#282 – Journey from Freelance Writing to Teaching: Insights from Amanda Lucas - Spun Today with Tony Ortiz

Episode Transcript
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(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

(00:40):
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

(01:02):
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. We speak about her
experiences dealing with bullying in the classroom among
students and her what some may consider

(01:24):
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

(01:46):
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

(02:08):
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

(02:30):
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

(02:52):
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. And even dealing with
parents go hard parents that might complain about their kid

(03:15):
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

(03:37):
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

(03:59):
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

(04:21):
different magazines to becoming the featured article
in a edition of Parents magazine with a
story that she wrote about her daughter. 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

(04:43):
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

(05:06):
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.

(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

(05:51):
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

(06:13):
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. So being that this is episode 156, if you
go to spun
today.com podcast156,

(06:33):
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

(06:54):
idea what it was. And she actually breaks it down in the very beginning
of this episode. 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

(07:17):
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. Lionel is Amanda's husband as

(07:39):
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

(08:01):
Spun Today podcast. So we definitely have to make that happen sooner than
later. Alright folks, without further ado, but before we
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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,

(10:11):
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. 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

(10:32):
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

(10:54):
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. We, like, laughed
about it. Ch. That would be so funny. And then we thought,

(11:14):
ch is a digraph. Right? So what is that? What is that diagram? A
digraph is two letters that make one sound, like
sh, T, H, C, H. Okay. Okay. What? You're
teaching already on the podcast? Yeah. So when you teach
kids to read, digraphs
are some of the hardest because they're

(11:35):
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

(11:57):
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. And
everybody is confused, so I don't know if it's gonna
stay like that. 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. Yeah. On the top left. And

(12:19):
it's really cool. That's interesting. All right, so
you are a middle school teacher, right? 6, 7, 8. 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? This
is actually my first year doing middle school. Okay. What were you doing? So I
did my very first job teaching was pre K, and then

(12:40):
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. Wow. Okay. Yeah. And with.
I guess with six, seven, eight, you get all grades, right? Like, all
different grades, all three grades. 6Th, 7th, and 8th grade. But I only teach
ELA, so English language, art. Okay. And how long have you been doing

(13:02):
that? 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. Oh, really? Yeah. Like, you never went
back to the younger. 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

(13:24):
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. Like, the babies,
you're, like, more teaching them reading versus actual how to read. Exactly.
Okay. You know what I mean? Yeah. And how long were you teaching the younger
grades for? Four years. Four years? Yeah.

(13:46):
And is that something you always wanted to do, the teaching or. No? No,
actually. So I love this question. We were talking before also about
the magazines. 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

(14:08):
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. 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.

(14:28):
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. And which you still can be. 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

(14:50):
writing workshop, a creative writing workshop for adults in. In the city.
It's on, like, 38th and 8th. Okay. And so they're still active, right?
Yeah, they're active. They're amazing people. They're fantastic. 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. They're fantastic. Yeah, that's great. So I

(15:12):
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.

(15:34):
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. 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

(15:55):
take these classes so bad, but they're like $500 and I don't have that.
And, you know. Yeah, yeah. 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. That's so awesome. It was amazing. So
I was able to do all the classes. I did Memoir. I did children's lit.

(16:15):
Did you le form at that point for the institution? 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

(16:37):
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. Do they have, like, specific metrics for that or, like, what's
considered significant, A significant publication?
From what I've seen of the teachers that are there, they all have

(16:58):
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. Gotcha. Okay. And I like Seasons. Yeah, they were seasoned.
Yes. Like, credits behind them. Right, right. And I was, you know,

(17:20):
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.
Parenting before we switch over, not to cut you off, but the,

(17:43):
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?
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

(18:03):
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. But the bigger piece was
the booths. They were called booths. So every person in the

(18:24):
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

(18:46):
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. So it's like having, like, nine editors.
Yeah, it was fantastic. And then
it was really fun to read other people's stories too, you know? Yeah. Like, one
of the people that I had class with, there was so many stories. Because you're

(19:07):
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? The Mets mascot? Shout out to the Mets.

(19:28):
Yeah, the Mets mascot. He was taking a class there. Really?
Yeah, he was taking a class and he wanted to write his story about what
it was like to be Mr. Met. Did he ever, like, dress up as Mr.
Met? 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. Whole time, just in the back of. The class, he was saying that
his identity, like, part of the job was to hide his identity.

(19:52):
So nobody was allowed to know who Mr. Met actually was.
Wow. 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

(20:14):
and angry people and stuff. It was amazing. Yeah. So
it was really fun. I can imagine. That's really cool. Yeah. 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. So, like, if you were doing
memoir. Right. Which I took memoir classes, everybody was working

(20:36):
on a memoir. Okay. 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. Okay.
Yeah. And. All right, so then from there, you transitioned over to
parent parenting magazine. Yeah. Tell me about that. Which wasn't

(20:57):
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. You know,
a little bit of everything. Just everything. Just, like, logging stuff

(21:20):
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

(21:41):
end of the month. Nice. And you can, like, get a bunch of stuff, like,
really nice stuff for, like, a dollar. Nice. 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. Nice. And that was really

(22:04):
cool. I used to get lost in that room a little bit. Yeah. 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

(22:24):
family. But I. I had a kid, so I had a lot to say,
and I would read their magazine and be. Like, and what year was this? This
was. Oof. This was in
2010. This was in. Yeah, it was. I think it was
2010. 2011. Yeah. So they. They would ask for ideas, and I
gave a lot of ideas, which made me stand out a little bit.

(22:45):
And so I got a really great letter of recommendation for my next
internship, which was Parents magazine. Parents
magazine. And there's no affiliation between those two. No, there wasn't. But
now parenting no longer exists, and parents acquired them,
if I'm not mistaken. Gotcha. So I went
to parents and Parents was. It was a. It was like a

(23:06):
level up, you know, that was the number one
national magazine for parents. Gotcha. 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. What was the.
This is interesting to me. What was the. Not that everything else wasn't

(23:32):
like that. What was the. The recommendation was for
what job? Because it was. It was another internship. Yeah, it was another internship. But
in this internship, you were. It was paid more. It was a paid internship.
And it was more, like, writing focused. 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

(23:54):
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.

(24:16):
Oh, that's so cool. Lisa Leslie.
Damn. 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? I do not know
her. Somebody listening to this knows. Okay.

(24:42):
Who else? Kerry. Walsh. Jennings. You know, the.
The. The volleyball. The. She's a
Olympic volleyball player. Okay. And she was, like, pregnant and won a gold
medal. While pregnant? Yeah, while pregnant. So I didn't know about her until
I did that story, but I didn't. Know about her until right now.
Yeah. So it was cool because even though they weren't, you know, it wasn't like.

(25:04):
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.
Forget the name of it. It's all Meredith Corporation. That's the name of the company.
Okay. And they all shared a floor, so all three

(25:26):
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. And it's a good corporate. 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

(25:48):
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. Like, I'm just gonna be so productive. 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

(26:08):
Tower is now. Oh, nice. And it's not that high. It's like on a
15th or 18th floor. I don't even remember. Yeah. 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. Yeah. 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

(26:31):
people and waiting for the elevator and this. And that and for sure, the commute
stuff. Yeah. The commuter's truck. But I definitely. I get what you're
saying. There's like a romanticism to it. 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

(26:53):
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? 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. Yeah. But with you, it seems like you're.
You're working in an environment that you're passionate about.

(27:15):
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. 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

(27:38):
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. Okay. And the kids spent the whole day just testing the
toys. That's like a dream life for her. Yeah. So I got to bring her.

(27:59):
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. Wow. Yeah, it was really cool.
And they were doing a Father's Day video, which you can probably find
online still somewhere. Yeah. Is Lino on it? No, she

(28:19):
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. And then

(28:39):
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. I'm gonna see if I could find that video.
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

(29:01):
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.
And I was like, cool. So I went over. They interviewed me anyway, you

(29:24):
know, and I walked across the floor, and at. That
point, did you know what, like, that position was exactly? Like, what was it? I
wasn't entirely sure, but I knew that it was the next step. True. 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.
So I was like, oh, I'm gonna take these steps. Like, I know editorial assistant

(29:46):
is next. That's just the next step. I gotta pay my dues. Yeah. Go through
the motions. 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? No. No. 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.

(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. Wow.
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,

(30:28):
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. And then the next day.
That's so cool. Yeah. The next day I took her to get supplies because
all she had was fabric. And she put blankets inside because we

(30:50):
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.
So I was posting it on Instagram, and everybody was like, oh, my God, I
love. Oh, my. Can I get one? Like, and

(31:10):
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.
Really? Yeah. How did they. Did they find you? Like, through social

(31:33):
media. 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.

(31:55):
Okay. And they wanted her as a client. What? 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

(32:18):
Steve Harvey, and we were going to see Ellen, and we were gonna see. Wow.
So exciting. Yeah. Lionel, I can't believe you never told me about any of this.
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

(32:41):
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. So it was a good balance between the usual, like,
me as a writer. Also, like the paralysis by

(33:01):
analysis. Which. 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. 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.

(33:25):
We're gonna feature her. It's gonna be a feature article in the October
issue. And I was like, what? That's awesome. 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. It was a dope story.
Incredible. Yeah. Do they have that online now by any chance?

(33:47):
Her article? I don't know. I'm not sure.
We should check that out. I'm gonna check if they do. I'll also link to
it in the episode notes for this episode. 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

(34:09):
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.
Because that article got so much praise in the office. Because
no interns have written a feature article before. That's unheard of. Right.

(34:30):
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. 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,

(34:51):
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. 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,

(35:13):
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. You had that
perspective. Yeah. 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. Usually a long while.

(35:34):
Yeah. Like, anything writing related. 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

(35:55):
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.
So you have to grind. True. So the grind

(36:18):
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

(36:39):
process. Part of my job was processing contracts for the
freelancers. 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

(37:01):
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. Focusing on their writing. 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

(37:23):
I didn't get paid anything because I was working in the office.
So my work was Just, you know. Your ideas were free, your ideas were
being paid for. 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.

(37:43):
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. And
my editor got really mad at me and she
was like, I don't. You, you need to start

(38:05):
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.
It's like your main, your main driver. 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

(38:28):
me try freelancing. Right. Sat down, had a meeting with the editor in
chief and she was like, you are. This is the
one that liked you. Yeah. Like the article. She's the editor in chief of both
magazines. Okay. 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

(38:49):
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. 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

(39:10):
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. 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.

(39:32):
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. 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

(39:54):
short story that I wrote for them. I wrote for a few different
publications. 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? 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

(40:16):
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.
True. You ready for me to start talking. About the
plight of many, many of us writers? Yeah. Yes.

(40:37):
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

(40:59):
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.

(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. And so everybody's like, you'd be a really

(41:44):
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? Like, damn, like,
fine, I get it. 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

(42:07):
preschool, and I did that. And what was that? Here. Here in
Queens. It was in Brooklyn. Okay. 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. Yeah. It's more of a dynamic. Yeah. Type of job. So

(42:29):
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

(42:49):
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. That is me. Because I read a lot. I
read about 60 books a year. Right. Wow. Yeah. What? I'm always
reading, so. And I was like, this would be great for me.

(43:11):
All like. Like, hard copy, paperback reading or, like, audiobooks or, like,
everything. Everything. I don't discriminate. His audiobooks, I like. I like. That's
amazing. 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,

(43:33):
I read a lot, so I was like, this would be a great thing if
I could do this job. And then I. But I was doubting myself.
So I spoke to my family, and my brother actually knew an
assistant principal at that school. Wow. 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

(43:54):
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. Yeah, the usual. And then during
February, we'll hear about Black History Month.

(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. Oh, sweet. And I
was like, oh, cool. So I started as an assistant teacher.

(44:38):
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. Like, is she about to. Did her
water just break right now? Like, what's going on? Right. What are you doing here?
Go home. But they gave me the job and I, I started that

(45:00):
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. 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. And is it compared

(45:22):
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? 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

(45:45):
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

(46:07):
would send my children. 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

(46:29):
be better than the charter school. Wow, nice. Okay. 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

(46:50):
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. 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

(47:12):
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. And in order to get
the grades that they have. Because Success Academy is
number one in the region for state

(47:34):
test scores. Okay. For like 11 years now in a
row. But in order for them to. For all grades or like elementary. Elementary.
Okay. So for them to get those grades.
They really have to emphasize the schoolwork.
Yes. The academia of it. Yes. And so the kids are
required to stay very still and

(47:56):
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. Right. But
there has to be a balance. Yeah. I was about to say, I would imagine
it's like a balance. Like, as a teacher, you need. And they

(48:17):
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

(48:39):
barely had time to socialize. Socialize. Yeah. And that's
important. I can see that. Yeah, absolutely. 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

(49:01):
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. 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. That's really cool.
It's really a great place for millennials. Really.

(49:23):
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.

(49:45):
Wow. 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. Long days. Yeah. So much to
do. And I had a three month old baby and I was nursing. Wow. And
I was nursing full time. She wasn't taking formula. So I was doing.

(50:08):
Yeah. Full time nursing, three month old baby. Master's degree
and school. Wow. 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? That actually leads into what one of the questions I
had for you. Yeah. Which is, have you ever like, how do you deal? And

(50:30):
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? Yeah. Okay. It depends on the

(50:50):
grade. Right. Want to throw the one of the kids out the window or.
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. 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

(51:12):
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

(51:32):
his underwear. It's like no amount of training
could prepare you for that moment. 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. Let him work through this. Yeah,
let's just. I don't want to see it. Like, don't jump
anywhere. Yeah, but so Success

(51:55):
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. Like, letting them know what's expected and then

(52:16):
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. When you come in,
Red table, green table. Yeah. So when you come in, everybody's
on green. Right. It's like a chart that we had. And all the kids were

(52:36):
on green. It has their names, and if we
explain to them what the offenses were. Right. So, like, success is
very strict. 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. Damn. Yeah. Wow. If your hands
were not locked while you were sitting on the rug or at your desk, you

(53:00):
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. Yeah, always. Which is like, I mean, come on. For a kid.
Yeah. It must be difficult. 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

(53:23):
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. Like, if they got a third warning, they
were on yellow. And that was like, you lose time from recess.

(53:43):
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

(54:05):
red. You were in danger of being suspended if you did something
crazy. 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. It's, like, based on the
teacher to implement their own version of. Right, okay. So it's really good

(54:27):
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. 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? Yeah, right, Exactly. So

(54:48):
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. Everybody's on the same page. Parents
to students, all the faculty. Yes,
parents. Yeah. And then when I use that same

(55:08):
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

(55:29):
did it because I would do the countdown, and they knew. Right. But in
middle school, first of all, I have five classes. I have 105 kids. Right?
Wow. Yeah. And it's five classes, and they roll. Five classes every day. Every day.
And they rotate so they're not with me all day long.
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.

(55:52):
The same. Like, you know, 30 kids or whatever
went from class to class to class. Yes. 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. Okay. It's all the same. Yeah. You have your homeroom and that
homeroom goes with each other everywhere. Gotcha. Okay. But yeah, so the kids
are not with me all day and I have them for 45 minutes each.

(56:13):
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

(56:36):
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. And I still, I will take time from
them, from lunch, I'll make them eat upstairs with me, you know,

(56:58):
But I also do like funny things. Like, have you heard of mirror work?
Mirror work? No. So it's the act of
looking in the mirror and saying affirmations to kind.
Of like boost your self confidence. 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

(57:21):
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. Writer on the podcast.
Yes. You're a great writer. Yeah. 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

(57:43):
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.
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

(58:04):
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. 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

(58:25):
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. That they're dealing with
already. 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,

(58:47):
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. Shout out to Lionel.
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. And which is

(59:09):
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. 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. And it was just,

(59:31):
like, expense everything. 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

(59:52):
there's no funding. And there's a lot of
hardship that comes with that. 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

(01:00:14):
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

(01:00:37):
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. But, you
know, with COVID it got really bad. Can we talk about this before we

(01:00:59):
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

(01:01:21):
will because she. She made me feel like
writer. She. She told me, you're good at writing. I love reading your
stuff. Yeah. Like, there was an assignment that she had called lit logs. Like, literature
logs. Yeah. 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.

(01:01:42):
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.
Boy, you like. Like, she was always, like, super cool.
Yeah. And, yeah, it definitely goes a long way. Like, the
empathy. Yeah. You need to invest in them as people, not

(01:02:05):
just in the grades, which is hard because we have
quotas. You know, we have certain. Because then you have to balance it with that
business side of things. Right. We have to reach a certain. Certain
numbers. 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

(01:02:26):
either. Like, you have to, like, balance, like, the two. Right. Yep, exactly.
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. It

(01:02:48):
sucks. Yeah. For as
convenient as it is, period.
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.

(01:03:11):
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. Much more impressionable. Yeah,
yeah. Your ability to mold them is like, you have more of an ability
probably at that age versus, like a high school kid. Right. Like, for example, my
kids, because I'm able to choose the books that they're reading, I

(01:03:32):
intentionally give them Hispanic authors and Hispanic narrators because that's their.
That's what they are, you know, and before that, they are. They
have age three, like Junot Diaz or anything like that. No, not yet. Not yet.
Or the Alchemist. No, not yet. Something like
that. 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.

(01:03:53):
That's next year. But, like. Yeah, I give them.
I was trying to give them Elizabeth Acevedo. Do you know her? 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. Yes, yes. And through her, I found the

(01:04:15):
Elizabeth Acevedo. But I haven't read, like, any of her stuff. Yeah,
I've read all of her stuff. I'm a fan girl. Od. Nice. 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

(01:04:37):
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? They know
it exists. 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,

(01:04:58):
you know, so I'm still trying to get. Turning a blind eye to it and
thinking it doesn't exist. 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

(01:05:21):
couldn't do at success Academy. 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

(01:05:44):
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. 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

(01:06:06):
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. 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

(01:06:29):
math class. Oh, that's awesome. 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. At the moment where
they probably needed that most. Yeah. Like, you couldn't give it to them. And they
didn't have it right when we first started, I said, I'm gonna
give the kids their second. So we meet.

(01:06:51):
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. 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

(01:07:12):
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. That's awesome.
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

(01:07:33):
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. 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,

(01:07:55):
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.
Okay. 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. So you could definitely relate to it. Yeah.

(01:08:17):
So I don't know. I mean, if I were a math teacher, I don't know
what I would do. You know what I mean? How do I get them?
Because the emotional part is so important. Right. More important than anything else right
now is that emotional part. Agreed. And to be able
to, to teach them while empathizing,
while showing them love through writing and reading and

(01:08:39):
stuff, I feel like it's probably the most rewarding thing that I've done.
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

(01:09:02):
to St. Mary's
which is closing now the school, so many of them. 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. Yeah. And like she sees the whole class and everybody goes on mute. The

(01:09:23):
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,

(01:09:45):
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. Why am I
on the computer? Where are my friends? How come I'm not, you know, that routine

(01:10:05):
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. So the kids are expected to work, work
from 8:30 until 3. That's the regular school day.

(01:10:27):
But the Zoom is much shorter. Okay. 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

(01:10:49):
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. And her school initially had the kids, it kept
the same exact schedule. So the kids were on Zoom all day

(01:11:10):
long. And she would complain about headaches, she would be fatigued afterwards,
she was like just over it. Just like staring at a screen for. 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. You can empathize like with them.

(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. And so my kids,
it was very similar. So like half of the class time was Zoom and then

(01:11:53):
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. And
they have to like submit it. 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

(01:12:15):
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. Really? 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

(01:12:35):
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. But, yeah, it was hard. It was a really hard

(01:12:56):
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. But I imagine that
those tears, like, are the same for the older kids. They're the same, except they

(01:13:18):
have, like. The social filter of, I'm not going. To cry, I'm not going to
act. Out, or I'm going to, you know, just not do my homework today or
just not tell anybody anything. Right. Yeah. 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. Yeah, well, actually, just
to round up the zoom part of the conversation, is it. Is

(01:13:42):
there any. I guess, for next semester, next
year, like, do you guys know that you're going back yet or. We have no
idea. Right. I was gonna. I was actually gonna go and, like, paint my classroom.
Yeah. 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? 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

(01:14:04):
like that. 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. And by she, you mean like the principal. Principal, yeah. Okay. 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,

(01:14:27):
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. Okay. With the understanding that we might not, you know.
Okay. Yeah, Gotcha. Damn. All
righty. So I wanted to ask you about,
like, I remember from being in school, obviously, like,

(01:14:49):
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. It's
based on experience that I had with the bully. I know

(01:15:10):
that, like, kids go through that obviously. Right.
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.

(01:15:33):
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. Know, there are rules. I
mean, if there's bullying, the kids have to speak to the principal. And it's like

(01:15:55):
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.
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

(01:16:17):
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. A blind eye to something. Yeah, exactly.
You don't want to. I mean, for both. For the victim and for the
bully, you have to intervene. Right. Because bullies are usually. And
correct me if I'm wrong, you would know better than me. Are just like hurt

(01:16:39):
people, hurt people type of thing. And they're probably getting bullied or beat up at
home or something like that. 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

(01:17:00):
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

(01:17:23):
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. Wow. 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

(01:17:44):
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

(01:18:05):
were writing notes to him telling him to kill himself and giving him instructions on
how to kill himself. Wow. And that
infuriated me. Okay. Infuriated me.
So I made an example of them in front of everyone.
Nice. I embarrassed them. And I explained to them, I
mean, the school, listen, those kids, I told you, most of their parents are really

(01:18:26):
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. 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,

(01:18:47):
like, I don't know what the hell I was saying or doing or thinking. 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. So you, like,
told them to come up in front of the class. Okay. 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

(01:19:08):
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

(01:19:30):
Catholic school. I mean, no matter what school you're in, like, it's your responsibility to
take care of each other. Absolutely. 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? Absolutely. I had another little girl.
How were they through that conversation? Oh, they were. They were. They were also crying.

(01:19:53):
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. 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. First of all, aside from the fact

(01:20:15):
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. Yeah.
Just tripping and falling over. 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. Absolutely.
With the attention that you drew to yourself. Absolutely. Like, which

(01:20:37):
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. 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. Absolutely. Not in private, 100%.

(01:20:57):
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. And we're talking about the potential life of a human
being. Yes. That they could have influenced into not being around anymore. 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

(01:21:20):
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. 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

(01:21:41):
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. 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

(01:22:02):
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. If this go through different phases this week. I'm
a gothic kid, right? So she was trying on, like.
Like, a bad girl Persona, which I. Knew was not her
quintessential, like, mean girl. Yeah. Like, I knew it wasn't her. She was getting in

(01:22:25):
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

(01:22:47):
that she was gonna fight her. Her. And I was like, oh, boy, here we
go. 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.
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

(01:23:10):
because it was a big deal, because that school doesn't have any fighting, Right. How'd
you find out about the. 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. And she said, like, that same day. 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

(01:23:33):
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. Like, you want to be baby, you know, bad baby, that catch me outside

(01:23:53):
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. She was staying in that pocket. 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

(01:24:16):
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. Damn. And

(01:24:36):
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. And you are gonna write me the illest
rap song. And we're gonna. You're gonna. Right? And then I started

(01:24:58):
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. Do it. Practice, practice. 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

(01:25:19):
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? Yeah. And she
was like, no. All of a sudden. 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

(01:25:39):
you. I'm going to be your number one fan. 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. That goes back to the community working
through that issue. Yeah, right. Like, nobody's telling you that. You listen.

(01:26:03):
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.
It'S like you give them like, a microcosm of that of, like, what that means.
Yeah, within the junior high environment. Yes. That's cool. And then.
So then we had another one on one, and she was like, I don't. I

(01:26:24):
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. And I never had a problem with her like that again.

(01:26:46):
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. What I

(01:27:07):
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? It's like tailored more towards the. To them because you know them.
Right? Yeah. That was a moment. That's awesome. So
now how like as you touched on already like one of my. The

(01:27:30):
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. You manage that

(01:27:51):
with the Goharts? Yeah. Or just like in general, just like interacting with
parents. 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. Like. Yeah, like name brand bags and all kinds of

(01:28:14):
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. I had a mom who called me and said, my daughter has

(01:28:35):
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.
And I actually have one mom right now who I love, but

(01:28:58):
she, her son. I gave them three weeks to do a project. We were doing
comic books. So they were learning character development. That sounds
fun. 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

(01:29:20):
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. I walk them through with videos like how to draw if

(01:29:42):
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.

(01:30:04):
He needs until 8pm And I was like, no, I'm not grading at
8pm no, the grade book
closes. 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

(01:30:25):
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. 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

(01:30:46):
can get it in by four and then. And
you're welcome. 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,

(01:31:09):
so it's not so bad. Okay. 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. This is
what it is. This is what it's going to be, period. Everybody's on the same
page and that's it. Like, and we would, we were taught, we had trainings on

(01:31:30):
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. But success is
success because we do this right. And I. So when I came to
this new school where it's more family oriented and they care more about,

(01:31:51):
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. They're like, not used
to that. 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

(01:32:12):
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

(01:32:34):
give them breaks, but the amount of breaks that they want is. Like, like,
it's like egregiously. Yeah. One sided. Yeah. How. How
does the grading work? 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.

(01:32:57):
Right. 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

(01:33:18):
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? 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

(01:33:41):
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.

(01:34:02):
Inside baseball. 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

(01:34:25):
a wrap up sentence, a conclusion.
If they have those things, then they pass. They're not checking grammar.
They're not checking spelling. They're nothing. They can write in
fragments, honestly, as long as they have that structure. Gotcha.
Okay. So a big part of teaching when it comes to, like, testing
time is getting the kids to understand that structure.

(01:34:47):
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? Gotcha. Okay,
that makes sense. Yeah. And I guess, like, encouraging them to, like, write the full
sentences and stuff like that. But here's the deal. I
mean, the kids don't know that they're not tested on grammar and stuff. They don't
know that. So no. Kids listen to this podcast, please. Yeah, they don't

(01:35:09):
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. Absolutely. Absolutely. Yeah. So they.
In class, they know that the grammar has to be right, and the spelling. They
need to check their spelling. So it's something that they internalize by the time they
get to that point usually. Okay, that makes sense. Yeah. But then

(01:35:33):
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. Nice. 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

(01:35:55):
time to switch over to a different kind of writing, they're like, wait, what? What?
How? You know. Gotcha. Yeah. Yeah. But
it depends on what we're doing. That's pretty cool. What's your. I'll end
with this. What's your favorite? I guess
subject or topic to teach? Ela. No,
but I mean, like, specific to. Oh, in ela. Like, poetry or free writing

(01:36:17):
or. Oh, man, it's hard. Hard. Oh, and is it dependent,
I guess, on, like, your audience? You know what I mean? Like. Like.
Like, if all the kids love poetry, does that make you, like, lean, like, more
into that? No, I think, you know,
because it's my job to engage them. Sure. It's my job to get them

(01:36:38):
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. 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

(01:37:00):
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. That was

(01:37:22):
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? Like, damn, that's awesome.
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

(01:37:44):
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. 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. Wow. And it

(01:38:07):
was beautiful. That's cool. 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? And you having that opportunity to, like you said,
infusing creativity in whatever it is that they're looking at, that's not. Something

(01:38:28):
I could have done in Success Academy, but I can do it now. It's
a perk. Yeah, It's a perk. Yeah. Teachers need to be a give and
take. Yeah. Like pluses that you got from Success Academy and, you know, the
pluses on this side as well. Yeah. That's awesome. Yeah.
Well, Mana, thank you so much. Thank you. This was fun. Tell
folks you have an open invitation, obviously, to come on whenever you'd like.

(01:38:51):
Thank you. But tell folks about your podcast, where to find your social
media. Okay. So all that good stuff. The podcast is called
CH with an exclamation point. It's
everywhere that you get podcasts. I would link. I'll link to it in the episode
notes as well. 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

(01:39:12):
classroom and what that looks like for us. It's a friend of mine who's also
a teacher. And what's his name, by the way? 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. On social
media? You're on social media? Oh, yeah. There is a podcast. There's

(01:39:34):
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. 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

(01:39:58):
T, Z, because I'm cool.
Amanda Lee. L, E, E. It's me, Amanda
Lee. Oh, yeah. I T, Z, M, E. And then Amanda Lee.
L, E. Nice. Yep. 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

(01:40:18):
I'll link to all that good stuff in the episode notes. Amanda, thanks again
very much for doing this episode. I appreciate it. It was
so fun. Yeah, it was. It was awesome. Gotta do it again. Yeah.
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

(01:40:39):
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

(01:41:00):
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.
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

(01:41:23):
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

(01:41:45):
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peace.
But there's a voice inside my head saying
you'll never reach it Every
step I'm taking every move

(01:42:06):
I make feels lost with no
direction My faith is
shaking But I
gotta keep trying
Gotta keep keep my head held
high. There'S.

(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

(01:42:50):
it's the. Climb.
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

(01:43:11):
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

(01:43:32):
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forward/sponsored today. 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

(01:47:36):
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

(01:47:58):
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

(01:48:21):
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.

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#282 – Journey from Freelance Writing to Teaching: Insights from Amanda Lucas

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}#282 – Journey from Freelance Writing to Teaching: Insights from Amanda Lucas