amanda Lucas [00:20:49]:
Okay.
Unidentified [00:20:50]:
Yeah.
Amanda Lucas [00:20:51]:
And. All right, so then from there, you transitioned over to parent parenting magazine.
Unidentified [00:20:56]:
Yeah.
Amanda Lucas [00:20:56]:
Tell me about that.
Unidentified [00:20:57]:
Which wasn't the same, really. But it was interesting, too, because I went to Parenting, and the editor who hired me, her name was Margaret Hargrove, one of the best people on the planet. She's amazing. So my job was to do, you know, intern stuff.
Tony Ortiz [00:21:15]:
You know, a little bit of everything.
Unidentified [00:21:17]:
Just everything. Just, like, logging stuff and archiving things and. Which is cool, because if you go into magazines, they have, like, especially parents and parenting magazines and American Baby, which I also work for, they have, like, a toy room, like a baby room, and they had, like, all the things that, like, brands would send in that they wanted to feature. Yeah. So. And they would keep it all in a room, and they would do, like, a sale at the end of the month. Nice. And you can, like, get a bunch of stuff, like, really nice stuff for, like, a dollar.
Amanda Lucas [00:21:46]:
Nice.
Unidentified [00:21:47]:
That was cool. And cool. Yeah. And then there was. There were archives, so there was, like a whole room of their. All of their magazines dating way back to, like, when they first started.
Amanda Lucas [00:22:01]:
Nice.
Unidentified [00:22:02]:
And that was really cool. I used to get lost in that room a little bit.
Amanda Lucas [00:22:05]:
Yeah.
Unidentified [00:22:06]:
Yeah. So I did that internship. And while I was there, they expect the interns to, like, generate ideas. Right. Which was easier for me than other interns because I was already a mom and it was Parenting magazine. So a lot of the other interns, like, did, you know, they would derive ideas from, you know, their friends or family. But I. I had a kid, so I had a lot to say, and I would read their magazine and be.
Amanda Lucas [00:22:30]:
Like, and what year was this?
Unidentified [00:22:31]:
This was. Oof. This was in 2010. This was in. Yeah, it was. I think it was 2010. 2011. Yeah.
Unidentified [00:22:39]:
So they. They would ask for ideas, and I gave a lot of ideas, which made me stand out a little bit. And so I got a really great letter of recommendation for my next internship, which was Parents magazine. Parents magazine.
Amanda Lucas [00:22:52]:
And there's no affiliation between those two.
Unidentified [00:22:54]:
No, there wasn't. But now parenting no longer exists, and parents acquired them, if I'm not mistaken.
Amanda Lucas [00:23:00]:
Gotcha.
Unidentified [00:23:01]:
So I went to parents and Parents was. It was a. It was like a level up, you know, that was the number one national magazine for parents.
Amanda Lucas [00:23:13]:
Gotcha.
Unidentified [00:23:14]:
And there were. There are lots, but that's the number. That was the number one. And I got a lot more writing opportunities there, so I was constantly writing and pitching. And then what was the.
Amanda Lucas [00:23:25]:
What was the. This is interesting to me. What was the. Not that everything else wasn't like that. What was the. The recommendation was for what job? Because it was.
Unidentified [00:23:37]:
It was another internship. Yeah, it was another internship.
Amanda Lucas [00:23:39]:
But in this internship, you were.
Unidentified [00:23:41]:
It was paid more.
Amanda Lucas [00:23:42]:
It was a paid internship. And it was more, like, writing focused.
Unidentified [00:23:45]:
Yes, it was more writing focus. Yeah. So. Yeah, so I killed that. I remember being so proud of myself, being like, wow, I was made for this. Amazing, right? And it was because I had a kid and because I had so many ideas, like being a mom of a kid who was already in school in the public school system in New York where we were based, and, you know, all the things that she was going through and the things that I was seeing from the teachers and everything, I was like, we need to cover this and that and the. And they lived for it. And I got to interview some celebrities, which was really cool.
Unidentified [00:24:16]:
Oh, that's so cool. Lisa Leslie.
Amanda Lucas [00:24:20]:
Damn.
Unidentified [00:24:20]:
Yeah. And I interviewed. Damn. What's her name? Now, they were not. They were not like, you know, it wasn't Beyonce. You know what I'm saying? But what's her name? From Clarissa explains it all. What's her name?
Amanda Lucas [00:24:32]:
I do not know her.
Unidentified [00:24:33]:
Somebody listening to this knows.
Amanda Lucas [00:24:35]:
Okay.
Unidentified [00:24:42]:
Who else? Kerry. Walsh. Jennings. You know, the. The. The volleyball. The. She's a Olympic volleyball player.
Amanda Lucas [00:24:50]:
Okay.
Unidentified [00:24:51]:
And she was, like, pregnant and won a gold medal.
Amanda Lucas [00:24:54]:
While pregnant?
Unidentified [00:24:54]:
Yeah, while pregnant. So I didn't know about her until I did that story, but I didn't.
Amanda Lucas [00:24:59]:
Know about her until right now.
Unidentified [00:25:01]:
Yeah. So it was cool because even though they weren't, you know, it wasn't like. They weren't like, go to the Grammys, you know, I was like, what? I get to talk to these people. They talk to me. It was really cool. So that was fun. And then there was a song, Parents magazine, and American Baby magazine. And there's another one, a food one.
Unidentified [00:25:19]:
Forget the name of it. It's all Meredith Corporation. That's the name of the company.
Amanda Lucas [00:25:23]:
Okay.
Unidentified [00:25:24]:
And they all shared a floor, so all three magazines were on the same floor. And it was, like, a really open space. It was the senior editors and the. And the editor in chief who had the. The offices, but everybody else was, like, in cubicles in the middle of the place.
Amanda Lucas [00:25:38]:
And it's a good corporate.
Unidentified [00:25:40]:
Yeah, right. And it was beautiful. I mean, it was, like, in this high rise, and you could see, like, New York. Tell me if this is true for you. Like, when you go to the city that you. The energy, like, the vibe, like, is infectious. No. Like, I would walk to work and take the elevator up and look out the window and be like, oh, I'm about to go crazy today.
Unidentified [00:25:58]:
Like, I'm just gonna be so productive.
Amanda Lucas [00:26:00]:
Yeah, I feel that way because I work in the city. My. My day job is in. In finance. I work downtown, like three blocks away from where the Freedom Tower is now.
Unidentified [00:26:08]:
Oh, nice.
Amanda Lucas [00:26:09]:
And it's not that high. It's like on a 15th or 18th floor. I don't even remember.
Unidentified [00:26:14]:
Yeah.
Amanda Lucas [00:26:15]:
Because post Covid. Haven't been there in a while, and you definitely feel that way. But it also, you also. I guess I take it for granted a little bit.
Unidentified [00:26:24]:
Yeah.
Amanda Lucas [00:26:24]:
And you get lost in, like, the mundane tasks of, you know, just taking the subway and having to deal with that and walking through crowds of people and waiting for the elevator and this.
Unidentified [00:26:33]:
And that and for sure, the commute stuff. Yeah. The commuter's truck.
Amanda Lucas [00:26:37]:
But I definitely. I get what you're saying. There's like a romanticism to it.
Unidentified [00:26:41]:
Yeah. I mean, I would get out and I would. I'm telling you, it was a bit of something about the building and the people there, and I just. I would get so excited, like, just be there and. Because I knew that, like, my work mattered and that people cared about what I wanted to say. There's something to be said for having a job that wants to know what you think. You know what I mean?
Amanda Lucas [00:27:02]:
Absolutely. And then, like, you're just not a cog in the machine, which is more like in my. In my day job world, like the finance world, like, that's what you are.
Unidentified [00:27:09]:
Yeah.
Amanda Lucas [00:27:10]:
But with you, it seems like you're. You're working in an environment that you're passionate about. That has to do with writing, has to do with parenting. It's like multiple facets of your life, like, crisscrossing at the same time. And you have, like, this great opportunity and people are actually listening to you and like, oh, that's, that's, you know, are interested in what you have to say.
Unidentified [00:27:26]:
Right. And it was so cool because we would get into staff meetings, you know, and the editor in chief would be like, amanda, what do you think? Tell me what. I want to know what you think about this. And, like, my daughter was able to come and do toy testing. Yeah. For the. The December. The Christmas issue, you know, and so they would have all the toys, all the new toys that were coming out, and they brought kids from different age groups and gave them the toys that they were considering, you know, publishing about.
Amanda Lucas [00:27:52]:
Okay.
Unidentified [00:27:52]:
And the kids spent the whole day just testing the toys.
Amanda Lucas [00:27:56]:
That's like a dream life for her.
Unidentified [00:27:58]:
Yeah. So I got to bring her. I brought her many times because, you know, they want. It's about kids and so they wanted to involve her. And so she would come. She. They would take it to the toy room, the toy closet, and she would just get to take whatever she wanted. And.
Amanda Lucas [00:28:10]:
Wow.
Unidentified [00:28:11]:
Yeah, it was really cool. And they were doing a Father's Day video, which you can probably find online still somewhere. Yeah.
Amanda Lucas [00:28:18]:
Is Lino on it?
Unidentified [00:28:18]:
No, she is. So it was. She was little. She's 13 now, but she was really small then. She was probably, like, six. And so they took her into this, like, room where they were recording the kids. And she was a little intimidated because it was like, you know, lights and speakers, whatever, and the editors. And there was, like, an X on the floor where she needed to stand, and they asked her questions about her dad.
Unidentified [00:28:39]:
And then they made, like, a compilation, like a bunch of kids answering questions about their dads and putting out. Yeah. For Father's Day. And it was really cool. So I loved it. I love that job.
Amanda Lucas [00:28:49]:
I'm gonna see if I could find that video.
Unidentified [00:28:50]:
Yeah. And then I left there, and, well, the internship was over. And like I said, American Baby was on the same floor. Right. So I came to the end of the internship, and they said to me, one of the editors from the parent side, you know, they all talk, and they spoke to an editor on the parenting side. I'm sorry. On the American Baby side. And they said, there's a position open for editorial assistant, and Amanda is great, and you need to take her.
Unidentified [00:29:20]:
And I was like, cool. So I went over. They interviewed me anyway, you know, and I walked across the floor, and at.
Amanda Lucas [00:29:27]:
That point, did you know what, like, that position was exactly? Like, what was it?
Unidentified [00:29:31]:
I wasn't entirely sure, but I knew that it was the next step.
Amanda Lucas [00:29:33]:
True.
Unidentified [00:29:34]:
I thought I was going to be editor in chief at some point. Right. And I was like, I'm gonna. I'm gonna be that. I'm going to be the editor in chief of this. Right. So, like, that's a dope mindset. Yeah.
Unidentified [00:29:43]:
So I was like, oh, I'm gonna take these steps. Like, I know editorial assistant is next. That's just the next step.
Amanda Lucas [00:29:47]:
I gotta pay my dues.
Unidentified [00:29:48]:
Yeah.
Amanda Lucas [00:29:48]:
Go through the motions.
Unidentified [00:29:49]:
Right. So. Oh, and while I was an intern, one of my articles I wrote about my daughter because she wanted a sewing machine. Did you know the story?
Amanda Lucas [00:29:57]:
No. No.
Unidentified [00:29:58]:
She wanted a sewing machine for Christmas. And she was. She was five. She was five. She wanted a sewing machine. And I was like, you can't tie your shoes. You're not getting a sewing machine. No.
Unidentified [00:30:06]:
Right. You're not getting that Needles, five year olds. No, we're not gonna do that. But my parents being the spoilers, you know, like, that all grandparents are. They bought her an adult sewing machine for her for Christmas.
Amanda Lucas [00:30:20]:
Wow.
Unidentified [00:30:21]:
Yeah. And so I was like, I don't know how to do this. Like, how am I gonna teach what are. Watched the video. There's like a. Came with, like, a CD that shows how to use it, and we watched it, and she sat down at the machine, like, followed the directions, and made a pillow. You know about her little pillow business. She made a pillow? Yeah, she had a little pillow business for a minute, and she made a pillow.
Unidentified [00:30:42]:
And then the next day.
Amanda Lucas [00:30:42]:
That's so cool.
Unidentified [00:30:43]:
Yeah. The next day I took her to get supplies because all she had was fabric. And she put blankets inside because we didn't have any cotton. Right. So then we went to the store and we got her. I got her more fabric and I got her buttons, and I got her, you know, things, you know, cotton. And she started making pillows, and they were so cute. She was putting, like, little faces on the pillows, and it was adorable.
Unidentified [00:31:03]:
So I was posting it on Instagram, and everybody was like, oh, my God, I love. Oh, my. Can I get one? Like, and there's a organization called Old Field Planters in the Bronx, and they provide scholarships for kids who are trying to go to school to college. And they asked her to come to their banquet that they were having, and they asked her to be a keynote speaker, and they gave her the opportunity to sell some pillows there.
Amanda Lucas [00:31:29]:
Really?
Unidentified [00:31:29]:
Yeah.
Amanda Lucas [00:31:30]:
How did they. Did they find you? Like, through social media.
Unidentified [00:31:33]:
Social media. And so they. Yeah, they gave her that opportunity. And then. Then one of the girls at the magazine that I worked with, her friend, a friend of hers from college, they went to Syracuse, was like a PR person, and they had, like, a team, Like a team of girls that were just starting. They were making their own PR company. Right.
Amanda Lucas [00:31:55]:
Okay.
Unidentified [00:31:55]:
And they wanted her as a client.
Amanda Lucas [00:31:57]:
What?
Unidentified [00:31:58]:
Yeah. Yeah. So they came and we met many times. They came and they made videos and they made her own website, and they. They were, like, making pr, like, packages that they sent to, like, Ellen and Steve Harvey and, like, everywhere. And we got some calls back from Steve Harvey. We were going to go see Steve Harvey, and we were going to see Ellen, and we were gonna see.
Amanda Lucas [00:32:21]:
Wow. So exciting.
Unidentified [00:32:23]:
Yeah.
Amanda Lucas [00:32:23]:
Lionel, I can't believe you never told me about any of this.
Unidentified [00:32:27]:
Yeah. And so we. That ball was rolling, and I told my editors because they have a creativity issue that came out in October. And so I was Also in charge of their blog. So I wrote about it on the blog and I was able to blog, I think it was three times a week that I had to publish something, which was such a good exercise for me because I was used to, like taking forever to write something and edit it and make sure that it was. And there I had to get it out like this.
Amanda Lucas [00:32:55]:
So it was a good balance between the usual, like, me as a writer. Also, like the paralysis by analysis.
Unidentified [00:33:04]:
Which.
Amanda Lucas [00:33:05]:
I also don't agree with. Just like put stuff out, push stuff out, put stuff out either. But that's a good balance to have both, you know, get to see like both sides and find your happy medium there.
Unidentified [00:33:13]:
Yeah. So I wrote about it on the blog and one of the editors was like, you know, this is a great story. And they knew her because she came so many times. They were like, this is a really great story. We decided that we're gonna. We're gonna feature her. It's gonna be a feature article in the October issue. And I was like, what?
Amanda Lucas [00:33:31]:
That's awesome.
Unidentified [00:33:32]:
It was so cool. It was a two page spread and they sent the photographers to the house and they did like a photo shoot. And it was just. It was such a highlight. That was like, that's amazing.
Amanda Lucas [00:33:42]:
It was a dope story.
Unidentified [00:33:43]:
Incredible. Yeah.
Amanda Lucas [00:33:45]:
Do they have that online now by any chance?
Unidentified [00:33:47]:
Her article? I don't know. I'm not sure. We should check that out.
Amanda Lucas [00:33:52]:
I'm gonna check if they do. I'll also link to it in the episode notes for this episode.
Unidentified [00:33:56]:
Yeah. So my last name was different then. I wasn't married yet, so. Yeah, it was just. It was a really awesome experience being at Parents. And then when I did my interview for the editorial assistant position at American Baby, the editor who was interviewing me made it clear. She was like, I know that you're a writer. We know that you're a writer.
Unidentified [00:34:22]:
Because that article got so much praise in the office. Because no interns have written a feature article before. That's unheard of. Right. And the editor in chief knew me by name. And I thought that was so amazing, I would lose my damn mind. She would come. She came by.
Unidentified [00:34:36]:
She would come by my little cubicle sometimes and be like, that article that you wrote was, like, really great. And I was like, what? What? Thought I was going to stay there forever. And then when I did the interview, the editor was like, okay, we know that you're a writer, but this is not a writing position. Right. This is more like clerical. So are you okay with doing that? And I was like, how can I say no? Right. Of course I'm going to do the clerical stuff. Yeah.
Unidentified [00:35:04]:
So it was not. It was. The internship was like 7:50 an hour, and then editorial system was like $10 an hour, so. And it's freelance, so. And I had a child. Right. And I'm like, okay, I need to. There was a benefit to having a child in the industry because I had a lot of ideas and a lot to contribute.
Amanda Lucas [00:35:23]:
You had that perspective. Yeah.
Unidentified [00:35:24]:
Yes. But when you're an intern or on your way up in this, in the magazine industry, you're gonna be poor for a while. You know what I mean? You're not gonna make.
Amanda Lucas [00:35:33]:
Usually a long while.
Unidentified [00:35:34]:
Yeah.
Amanda Lucas [00:35:34]:
Like, anything writing related.
Unidentified [00:35:36]:
The turnover rate there at the layoff rate was banana. Like, they were layoff, like 70 people a year. The editor who hired me for my first internship at Parenting was let go and came as a fact checker to Parents magazine while I was there. And it was just common. My senior editor at Parenting got laid off and came to work at Parenting in a lower position because that's just the way that the cookie crumbles, I guess in that place. It's a downfall of that industry that you don't really have job security and you don't really have. There's no money in it until you get really far. Right.
Unidentified [00:36:14]:
So you have to grind.
Amanda Lucas [00:36:15]:
True.
Unidentified [00:36:16]:
So the grind was harder for me, being responsible for a life. And then I didn't feel the same passion, like, as much as I was like, okay, I'm gonna deal with this. Right. Like, this is just a step in the direction that I want to go. It got mundane. It got really boring. And then I started to process. Part of my job was processing contracts for the freelancers.
Unidentified [00:36:43]:
And I'm getting these contracts and I have to file them and do whatever needed to be done with them. And I was noticing what they were getting paid for the same size articles that I was writing. And I was like, what am I doing here? Because I knew that I was a writer above all else, I was a writer. And the writers who are at home writing, they were home. They didn't have to come in. They have, you know, they were home. They were writing.
Amanda Lucas [00:37:10]:
Focusing on their writing.
Unidentified [00:37:11]:
Focusing on their writing. Right. Pitching a bunch of stories, just generating ideas and sending them in. And for a tiny paragraph, they would get $500. And like, that feature article that I wrote would have gotten me thousands. But I didn't get paid anything because I was working in the office. So my work was Just, you know.
Amanda Lucas [00:37:29]:
Your ideas were free, your ideas were being paid for.
Unidentified [00:37:31]:
Yeah. And. And then I tried to get out of that and I tried to get into the website, you know, doing like website things and. But that wasn't a fit either. They had me doing that for a little while. I had like four screens on my desk and it would give me a headache. I was like, why? I just want to, can I, you know, just let me write? And so I was, I was doing that job, but I was constantly pitching. I was still pitching, always pitching.
Unidentified [00:37:57]:
And my editor got really mad at me and she was like, I don't. You, you need to start like focusing on. Stop sending us story ideas. Like, we don't want your story ideas. And I would. That was a blow because that's what made it so exciting for me.
Amanda Lucas [00:38:17]:
It's like your main, your main driver.
Unidentified [00:38:19]:
Yeah. Like, you don't want my story ideas. Like, what's wrong with you? And then I was, I was getting paid $10 an hour and it just didn't seem worth it. So I was like, let me try freelancing. Right. Sat down, had a meeting with the editor in chief and she was like, you are.
Amanda Lucas [00:38:35]:
This is the one that liked you.
Unidentified [00:38:36]:
Yeah.
Amanda Lucas [00:38:36]:
Like the article.
Unidentified [00:38:37]:
She's the editor in chief of both magazines.
Amanda Lucas [00:38:39]:
Okay.
Unidentified [00:38:39]:
Yeah. So I went and sat down with her and she was like, you're always going to be welcome to write for us. Always. Right. And if you're not happy, like, we will take your articles if you want to do it as a freelancer. Right. The thing is, they're not just going to take your articles because they like you. And they're not just going to take your articles because you think they're good.
Unidentified [00:38:59]:
They have to fit into the specific issue. Right. That they're putting out. And so I tried it. I left the magazine and I went home and I started like trying to freelance. And I was pitching and pitching and pitching and pitching. And I would get out of 10 articles that I would pitch, I would get one picked up and then it would take by them by the same, by different people. I got published in.
Unidentified [00:39:22]:
There's actually a website called pampers.com. i don't know if you know that, but Pampers has a website like the Diapers. Like the Diapers, Yeah. They have stories for parents on there. So I wrote a story. I wrote articles for them. I wrote articles for Smiles for All, which is like just a feel good website where you go to read stories that are supposed to uplift you. I wrote for them.
Unidentified [00:39:43]:
I Wrote for young adult magazine online. I did a short story for them, which was actually a memoir, but they didn't know that it was a short story that I wrote for them. I wrote for a few different publications.
Amanda Lucas [00:40:01]:
I'm going to look for all these online, or if you have them, send them to me, but if not, I'm going to look for them. And it was under Amanda. What?
Unidentified [00:40:07]:
Nesbot. My maiden name. N E S B O T. So I wrote for all of them, and I would get paid for it, but it would take months and months and months to get paid for it, which was actually worse than getting paid $10 an hour, to be honest. So that was really hard. And then I had to go back to work eventually. I, like, I need to go do something that's gonna, you know, bring the money in.
Amanda Lucas [00:40:29]:
True.
Unidentified [00:40:31]:
You ready for me to start talking.
Amanda Lucas [00:40:32]:
About the plight of many, many of us writers?
Unidentified [00:40:35]:
Yeah. Yes. I actually did, like, a year of. I did a year of freelance, and then I did a year of, like, receptionist, like, clerical things, like, to hold me over until I could find something. And I was looking at, like, openings and magazines, and I would look at them and I'd be like, do I want to be in the office doing the clerical? Is that what I want to do? Or do I really just want to focus on my craft? Like, what am I going to do here? Right. So I started to write a book, and I went back to Gotham, and I took a bunch of more classes, and I worked on my book for a really long time. I'm still working on the book. So I got about 220 pages in, and it's.
Unidentified [00:41:23]:
It's not done. I told you I'm gonna have to cut probably half of that. But I did a lot of writing for the book and taking classes, and then I was like, maybe I should teach. Everybody told me that I should teach. Before I even went to college, people told me that I should teach. Right. My mom is a teacher. My daughter is very studious, and we do a lot of, like, I'm always teaching her.
Unidentified [00:41:42]:
And so everybody's like, you'd be a really good teacher. And I was like, no, Kevin Knack for it. Yeah. And I was like, no, no, I won't. And then it got to the point where everybody. My in laws. Were telling me I should be a teacher. I went outside and my neighbor was like, hey, you ever think about being a teacher?
Amanda Lucas [00:41:56]:
Like, damn, like, fine, I get it.
Unidentified [00:41:58]:
Right? Exactly. And then I was like, all right, let me see what I can do. Here. So I applied for a position as a teaching assistant in a. In a preschool, and I did that.
Tony Ortiz [00:42:09]:
And what was that?
Amanda Lucas [00:42:11]:
Here. Here in Queens.
Unidentified [00:42:11]:
It was in Brooklyn.
Amanda Lucas [00:42:12]:
Okay.
Unidentified [00:42:13]:
And I felt free in a way, because you're not sitting at a desk. There's such a difference when you're sitting at a desk all day, you know, doing clerical work. And when you can get up and move and interact and do things.
Amanda Lucas [00:42:25]:
Yeah. It's more of a dynamic.
Unidentified [00:42:27]:
Yeah.
Amanda Lucas [00:42:27]:
Type of job.
Unidentified [00:42:28]:
So it was fun, but I knew I didn't want to be with the babies because there was a lot of poop and a lot of crying. I can't do this. No. And then I saw a position, which. I don't know if it's a figment of my imagination, because once I got into. Once I got into this next job, everybody was like, what position are you talking about? But I saw a position online at Success Academy Charter School that said that they wanted somebody to be in their corporate office who chose. Who, like, curated the books that the middle school kids were gonna read. And I was like, that's me.
Unidentified [00:43:01]:
That is me. Because I read a lot. I read about 60 books a year. Right.
Amanda Lucas [00:43:05]:
Wow.
Unidentified [00:43:06]:
Yeah. What? I'm always reading, so. And I was like, this would be great for me.
Amanda Lucas [00:43:11]:
All like. Like, hard copy, paperback reading or, like, audiobooks or, like, everything.
Unidentified [00:43:15]:
Everything. I don't discriminate. His audiobooks, I like. I like.
Amanda Lucas [00:43:18]:
That's amazing.
Unidentified [00:43:19]:
I like the physical books the most, but my nonfiction, I do on audio and. What else? The Kindle. Have a Kindle. Some people hate on the Kindle, but it's great when you're tied up doing other things. You need your hands. So. Yeah, I read a lot, so I was like, this would be a great thing if I could do this job. And then I.
Unidentified [00:43:38]:
But I was doubting myself. So I spoke to my family, and my brother actually knew an assistant principal at that school.
Amanda Lucas [00:43:45]:
Wow.
Unidentified [00:43:46]:
And he said, let me introduce you to her. So I went and visited, but she was at the high school. And I went and visited the high school, and I loved it. I thought it was amazing. And they had, like, this gorgeous library. And, you know, the kids were exposed to so much that, you know, newer books from people of color. Not just, like, the old, you know, typical books that the kids that we grew up reading.
Amanda Lucas [00:44:10]:
Yeah, the usual. And then during February, we'll hear about Black History Month.
Unidentified [00:44:16]:
Yeah, they had, like, a really great library, and the teacher seemed good, and it just seemed really cool. But I was pregnant at the time, and I was like, I don't know if I'm gonna be able to come in September. And she said, no, we hire like throughout the year. You can come in October. You can come, you know, whenever.
Amanda Lucas [00:44:34]:
Oh, sweet.
Unidentified [00:44:34]:
And I was like, oh, cool. So I started as an assistant teacher. I had to. It was like a three step process. And I was at a group interview, seven months pregnant. I felt like everybody was looking at me like, what do you think you're saying? Like, go home and have that baby. Chill out.
Amanda Lucas [00:44:52]:
Like, is she about to. Did her water just break right now? Like, what's going on?
Unidentified [00:44:56]:
Right. What are you doing here? Go home. But they gave me the job and I, I started that October. So I had the baby July. And then I had, I started in October and I was an assistant teacher in third grade. And it was phenomenal. It was phenomenal. I mean, listen, charter schools are hard.
Unidentified [00:45:13]:
They're very hard. I mean, I think everybody knows, like the reputation that it's rigorous and the hours are long and, and it really was. But.
Amanda Lucas [00:45:21]:
And is it compared to. Compare real quick, quick aside the like, compared to a public school, let's say a third grade average public school versus a third grade average charter school, is it like the curriculum is that different or like much more demanding or like the bars are set like at different levels?
Unidentified [00:45:38]:
It depends. It depends on what school you're talking about. Okay, so in our building, so we were co located with a public school, which is a big pain point for some people. They hate that we use the space. And I tend to agree with that because the charter school has the money to have their own, to have their own space. Yeah, but we were co located with a public school in the inner city. This is like, you know, Prospect Heights, Brooklyn. And that public school was not where I would send my children.
Unidentified [00:46:08]:
Right, gotcha. It was just not the same level of rigor or care or you could tell by the way that the kids were spoken to and the way that the kids behaved. The standard was much lower. But my daughter at the time was in a public school in Woodhaven. That was phenomenal that I found to be better than the charter school.
Tony Ortiz [00:46:31]:
Wow, nice.
Amanda Lucas [00:46:31]:
Okay.
Unidentified [00:46:32]:
So yeah, it depends. You just have to do research. You know, the charter school was excellent because they really do, like, expect a lot from the kids. And they give them, they let them know, like, we believe that you can do this and we're going to make sure that you do this. And their levels, I mean, if you talk to a second grader from Success Academy, they're Going to. They're going to be able to speak to you about things or show you things, or do some kind of math that you. And believe a second grader could do. Right.
Unidentified [00:47:00]:
But they do lack the ability to be children in a way. So they have. They have like a 20 minute recess, which is not enough, if you ask me. They have art, and the art program is fantastic. They have music, they have dance. A lot of them have. Well, my school didn't have music, but some of them do. They have chess, but they don't have enough time for that.
Unidentified [00:47:25]:
And in order to get the grades that they have. Because Success Academy is number one in the region for state test scores.
Amanda Lucas [00:47:35]:
Okay.
Unidentified [00:47:36]:
For like 11 years now in a row. But in order for them to.
Amanda Lucas [00:47:39]:
For all grades or like elementary.
Unidentified [00:47:41]:
Elementary.
Amanda Lucas [00:47:41]:
Okay.
Unidentified [00:47:42]:
So for them to get those grades.
Amanda Lucas [00:47:45]:
They really have to emphasize the schoolwork.
Unidentified [00:47:49]:
Yes. The academia of it. Yes. And so the kids are required to stay very still and very silent for really long stretches of time, AKA not be kids. Yes, yes. And I mean, there's something to be said for having really good classroom management. You can't. You're not teaching anything if the kids are not listening to you.
Unidentified [00:48:08]:
Right. But there has to be a balance.
Amanda Lucas [00:48:12]:
Yeah. I was about to say, I would imagine it's like a balance.
Unidentified [00:48:14]:
Like, as a teacher, you need. And they try, they do try to give the kids a balance, but it's not enough. Like, I expect a lot from my daughter, but I wouldn't. I'd never put her there because I didn't want her to feel like she's very creative. I mean, she, you know, she made the pillows and everything, but I wouldn't want her to feel like, you know, I can't express myself. I can't, you know, speak to my friend. They barely had time to socialize.
Amanda Lucas [00:48:40]:
Socialize. Yeah.
Unidentified [00:48:41]:
And that's important.
Amanda Lucas [00:48:43]:
I can see that. Yeah, absolutely.
Unidentified [00:48:44]:
You know, it's not just about the grades. Like, they need both. But Success was great because they offer free masters for their teachers. And for a long time it was through Hunter College, and now I think they went back to Toro, still, like, offer the free masters. They offer so many things. Like, lunch was always free. We had, like, a pantry and a refrigerator, and they would ask us what we wanted to order and they would just order it. So, like, we were able to eat whatever we wanted.
Unidentified [00:49:09]:
And they really took care of us. I mean, they had a team that did the New York City Marathon and they gave you, like, trainers and everything. There was trainers from Equinox that will come and take care of us.
Amanda Lucas [00:49:18]:
That's really cool.
Unidentified [00:49:19]:
It's really a great place for millennials. Really. It was like, it was so much that they gave to us that was, you know, made me feel like they thought about the whole person. And I met some of my favorite people, like my best friends in that school. They were fantastic. However, the same way that they expect a lot from the kids, they expect a lot from the teachers. Right. So it was very common to work 10 and 12 hours.
Amanda Lucas [00:49:45]:
Wow.
Unidentified [00:49:45]:
So we would get to work at 6:30, sometimes 6:15 if it was testing. We would get there at. Yeah. Six in the morning. 6:15, 6:30. And then leave at 6, 6:30. Wow. And it was just so many deliverables.
Amanda Lucas [00:49:58]:
Long days.
Unidentified [00:49:59]:
Yeah. So much to do. And I had a three month old baby and I was nursing.
Amanda Lucas [00:50:03]:
Wow.
Unidentified [00:50:03]:
And I was nursing full time. She wasn't taking formula. So I was doing. Yeah. Full time nursing, three month old baby. Master's degree and school.
Amanda Lucas [00:50:13]:
Wow.
Unidentified [00:50:14]:
And I think I had a mental breakdown probably twice a week. Honestly, I would be on the floor in the bathroom crying, like, why am I doing this?
Amanda Lucas [00:50:24]:
That actually leads into what one of the questions I had for you.
Unidentified [00:50:27]:
Yeah.
Amanda Lucas [00:50:27]:
Which is, have you ever like, how do you deal? And I guess this ties into classroom management. And I would imagine every teacher goes through like a version of this, but the quote unquote, like, bad kids or like if there's a fight in the class or like, you know, a kid that just doesn't want to listen to you or just gets up and walks out or throw something, you know, I mean, like, how do you deal with like that?
Unidentified [00:50:49]:
Yeah. Okay. It depends on the grade. Right.
Amanda Lucas [00:50:51]:
Want to throw the one of the kids out the window or.
Unidentified [00:50:54]:
Oh my God. I had a little boy. I had a little boy. The worst situation. And any teacher who's been teaching for like a decent amount of time. Right. Has dealt with, has had something thrown at them. We've all.
Unidentified [00:51:05]:
It has happened to all of us. They've had somebody throw a tantrum, especially the younger grades. It's happened to all of us. The craziest situation for me was a little boy who got mad and he took his clothes off in the classroom. He was in his. It's a weird way to express anger. He was angry. So he was in his underwear and he like, climbed the radiator and was like screaming on the radiator in his underwear.
Amanda Lucas [00:51:34]:
It's like no amount of training could prepare you for that moment.
Unidentified [00:51:38]:
Oh my God. I was like, okay, we're gonna have to move the rest of the class out of here. Just give him the room because.
Amanda Lucas [00:51:46]:
Let him work through this.
Unidentified [00:51:47]:
Yeah, let's just. I don't want to see it. Like, don't jump anywhere. Yeah, but so Success Academy was like boot camp, right? So they really taught us how to maintain and how to. How to get the kids to listen to you, how to, you know, really master classroom management. And it's all about. Okay. It's all about, like, setting expectations and then communicating with the kids constantly.
Unidentified [00:52:13]:
Like, letting them know what's expected and then following through always. Right. So in the beginning of the year, you let them know what to expect. You remember you were in school and the teachers were like, what are the classroom rules? You know, day one. And we had a color system which a lot of schools have. So if you're.
Amanda Lucas [00:52:29]:
When you come in, Red table, green table.
Unidentified [00:52:32]:
Yeah. So when you come in, everybody's on green. Right. It's like a chart that we had. And all the kids were on green. It has their names, and if we explain to them what the offenses were. Right. So, like, success is very strict.
Unidentified [00:52:45]:
So if you were not tracking. That's what they call it. You had to look at the teacher when the teacher was talking to you. If you were not tracking your teacher, you got a warning.
Amanda Lucas [00:52:54]:
Damn.
Unidentified [00:52:55]:
Yeah.
Amanda Lucas [00:52:55]:
Wow.
Unidentified [00:52:55]:
If your hands were not locked while you were sitting on the rug or at your desk, you got a warning. You had to lock your hands. Like, cross your fingers together. Yeah. You had to lock your hands. You had to sit up straight. Your two feet had to be on the floor. Your eyes had to be on the teacher the whole time.
Unidentified [00:53:09]:
Yeah, always. Which is like, I mean, come on.
Amanda Lucas [00:53:11]:
For a kid.
Unidentified [00:53:12]:
Yeah.
Amanda Lucas [00:53:13]:
It must be difficult.
Unidentified [00:53:13]:
Yes. And our assistant principals and principal would pop in, and if a kid wasn't tracking, they would stop the lesson and be like, you don't have 100% here. Like, your kids need to be tracking you. And so we would have to give them. So we walked around with a clipboard with the kids names on it and the color coordinated thing. And so they would get a warning, and then the second time we had to correct them, they would get a second one. So it was two greens and then two yellows. Then they would turn.
Unidentified [00:53:38]:
Like, if they got a third warning, they were on yellow. And that was like, you lose time from recess. So like five minutes off a recess because you're on yellow or. Yeah. Or like five minutes in a reflection corner of the room where you had to like, write, what is Going on with you today and, like, how can you fix it? And then there was a second yellow, which was, like, another thing where they had to sit alone at lunch or something. And then there was red. And once you got to red, your parents were called double red. You were in danger of being suspended if you did something crazy.
Unidentified [00:54:09]:
So the kids all knew this, and it was standard in every class that they went to, which is different in other schools. So I'm in a different school now, and there's different. Like, there's no whole school system, but it was.
Amanda Lucas [00:54:22]:
It's, like, based on the teacher to implement their own version of.
Unidentified [00:54:24]:
Right, okay. So it's really good when everyone's on the same page because the kids know what to expect and what's gonna happen no matter what. And so their color system worked wherever they went. So if they were on their first yellow with me, and then they got in trouble in art class, then they moved to their second yellow.
Amanda Lucas [00:54:42]:
Whereas now it's probably like, oh, I could chew gum in so. And so's class, and I can't chew gum in yours. Like, what's going on?
Unidentified [00:54:46]:
Yeah, right, Exactly. So that. Just communication and the structure of it and having. We had the rules on the wall. We discussed it all the time, and it was standard across the board, and we stuck to it. And everybody knew, like, all the time. This is what I'm expecting. This is what.
Amanda Lucas [00:55:00]:
Everybody's on the same page. Parents to students, all the faculty.
Unidentified [00:55:04]:
Yes, parents. Yeah. And then when I use that same system when I went to my new school and I taught first grade, but then as a middle school teacher, it's a little different because, like, before, I would say, I would count down 3, 2, 1. And all the kids would lock their hands. Or if we went the hallway, I would say, three, two, one. And they would, like, straighten up in the line and, like, walk very, you know, hands at their sides and, like, little military. Yeah, yeah, like little soldiers. They did it because I would do the countdown, and they knew.
Unidentified [00:55:31]:
Right. But in middle school, first of all, I have five classes. I have 105 kids. Right?
Amanda Lucas [00:55:36]:
Wow.
Unidentified [00:55:37]:
Yeah. And it's five classes, and they roll.
Amanda Lucas [00:55:38]:
Five classes every day.
Unidentified [00:55:39]:
Every day. And they rotate so they're not with me all day long.
Amanda Lucas [00:55:45]:
And is it still a quick question? I remember, like. Like, for me, in junior high, I went to 210. It was like, the same. The same. Like, you know, 30 kids or whatever went from class to class to class.
Unidentified [00:55:57]:
Yes.
Amanda Lucas [00:55:58]:
Whereas in high school, it's like, yeah, you have one class with 30 kids, then a different class with a different mix of kids.
Unidentified [00:56:03]:
Okay. It's all the same. Yeah. You have your homeroom and that homeroom goes with each other everywhere.
Tony Ortiz [00:56:07]:
Gotcha.
Amanda Lucas [00:56:08]:
Okay.
Unidentified [00:56:09]:
But yeah, so the kids are not with me all day and I have them for 45 minutes each. And if I say three to one to a group of eighth grade, you know, 13, 14 year olds, they're going to be like, okay, zero, negative one, negative two, like now what? Right. So I learned that really it's about relationships. Once you get to like adolescence, it's about the relationship. So the same way, I mean, I just said the expectations and I told them in the beginning, like, I'm going to always respect you, but don't play yourself because then, you know, like, so they understand. Right. Like I don't play, I'm a little scary. But I try to, I try to maintain like a good relationship with them so that they just know, like.
Unidentified [00:56:52]:
And I still, I will take time from them, from lunch, I'll make them eat upstairs with me, you know, But I also do like funny things. Like, have you heard of mirror work?
Amanda Lucas [00:57:02]:
Mirror work?
Tony Ortiz [00:57:03]:
No.
Unidentified [00:57:04]:
So it's the act of looking in the mirror and saying affirmations to kind.
Amanda Lucas [00:57:10]:
Of like boost your self confidence.
Unidentified [00:57:12]:
Yeah. Like change your subconscious beliefs. Right. So a lot of people like kind of self sabotage because of whatever subconscious beliefs that they have from childhood trauma. And a way of breaking through that and changing the narrative in your mind is to do mirror work, is to look in the mirror and say whatever affirmation. Like say you were, you are a.
Amanda Lucas [00:57:30]:
Writer on the podcast.
Unidentified [00:57:32]:
Yes. You're a great writer.
Amanda Lucas [00:57:34]:
Yeah.
Unidentified [00:57:35]:
Like, but say like you grew up like thinking that you were like, you were always scared. Right. And so you live your life in fear. So an affirmation would be, I'm safe in the mirror. Constantly. I'm safe. Right? Okay. So one of my, one of my kids had really low self esteem and didn't want to do anything unless his friends did it.
Unidentified [00:57:53]:
Right. And so his lunch ended up being. Because he wasn't listening to me because he only wanted to listen to his friends. So his lunch, for lunch, I told him, you're gonna come upstairs and you're gonna do mirror work with me. And he was like, no, no, I can't. This is so weird. It's awkward, right? But I'm like, I'm gonna help you. This is gonna help you.
Unidentified [00:58:15]:
You're not gonna like it, but it's gonna help you. And I made him do mirror work and and some of them, they will have to come up, and we would do journals or whatever. But I found also that a lot of the kids in the middle school are dealing with so much more than I ever imagined, you know, that I ever knew about. I mean, I'm not saying the younger kids are not, but when I got to middle school, there were problems that I couldn't even wrap my head around.
Amanda Lucas [00:58:39]:
That they're dealing with already.
Unidentified [00:58:40]:
Yeah, that they were already dealing with. And there had to be a level of empathy. There was no way that I was gonna be like, don't slouch. Like, no, I'm not. You know what I mean? Like, I get it. A lot of my kids will come into school hungry. Like, Lionel helped me, actually, my husband Lionel.
Amanda Lucas [00:58:57]:
Shout out to Lionel.
Unidentified [00:58:58]:
Shout out to Lionel. He helped me organize a breakfast for them. They will come to school too late to get the school breakfast. And they were hungry because they weren't eating at home.
Amanda Lucas [00:59:08]:
And which is a known, like, stat, I guess, right here in New York. Like, most kids get, like, two. Two of their three meals, right? If they even get three meals through the school system.
Unidentified [00:59:19]:
And Success Academy is. Is well, well funded, like, just in setting up the classroom. I was able to. I had no budget. I could use their credit card and set up my classroom.
Amanda Lucas [00:59:30]:
And it was just, like, expense everything.
Unidentified [00:59:32]:
Just. Yeah, whatever I want was beautiful. I made a gorgeous classroom. And then I came to my new school, which is a parochial school in Corona, and it's not funded at all. It's a Title 1 school, which means 95% of the population is below the poverty line, and they're majority immigrants. 99% of the school is Hispanic, majority immigrants. And there's no funding. And there's a lot of hardship that comes with that.
Unidentified [00:59:57]:
So you have to know your kids, right? And if you can empathize with them, I feel like if they know that you love them, if they know that you care not about their grades, of course you care about their grades, but if you care about them as a person and they can feel that, then they're going to be responsive to you. Because more than anything, like, my kids, they don't want to disappoint. You know what I mean? If they care about how you feel about them, they don't want to disappoint you. So, like, doing things like buying them breakfast or, like, if I had breakfast, I would split it in, like, 20 pieces and split. You know, give everybody in my class, in my homeroom class a piece or, you know, I Always cared about them, and they knew that. And I gave them, like, good breaks. Like, they had a Xbox party where they were able to bring in their consoles and, like, you know, play and just chill. So that's what I think gets the respect of the older kids.
Unidentified [01:00:54]:
But, you know, with COVID it got really bad.
Amanda Lucas [01:00:57]:
Can we talk about this before we transition to Covid? I just want to say, to that point, the, like, that's absolutely me reflecting on, like, teachers I had in the past. That's absolutely true. Like, the teachers that I gravitated most towards. Which one of them is Gitlets was my freshman English teacher. Like, I gave her own, like, acknowledgement section in my. In both of the books. And, like, I always will because she. She made me feel like writer.
Amanda Lucas [01:01:25]:
She. She told me, you're good at writing. I love reading your stuff.
Unidentified [01:01:29]:
Yeah.
Amanda Lucas [01:01:29]:
Like, there was an assignment that she had called lit logs. Like, literature logs.
Unidentified [01:01:32]:
Yeah.
Amanda Lucas [01:01:33]:
Where we would, like, reflect on whatever book we were reading in class. And she was like. She would assign, you know, write a late log, you know, answering this question or whatever. And that was, like, an assignment, like, throughout the year. And, like, I always remember that she always, like, cared. And she used to ask me about. Not just, like, schoolwork stuff, like, about home, about, like, a girl that I was dating, and she's like, oh, you know that girl that you've been with? She's in my freshman class. And I started talking to her.
Amanda Lucas [01:01:54]:
Boy, you like. Like, she was always, like, super cool.
Unidentified [01:01:58]:
Yeah.
Amanda Lucas [01:01:59]:
And, yeah, it definitely goes a long way. Like, the empathy.
Unidentified [01:02:02]:
Yeah. You need to invest in them as people, not just in the grades, which is hard because we have quotas. You know, we have certain.
Amanda Lucas [01:02:11]:
Because then you have to balance it with that business side of things. Right.
Unidentified [01:02:14]:
We have to reach a certain. Certain numbers.
Amanda Lucas [01:02:16]:
You can't just be their best friends. It's kind of like parenting. Like, you can't be straight parent, like, militant and, you know, not care and be your kid's friend, but you can't be their best friend either. Like, you have to, like, balance, like, the two. Right.
Unidentified [01:02:28]:
Yep, exactly.
Amanda Lucas [01:02:30]:
So in relation to Covid, like, now we transitioned from the style of teaching that you've been doing, obviously, in person, going to class and stuff like that, to, like, now this, like, virtual version of. Right. Like, through zoom. I imagine it's zoom. Like, tell me about that.
Unidentified [01:02:48]:
It sucks.
Amanda Lucas [01:02:48]:
Yeah. For as convenient as it is, period.
Unidentified [01:02:59]:
No, it's. It's really. It's really difficult because that personal connection isn't there. I feel like Middle school kids are probably the most vulnerable, probably the most impressionable kids that there are. You know what I mean? Like, babies are baby. You know, the little ones. They're little. But once you get to middle school and you start caring about, you know, what your friends think and socializing.
Unidentified [01:03:20]:
Much more impressionable. Yeah, yeah.
Amanda Lucas [01:03:22]:
Your ability to mold them is like, you have more of an ability probably at that age versus, like a high school kid.
Unidentified [01:03:27]:
Right. Like, for example, my kids, because I'm able to choose the books that they're reading, I intentionally give them Hispanic authors and Hispanic narrators because that's their. That's what they are, you know, and before that, they are.
Amanda Lucas [01:03:39]:
They have age three, like Junot Diaz or anything like that.
Unidentified [01:03:41]:
No, not yet. Not yet.
Amanda Lucas [01:03:42]:
Or the Alchemist.
Unidentified [01:03:44]:
No, not yet.
Amanda Lucas [01:03:45]:
Something like that.
Unidentified [01:03:46]:
Okay, not yet. But they're like this one. I'm not your perfect Mexican daughter. Okay, they're gonna read that one. Tialola. They're gonna read. That's next year. But, like.
Unidentified [01:03:55]:
Yeah, I give them. I was trying to give them Elizabeth Acevedo. Do you know her?
Amanda Lucas [01:04:00]:
I actually follow her on Instagram because I found her through. I try to follow, like, every writer that I find and, like, look into them a bit. And I read a book recently or listen to the audiobook of Dominicana by Angie Cruz.
Unidentified [01:04:13]:
Yes, yes.
Amanda Lucas [01:04:14]:
And through her, I found the Elizabeth Acevedo. But I haven't read, like, any of her stuff.
Unidentified [01:04:19]:
Yeah, I've read all of her stuff. I'm a fan girl. Od.
Amanda Lucas [01:04:22]:
Nice.
Unidentified [01:04:22]:
And I want to give the kids. This is a conversation that we actually had. I want to give the kids one of her books for the 8th graders for next year. However, because I work in a Catholic school, I'm not supposed to expose them to things that go against the faith. And there is homosexuality in the book. And so that's like an ongoing conversation where I'm like, okay, but they know what it. You know what I mean?
Amanda Lucas [01:04:47]:
They know it exists.
Unidentified [01:04:48]:
Yeah. And it's not like an overt thing in the book. It's not, like, super explored. It's just lightly mentioned. But the kids actually have a lot of questions about that, and I feel like, you know, so I'm still trying to get.
Amanda Lucas [01:05:00]:
Turning a blind eye to it and thinking it doesn't exist.
Unidentified [01:05:02]:
Yeah, no, it's not helping them. It's not beneficial to them. I just don't want to get the school sued. But, yeah, I. Yeah, so I tried to incorporate the. The books that I think that they need to read, which Is great for me because I get to do that. Right. Which I couldn't do at success Academy.
Unidentified [01:05:22]:
But, yeah, when we got online because of COVID that, the interaction was so much different, and the kids need the physical interaction. Some of the kids just need to leave home for a little while. They just need to leave home. And we talked about food. Like, there was a line from the school that went 20 blocks because a lot of the parents lost their income because. And a lot of them are immigrants. And a lot of their landlords were not forgiving. Some of the kids ended up in shelters.
Unidentified [01:05:54]:
Some of the kids lost their dads and their grandfathers and their grandmother. I got one girl that lost three family members. Wow. And not being able to be with them, you know, they're older, but they're still children, and they still need, like, affection and love. And, like, I would see them, and they would always hug me, and they always wanted to, like, stay with me. And, I mean, I would get preps, like, breaks, and I'd be like, okay, guys, go somewhere else. Yeah, I need a minute. But they just want to be with you all the time.
Unidentified [01:06:23]:
You know, they always wanted to, like, what do you need? Like, can I help you? And they wanted hugs. The kids would line up to hug me before they went to their math class.
Amanda Lucas [01:06:29]:
Oh, that's awesome.
Unidentified [01:06:30]:
So to not have that on top of, like, them going through what they were going through was horrible. So initially, like, when we first.
Amanda Lucas [01:06:39]:
At the moment where they probably needed that most.
Unidentified [01:06:41]:
Yeah.
Amanda Lucas [01:06:42]:
Like, you couldn't give it to them.
Unidentified [01:06:43]:
And they didn't have it right when we first started, I said, I'm gonna give the kids their second. So we meet. We. I meet them my homeroom. I meet them in the morning. That's sixth grade. And then I meet seventh grade, and then I meet eighth grade. And then I have homeroom again.
Unidentified [01:06:59]:
Right. With my sixth graders and homeroom, I was, like, the second homeroom period, it on zoom. I made it our lunch together so that we could talk about whatever they wanted to talk about. And then we got to a point where a lot of the kids didn't have food. So then it was like, man, how can I have lunch with them if they don't? You know, if some of them are like, there's no food in my house, like, we don't have anything.
Amanda Lucas [01:07:21]:
That's awesome.
Unidentified [01:07:22]:
So we. We did, like, a big, you know, donation. I got my family involved. We went and, like, gave them food and as much as we could, you know, and then we. I bought, like, Presents for my kids who like lost really close family members. I bought, I gave them like care packages and drove out there and put it on there on their stoop. And you know, that made them happy. But I don't know, I mean, it did emphasize for me how important it is to teach ela.
Unidentified [01:07:47]:
I mean, because that's where you can really express yourself, you know. So they had like journals and I encouraged them to write about what was happening and, and try to make sense of the world around them through writing and reading. Because of this, I chose the book Fever. Where is it? This one. Fever 1793.
Amanda Lucas [01:08:06]:
Okay.
Unidentified [01:08:07]:
This is about the yellow fever when it happened. And it's a girl around their age who was dealing with yellow fever that affected everyone.
Amanda Lucas [01:08:15]:
So you could definitely relate to it.
Unidentified [01:08:17]:
Yeah. So I don't know. I mean, if I were a math teacher, I don't know what I would do.
Amanda Lucas [01:08:22]:
You know what I mean?
Unidentified [01:08:24]:
How do I get them? Because the emotional part is so important. Right. More important than anything else right now is that emotional part.
Amanda Lucas [01:08:31]:
Agreed.
Unidentified [01:08:31]:
And to be able to, to teach them while empathizing, while showing them love through writing and reading and stuff, I feel like it's probably the most rewarding thing that I've done.
Amanda Lucas [01:08:43]:
Wow, sounds like you're doing a great job. I'm trying, but it does sound really tough also. Yeah, it is through now, I guess like structure wise. Is it because my niece like is doing zoom. But she, she's in kindergarten. She literally just graduated kindergarten. She was going to St. Mary's which is closing now the school, so many of them.
Amanda Lucas [01:09:08]:
So she was like devastated about that. And now she, you know, she's going to first grade. She's gonna have to go to a new school. But now. So they finished off the, the year obviously on zoom. Like my brother locks her in.
Unidentified [01:09:20]:
Yeah.
Amanda Lucas [01:09:21]:
And like she sees the whole class and everybody goes on mute. The teacher talks, people unmute, you know, they show their whatever they' and stuff like that. But I know that the like it was like a reduced schedule kind of. It was like from 11 in the morning to 2 in the afternoon or something like that. And which like from like my brother's perspective and my sister in law and stuff like that, like it's a big help when having small kids because then like the parents that are able to still work, they're working from home and you know, the kids are, you know, not running around the house. They're, they're doing something for a few hours. Like they're, you know, they're Doing their schoolwork. And even though I would imagine the like, the like what they're learning and their ability to absorb and stuff like that is all like thrown for a loop because this is like a new thing.
Amanda Lucas [01:10:01]:
Why am I on the computer? Where are my friends? How come I'm not, you know, that routine that I'm used to? But it is something especially from the parents perspective. So for your older kids, is it the same structure? Like you still have the Same exact like 8 to 5 or like whatever it is, schedule and the same like periods and stuff like that.
Unidentified [01:10:21]:
So the kids are expected to work, work from 8:30 until 3. That's the regular school day. But the Zoom is much shorter.
Amanda Lucas [01:10:28]:
Okay.
Unidentified [01:10:29]:
So they meet with each of their teachers for 20 minutes only. And we would do like a school is over on Monday, so I'm speaking in past tense. We would do a like mini lesson and then, or we would like review what they had, what they did on their own and answer any questions that they had. But their class time like with each other was much shorter. Which for me, like, thank God, because first of all it will give them a headache to be on the computer all day long. Which happened in my older daughter's school. You know, my daughter Liana, the older one is 13 and she is in seventh grade. So she was doing Zoom too, middle school.
Unidentified [01:11:04]:
And her school initially had the kids, it kept the same exact schedule. So the kids were on Zoom all day long. And she would complain about headaches, she would be fatigued afterwards, she was like just over it.
Amanda Lucas [01:11:15]:
Just like staring at a screen for.
Unidentified [01:11:16]:
That long for eight hours, you know, and then she had homework on top of that. So we all the parents kind of reached out to the school respectfully, because I can't stand when people don't realize how hard it is to like do what you're just making that happen.
Amanda Lucas [01:11:28]:
You can empathize like with them.
Unidentified [01:11:30]:
Yeah. Like I know that you guys are working really hard, but this is not. It's giving her a headache. And you know, like they need time. They're home with their families, they need to be. They need time for themselves with everything that's going on too. Like, and the school was very receptive and they changed it. So they gave them half day schedule.
Unidentified [01:11:48]:
And so my kids, it was very similar. So like half of the class time was Zoom and then the other half was. They were expected to work, but they had like their deadline was 3pm for all of their independent work that they had to do. Yeah.
Amanda Lucas [01:12:00]:
And they have to like submit it.
Unidentified [01:12:00]:
Online or something online on Google Classroom. What was interesting was my baby, who's three, she goes to my school and she's in nursery, and nursery had zoom. And so they gave them 30 minutes where they could, like, see their friends, and they did, like, their morning, what would normally have been their morning, like, circle time. They did, like, their songs and stuff together. And she hated it.
Amanda Lucas [01:12:24]:
Really?
Unidentified [01:12:25]:
She hated it. She was like, no, she would cry, but I want to see them, but I want them to come here, but how come I can't go to school? And she didn't understand, you know? And then she took to hiding in the closet. She didn't want to do it. So I reached out to her teacher, too, and her teacher was like, listen, she can come once a week. She can. And just zoom one on one with her friends and do what she did. She had, like, Zoom play dates where they would draw together or, you know, do an activity together. And that worked for her.
Unidentified [01:12:53]:
But, yeah, it was hard. It was a really hard transition. And then she had a graduation, because they do a nursery school graduation, which is adorable. She had a Zoom graduation, and she cried. Like, she could not see her friends without crying. You know, that sucked. And the babies are more likely to express how they're feeling, you know, just through their emotional state. Right, right.
Unidentified [01:13:13]:
But I imagine that those tears, like, are the same for the older kids. They're the same, except they have, like.
Amanda Lucas [01:13:18]:
The social filter of, I'm not going.
Unidentified [01:13:20]:
To cry, I'm not going to act.
Amanda Lucas [01:13:21]:
Out, or I'm going to, you know, just not do my homework today or just not tell anybody anything.
Unidentified [01:13:25]:
Right.
Amanda Lucas [01:13:25]:
Yeah.
Unidentified [01:13:26]:
Yep, exactly. I have. I had a seventh grader who never showed up. Like, never showed up and never did anything. And I'm like, wow, this is like Emmy, just like the older version.
Amanda Lucas [01:13:36]:
Yeah, well, actually, just to round up the zoom part of the conversation, is it. Is there any. I guess, for next semester, next year, like, do you guys know that you're going back yet or.
Unidentified [01:13:48]:
We have no idea.
Amanda Lucas [01:13:49]:
Right.
Unidentified [01:13:49]:
I was gonna. I was actually gonna go and, like, paint my classroom.
Amanda Lucas [01:13:52]:
Yeah.
Unidentified [01:13:52]:
Yeah. I have, like, this whole idea for this accent wall that I want to do. I was gonna go paint it and then. And how does that work?
Amanda Lucas [01:13:59]:
Do you have, like. Like, your classroom is, like, your domain here. Do whatever you want as long as, like, yeah, the kids are still alive or something like that.
Unidentified [01:14:05]:
And there's, like a. There's like a. There's like, a rule about how much paper can be on the wall, I guess, because I Asked if I could do wallpaper, and they. She was like, no, but I'm allowed to paint an accent wall. I was going to do that, but then I was like.
Amanda Lucas [01:14:18]:
And by she, you mean like the principal.
Unidentified [01:14:19]:
Principal, yeah.
Amanda Lucas [01:14:20]:
Okay.
Unidentified [01:14:20]:
And they're saying. But now they're saying that it's possible that we might not go back until January, that we might be doing zoom all the way until January. And I said, why would I go paint that classroom right now? No, I'm going to wait and see. So they're acting as if we're still going to open, like, regular.
Amanda Lucas [01:14:35]:
Okay.
Unidentified [01:14:36]:
With the understanding that we might not, you know.
Amanda Lucas [01:14:38]:
Okay.
Unidentified [01:14:39]:
Yeah, Gotcha.
Tony Ortiz [01:14:40]:
Damn.
Amanda Lucas [01:14:42]:
All righty. So I wanted to ask you about, like, I remember from being in school, obviously, like, bullying, like, me personally experiencing it. Actually, my first short story, Humble Brag over here. That. That. That's, like, on my website. I've spoken about it before, and I released it as an audiobook episode entitled Bully. And it's about.
Amanda Lucas [01:15:07]:
It's based on experience that I had with the bully. I know that, like, kids go through that obviously.
Unidentified [01:15:14]:
Right.
Amanda Lucas [01:15:14]:
And I wanted to ask you if you, as a teacher, from a teacher's perspective, if you're aware of stuff like that going on how. And not just bullying, but like, just different clicks and. And, you know, like the quote, unquote, cool kids or the preppy kids and the jocks and. And stuff like that, and what's your ability to, like, intervene, if at all? Like, are. Are there rules, like, behind that? Like, you know, if you see bullying happen, report it or something, but you can't do anything. You know, if a kid pulls another kid's hair or something like that, you.
Unidentified [01:15:49]:
Know, there are rules. I mean, if there's bullying, the kids have to speak to the principal. And it's like a. People are really cracking down on bullying these days. Right. And so they. They will get suspended for bullying. Someone, especially pulling hair, like, that's automatic suspension.
Unidentified [01:16:06]:
But there are definitely things that should be done in the classroom. There's no teacher that I've ever heard of is encouraged to not do any, just to report it. Because we talked about the relationship with the kids. And so if you're involved in their lives and you have an investment in them as a person and you turn.
Amanda Lucas [01:16:26]:
A blind eye to something.
Unidentified [01:16:28]:
Yeah, exactly. You don't want to. I mean, for both. For the victim and for the bully, you have to intervene. Right.
Amanda Lucas [01:16:35]:
Because bullies are usually. And correct me if I'm wrong, you would know better than me. Are just like hurt people, hurt people type of thing. And they're probably getting bullied or beat up at home or something like that.
Unidentified [01:16:45]:
It's always the ones that are really going through something. Like I've sat down and had, you know, the lunch, the one on one lunch conversations with kids that are being, you know, mean. And, and I have asked them, like, are you hurt? Like, does it feel good for you to hurt somebody else? Is it because you're hurt? And they will say like, yes. They like break down crying, like, yes, you know, because I'm hurt. A lot of the times I have to, especially in, in middle school, I have to like involve the, the guidance counselor because the things that they're doing are like, a lot of things that I saw this year were like really nuts. So I work in a Catholic school and like I told you, they don't. The kids are really curious about homosexuality. But we had nuns teaching a religion class telling the kids that if they are homosexual, they're going to hell.
Amanda Lucas [01:17:35]:
Wow.
Unidentified [01:17:36]:
And then there were some kids who are homosexual and they would say, like, am I going to hell? Because am I going to go to hell for real? Like, what do I say as a teacher? And then so their, their classmates would feel entitled to bully them. And I found in the back of my classroom one day after seventh grade left that two of the seventh grade boys were writing notes to another one who they perceived to be gay, who never came out as gay. Nobody knows if he's gay or not, but they perceived him to be gay. And they were writing notes to him telling him to kill himself and giving him instructions on how to kill himself.
Amanda Lucas [01:18:09]:
Wow.
Unidentified [01:18:10]:
And that infuriated me. Okay. Infuriated me. So I made an example of them in front of everyone.
Amanda Lucas [01:18:18]:
Nice.
Unidentified [01:18:19]:
I embarrassed them. And I explained to them, I mean, the school, listen, those kids, I told you, most of their parents are really hard working, don't have money like that. And the school is $5,000 and the kids are coming. Don't do that to your parents thing number one. Right. Don't do that to your parents. And then like, do you think. I think that they say things and they don't understand, like the gravity or like the effect.
Amanda Lucas [01:18:41]:
True. They don't understand being a seventh grader. I could imagine, like, I remember me doing stupid stuff when I was a kid, you know, like, I don't know what the hell I was saying or doing or thinking.
Unidentified [01:18:50]:
Yeah. They don't understand the impact that they have. But when I brought it up, I spoke to them in front of the class.
Amanda Lucas [01:18:57]:
So you, like, told them to come up in front of the class. Okay.
Unidentified [01:19:00]:
And when I spoke to them in front of the whole class, and that boy had a cousin who was in that class, and she instantly started to cry, and she said to them in front of the class, do you know that he's already telling me that he wants to kill himself? And if. If he did it, like, how would you feel? Don't you understand that? Like, you don't know what somebody's going through? And the whole class was crying. Everybody started to cry. And it was like a community moment where we had to understand, like, you are here together. Right. And you're in a Catholic school. I mean, no matter what school you're in, like, it's your responsibility to take care of each other.
Amanda Lucas [01:19:35]:
Absolutely.
Unidentified [01:19:35]:
Right. And you're saying things not knowing what somebody is already going through. Right. And do you want to be the reason why this person would potentially do something like that? You know what I mean?
Amanda Lucas [01:19:47]:
Absolutely.
Unidentified [01:19:48]:
I had another little girl.
Amanda Lucas [01:19:50]:
How were they through that conversation?
Unidentified [01:19:51]:
Oh, they were. They were. They were also crying. Then we had a conversation, like, remorseful about it. Yeah. We had a conversation with the guidance counselor and the. And the principal and. And their parents, and they felt really, really bad about it, you know, and then it didn't happen again.
Unidentified [01:20:05]:
But they needed that. That moment. A lot of the teachers disagree with my methods, though. They're like, the kids shouldn't be embarrassed. And I'm like, I disagree with you. Yeah. I don't.
Amanda Lucas [01:20:14]:
First of all, aside from the fact that embarrass embarrassment is a part of life. Let's not nerf the world and not expose them to anything. And then they go out into the world and die.
Unidentified [01:20:21]:
Yeah.
Amanda Lucas [01:20:22]:
Just tripping and falling over.
Unidentified [01:20:23]:
Yeah. But, like, if you're going to. If you're going to try to bring attention to yourself for something negative, then you're going to see what those repercussions are.
Amanda Lucas [01:20:33]:
Absolutely.
Unidentified [01:20:33]:
With the attention that you drew to yourself.
Tony Ortiz [01:20:36]:
Absolutely.
Amanda Lucas [01:20:36]:
Like, which is also, like, within reason. Right. We're like, you're not. You're not, like, grabbing those kids and, like, after school and beating them up and saying, don't ever do that to that kid again.
Unidentified [01:20:44]:
You know, it's like, no, no. But we're gonna have a conversation about it because you're responsible to the community. Right. Like, if you offend the community, you need to apologize to the community.
Amanda Lucas [01:20:54]:
Absolutely.
Unidentified [01:20:54]:
Not in private, 100%. So, yeah. So I was like. And the parents are very sensitive, and they're like, no, I don't want you to talk to my kids in front of people. And I'm like, no, because you could do this in front of everyone. True. And it affects everyone.
Amanda Lucas [01:21:07]:
And we're talking about the potential life of a human being.
Unidentified [01:21:09]:
Yes.
Amanda Lucas [01:21:10]:
That they could have influenced into not being around anymore.
Unidentified [01:21:12]:
Right. So we're gonna have this conversation together because this is a learning moment for all of us. I have a little girl. She's probably one of my favorite kids, and she gave me the hardest time ever. But she had a really tumultuous childhood. Her mom had her when she was 15, and she. She. She dealt with a lot of, like, abuse and neglect.
Unidentified [01:21:33]:
And her mom is an amazing person, but she has to work a lot. She's, like, going to school and going to work, and. And the baby is, like, with just bouncing around while mom is, you know, trying to maintain. And so she has a lot of, like, pain. But I. She. She was a kid. She's brilliant, all of her.
Unidentified [01:21:53]:
She had straight A's. Like, but she was really mean to her friends. But then she would, like, cry a lot and always want to be with me. And. But she was really mean to her friends, and she was trying on a Persona. Right. You know how they're, like, trying to find themselves. Like, let me see if I.
Amanda Lucas [01:22:11]:
If this go through different phases this week. I'm a gothic kid, right?
Unidentified [01:22:15]:
So she was trying on, like. Like, a bad girl Persona, which I.
Amanda Lucas [01:22:21]:
Knew was not her quintessential, like, mean girl.
Unidentified [01:22:23]:
Yeah. Like, I knew it wasn't her. She was getting in trouble for coming to school with, like, her hair sprayed a different color and, like, wearing big earrings that wasn't allowed or, like, loud nail polish that wasn't allowed and, like, Jordans instead of her school shoes. And. And then she just started to get very loud, and. And then she told one of the girls who she thought was weaker than her that she was gonna fight her. Her. And I was like, oh, boy, here we go.
Unidentified [01:22:50]:
So she. At lunchtime, she took her to the bathroom and fought her. And she asked me, Ms. Lucas, can I go to the bathroom? And I'm me trusting her. Yeah, go to the bathroom. And she went to the bathroom to fight, which she planned. Right. And I was so disappointed in her.
Unidentified [01:23:03]:
I was so disappointed. So we get back upstairs. Both of these girls are my girls, my class. Right. So we have this community conversation because it was a big deal, because that school doesn't have any fighting, Right.
Amanda Lucas [01:23:13]:
How'd you find out about the.
Unidentified [01:23:14]:
Everybody knew about the Fight. All the kids knew that it was gonna happen. When it happened, everybody was talking about it, and it was like, a big deal. So we went upstairs and we were talking about what happened.
Amanda Lucas [01:23:25]:
And she said, like, that same day.
Unidentified [01:23:26]:
The same day after the fight, same day, we go upstairs, they're suspended, but they're gonna leave, you know, the next day, they weren't coming in, so they were still in the class. And I was so upset with her because she's so brilliant, right? There's no. Why are you behaving this way? And I was trying to speak to her about it, and she had no remorse. She was talking to me like, well, she's messing with me. So I'm like. And I was like, okay, this is. The vibe you're giving me right now is like, you. You idolize Bhad Bhabie or something.
Unidentified [01:23:51]:
Like, you want to be baby, you know, bad baby, that catch me outside girl. Like, is that who you try to be? Like, is this who I'm talking to right now? Like, is your goal in life to grow up and be Bhad Bhabie? And she was like, nah, but I'm not. I'm not playing with, like, you know? And I was like, all right, this is what we're like.
Amanda Lucas [01:24:09]:
She was staying in that pocket.
Unidentified [01:24:10]:
She was staying there. So I was like, okay, this is what we're going to do, because you're a gangster, right? So since you're a gangster and you don't understand what you did wrong and you're about that life, this is your life, right? This is what you want to do. You want to be. You want to be my baby, right? So this is what you're going to do. I want you to write me, because this is ELA class. You're going to write me a rap song about what happened, and you're going to perform it tomorrow on the stage.
Amanda Lucas [01:24:35]:
Damn.
Unidentified [01:24:36]:
And she was like. Because in the morning, we will all say the pledge of allegiance, right? And there was a stage, and the whole school was there. And I'm like, you're a gangster. You want everybody to know you're a gangster. You orchestrated this. You told everybody about it. Cool. So you are our honorary Bhad baby.
Unidentified [01:24:52]:
And you are gonna write me the illest rap song. And we're gonna. You're gonna. Right? And then I started playing beats. So I was like, finding beats online, and I'm playing the beats, and I'm like, let's go. Go ahead. Freestyle. Try something.
Unidentified [01:25:06]:
Do it.
Amanda Lucas [01:25:07]:
Practice, practice.
Unidentified [01:25:08]:
You'll be on stage tomorrow exactly you better do it because. And the kids were like, oh, we're gonna have a concert. And I was like, yeah, we're gonna have a concert. Bhad Bhabie's performing, right? And she started to cry, and she was like, no, I don't wanna. And I was like, but what happened? I thought that you were gangster. What happened? You shy now?
Amanda Lucas [01:25:25]:
Yeah.
Unidentified [01:25:26]:
And she was like, no.
Amanda Lucas [01:25:27]:
All of a sudden.
Unidentified [01:25:28]:
Yeah, now you shy. And she was like, no, I. No, stop. You're making fun of me. And I'm like, I'm not making fun of you. I just want to follow your lead. If this is what you want to be, then I'm here for you. I'm a support you.
Amanda Lucas [01:25:40]:
I'm going to be your number one fan.
Unidentified [01:25:42]:
Yeah, I'm your fan. And she got so upset, and the kids were like, Ms. Lucas, can we make posters for the concert? And then. And then, you know, I had another conversation with her because she was like, distraught.
Amanda Lucas [01:25:57]:
That goes back to the community working through that issue.
Unidentified [01:26:00]:
Yeah, right. Like, nobody's telling you that. You listen. This is your life. Like, nobody's telling you that you can't be a gangster. There's plenty of people who are gangsters, right? You want to be a gangster? Cool. This is what that entails. You want that kind of attention, Then.
Amanda Lucas [01:26:14]:
It'S like you give them like, a microcosm of that of, like, what that means. Yeah, within the junior high environment.
Unidentified [01:26:19]:
Yes.
Amanda Lucas [01:26:20]:
That's cool.
Unidentified [01:26:20]:
And then. So then we had another one on one, and she was like, I don't. I just. You embarrass me so bad. And I'm like, listen, I'm not trying to embarrass you, but you have to understand that this is what you're portraying. This is what we see, and this is how you're treated when you act this way. Right. And then she was, like, very sincere that she wanted to apologize, and she apologized to the girl.
Unidentified [01:26:43]:
And I never had a problem with her like that again. But when her mom came up, her mom came to school and I told her mom the whole thing. Her mom was dying, laughing. Mom was like, I love this. She loved it. And it was great. It was so good. Because, you see, that's like the entire opposite of, like, doing a 3, 2, 1, countdown or like, what.
Unidentified [01:27:07]:
What I normally would have done in. In Success Academy is kind of just going in the moment of, like, you know, knowing the kid and knowing, like, what's the best way to reach this particular kid, you know, who you can do that with?
Amanda Lucas [01:27:19]:
It's like tailored more towards the.
Unidentified [01:27:20]:
To them because you know them. Right? Yeah. That was a moment.
Amanda Lucas [01:27:24]:
That's awesome. So now how like as you touched on already like one of my. The last questions that I had for you, which was like interacting with different parents and stuff like that. How's it work? Like you have like parent teacher conferences and stuff like that. So besides that, your only interaction, I guess is like if issues come up with the kids or if you have like a go hard parent that wants to teach you how to teach or something like that. Imagine now how do you, how do.
Unidentified [01:27:50]:
You manage that with the Goharts?
Amanda Lucas [01:27:53]:
Yeah. Or just like in general, just like interacting with parents.
Unidentified [01:27:56]:
Honestly, the parents are typically really great. Okay. And especially in this school, they're so generous. I've had parents like give me. We're not supposed to take monetary things but. But we all do. They. I have parents give me a hundred dollar bills as gifts and stuff.
Unidentified [01:28:10]:
Like. Yeah, like name brand bags and all kinds of stuff. Like really nice. Like they just because they appreciate appreciation, they really appreciate you and they understand like we really are helping them raise their children. Children. Right. And so typically they want the kids to really respect us and they respect us and they're great. But then you do have those go hard parents.
Unidentified [01:28:33]:
I had a mom who called me and said, my daughter has a 94 in your class and that's very low for her. Please fix it. Okay. I have multiple parents do that. Come up to me and be like this 98 needs to be changed to 100. Can you do that now? Thanks. No, I'm not doing that. Yeah.
Unidentified [01:28:54]:
And I actually have one mom right now who I love, but she, her son. I gave them three weeks to do a project. We were doing comic books. So they were learning character development.
Amanda Lucas [01:29:04]:
That sounds fun.
Unidentified [01:29:05]:
Yeah. And plotline and a bunch of stuff theme and things through writing their own comics. And so one of their assignments was like they had to choose one of the characters from the incredible and watch the movie and discuss their progression and how they changed and you know, their superficial goals versus their like long term goals and all that. And it was fun. It was really great. And we worked through the comics scene by scene, right. And we talked about like rising action, climax, falling action, resolution. Like, how are you going to do this? And we walk, we walk through.
Unidentified [01:29:40]:
I walk them through with videos like how to draw if they didn't know how to draw using simple shapes and stuff. Stuff. And they had three weeks. So it was this week, Thursday, that it was due at 3pm and this mom says, my son can't get it in by 3pm because he's going to be busy. And I said, okay, have him hand it in earlier. Most of the kids already handed it in. She was like, you don't understand how difficult it's been for them. He needs until 8pm And I was like, no, I'm not grading at 8pm no, the grade book closes.
Unidentified [01:30:11]:
I have to get the grades in. Like, a lot of parents don't understand what it looks like on our end. Like, I have 105 kids. So when I'm grading this work, it takes me hours. Right? So if I'm giving you a deadline, it's because from three to eight, that's five hours is what it's going to take me to grade all of this stuff. So I can't. I'm not taking it at 8pm so she writes an email to the principal. Like she's, she's being.
Unidentified [01:30:36]:
What's the word? Like, that I wasn't, I didn't care that I needed to be more understanding that he needs. And I was like, he can get it in by four and then.
Amanda Lucas [01:30:49]:
And you're welcome.
Unidentified [01:30:50]:
Yeah, the kid didn't hand it in until 9pm he handed it in at 9pm wow. Yeah. And then the parents just kind of flex. Like, what are you going to do? Like, you have to take it. If you don't, I'm talking to your principal, whatever. Which is annoying. But it's balanced out by the good ones, so it's not so bad.
Amanda Lucas [01:31:10]:
Okay.
Unidentified [01:31:11]:
A lot of teachers are a lot better at that than me though, at the difficult ones ones, because again, like, my training really came from success. And success is so rigorous and so straightforward. Like, the parents have to sign a contract in the beginning.
Amanda Lucas [01:31:23]:
This is what it is. This is what it's going to be, period. Everybody's on the same page and that's it.
Unidentified [01:31:27]:
Like, and we would, we were taught, we had trainings on how to speak to the parents and they expected us to be very straightforward with the parent. Like, we're not yielding unless it's something dire. We're not yielding. This is what it is. And that's it. Like, you can make all the excuses that you want, want, but this is what it is.
Amanda Lucas [01:31:42]:
But success is success because we do this right.
Unidentified [01:31:46]:
And I. So when I came to this new school where it's more family oriented and they care more about, you know, making the kids happy, they kind of cuddle them a little too much. And so when I come to the parents and I say, no, these are the. This is the deadline. These are the rules. This is what I'm. This is what I'm accepting and what I'm not accepting.
Amanda Lucas [01:32:04]:
They're like, not used to that.
Unidentified [01:32:05]:
Yeah, they are not. They think I'm so mean. Like, no, how could you do that? Like, you need to understand. Or like the boy that I told you did no work and never showed up, his mom was like, well, can you just accept like one week's worth of work and then just pass him? No, no. What do you mean it doesn't work that way? No, no. And. And then she'll speak to the principal and the principal feels bad and she's like, but these are our families. And you know, and in some instances we do give them breaks, but the amount of breaks that they want is.
Amanda Lucas [01:32:37]:
Like, like, it's like egregiously.
Unidentified [01:32:39]:
Yeah.
Amanda Lucas [01:32:39]:
One sided.
Unidentified [01:32:40]:
Yeah.
Amanda Lucas [01:32:41]:
How. How does the grading work?
Unidentified [01:32:45]:
It's interesting. Right now we switched to a pass fail because of the. The pandemic. Yeah. So they get like high pass or pass or low pass. Oh, or like fail. Right.
Amanda Lucas [01:32:58]:
But how does it work? Like, like with you specifically for. For Ela, obviously. Because I can wrap my head around grading a math test or something like that. You know what I mean? Like, it's like black and white. This is right. This is wrong. You showed your work here, you didn't show your work there. Like, when somebody's writing something that's such like a creative space, and especially you, which I imagine empathize like, as a writer and like, you know, like, what goes into producing something? Like, how do you grade somebody's like, essay or something?
Unidentified [01:33:28]:
There are different rubrics for different styles of writing. Right. So not everything can be creative. You know what I mean? So if they're responding to a text, then they have a certain, you know, set of guidelines of like, what needs to be included. And then there's grammar and syntax and things like that that we look at the state test. There's a certain breakdown of what they're looking for on the state test. So this is like inside information here.
Amanda Lucas [01:34:02]:
Inside baseball.
Unidentified [01:34:04]:
The state test. The written part, like the short response part of the state test, which is like, weighs heavily on their overall grade. The kids have. There is a system for getting the answer correct. So they have to include a claim, which is basically the answer to the question, and then two pieces of evidence from the text that support their claim, and then a wrap up sentence, a conclusion. If they have those things, then they pass. They're not checking grammar. They're not checking spelling.
Unidentified [01:34:34]:
They're nothing. They can write in fragments, honestly, as long as they have that structure.
Amanda Lucas [01:34:40]:
Gotcha.
Tony Ortiz [01:34:40]:
Okay.
Unidentified [01:34:41]:
So a big part of teaching when it comes to, like, testing time is getting the kids to understand that structure. Like, do you have your claim? Do you have two pieces of evidence? Do they match your claim, and then did you write it up?
Amanda Lucas [01:34:53]:
Gotcha. Okay, that makes sense.
Unidentified [01:34:55]:
Yeah.
Amanda Lucas [01:34:55]:
And I guess, like, encouraging them to, like, write the full sentences and stuff like that. But here's the deal.
Unidentified [01:35:01]:
I mean, the kids don't know that they're not tested on grammar and stuff. They don't know that.
Amanda Lucas [01:35:06]:
So no. Kids listen to this podcast, please.
Unidentified [01:35:08]:
Yeah, they don't know because in class, I'm like, you know, you're losing points for the. I grade them, you know, harder on classwork than they would be graded on the test, which makes sense. The test is easier for them. You are, you know.
Amanda Lucas [01:35:21]:
Absolutely. Absolutely.
Unidentified [01:35:22]:
Yeah. So they. In class, they know that the grammar has to be right, and the spelling. They need to check their spelling.
Amanda Lucas [01:35:27]:
So it's something that they internalize by the time they get to that point usually.
Tony Ortiz [01:35:30]:
Okay, that makes sense.
Unidentified [01:35:32]:
Yeah. But then there are all, like, other assignments that I give them where they have more creativity. And it's hard for them to switch, though, sometimes. They get so used to, like, doing the structured thing that if I'm like, okay. They do journal every morning, though, which is free writing.
Amanda Lucas [01:35:45]:
Nice.
Unidentified [01:35:46]:
And then we have, like, a whole poetry unit, which is like that, and, you know, know. But sometimes, like, let's say we're doing the poetry unit, they get so engrossed in the poetry unit that when it's time to switch over to a different kind of writing, they're like, wait, what? What? How? You know.
Amanda Lucas [01:36:00]:
Gotcha. Yeah.
Unidentified [01:36:01]:
Yeah. But it depends on what we're doing.
Amanda Lucas [01:36:03]:
That's pretty cool. What's your. I'll end with this. What's your favorite? I guess subject or topic to teach?
Unidentified [01:36:12]:
Ela.
Amanda Lucas [01:36:13]:
No, but I mean, like, specific to.
Unidentified [01:36:15]:
Oh, in ela.
Amanda Lucas [01:36:16]:
Like, poetry or free writing or.
Unidentified [01:36:18]:
Oh, man, it's hard. Hard.
Amanda Lucas [01:36:19]:
Oh, and is it dependent, I guess, on, like, your audience? You know what I mean?
Unidentified [01:36:24]:
Like. Like.
Amanda Lucas [01:36:25]:
Like, if all the kids love poetry, does that make you, like, lean, like, more into that?
Unidentified [01:36:30]:
No, I think, you know, because it's my job to engage them.
Amanda Lucas [01:36:37]:
Sure.
Unidentified [01:36:37]:
It's my job to get them engaged. Like, my kids read regardless of what you're. Regardless. Right. So my kids read night. You know, night by Elie Wiesel. It's about the Holocaust. It's like a memoir about the Holocaust, and he's like a Holocaust survivor.
Unidentified [01:36:50]:
And it's not written in a conversational the way that a YA book would be written for them. It's a stretch a little bit. And it's from this old man who dealt with the Holocaust. And it's a difficult thing. It's my job to infuse the creativity. You know what I mean? And so the kids were so engaged in that their. They were supposed to read about the concentration camps at Auschwitz. And then the assignment that I gave them was to turn the classroom into an escape room.
Unidentified [01:37:22]:
That was Auschwitz. So the classroom was Auschwitz. And the kids decided who's gonna be the guards? And, like, how could you potentially get out of this? And what are some pitfalls that you're gonna, like that you can run into?
Amanda Lucas [01:37:32]:
Like, damn, that's awesome.
Unidentified [01:37:33]:
Yeah. And it was fun. It was so exciting. So the kids were like, really, like, they were super engaged in that. And then we get to poetry units, and kids don't really like poetry. So I lead with blackout poetry, which is turning like a piece of, like an article or a piece, any piece of text into your own poem. By blacking out. Yeah.
Unidentified [01:37:54]:
And just leaving. I had a kid who had got an article about COVID blacked out a bunch of lines and turned it into a poem about being safe with family.
Amanda Lucas [01:38:06]:
Wow.
Unidentified [01:38:06]:
And it was beautiful.
Tony Ortiz [01:38:07]:
That's cool.
Unidentified [01:38:08]:
And then they get to draw on it and make it nice. And then, you know, so it depends on how you. How you present it to them. It has to be fun. You know, comics, like, fun. You know what I mean?
Amanda Lucas [01:38:22]:
And you having that opportunity to, like you said, infusing creativity in whatever it is that they're looking at, that's not.
Unidentified [01:38:28]:
Something I could have done in Success Academy, but I can do it now. It's a perk. Yeah, It's a perk. Yeah.
Amanda Lucas [01:38:34]:
Teachers need to be a give and take.
Unidentified [01:38:36]:
Yeah.
Amanda Lucas [01:38:37]:
Like pluses that you got from Success Academy and, you know, the pluses on this side as well.
Unidentified [01:38:41]:
Yeah.
Tony Ortiz [01:38:42]:
That's awesome.
Unidentified [01:38:42]:
Yeah.
Amanda Lucas [01:38:43]:
Well, Mana, thank you so much.
Unidentified [01:38:45]:
Thank you. This was fun.
Amanda Lucas [01:38:46]:
Tell folks you have an open invitation, obviously, to come on whenever you'd like.
Unidentified [01:38:51]:
Thank you.
Amanda Lucas [01:38:51]:
But tell folks about your podcast, where to find your social media.
Unidentified [01:38:55]:
Okay.
Amanda Lucas [01:38:56]:
So all that good stuff.
Unidentified [01:38:57]:
The podcast is called CH with an exclamation point. It's everywhere that you get podcasts.
Amanda Lucas [01:39:03]:
I would link. I'll link to it in the episode notes as well.
Unidentified [01:39:05]:
Thank you. It's about teaching. So it's a weekly. We talk post every Tuesday. And we talk about. About what's going on in the classroom and what that looks like for us. It's a friend of mine who's also a teacher.
Amanda Lucas [01:39:17]:
And what's his name, by the way?
Unidentified [01:39:18]:
His name is Mike De Gregorio. And Shout out to Mike. Shout out to Mike. He teaches kindergarten. So you get kindergarten, 6th, 7th, and 8th grade all wrapped up in there. What else did you want me to.
Amanda Lucas [01:39:30]:
On social media? You're on social media?
Unidentified [01:39:32]:
Oh, yeah. There is a podcast. There's a Instagram for the podcast, Ch Cast. It's called. Called I need to update it, but it's. Yeah, Ch Cast Cast. That's on there. And then you can also follow me on my personal one.
Unidentified [01:39:51]:
I mean, it's. It's open. I actually post more on there than anywhere else. Nice. It's. It's me, Amanda Lee. I T, Z, because I'm cool. Amanda Lee.
Amanda Lucas [01:40:02]:
L, E, E. It's me, Amanda Lee.
Unidentified [01:40:05]:
Oh, yeah. I T, Z, M, E. And then Amanda Lee. L, E. Nice. Yep.
Amanda Lucas [01:40:11]:
And all the articles and stuff like that that we referenced and videos that Amanda referenced, I'm gonna try to find online. If you find them, send them over and I'll link to all that good stuff in the episode notes. Amanda, thanks again very much for doing this episode. I appreciate it.
Unidentified [01:40:25]:
It was so fun.
Amanda Lucas [01:40:26]:
Yeah, it was. It was awesome. Gotta do it again.
Unidentified [01:40:28]:
Yeah.
Tony Ortiz [01:40:31]:
And that was the show, folks. I hope you all enjoyed it as much as I did. If you're anything like me, you probably started reflecting back on teachers that you had. The good ones, the bad ones, the different experiences that you had. That's always fun, reminiscing on stuff like that. And you're also getting the invaluable POV of someone who is doing the work day in and day out and what that's actually like. Amanda, I want to thank you once again for taking the time to do this short. I also want to say that one, I'm keeping my eyes peeled for that first book of yours.
Tony Ortiz [01:41:07]:
No pressure. And two, on behalf of myself and the sponsored A community, thank you for the important work that you do in helping shape and inspire the minds of tomorrow. As I said in the intro, folks, check out the chat podcast, which I will link to in the episode notes of this show along with other links referenced in this episode, as well as contact information for Amanda, like her social media. Aside from that, stick around, listen to some tunes for a bit and then hear a few different ways you can help support the Spun Today podcast peace.
Unidentified [01:41:55]:
But there's a voice inside my head saying you'll never reach it Every step I'm taking every move I make feels lost with no direction My faith is shaking But I gotta keep trying Gotta keep keep my head held high.
Tony Ortiz [01:42:27]:
There'S.
Unidentified [01:42:27]:
Always going to be another mountain I'm always going to want to make it move Always going to be in a build battle Sometimes I'm going to have to lose Ain't about how fast I get there Ain't about what's waiting on the other side I hide it's the.
Amanda Lucas [01:42:51]:
Climb.
Unidentified [01:42:57]:
The struggles I'm facing the chances I'm taking Sometimes might knock me down but no, I'm not breaking I may not know it but these are the moments that I'm gonna remember most Ye just gotta keep going and I I gotta be strong just keep pushing on Cause there's always gonna be another mountain I'm always gonna wanna make it move Always gonna be an uphill battle hey.
Tony Ortiz [01:43:43]:
Folks, Tony here and and I hope you're enjoying the show as much as I enjoy putting it together for you. If you'd like to support, I'd really appreciate it and we'll give you a one stop shop of sorts on how to do so if you can make your way over to spuntoday.com support you'll find a bunch of different ways where you can do just that. There you'll find an Amazon banner similar to the other banners found throughout my website that you can click on and will take you to Amazon where you can do your shopping like you normally do. This will not cost you anything extra and Amazon will pay me a percentage just for driving traffic to their website. It's a great way to help support the show financially without actually having to come out of pocket. @ sponsoreday.com support you'll also find find links to my Patreon and Ko Fi pages. Patreon and Kofi are two similar websites where you can set up reoccurring donations for the show. If you want to donate a dollar per month, a dollar per episode, a hundred dollars per episode, whatever you like.
Tony Ortiz [01:44:56]:
You can check out either one of those two services there. There's actually also a Patreon video that's kind of like a little tutorial explanation video of how Patreon actually works. Also at spuntoday.com forward/support you'll find a direct donation button where you can donate by way of PayPal. You'll find a link to Apple Music which works similar to the Amazon banner you can click on it. It'll take you to Apple's website where you can do your purchasing like you normally do. And again it does not cost you anything extra extra but I will get paid a percentage just for driving traffic to their website. And you'll also find links to the Spun Today Viral Style Store. This is where you can get Spun Today Related Merch and you'll find things like these cool premium t shirts that have writing related sayings on them that I put together myself.
Tony Ortiz [01:45:58]:
Myself I'm definitely not a clothing designer by any stretch of the imagination, but I put together things that I wanted to see in and wear myself. A couple my favorites are the one that says Writing is life and another one that says right need every day and it has like a puff of smoke looking design right behind those words. You'll also find a sponsored a coffee mug and a really cool color changing mug that's related to my debut novel Fractal. It's completely black and when it gets hot when you put in coffee or tea it starts changing to white. And it also exposes the COVID art for my novel Fractal. It's pretty dope. So definitely check all that stuff out. Which again you can find by going to sponsorday.com support and of course do not forget to follow me on all of your social media sponsoreday on Twitter sponsoreday on Instagram subscribe to The Sponsored a YouTube channel where you can find clips and excerpts from the podcast along with other cool content like the Facebook page@facebook.com forward/sponsored today.
Tony Ortiz [01:47:20]:
Also don't forget to check out all the free shit that I have on my website as well. Go to sponsor.com freewriting and there you're going to find dozens and dozens and dozens of free writing pieces that you can check out for motivation and inspiration and just some general food for thought. You can check out some of my photography@spunterday.com forward slash photography fee. Feel free to take any of those pictures and use them as you wish. I set it up so that you can like copy and download the photos and my short stories are available@spun today.com shortstories and last but certainly not least my pride and joy corner spun today.com books here you will find my published books which you find folks can find links to purchase them on Amazon. Whether you want hard copies or digital Kindle copies, that's the spot for you. Thank you very much for being a Sponsor Day listener and as always substitute the mysticism with hard work and start taking steps in the general direction of your dreams. Thanks for.