Better Teaching: Only Stuff That Works

[00:00:00] Welcome to Better Teaching, Only Stuff That Works, a podcast for teachers, instructional coaches, administrators, and anyone else who supports teachers in the classroom. I am Gene Tavradetti, the host for this podcast, and my goal for this episode, like all episodes, is that you laugh at least once, and that you leave with an actionable idea for better teaching.

A quick reminder, no buzzwords, no clichés, only stuff that works. Very excited to have my guest today, Dominic Helmstetter. He's a passionate educator with 17 years of experience, known for creating hands on, tech driven learning experiences that put students first. Alongside teaching, he has extensive experience as an education consultant, offering innovative strategies to elevate educational practices.

Dominic is inspiring students, Dominic is dedicated to inspiring students and educators alike on their path to excellence. [00:01:00] He is a loving husband, father, and enjoys broadcasting high school and college sports. Dominic, welcome.

Hey, thanks a lot, Gene. I appreciate the intro and I'm happy to be here.

Okay, great. And where is here? Where is

Yeah, so, I teach at Perrysburg high school, which is a suburb of Toledo, Ohio. So it's a north northwest corner of of Ohio. And it's just, it's a great place. We've got some incredible people that work here and it's one of the things that I love about it.

But, I think my favorite part easily my students, my family, the families that that we've got. And I just, I have to put that out there. It's just when I say that I like to help people, those people are the most important part of that journey. And I was messaging with a few of them this morning and they were just there laughing about a lesson that we had done earlier in the year, because I email my parents every single week and let them know what to expect and then I'll ask them questions, try to get them involved and help them out a little [00:02:00] bit.

But I was messaging with a couple of kids who said that a song came on that we had in class that was a focus of our lesson. So we looked at Jay Z, 99 Problems for as that was the lesson one day. Because we were looking at the Fourth Amendment and we tracked Jay Z's life and experience and we brought some people in and they I had parents reaching out saying they were listening to it and thinking about it and the kids still, even this morning, were messaging me about it.

So, Yeah I'm serious. I love my students. They know it, and I care so much about them. Very fond of them.

That's very, that's a very cool story. Just out of curiosity, after the 17 years, have you had any kids? And you had parents of current kids? Has that happened to you yet?

I have not experienced that yet. I think the closest that I've come to having that sort of experience is, I've had one former student, go into teaching and did their student teaching in my son's class. [00:03:00] That's as close as I've gotten to overlapping with different generations. So I'm, I like to say that I'm very young at heart, and I would also like to think that I haven't reached a milestone where I'm going to run into a lot of those things yet.

Very cool. Very cool. Well, you have a lot of experience in your 17 years. I mean, you've been you're teaching, what grade are you teaching now? What

I've got a 9th grade, so we teach government to our 9th graders, and that's kind of where I'm at right now with Perrysburg. But it's, I've had a lot of different teaching experiences. I've taught junior high, 7th and 8th grade. I've taught every grade level 9 through 12. I've done Obviously, I've had team taught classes over the last five years.

I've had regular classes, honors classes. I've taught AP US history. I've had a chance to kind of see every level of it and if you were to [00:04:00] talk to my wife and she would tell you that it's because I intentionally did that and she'd be right because I knew that, hey this adventure here in, in teaching it's going to prepare me for something.

So I want to make sure that I experience every single possibility that I can and I've really enjoyed it.

Well, talking about experiencing possibilities, everyone, it, you are somewhat of an anomaly. You are a teacher now, but you had been an administrator by choice, you were an administrator. And then by choice you became a teacher again.

Yeah.

Tell us about that.

Yeah. So like early on. Okay. So I think my first year of teaching, I was just, I was so excited. To just have a job which is kind of interesting because if you look at the state of teaching now I was talking to our HR director and he's like we only had 85 applicants this year. And I'm sitting there thinking like, man, that doesn't seem like a lot because [00:05:00] when I got into teaching, I was one of 3000 applicants.

And so the, it's just a completely different dynamic. But so yeah, I got into teaching and, I think those first three years I reflect on it. I look at it this way. Those first three years, you really don't know what you're doing. The first year you're just so happy to have a job that everything else, you're just blind to it.

So, second year you start to see some of the things that you should be doing or the things that need to be changed, but maybe you just don't know how to do it. So you kind of, you get frustrated sometimes, or you feel like you're stuck in a rut, but then by that third year You start to figure things out, things start to, to click and you had those lightbulb moments and that was kind of the journey for me.

And during all of that I was at a small school and we needed a Dean of Students, so I I took that on as well and for four years. I was teaching, but I was also our Dean of Students. So I had an extra [00:06:00] period every day built into my schedule where I was expected to deal with the discipline in the school building.

And I kind of enjoyed it. I liked, What we were doing and what we were building up to. And that was something that I'm like I could see myself doing this in the future. And, well, the future came pretty quick. I got hired as a principal for the first time when I was 27 years old.

And I had it was interesting. I I was listening to a lecture right before I started, and the superintendent for the Ohio Department of Education, he, I he was the keynote, and I talked to him afterwards, and he said if I can give you some advice, just remember that you don't know what you don't know.

And I'm like, huh. I wonder what he means. And of course, it it means you just don't have all the answers. But so I had a chance to be principal for two years and you know, I really loved it, really enjoyed it. And some of those friendships that I that I helped develop during those two years they're [00:07:00] still a huge part of my life now.

Several of those people, I still come across them and do work with them and the school that I was principal at, I'm actually going back there this year to to help them do some stuff because it's just, the people there are amazing. And I love just spending time with them and I know what they're about.

And so it's just, it's been an exciting journey, but you know, I think when I look at that after those two years, to me, I could see there's two things I've got to work on here. One, I don't know what I don't know, so I need to go back to school. And I need to learn something.

I need to pick some additional knowledge up. So I went back to school a second time there. And we were kind of talking beforehand off air that I do some some sports broadcasting and that's how that kind of was introduced into my life because I needed to find a way to pay for graduate school.

And my wife was like, Hey, look, you can't go if you can't pay for it. So. I needed a second job [00:08:00] and so I got into broadcasting but I needed to learn more I think was the most important thing, but then the second was when I reflected back on those two years as principal I needed to teach more because I think teachers in a lot of ways are like our students, but I needed to have more time on task because I thought of it this way.

How can I really? Make the greatest impact possible with a group of teachers if some of them don't believe that I've spent enough time in the classroom and that what I have in my experience, what I had to offer and help them. in some way, shape or form. So I really, I wanted to go back into teaching. I needed to go back into teaching.

And as I mentioned, very intentionally kind of built this second part of my teaching career, built it in a way where I'm being challenged every single day. I'm being challenged constantly and I'm [00:09:00] teaching different things at different levels because long term, I know that I'm going to get back into that world at some point.

I know this is going to help. I know that I'm going to be able to sit down and have a really great, productive, relatable conversation with a teacher who genuinely wants to get better. And that's the goal, I think, is I want to help teachers become the best version of themselves, just like I want to help every single one of my students is when they walk in here.

I want them to be successful. And, I think this is part of that learning for me. And I genuinely, and maybe this is cliche, so it goes against the rules of your podcast,

to be the judge of that.

yeah, but I genuinely think I love being a lifelong learner, but being a lifelong learner isn't enough learning isn't enough unless you share it.

So I, that's why I get out and I try to share as much as I possibly can, whether it's on social media whether it's [00:10:00] visiting schools or attending conferences I try to share as much as I possibly can and and I know that if I don't have those answers somewhere along the way, I'm going to come across great people like yourself that you've got some wisdom that you can share and you know, make me a little bit better.

So I, gosh, so many things that I want to ask you now Dominic. One I'm going to, I'm going to put a pin in this, but I'm going to tell you the question to be sure that we get back to it, and that is about you traveling and and sharing what you're doing. We're going to talk about that in a minute, but before, before we go on, when it Talk a little bit more about the administration.

So, did it, before you became an administrator, was your view of administration different than after spending three or four years doing it?

So I would say, yes and here's why, here's what I'm going to say to that. I would say that before I became an administrator, it, to me, it seemed like it was a very top [00:11:00] down type of structure where. As teachers, we were given directives and it was our job to follow through and make sure that we accomplish those goals.

I would say that viewpoint is dramatically different now because I, maybe I'm just very idealistic, but I think of it in the way of if I go back into that role or if I even went back in time and and I replayed everything, what would be different? And that it would be different.

You can't just strong arm people into doing stuff. You can't just tell them without giving them the reason and the logic and to why this is a consideration. You can't. tell them without collecting some feedback because and this is what I, my approach with teaching is just, I think it's important that I may have this perfect lesson plan.

But the reality is when I put it in front of my [00:12:00] students, it may tank, it may be terrible. So the more that I can reflect, the more that I can talk with people about it, the more input that I can get from my students or if I'm an administrator, the more input that I can get from my staff, better that program's gonna be.

The more effective the outcome is going to be for not just teachers, but the people we're trying to work at helping. And that's our students. I, that would be, I think the biggest like mental shift is early on. It's just, it looked like you're on this lonely ivory tower, but now. Again, maybe stubbornly, I look at it and I'm like, no, that's, it's not that way.

Why can't I jump into the middle of something with them? Why can't I sit next to them and talk teaching and talk about the things that we love and that we care about? Why can't I sit with them and talk about [00:13:00] students? Why can't we have this conversation where we're sharing ideas and we're brainstorming and we're looking for resources.

Why can't we do that together? It doesn't have to be all me. And I think the idea or the realization, Hey, this isn't hero ball. Okay. This isn't something that I have to do on my own. In fact, When you don't do it on your own you get better results. I would say that's a huge shift. That's a big thing that I would say would be different with my thought process, with my viewpoint of what I thought administration was versus what I believe it can be right now.

You have any 27, 28 year old colleagues who come up to you and say, Oh, Dominic, I'd really like to be an administrator.

And if they did, what would you tell them? I mean, I know part of it would be what your experience but. Would you encourage them, or?

Yeah. So the interesting thing is this happened two years ago. To me one of our one of our English [00:14:00] teachers he's just, he's an amazing guy. He's got so much energy and really connects well with with students. And he he went back to school and he was going back to school and he was getting his administrative certificate.

And you know, I just I heard about it so I offered I said, if there's ever anything that you need, I'm always more than willing to help you out. I've got a little experience. I'm willing to share whatever I can offer you. But some of those assignments that you've got I'm happy to work the problems with you and to, Go through the materials with you.

Because I, it's an area of interest. So we kind of, we had some small conversations and he was he was getting ready to do an interview. And one of the things that I said is just, Hey, just have fun. Just be you and you're going to be good. You're going to be just fine. Because That's the most important thing is that you're authentic and that you are your genuine self.

And I think if I were to go back I would probably add that Hey, just when [00:15:00] you're sitting there and you're talking to these other administrators. I promise you they've got more years on the job than you do. Don't pretend like you have every single answer because I genuinely believe this.

It's just not the way schools should work. It's not the way schools should be. I think, like I said, the more we support each other the more we care about each other, just the better the environment's going to be, the better the culture, the better the learning so I think I would just really emphasize that and even when I've had student teachers kind of come through.

I've had some express an interest and that's always the thing that I lead in with, especially not just with teaching, but you know, other things it's, you need to enjoy what you're doing because if you don't, your kids will see it and nobody wants to have a miserable teacher. Nobody wants to have a miserable administrator.

They want to see somebody that's in it for all the right reasons, that genuinely cares About [00:16:00] just being part of this process. And I think that's something you just can't say enough. And it's something that I don't know if I took that for granted or not all those years ago, I mean, it's been 10 years since I've been a full time administrator.

So I constantly question myself even like, did you just take that for granted? I mean,

That's another thing you didn't know.

yeah,

You know, you just you don't you don't, you can't. And the other thing is, I can say this now when I was 27, 28 years old, I was way too smart. I didn't want to listen to anybody, because I knew all the answers. So maybe the other people don't know what they don't know, but.

That here I come. So one of the things I wanted to go back to and it's part of part of what we talked about in the introduction, and you mentioned this about going to different districts, different conferences and presenting and sharing And that's how I met you.

I met you. You were presenting at a conference in California. And so [00:17:00] a question that I have for every teacher that, that is doing this is, do they know, do they know you're a hotshot in your own, on your own campus? Do you get to share? Do they think you're a great guy on campus? Or is it even possible, as the people across the country think about you?

Well, I would like to think that everyone thinks that I'm a great guy. No, no matter the circumstance, I really do, but You know, I, I think so. And of course I'm biased in my opinion, saying that of myself, but I think for me I've worked at four different school districts.

And the reason that I'm at Perrysburg high school is it's because of the people. One of my college professors, he was. He was the principal here, and he said, look, we need to have people like you, we want people like you, we look for this and that led to me kind of coming here, and the people that are [00:18:00] here especially like my government team we just, We absolutely adore each other.

We just this summer, we got all our families together and we were just kind of hanging out and just talking and just being people and enjoying one another's company. And they're some of the best people that I've met. And they're certainly some of the most talented educators. So I just, I love that They're willing to challenge me, and I love that they allow me to do the same thing, because I think that's really important that we just, we're constantly looking for ways to take the next step, and constantly looking for ways to improve and to grow as teachers, and I know that's what I've got here.

But that's my approach whenever I go to a conference or I go to a school, it's I want to challenge them. I mean, that's why we're here, but I also, I want them to be able to get something beneficial [00:19:00] and it's not always about me and you've got to listen. And you've gotta see where they're coming from and ask questions and sometimes asking more questions than giving answers is the best kind of professional development so I just, I try to ask as many questions as possible because if whatever it is that I'm sharing or If they cannot see themselves doing it, they're probably going to walk away and never do it.

So being able to provide them with clear reasons why this is important and how the research shows it can impact student learning, but more importantly, how my experience with it has impacted student learning and showing them what my students are able to accomplish. I love bragging about my kids, my students, and they all follow me on Instagram.

And. And it's just, it's funny because sometimes they'll come in the next day and they'll be like, Hey, why didn't you put my work up there? And so I'll have to like, go back and add [00:20:00] to it. But it's just, we're constantly talking about those successes and teachers, they want the same thing.

So, Yeah, we like Laguna Beach was absolutely incredible and I love it's not just the beach and you know the environment I mean, that's nice too. Okay

Yeah.

But it's just like every single person that was at that conference. They wanted to be there for a reason and

Well, let's back up a little bit. I I'm sorry to interrupt, but let's back up a little bit about Laguna Beach, because it was, that conference was about edgy protocols. Period. It was an Age of Protocol conference.

place on earth.

and when they came, they knew what they were getting. And and so, first of all, before we, many people, most people who are going to be listening to this don't know about Age of Protocols.

And I know in our previous conversations, because this is how we met, edgy protocols pay, play a big part in how your instruction has evolved. So [00:21:00] could you talk a little bit about what an edgy protocol is, which is one of the most difficult things, that elevator pitch and then talk, we'll talk a little bit about how you use it.

How you use them.

Let me explain it this way. This is kind of, this is how I roll it out. If somebody asks me at my own school I just, we talk a lot about things like executive functioning skills and how are we meeting some of those needs that we have with our freshmen that come into high school. And what I always tell The people around me is if there were a set of tools that you had that could help address every single one of these things right now, wouldn't you want to explore it a little bit more?

And they all, they universally, they say, well, yes, absolutely. And for me that's what edge of protocols is. It's these incredible tools. And I say tools because I genuinely believe it's not a one size fits all type of. [00:22:00] type of thing. It's something that allows you to individualize the learning experience for your students and genuinely meet them where they're at, no matter what the level is.

But Edge of Protocols is, it's something that can help address all of these baked in parts of executive functioning, whether it's You know, the working memory, the reps, it's reps, reps, reps. You you never would of course, the first year of teaching, I would have said, no, this is the way it works.

But you would never say. I'm going to lecture, and I'm going to say something once, and then in two weeks, we're going to come back to that, and you're going to be tested on it. That's just, it's not, I think, good best practice when it comes to teaching and learning. So, if there's something I can do to, Build up those reps and that working memory and help my students become more organized and intentional learners help them be able to develop [00:23:00] some time awareness and task initiation but then give them the flexibility to use the creativity they naturally have.

That's what edge of protocols it is in my classroom. That's what it is for me. And that's what kind of draw drew me to it. I remember the first time I saw one of these, it was an iron chef. And I was in a a book study about gamification, which is something I love to do by

Okay. We have to stop. We have to stop for a second because not only do we have all of these terms we need to define. So we had edgy protocols, which are basically frames that allow students to be able to see how things are organized, allow it to be more accessible to them.

And then we talked about an iron chef and all of these have names. So, so could you just explain. A student reads something. Let's just hear. A student reads something and then how do they summarize? How would, what are you asking them to do to [00:24:00] summarize it?

So I I'll stick with an Iron Chef here. Look at it this way, you've got your resource, whatever that resource might be whether it's reading something watching something, listening to something, it could, or doing something even but they've got that resource and what they're going to do for me with an Iron Chef is they're going to give me five specific things that kind of stood out to them about what they were doing.

So it's kind of that quick recap. So you're, Practicing this very structured note taking type of skill allowing them to pull the, not just anything, but the five most important things in there, and they're going to have some like internal debates, and those are a lot of the conversations that I'll have with students, and I'll just, I'll ask, well, why is that one of the most important?

How do you know it's one of the most important? They can't rationalize it or justify it. Or even explain it to me, then maybe they need to go back and take another look. So giving me those five specific things and, but then also adding some visual components to it finding some ways to add pictures [00:25:00] or drawings to help illustrate some of the things that are of value, but then, the secret ingredient to this Iron Chef.

All right, we're cooking up some awesomeness here. So, whatever that secret ingredient is, I mix and match with whatever I'm looking for. Sometimes it's just one thing that you want to know. So, or one thing you wonder so maybe a guiding question or you know, maybe it's having them draw a comparison to something else that we've studied so getting those higher order skills kind of built in the entire purpose there, that secret ingredient, it's something extra, something that you put on top of the work that you've done.

So this iron chef. is structured in that way, but it all starts with that resource and it's all self contained. It's time specific. I've done it with individuals pairs, small groups. We've done it as a class even. One of the things that I really love to use with Iron Chef is I love to use the jigsaw method.[00:26:00]

Where you give each table, because my classroom is divided up in tables because I think it just, it gives me maximum flexibility to move in and out of different modals, if you want to call it that but maybe I have one table become the expert on one topic. The next table becomes an expert on a second topic, and then we just keep going around, replicating that Iron Chef model, and then after they've completed their work within 10 minutes, let's say, then it's their job to, as a table, we're going to divide up.

And then they're going to teach it to the other tables and the other tables are going to share it in the exact same way. And then after everyone's shared, we're going to come back together as a class. Maybe we'll do a whole scale presentation. Maybe I'll have them give me the big things that stood out to them.

Maybe I'll give them a second task and have them do something with the knowledge that they came up with. Or if they [00:27:00] had questions. Try to help clarify some of those questions, but I've done a lot of the jigsaw methodology, not just with Jethro, but even using other edu protocols, just because I love how it gives my students control.

I love how it gives them ownership. I love how it allows them to be the lead learners in this entire process, because then it's. instant engagement. It's, it allows them to explain and represent their learning in really any way that they believe is important, but it's active, it's moving and you get different ways of moving.

It's not just you and your neighbor, but now it's you and your neighbor. And then the table that's next to you. And then it's not just the table next to you, but then it's half the class, all the class. So I love that action as well. So that's, It's where we're going with all of this, and

So let's back up a little bit, because you [00:28:00] at one point said I ask teachers, if there was some way that you could do all of these things, because somebody might have listened to that, what you just said, and not know about edu protocols, and they might get out of it. Oh, jigsaw.

Oh, I do a jigsaw. Oh, I do I do this, but I'm going to, I'm going to paraphrase, summarize, and you tell me if I miss anything. Okay. So the first thing you said was, It's an alternate note taking method. So, the one thing that I fell in love with edgy protocols about is that we're fooling kids into doing a lot of work that they normally don't want to do.

Hey, come on. Hey, come on, Dominic. It's just four things. I just want you to find four things. That's all. That's all, and look, and it'll fit in this space, and so you've got that, you've got them making decisions, not taking notes from the teacher, saying be sure to get this in your notes, so they're making decisions, they're reading, or they're [00:29:00] listening, whatever it is, there's that critical component, and then, You have some sort of some sort of image.

So now we're doing dual coding. And now you're doing, and so all of these things that you talked about, executive functions, all of these things that you mentioned, we can do this. And The other thing that you talked about is there's a time limit. Guys, we're going to do a jigsaw. Okay.

All period. This is what we're going to do. I'm going to get back. No, no, no, no, no, no. So, so you talked about, so they're given a task, either some sort of resource written audio, whatever. And then how much time to do to create This Iron Chef this notes, these, and just again to, to reiterate, to create a set of notes and image, and then to be able to discuss it.

How long do you get students to do

So, my students will get about 10 to 12 minutes to do all of this, so that means that I've still got [00:30:00] 30 to 40 minutes minimum, where we can add on it and go a little bit deeper and add to what we've learned which is the real value. I love, I absolutely love that but I'll give them about 10 to 12 minutes the better we get.

So the more that we do it, The more I can shave that time off and my students are able to give me higher quality. In less time, which again gives us the opportunity to look for other things. Maybe the other thing that we're looking for is, all right, we learned this specific thing about government this type of government will now you need.

Now you've got five extra minutes where you need to go hunt and find a real world example of this. And be able to explain it to us and share it with us. So then maybe you can start adding in current events and some of the modern world you know, stuff that's going on here. You can start adding in, maybe you add in other subjects.

So try to do this a lot, especially with our English classes. Some of the novels that they [00:31:00] are, they're reading. It's got a historic backdrop. So as a history teacher. I look at that as a golden opportunity to make a cross curricular connection. And it's like, okay, well, I know that you guys just read this chapter in this book, and I know that your teacher told you these three things.

Well, what does that actually mean? All right. Now, using what we just learned, We're going to connect it. So giving them an extension project to go along with maybe that initial iron chef. Those are all things that I just, the time specific nature of it. I think it allows us to just have deeper, more meaningful and more impactful learning.

And I think Especially in a government class the question that parents always ask me is, well, how are you going to make government relevant for my 13 or 14 year old? And it's like, yeah, they can't vote. Okay. And they may not be able to do this or that. So you've got, [00:32:00] you have to make, Whatever you're teaching relevant.

And that's, these are golden opportunities. And that's also part of the process here because I say 10 to 12 minutes, but that's like, maybe at the end, at the beginning, we've got to slow it down a little bit and we're going to just take something that they care about. So what I'm going to have my students do next week is take, They're the first piece of technology that they ever had.

And I always show them the first cell phone that I ever had. It was a StarTAC. a cell phone and it's got an antenna and it flips out and they always say, well, your phone's broken. Why is it doing that? It's talking to you. And so they are amused by that. So I always ask them what's the first technology and have them kind of spell it out, or there's something else that's meaningful to them.

And that's part of the relationships and getting to know them just listening and then using what they tell me It's part of [00:33:00] class and just putting it in there. I mean, I mentioned that, that music lesson at the beginning of the podcast. And it's not because I'm just some brilliant educator, although I would like to think I am.

It's because I just, I listened to my students and the kind of music that they were listening to and what they were interested in. And then I just started looking for ways that I can harness that. and use it in class. And that lesson is a direct product of the conversations and the relationships that I had with my students and and with my parents.

And we did it and it was really successful, something that they all connected with. And guess what? They really know the fourth amendment extremely well, because we listen to Jay Z for 50 minutes is what they'll tell you.

Well, that's what they'll tell you, but what they don't know what was happening in Mr. Holmstetter's brain to get them there. And that's, I think, one of the, one of the hard parts about Student teachers, novice teachers, they see this lesson with Jay [00:34:00] Z and they go, you know what?

I'm gonna go do Jay Z or I'm gonna pick a no, it wasn't Jay Z. It's not that. It's not that, it's the content. Now we have some context. They can relate to that. They have some. Some knowledge in there that we can build on some schema. So, yeah, that's a, that's exciting.

So, again, talking about it, your protocols is tough. I'm going to put some You know, put a link or two to so that people can see it because one of the things that you said when you talk to teachers is that they're doing good things and knowing them and allowing them to be able to make decisions that, oh, this fits for me.

And I think when you hear about edgy protocols. Oh, I do that. I I don't know, that's, but when you see it, and then you can listen to somebody like you with testimonials of how to make it work for themselves, because I think one of the things that teachers worry about is they go into education because they want to share [00:35:00] themselves.

They want I have something that I want to share, and they worry about You know, they hear something and, oh, I'm going to lose myself. Now you want me to become a robot. No, you cannot take the personality you know, Jay Z wouldn't have been my choice. I may have selected some music and but it doesn't matter.

It is, it's there for everybody. So, God, you got a lot of experience, administrator, teacher. Presenting at conferences. And the other, one other thing that you told me that I think was interesting, not during this podcast boy, I hope it was you, that you'll have half a dozen, yeah, you'll have half a dozen like student teachers in your, watch you during the because you're teaching classes at the university.

Yeah, last year I had the the opportunity. It was incredible for me. But so, Heidelberg University is is the college that my wife works for. And one of the things they really try to do is connect alumni. to the classroom and being an alum from Heidelberg University. I I was able to go back [00:36:00] last year and work with a dozen methods students.

So these are the kids that are, they're just now getting into the experiential side of their learning. They've got all of this theory and this content, but they have no practical experience to accompany some of the things that they've taught. So there's a lot of questions and frustrations and so I had a chance to work with them and I absolutely loved it and it's something that I hope that I can continue to do because it was incredible.

Now I did, I co taught The class because the way the timing of it worked out the class was at 8 a. m. And for me, school starts at 8 30 a. m. And my school is an hour away from. the college. So, there was a little bit of a geography thing. So I co taught it with another really incredible educator and she was in person with them.

And then I would zoom in for class and it would give them a chance to see my classroom a little bit and I could show them some stuff, but it led to some [00:37:00] incredibly meaningful conversations. And they they'd always have questions like, you Well how do you get the kinesthetic component to learning into the classroom and I'm like, okay, how do I get kids moving?

Right? That's what you want to know. I'm like, great. Here we go.

But we just, we had so much fun and just sharing a lot of the things that I do is it's a real joy, but listening to them go through the steps and the process of what I used to do when I was their age is. It's fun to watch, but in addition to that, so I had the college class that I was helping out with.

And then I also had, I had six methods students from a neighboring university, Bowling Green State University. who physically joined me in my classroom. And I think at first, so our school is growing quite a bit. And at first my students were stunned because I have a classroom that's designed for 27 students and I have about 32 to 36 students in [00:38:00] this space.

And then it was an evaluation year for me last year. So I've got these six methods students. in a small room. I've got administrators coming in and out during all of this and I've got co taught, which means I've got a second teacher in here, and we're all trying to work through each of these lessons, but it was probably one of the coolest experiences that I had.

My kids genuinely missed them, so we invited them back and they would come back in. But you know, one of the first things I told these kids I said, look, in order for this to work, and I really genuinely mean this I need three things from you. You need to commit. I, I said, you, you cannot lecture, period.

It's when you are teaching, you are not going to lecture, and that's always the first thing I say, because it's usually where they default because in college, you're typically taught, So they model what they have, they do what they, what's been modeled for them. So [00:39:00] like, no, you cannot lecture. Second thing, you have to reflect every single day.

And you have to make sure that I reflect every single day. So that's your daily homework. And But then the third thing is you have to be engaged. You have to be involved. There's no world that exists where you can sit behind my desk and watch. You're going to be up moving and it worked out great because they all bought in immediately.

My first period of the day was my planning period, so first period of every single school day, we would sit down and we would go through the lesson, and I would give them tasks to do, so we talked about edu protocols I would do those with these kids within that 50 minute period of time to help prepare them for the lesson that we were going to teach, and I would be like, okay, this is the lesson.

I'm going to be doing this, this, and this. Here are the missing pieces to my lesson. I need you to find a [00:40:00] solution for this missing piece to the lesson. I need you to do this right now. Maybe the assessment, all right, I'm missing an assessment right now. What can we use to measure their understanding and success in class?

Or maybe how can we hook them at the beginning, get them involved, engaged? Maybe it's just as simple as, How can we have a conversation with these kids, and how can we work through the different levels, the different DOK levels, to see where they're at? And then it was, okay, well now that we know where they're at, how are we going to challenge them to go a little bit further?

And oh yeah, this is still one 50 minute class that we're doing this. So, giving them tasks and assignments, and having them do that real time, I think was really great for them, because as a teacher, you're doing all of that anyways. And the longer you do it the just, like, sometimes you don't even think about doing it.

because you just, it just gets done. So intentionally walking through each step or phase [00:41:00] of teaching and learning with them, but then making sure that they take ownership and that they do the things they were researching. And they were telling me about, they're doing them in my classroom. And then I take a step back into a supporting role and I support them by having those conversations with the students.

And I support them by maybe following up and asking them questions. or adding on to what they're doing that is the approach that I had. And I think we just, we had so much fun. We had a, like a little chat room and we would text each other literally every single day. And just, Hey, I'm thinking about this, or somebody, one of them said, Hey, and they took a picture of it and sent it in the chat.

And they're like, I saw this guy on campus who believes that the moon landing is fake. It's a, it's the government conspiracy. I'm like, okay, how can we use that in class? So we designed a lesson around conspiracies and integrated what they saw on their campus, their college campus. We just integrated [00:42:00] it into our classroom.

So we did this whole conspiracy theory lesson to focus on key vocabulary terms like misinformation, disinformation, fake news And really get, and bias, and really get the kids to think about what these are and how they look in the world and different places they've seen them. But it was introduced by my Methods students, which they thought was totally great.

We even bought matching t shirts for the lesson and we rocked out in class. So it was a lot of fun.

You know what, Dominic, those guys were happy, not happy, they were very lucky to have you. I'm sure they were happy too, but that, but to have that experience, most people who have a student teaching experience, which this wasn't even student teaching, this was just a methods course. No, they're, you spoiled them.

They're going to not be happy when they get to their, when they get to their student teaching.

You know, I just, as I say, I just remember how hard it was those first couple of years and if [00:43:00] there's anything that I can do to help make it easier for them, I want to try to do that because the better teachers we have, the better students and the better success they're going to, they're going to have, and they're going to experience and as a father myself, I want somebody who is going to do anything, everything, go all out, So I'm doing that for my students, but I want to try to do that for teachers because I know what it's like to have an impactful teacher.

My history teacher, Mr. Schulte, if you're listening, I love you. But he is the person I think of every single time that I look at teaching. It's like, I want to be that. And it's the relationships. It's the active learning environment. I want to be that. So how can I help them be what that was for me?

So that, that's the goal. That's the under you know, underwriting goal there.

that's great. I was going to ask you if you had anything to share for new teachers, but I think you just [00:44:00] did. Anything else? Anything else that you that either new teachers or an administrator helping a new teacher or a colleague with a new teacher on staff?

Yeah I'm going to go back to something I said earlier. It's just, you need to have fun. And I mean this, whether you're a teacher, an administrator, and I just, I remember as an administrator, There were meetings and there were experiences where you sit there and you feel like you have to be so serious.

And you forget to enjoy it. So have fun. And I'm really, I try to live in the moment here with my students. And that's why I just, I cannot wait to see the kids I had last year. Cannot wait to see them next week. But then, you the adventure of getting to learn and know more about the new students that I'm going to have coming in here.

I'm excited about that as well. So you gotta have fun because I genuinely believe if your students see you enjoying what you do and having fun, if [00:45:00] your if your teachers see you loving what you do you get some passion, all right, and you get a little something extra behind it, then They're going to, they're going to know you the real deal and they're going to want to do the same thing.

They're going to want to have fun in that positive environment. It just, it's infectious. So, just have fun, be you and go from there.

Well, Dominic, I've had fun chatting with you. I appreciate so much you taking the time. I know you're back to work. And so, again, thank you. And I look forward to chatting again. So, we will do it.

Sounds great. Hey, thank you, Gene.

If you are enjoying these podcasts, please give us a five star rating on Apple Podcasts, and you can find me on Twitter, x at G Tabernetti, and on my website, tesscg. com, that's T E S S C G dot com, where you'll get information about how to order my books, teach fast, focused, adaptable, structured teaching, [00:46:00] and maximizing the impact of coaching cycles.

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