Transcript

Welcome to BLaST the Airwaves with BLaST Intermediate Unit 17. Here at BLaST Intermediate Unit 17, we strive to transform lives and communities through educational services. On this podcast, we will provide you with educational solutions for all, no matter the learning environment. So teachers, administrators, caregivers, what are you waiting for?

What would happen if we started questioning, what if? What if we had a positive perspective on education? What if we flip the switch on education? What if we were the solution?

Hello listeners. We are excited to BLaST the Airwaves with you today and provide educational solutions for all. My name is Rebecca Gibboney and I am the Curriculum and Online Learning Specialist here at BLaST Intermediate Unit 17. I am thrilled to welcome you to episode 12 of BLaST the Airwaves. Today, during this episode, we have the pleasure of speaking with Johanna and Caroline, two students from our local region, and hearing what they have to take on the school year so far. Johanna, Caroline, thank you so much for joining us today to discuss educational solutions for all. Specifically, discussing the student point of view right now in education. So ladies, are you ready to BLaST the Airwaves?

Yes.

Yes.

Wonderful. So why don’t we get started here? Let’s start with Caroline. Why don’t you start by telling us a little bit about yourself. What grade are you in? Your favorite subject? Favorite part of school? Least favorite part of school? Whatever you want to tell us about school.

Okay. Well, I’m in sixth grade. I have a few favorite subjects. I really, I mean, I kind of like math, but I’d probably say reading is my favorite because I love reading and I love writing, especially. And I also really like unified arts, especially when I get to go to orchestra.

Nice. Nice, great. Wonderful.

And what kind of instrument do you play, Caroline?

I play the violin.

Wonderful. Thanks, Caroline.

What about you, Johanna? Tell us a little bit about yourself.

Well, I’m in sixth grade. I’m actually in my sister’s class.

Interesting.
Yeah, and I play violin as an instrument in our school’s orchestra. I also participate in choir and my favorite subject is probably writing, especially like narratives and just long, like lengthy things that you get to edit. Although, I also like English and reading random things, I guess.

Awesome. It’s always good to pick up a good book and start reading and I, too, love writing, Johanna. Thank you, ladies. So, when we talk about the school year thus far. In our region, like, you know, we have districts that are remote, we have districts that are in the hybrid schedule, hybrid learning, and we have districts that are face to face. So can you explain, how about we start with Johanna here, can you explain what your school year looks like so far?

So, our school has a choice of hybrid or remote. So, I do hybrid and you can choose if you want to do a hybrid or remote. And then depending on your last name, I think it’s like…split the alphabet in half and then half of them go Monday and Wednesday, depending on what your last name is, and half of them go. No half of them go Tuesday and Thursday and half of them go Monday and Wednesday.

Right.

And then again, you also have the choice to be remote and there are a few students who go Monday through Thursday. And then everyone’s off on Friday.

When you say off, you guys are doing remote learning on Fridays, correct? So you still have assignments to do on Friday, Johanna?

Yes. Basically our school got brand new Chromebooks, or I don’t really know what they’re called because they’re touch screen and you can type on them. And then they flip and turn into like an iPad.

Fancy.

So, yeah, we use those on remote days and then sometimes our specific class zooms. And usually we just get posted assignments on a website called Schoology.

Nice. Thank you, Johanna. Caroline, how do you feel? Like how, how do you feel going through this experience of the hybrid um situation, going to school every other day. What are your thoughts so far? It’s okay to be honest.

Well, I definitely like the days that we get to go in school in person and see our teachers and friends better than the days that we have to stay at home. When we get to go into school, I really like it because I get to see my teachers face to face. I can ask as many questions without having to wait for a response from an email or something. And it’s really nice to see my peers. It’s hard, because we really only get to see the few kids in our class. We don’t get to see any other classes and we don’t get to leave the classroom a lot.

I get to leave the classroom for orchestra lessons and for gym and sometimes to go outside, but otherwise we’re in the classroom. And it’s not that bad, but I definitely miss seeing other people and getting to be more active in the building. As far as the days that we are at home, on some of the dates other kids are at school and usually on Fridays is a total remote day for everybody. And they’re basically all the same. Like to me, I feel like some of those days are harder than the days when we’re face to face at school. It’s a lot easier to lose assignments and sometimes it’s harder to get things done.

Are your parents at home Caroline during the day when you have remote instruction or are you guys at home navigating through class?

It depends. So like today my mom was home, but she was doing her schoolwork and she was on Zoom and on a bunch of different things and some days, I’m just home alone. I mean like if I ever have a problem, I can usually call my dad and sometimes my mom so that we can get help if we’re having technical difficulties with an assignment, or if we need help for any other reason. But a lot of times we’re at home alone, most times.

It’s nice that you have your parents. Both of you. I think both of you have your parents at home. It’s nice that you have them to be able, not at home, but at least a phone call away to help, if you have any questions.

Let’s continue on here and let’s talk about, you know, on this podcast, these past couple of episodes. We’ve been talking a lot about teacher-student relationships and how to build those positive relationships. And especially now, like, no matter what environment, if the teachers and students are remote, if they’re face to face, if they are in hybrid, we still need to build those positive teacher-student relationships. So, Caroline, let’s talk about, can you describe right now your favorite teacher, without giving away any names, but what qualities did he or she have?

I pretty much have a lot of teachers that tie for my favorite teachers. One of my favorite teachers, right now, is very nice and I like that she’s able to kind of push, like she’ll push you so that you can be challenged and kind of get the instruction that you need and that is right for you. And then some of my other favorite teachers, one of my other favorite teachers, he is very funny and kind of makes you feel like you’re in a safe environment and that like, it’s okay to get things wrong. And so, and it’s, and you don’t have to be perfect and pretty much for all of my teachers that I have now this year, what I really like is that they’re always there for you, especially with the remote times. So if you have a question about an assignment, they’ll email you back. If you have trouble with technology and you can’t do something, then you won’t get in trouble for that. And I really think that especially now it’s important to, for teachers to be patient with the students and to kind of just get used to everything before they actually start giving grades and stuff. And that’s what I like about my teachers, because it’s nice that they’re there for you, whether like the complications you have. Whether it’s in the classroom or on a remote day. Or just something that you face whenever you go to school.

It sounds like Caroline, they treat you like humans, right? They understand life is happening and you brought up some great points about, you know, things that we’ve talked about on this podcast, making sure it’s a safe environment, teaching like that failing forward mindset. You brought up some really great points and adding that humor, it’s always nice. I love hearing that even though you’re in a remote environment, your teachers now are still trying to build those positive relationships. I feel like that’s a huge part of education. So awesome. Johanna, we’re going to come over back to you and I’m going to go down. You know, there’s no doubt that right now, it’s not easy to be a teacher or a student. It is tough. What do you, you, as a student, right now need to be successful?

Well, I feel like one of the most important things is definitely to not just be learning new things, but also having the time of, like, getting to learn the curriculum. I’ve never, like I never was online before very much. Like, we didn’t even have separate desks. I used to sit at tables with others and stuff like that.

Right.

So now kind of just learning the curriculum online, I think I’ve lost like maybe two typing assignments already. And like, just, that’s very frustrating when you’ve worked hard on something and then it gets deleted. I feel like everything just takes longer online. So just really learning about what we’re using to actually do our work rather than just actually just like doing it. I feel like…

No, go ahead. Go ahead. Keep going.

Also, just still having the humorous, like positive behavior kind of stuff like that is really nice. But I actually enjoy some of the perks of this, because my class is very small. So, I get more kind of one on one attention I feel like, which, kind of helps in this time as well, because I’m constantly asking questions.

Hey, it’s good to ask questions, keep asking those. I definitely would agree. So you’re saying sort of to be successful as a student right now, you like the smaller class sizes, but also, you know, I’ve been talking with a lot of educators right now, around the state, too, that, just that, how do you organize the technology? How do you organize the assignments in your Schoology or Canvas or Google or, you know, in any of the LMS? How do you organize things for students? So, I think that’s a great response. So, Caroline, let’s go back to you here. We like to take questions from the field. Are you ready for this?

Yes.

Okay. So I’m going to start with you. I’m going to go to Johanna then. If you were given, if you were to give, not given, if you were to give one piece of advice to your peers, your other students out there, what advice would you give them?

I would probably give the advice to probably just be patient because a lot of the, especially like whatever place you are, whether you are in school face to face, whether you are hybrid or whether you’re remote, there are a lot of things that are going to be different. Whether it’s the technology, the class sizes, or just kind of what we have to do to stay safe. It’s all going to be very new. And so we kind of just have to be patient with it until we get into the swing of things. And also one thing that it makes this experience a whole lot easier, is if you stay positive, Because if you are, I mean some of the stuff, it’s so easy to get sad and bummed out about all that stuff, but the more positive you are, the easier things will get for you. So, to stay positive and you also have to be very resilient in these times. So, whatever challenges you face, just kind of power through them. And if you can’t, then, you can still bounce back. And so my probably my main pieces of advice would be, to be positive, to be patient and to be resilient.

I love that. I love that. I’m a huge person on positivity. I’m working on my patience and I just love resiliency. So great pieces of advice for your peers. Johanna, I’m going to ask you, I’m going to flip it a little bit. What advice would you give your teachers right now?

Probably kind of similar. Like this is kind of like a time of change. This is a time that everything’s going to be different. So be patient. Like, and like, learn from this time. Also like, just stay positive, like have resilience in your students and in yourself.

Yeah. And so Johanna let’s, let’s go off that a little bit, too. Have you found any ways at home, when you’re in remote learning, any tools that you’ve found (and I went off script here) or strategies to help you when you’re at home doing your meal?

Usually when doing my learning, I try to stay off of other technology as much as possible because when this started like my neck would hurt and everything because of how long I’ve been staring at a screen. And usually the thing that calms me the most, especially during online, is reading. And at these times, probably since like March, when this whole thing started, I don’t think I’ve read any nonfiction or any history because I kind of feel like we’re going through history. This all is real. So I just sit and like read a good fantasy book. That calms me so much, because it’s like my escape from reality kind of.

I love that. You just said that that is an amazing line that we’re going through history. I love it. Love it. Great. Thank you, Johanna. We’re going to do our favorite part now. It’s my favorite part, at least. It’s called the blast five. And we’re going to blast you with five rapid questions for you to quickly answer one word answers. These can be as students. They could be just as kids having fun. I guess, really, students and kids, you’re the same thing. But, um, are you guys ready for this?

Yes.

Awesome. We’re going to start with Caroline. And then when Caroline’s done, Johanna, you’re going to go next. All right. So Caroline, favorite app or website?

My favorite app or website is an app called Guitar, which I am using now to teach myself how to play guitar.

Awesome. Favorite free, favorite free time activity?

My favorite free time activity is to either write my own songs or sing my own songs or play the instruments I like to play.

Very talented. Wonderful! Favorite read? Favorite book?

I’m reading a book right now. I’m reading a book series right now called the Mysterious Benedict Society. And I really like it because it has the perfect balance of fantasy and mystery and it’s not too sad or scary.

Awesome. Favorite music?

I enjoy playing my own music, but I also like listening to Taylor Swift.

Ooh. Nice. And you’re going to have to share your own music with us. I’d be interested to hear that and we can share it on the podcast. Your favorite snack?

Um, my favorite snack is probably anything that’s Vegan. Um, I like bagels with peanut butter and my dad always makes these really delicious, um, vegan chocolate chip pancakes.

Oh, sounds delicious. Wonderful. Thank you for your blast five. Johanna, are you ready?

Yep.

Alright. Favorite app or website?

Probably YouTube, because I can click around and not stay on something for a while.

Perfect. Favorite free time activity?

Okay. Um, I love being outside. I love music, but definitely writing. Reading, especially. I love reading long chapters.

I was wondering if you’re going to say that. Favorite reads? So your favorite book?

Um, I’ve read Harry Potter with my parents, but my favorite is the Warrior’s Cat Series. It’s like 38 bucks. And it’s amazing.

Great! Favorite music?

I love listening to Caroline play and I play myself usually 30 minutes a day for each instrument, but I also enjoy Taylor Swift because not everything is positive. It’s also kind of like all over the place. Stay positive or like just a time when you want to be sad, I can turn that on. I like that.

Awesome. And last one, favorite snack?

I like salt and vinegar chips. They’re just the right balance kind of. And then I enjoy isn’t really snack, but drinking…I love seltzer water because it’s kind of like soda without the sugar.

Love it. Love it. A kid that likes seltzer water. That is wonderful. I love selter water. I drink it every day. All right. Thank you ladies. This has been a blast, Johanna and Caroline. Again, thank you for taking some time today to BLaST the Airwaves with us and our listeners. It was a pleasure to have you on the podcast. Take care, study hard, and let’s talk again soon.

Thank you.

Bye.

See you ladies.

We would like to thank you for blasting the airwaves with us today. If you like the show, please subscribe or leave a review. If you want to know more, check out www.iu17.org for further resources and show notes. As always, we want to thank you for what you do every single day. Remember, keep shining. We’ll be back next episode to provide you another educational solution for all, as we continue to transform lives and communities through educational services.

Additional/Suggested resources mentioned in the episode:

BLaST Intermediate Unit 17 – www.iu17.org 

Professional Learning Opportunities at BLaST IU 17 – https://www.iu17.org/professional-learning/ 

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