Every February, the CTE community celebrates CTE Month® to raise awareness of the role that CTE has in readying learners for college and career success. CTE Month is also a time to recognize and celebrate the achievements and accomplishments of our CTE partners at the local, state and national level.
This month, we turn the reins over to Mrs. Breanne Lynch, CTE Coordinator for the District, who will interview our CTSO advisors and student leaders. Today's episode features HHS's Educators Rising program. Joining us are:
Every February, the CTE community celebrates CTE Month® to raise awareness of the role that CTE has in readying learners for college and career success. CTE Month is also a time to recognize and celebrate the achievements and accomplishments of our CTE partners at the local, state and national level.
This month, we turn the reins over to Mrs. Breanne Lynch, CTE Coordinator for the District, who will interview our CTSO advisors and student leaders. Today's episode features HHS's Educators Rising program. Joining us are:
Summary
This is the 11th episode of the Harrisburg 412 podcast. Educators rising is cultivating a new generation of highly skilled educators by guiding young people on a path from high school through college and into their teaching careers. Breanne Lynch, CTE coordinator for the district interviews, Ell Swenson, Keira Johnson and Mrs. Tracy Kern.
Transcript
00:00:03 JoAnne
We're giving you more than just the 411. This is the Harrisburg 412 podcast coming to you from Southern Sioux Falls and Harrisburg, SD.
00:00:17 JoAnne
Welcome back, it's our 11th episode of the season and in this episode we're talking with our HHS Educators Rising program.
00:00:27 JoAnne
Educators Rising is cultivating a new generation of highly skilled educators by guiding young people on a path from high school through college and into their teaching careers.
00:00:37 JoAnne
By working with aspiring teachers who reflect the demographics of their communities and who are passionate about serving those communities through public education educators, rising is changing the face of teaching.
00:00:50 JoAnne
Breanne Lynch, CTE coordinator for the district interviews, Ell Swenson, Keira Johnson and Mrs. Tracy Kern, long time HSD, family and consumer science teacher and Educators Rising advisor.
00:01:06 Breanne
Hello welcome back everybody.
00:01:08 Breanne
We are back with another CTSO today.
00:01:10 Breanne
We have Educators Rising with us.
00:01:12 Breanne
Welcome everyone.
00:01:13 Tracy
Hello hello.
00:01:15 Breanne
All right, so let's go through and just go around the table and introduce ourselves to our audience.
00:01:20 Elle
Hi, I'm Elle Swenson.
00:01:22 Elle
I'm a senior at Harrisburg High School.
00:01:24 Elle
I'm also a senior officer for educators.
00:01:27 Elle
Rising and a state officer for the South Dakota chapter I am the secretary.
00:01:32 Kira Johnson
Hi, I'm Kira Johnson.
00:01:34 Kira Johnson
I'm a junior here at Harrisburg High School.
00:01:36 Kira Johnson
I'm also a senior officer here at the high school and also a state officer.
00:01:41 Kira Johnson
I'm the vice president of communications.
00:01:44 Tracy
I am Mrs. Tracy Kern.
00:01:46 Tracy
I happen to be advisor or one of the advisors here at Harrisburg for our Educators Rising association.
00:01:52 Tracy
I've been at Harrisburg ever since 2000. I have been in education for 27 years and currently I am serving on the South Dakota Board of Directors for South Dakota Educators Rising.
00:02:05 Breanne
All right, Mrs. Kern, you've seen it all right. You've been in Harrisburg since 2000. So tell me the dream. How did Educators Rising come about as a career and technical student organization?
00:02:14 Tracy
Sure, so I've been in the district quite a while and it was brought to my attention.
00:02:20 Tracy
If I would be willing to help cultivate the next generation of educators.
00:02:25 Tracy
And being a CTE teacher, I don't do clubs and so after doing some research research, we found that there was a C TSO.
00:02:34 Tracy
Out there that actually dealt with preparing students for the role of a teacher or that of as an educator.
00:02:41 Tracy
And it was a relatively new ctso, but it was something that we were willing to start from the ground level.
00:02:47 Tracy
Of course, we have phenomenal administrators here at Harrisburg, and so when we started brainstorming and envisioning what we want, the downside was is that we didn't have a state association that was associated with Educators Rising, and Mr. Lape and Dr. Amolins and says don't worry, we'll start one, and that's basically how the state association of educators Rising started.
00:03:09 Tracy
It actually started with a conversation that was in my classroom and five years later we are at several chapters.
00:03:17 Tracy
How many chapters do we have in this state?
00:03:21 Tracy
30S and your goal for the year was.
00:03:26 Tracy
4040 every year we're getting more and more chapters. We really need a pipeline here in the state because education is so vital and we are so short staffed when it comes to teachers.
00:03:38 Tracy
And so this is just one Ave.
00:03:40 Tracy
that we can use to help fulfill that pipeline.
00:03:43 Breanne
Yeah, so why the interest in education?
00:03:45 Breanne
What made you take the jump in getting involved in educators?
00:03:50 Elle
I've always wanted to be a teacher.
00:03:52 Elle
I used to I was the oldest on my street always or the most responsible so I always had.
00:03:58 Elle
I was always given the little kids to direct and make sure no one ran out in front of a car or something and I would take them down to the library and we'd read and I'd I always read them.
00:04:09 Elle
Greek mythology.
00:04:10 Elle
Like child versions of the.
00:04:11 Breanne
I was gonna say group mythology to little.
00:04:13 Elle
Kids like funny versions without all the gore and I remember there was this little girl once who would never really join my group.
00:04:21 Elle
She wasn't from my neighborhood, but one day she came up with this giant book of Roman mythology, and she's like, will you read this to me?
00:04:28 Elle
And I had no clue who she was.
00:04:29 Elle
And I did and I didn't see her again for a while.
00:04:32 Elle
And the next time she came in the same time I did, she had this whole book of Roman mythology with sticky notes in it, and she's like a first grader at this point.
00:04:40 Elle
And she's like this is all the things.
00:04:41 Elle
I didn't.
00:04:41 Elle
Understand will you make it funny for me?
00:04:44 Elle
And that was kind of the first moment that I really wanted to be a teacher.
00:04:47 Elle
I wanted to help kids do that.
00:04:49 Elle
Find the funny in learning and then from there I've just always been intrigued by.
00:04:54 Elle
That how old.
00:04:54 Breanne
Were you?
00:04:55 Elle
I was in about 5th or 6th grade.
00:04:57 Breanne
At that point, so 5th or 6th grade making this big impact on this first grader and trying to make her learning fun and funny.
00:05:03 Breanne
Yeah, that's awesome.
00:05:05 Kira Johnson
Yeah, I think similar to Elle.
00:05:06 Kira Johnson
It started out when I was little, but I think being the oldest in my family kind of curated the leadership role in that.
00:05:12 Kira Johnson
I guess that aspect, but it was always me and my sister playing school in the basement with my little whiteboard easel and me doing little I guess easy math problems with her, but I guess it never really started till middle school when I.
00:05:23 Kira Johnson
Had some of.
00:05:25 Kira Johnson
I guess the best teachers I've had in my career as a student and they really pushed me forward to want to go into education and just really inspired me in that aspect.
00:05:33 Breanne
Do you guys have specialty areas in mind already?
00:05:36 Elle
I would like to do either history or English.
00:05:39 Kira Johnson
Yeah, I'm thinking music education at the secondary level.
00:05:42 Breanne
Wow, that's awesome.
00:05:43 Breanne
So Mrs.
00:05:44 Breanne
Kern these sound like we might have two traditional educators on our hands.
00:05:47 Breanne
But do you get students interested through education in different pathways and maybe in a non traditional area?
00:05:55 Tracy
We we've talked about those types of pathways, but you know, we're relatively a new organization, so I'm sure.
00:06:01 Tracy
As we go on, we'll we'll see some of those.
00:06:05 Elle
I think the most is one of our our president organization was doing it to be in English as a secondary language teacher possibly.
00:06:12 Breanne
Wow, we definitely need ESL teachers for sure.
00:06:15 Breanne
I mean we need teachers in all areas and all disciplines, but I think it's interesting the spec, the specificity that you have already and you're teaching focus.
00:06:23 Tracy
And I'd like to add, we've had some students interested in being professors at the university level.
00:06:28 Tracy
We've also had students.
00:06:29 Tracy
Of course, I'm a CTE teacher and interested in the CTE path as well.
00:06:34 Breanne
Awesome, so there's space for everybody, right?
00:06:35 Breanne
We need all types of educators.
00:06:37 Tracy
And it can also include trainers out in the corporate level as well, because they are teachers as well.
00:06:43 Tracy
They're just teaching their content.
00:06:45 Breanne
Yeah, I think we forget that in a lot of roles where there's probably a lot of educators in many different career pathways.
00:06:50 Breanne
Yeah, very transferable skills, awesome.
00:06:55 Breanne
So can you tell me a little bit about the benefits?
00:06:57 Breanne
That a ctso member and Educators Rising gains personally and then maybe how those benefits are shared within their organization, their school, or their community.
00:07:06 Elle
I think the first thing it really does is it lets you get exposed to the career field.
00:07:10 Elle
We all know that teaching isn't the most luxurious career out there, and so it kind of helps for one like get you exposed to classrooms, to kids to what your job would entail so that you're more confident and you want to do it because we want our teachers to want to enjoy teaching.
00:07:27 Elle
And so, like this year, one of our goals was to get more of our chapters.
00:07:30 Elle
Into classrooms we had an adopt A classroom program so that high school students could go in and have more hands on experience.
00:07:37 Elle
And then it also it gets you a community.
00:07:41 Elle
It gets you different skills you need along the way.
00:07:43 Elle
We do competitions where you can do more of like learning about the ethics of teaching and having dilemma.
00:07:48 Elle
Was about different ethical situations you might encounter or creating bulletin boards or giving a lesson plans to just get you more experience in the career field.
00:07:59 Kira Johnson
Yeah, I think a really cool part about being a member of advising is the amount of colleges you get to meet and visit with.
00:08:05 Kira Johnson
I guess as a sophomore I had no clue where I wanted to go.
00:08:08 Kira Johnson
What I wanted to exactly go into, but through all the Expos that we visited or we have gone to and all the college.
00:08:15 Kira Johnson
Yes, admission counselors that we visited with I have a much better idea and it really helps me view what their education programs like and what a student there gets to do in a.
00:08:23 Kira Johnson
Day-to-day.
00:08:24 Breanne
OK, so you said Expo.
00:08:26 Breanne
So for our listeners can you explain what an Expo?
00:08:29 Kira Johnson
Yeah, so advising does this really cool thing called an Expo. So basically colleges have the opportunity to host an Expo which gives them the opportunity to talk about what admission processes are like there, but I guess the day-to-day I guess the day-to-day.
00:08:45 Kira Johnson
I don't know how I want to word this?
00:08:48 Kira Johnson
I guess how a normal schedule would go in an Expo is we get up here at the high school we traveled to a college.
00:08:54 Kira Johnson
They normally kind of have this first keynote speaker where they talk about some sort of education thing.
00:08:59 Kira Johnson
Then we get to talk to their admissions or other students from their campus, and then we would go to lunch and then they have a breakout session which is random things that you would find in an education setting.
00:09:10 Kira Johnson
So I'm trying to think random ones.
00:09:11 Kira Johnson
I think one year we had a VR thing where they talked about like Minecraft and how we incorporate gaming into the classroom where they had really cool physical education.
00:09:20 Kira Johnson
And then we kind of just wrap out the day with more stuff about the specific college or university we visited and just just keep in contact from there.
00:09:29 Kira Johnson
But it's a really cool experience.
00:09:30 Breanne
Yeah, so Mrs. Kern, from the advisor perspective what's your role in the Expo and what do other advisors get to experience on those days so?
00:09:38 Tracy
Sure, so learning Expos we usually have or anywhere from three to four of them a year.
00:09:42 Tracy
And we try to have them at different universities across the state.
00:09:45 Tracy
So the hope is is if students are with us all four years as a member, they'll be able to learn about the education program.
00:09:52 Tracy
Is that that is at that particular college or university.
00:09:56 Tracy
So just last week we actually went to Mount Marty University or Mount Marty College, I should say.
00:10:02 Tracy
And we had a wonderful time.
00:10:03 Tracy
They bring in guest speakers that that deal with a wide variety of topics related to the education well.
00:10:09 Tracy
Plus it gives that university or college an opportunity to showcase their university or their educational program at that university.
00:10:17 Breanne
So as a member, is there a cost or a fee to attend these Expos?
00:10:21 Elle
No, they're usually free.
00:10:23 Elle
The only charge you'd ever have is there's a slight one for state and national competitions, but we try and keep everything as free as we can so that everyone has an access to this because we want more people to be teaching.
00:10:34 Breanne
Yeah, if we're going to have more educators, we need a low barrier to entry right to make this career field as approachable as possible.
00:10:40 Tracy
Can I can I add to?
00:10:41 Tracy
Yeah, so when we started this, one of the things that we wanted to do was to make sure that it was free because being an advisor of another ctso, there's always money that's involved.
00:10:51 Tracy
If you want to go to a competition, or if you want to go to a conference.
00:10:55 Tracy
And so our mission was is that we were going to try to keep it as low cost as we could, so the learning Expos are all free when we go to state conference at the end of February, which is actually yeah, February 27th and 28th. The registration for that is free as well. There is some cost associated with that for the local.
00:11:14 Tracy
Chapters for transportation and for home.
00:11:16 Tracy
Well, but we fundraise and I try to keep that all free.
00:11:20 Tracy
So my Members here at Harrisburg will never have to pay anything because we want them to go into education and we don't want money to hinder that.
00:11:28 Breanne
That goal for them, that's awesome, so I know that some people were able to travel to the National Convention.
00:11:33 Breanne
Can we share a little bit about that?
00:11:34 Tracy
I went with a couple of students this summer.
00:11:36 Breanne
Yeah, can you share?
00:11:36 Breanne
Your experience with us, Chris.
00:11:37 Tracy
Yes, so that was the first conference that Harrisburg as well as the state association had ever went to.
00:11:43 Tracy
We took two students and these two students now are freshmen at USF pursuing an elementary and CTE degree.
00:11:52 Tracy
And they had a wonderful time.
00:11:54 Tracy
They participated and competed in the Interactive bulletin board where it is.
00:11:59 Tracy
They have to design A bulletin board that is interactive and educational and manner and then showcase that to a set of judges.
00:12:06 Tracy
From a advisors standpoint, it was really exciting because it was our first conference.
00:12:12 Tracy
We didn't know what to expect.
00:12:13 Tracy
They had some phenomenal guest speakers, keynote speakers, and opportunities for my students that we wouldn't have at this state association.
00:12:20 Breanne
OK, so if I want to join Educators Rising in Harrisburg, what are my steps?
00:12:25 Elle
It's very simple.
00:12:27 Elle
You just fill out a sheet.
00:12:28 Elle
Basically that gives you contact information and how to like your e-mail and your phone number.
00:12:34 Elle
And that's essentially it. If you mentioned that all in Mrs. Kerr's presence that you want to teach that she will find its way onto your desk in.
00:12:41 Elle
The next 5.
00:12:41 Elle
Minutes or just near.
00:12:42 Kira Johnson
No, I think it's.
00:12:44 Breanne
Her like if.
00:12:45 Breanne
Yeah, a few classrooms away.
00:12:46 Kira Johnson
It gets through the Grapevine, Mrs.
00:12:48 Kira Johnson
Kern will find you and.
00:12:49 Tracy
I will find you.
00:12:50 Tracy
Yes I will.
00:12:52 Elle
And even if you're not entirely sure you want to teach she, she knows how to talk you into it, so you'll.
00:12:57 Breanne
Yeah, so those.
00:12:58 Breanne
Maybe follow up question maybe.
00:13:00 Breanne
What if I'm a little hesitant like I maybe have this interest.
00:13:03 Breanne
Do I have to be worried that you're gonna like lock me into this?
00:13:06 Breanne
Career path for.
00:13:06 Breanne
Life or like?
00:13:07 Breanne
What what's the benefit of maybe just?
00:13:09 Breanne
Trying it out.
00:13:10 Kira Johnson
I think it really exposes you to what you like and you don't like and so even if you are unsure about education, I think just trying it out.
00:13:17 Kira Johnson
Gives you a better picture if you will enjoy it and if you don't.
00:13:21 Kira Johnson
No worries, we're not gonna hunt you down and be like you have to continue, and we're very we're very like low intensity club like if you sign up and never show up we're not gonna care.
00:13:32 Elle
We try and keep it very relaxed.
00:13:34 Elle
We want to encourage you to teach, but we and expose you to it, but there's nothing holding you here and like encourage people to join it anyways, even if you're not certain you're teaching because like.
00:13:45 Elle
Paris said it exposes you to colleges, so like worst case scenario.
00:13:50 Elle
You go to a bunch of South Dakotan colleges and you see their campus for free and best case scenario, you go into the teaching career.
00:13:58 Breanne
Yeah, what are local chapter meetings like?
00:14:00 Breanne
So if I come to a meeting what time you know what am I going to learn in those experiences?
00:14:05 Kira Johnson
I think the cool thing about our Harrisburg chapter meetings is we welcome teachers from different varieties in the high school here or even around the district.
00:14:12 Kira Johnson
Last week we had one of our English teachers come in and she talked about what balancing the life at home and being an author and balancing the time here at school is like we had a coaches panel so we had some.
00:14:26 Kira Johnson
Teacher coaches come in and talk about what coaching was like.
00:14:29 Kira Johnson
I think one of my favorites from last year is when we had the extracurricular and.
00:14:34 Kira Johnson
What was that all about?
00:14:34 Tracy
A locked up team.
00:14:35 Kira Johnson
Elective teachers come in and they talked about all of the different stories that they had.
00:14:40 Kira Johnson
They were just a hoot.
00:14:41 Kira Johnson
Probably one of my.
00:14:42 Kira Johnson
Favorite ones right there, but.
00:14:43 Breanne
Big fan of electives.
00:14:44 Breanne
Teachers here in the career and technical education room.
00:14:46 Tracy
Yeah Mr.
00:14:47 Tracy
Smith made it quite entertaining, yeah?
00:14:48 Kira Johnson
Oh yeah, his whole story.
00:14:49 Kira Johnson
I think 10 plus years of college and extra education.
00:14:52 Breanne
10 plus years of college you can learn a lot.
00:14:54 Breanne
In 10 years in college, yeah.
00:14:56 Tracy
We we try to bring.
00:14:58 Tracy
In speakers and topics that students are interested in, I know when we first started this about three or four years back, we brought in a retired teacher panel.
00:15:06 Tracy
We brought in retired teachers from our district and we had about five of them on the panel, and that was really fun to get their perspective.
00:15:13 Tracy
And we've had the elective teachers elementary teachers.
00:15:16 Tracy
Coaches, we've had a long list of different people in the education field that we have brought.
00:15:22 Kira Johnson
In, I think that's what's cool about it.
00:15:23 Kira Johnson
It's what we want to listen to, so it's not like ohh this is boring because it's just something that's being told to us.
00:15:30 Kira Johnson
Where when it's something we're interested in, it's actually information that we absorb and use later in.
00:15:35 Elle
Life and we always try and like bring in the less thought about parts of education that you don't typically think of, like balancing your work life in your home life or at like different Expos.
00:15:48 Elle
There'll be speakers on mental health with your students and how to keep positive mental health in your classroom.
00:15:53 Elle
Or how to deal with special education students or even students that aren't in special special education but.
00:16:00 Elle
You just have different needs or slight struggles in your classroom and how to deal with that in a way that will.
00:16:04 Elle
Make an impact.
00:16:06 Tracy
One thing I'd like to add is educators raising is actually a Co curricular organization, just like all the other ones that we have here at Harrisburg.
00:16:14 Tracy
I do teach at education class and then this is just enhances what is taught in the classroom.
00:16:21 Tracy
Because I only give students one semester and if they join me or take me, you know when they're a freshman that is several semesters that I'm not going to have access to them I don't want.
00:16:32 Tracy
Lose them if they've got the spark to teach.
00:16:35 Tracy
I want to be able to cultivate that spark so Educators Rising enhances that and then allows for activities and curriculum to happen.
00:16:45 Elle
That's outside the regular classroom, and also if you're if you take Educators Rising and you're very interested in teaching, I recommend taking.
00:16:53 Elle
At CTE class exploration of teaching.
00:16:55 Elle
Because the big part that it does is it gets you into an actual classroom for the semester so that you have about like anywhere from 8 to is like 16 visits with you're a teacher and you actually get help and hands on experience in the classroom.
00:17:08 Elle
So you kind of dip your toes in.
00:17:09 Elle
And be like.
00:17:10 Elle
I really don't want to teach kindergarteners or like I really like middle schoolers.
00:17:14 Elle
Kind of just feel around before you sign your life away in college.
00:17:18 Breanne
Yeah, I think that's smart, good, and the feeling around and checking things out and seeing if that's what you want to do.
00:17:23 Breanne
I could said I could never teach elementary kids.
00:17:26 Breanne
I cannot wipe noses and tie shoes all day long.
00:17:28 Breanne
Kern agrees with me.
00:17:29 Breanne
That sounds hard, doesn't it?
00:17:31 JoAnne
Sounds really yeah.
00:17:33 Kira Johnson
Bigger kids, bigger.
00:17:34 Breanne
Problems, but I'll take it so sometimes that's fun.
00:17:37 Breanne
So you talked about local leadership roles.
00:17:40 Breanne
Can you talk maybe about state leadership roles?
00:17:42 Kira Johnson
Yeah, so I guess the state rule was just kind of something like hey, do you want to do this?
00:17:48 Kira Johnson
And Ellen, we were just like sure.
00:17:49 Kira Johnson
So we kind of got thrown in blind.
00:17:52 Kira Johnson
I think that sounds a little weird but when we went into the interview process, we weren't really sure what was going to happen.
00:17:58 Kira Johnson
But you go in, you sit with these panel of judges and they just kind of interview.
00:18:03 Kira Johnson
Learn about what you do.
00:18:05 Kira Johnson
You talk about why you want to be a teacher.
00:18:07 Kira Johnson
You go through this process of just random stuff about you that you have to fill out.
00:18:10 Kira Johnson
But then after that I think it's just kind of smooth sailing.
00:18:13 Kira Johnson
We meet about once a month.
00:18:14 Kira Johnson
We text each other constantly about random ideas we have.
00:18:18 Elle
There's a lot about.
00:18:18 Kira Johnson
Uniforms, yeah.
00:18:19 Kira Johnson
Your topic right now, what pair of pants are we gonna?
00:18:22 Kira Johnson
Wear so.
00:18:23 Breanne
That's important, you wanna.
00:18:24 Breanne
Look the part if you're gonna be an educator.
00:18:26 Tracy
That's important, but so where are you going next?
00:18:28 Kira Johnson
Week go to Pier and we're shadowing legislators next week.
00:18:28 Elle
We're going to, yeah, yeah.
00:18:32 Breanne
Yeah, tell us more about legislative shadow.
00:18:34 Kira Johnson
Day, so all the C.
00:18:35 Kira Johnson
TSO's, across the state, go to peer and they get paired up with the legislator right and we just get to shadow them for the day. We get to meet the governor.
00:18:43 Kira Johnson
Believe we have another etiquette meal.
00:18:45 Tracy
You do.
00:18:46 Kira Johnson
Which is a little scary.
00:18:47 Kira Johnson
Remember which fork to use and where the napkin goes when you leave the table out.
00:18:51 Breanne
Outside in right outside in.
00:18:51 Kira Johnson
Yep, Yep.
00:18:52 Elle
Yeah, you're gonna have to help me because I missed the.
00:18:54 Elle
First one, yeah.
00:18:56 Kira Johnson
But I think that's a really cool experience because you get to meet with all the other state officers from FFA to FCCLA to HOSA, and you get to see what their life is like.
00:19:05 Kira Johnson
But I mean the state officer life is quite a dream.
00:19:09 Kira Johnson
I also.
00:19:10 Elle
Believe we're going to sit in or meet with the.
00:19:13 Elle
Board of Education for South Dakota to talk about.
00:19:15 Elle
Like current things that are going on with different like standards and stuff to see the more government.
00:19:20 Breanne
OK, you open.
00:19:21 Breanne
The door and you're interested in history.
00:19:23 Elle
Yeah no.
00:19:24 Breanne
So the South Dakota State standards are up for revision in social studies, correct?
00:19:29 Breanne
So how do you feel that students have been able to come to the table in that conversation?
00:19:33 Breanne
And how has Educators Rising played a role in being able to be a voice for standards revision?
00:19:39 Elle
It's really exposed kids, I think to the whole topic.
00:19:42 Elle
Cause like in high school like.
00:19:44 Elle
It's you don't really hear as a student about the standards, and I think being an Educators Rising has really caught people's eye. Like, even when we were at Mount Marty last week.
00:19:55 Elle
The oh South Dakota Education Association was there with pamphlets being like we encourage you to review this to know this this is.
00:20:05 Elle
What career you're going into?
00:20:06 Elle
You need to understand.
00:20:08 Elle
It's like I'm planning to go and sit in one of the open hearings.
00:20:14 Elle
Over the standards just to see, like the conversation, and I think a lot of students if they got more involved, would care more and so I feel like educators are raising is kind of helping with that being like this is going to be your education or your little siblings education so you should care more.
00:20:30 Kira Johnson
About it, I think getting our own personal voices and opinions on it.
00:20:34 Kira Johnson
Will really help curate the classroom to our own needs and wants and help.
00:20:39 Kira Johnson
I guess better the future of education for.
00:20:43 Breanne
OK, let's talk a little bit about community service and community engagement.
00:20:47 Breanne
So collectively, does Educators Rising have a service project that they do at the state level or locally?
00:20:52 Breanne
Are you doing anything collectively?
00:20:54 Breanne
As a CSO organization?
00:20:57 Kira Johnson
So the month of December we kind of just dedicate for community service.
00:21:02 Kira Johnson
We do random stuff across the line.
00:21:04 Kira Johnson
It doesn't really matter, but I think something really cool about community services this year.
00:21:08 Kira Johnson
That's what our state theme is is.
00:21:11 Elle
Giving back to your community.
00:21:13 Kira Johnson
It's yeah, it's giving back to your community, but that's what our whole state conference is going to be planned around.
00:21:13 Elle
Something along those lines.
00:21:18 Kira Johnson
But I think it's the national theme too, but I think this year we did give a lot of I guess, thought and processes towards community service and we just wanted to give back to the Community.
00:21:30 Kira Johnson
We talked about book drives.
00:21:33 Kira Johnson
School supplies drives just random stuff that we could do to give back to the community because I believe that's just the heart and soul.
00:21:39 Elle
Of education and we pushed out at the beginning of the year this sheet that had all the like.
00:21:47 Elle
Awareness days or whatever you call them like hear value your school resource officer or give back to your custodians or recognize your lunch workers and just to not even just give back to your community but give back to your school system as a whole for all that it's done for you.
00:22:02 Elle
All of the support staff roles instead of.
00:22:04 Breanne
The educational pathway.
00:22:05 Kira Johnson
I think that sheet was really cool because when we were looking at it back in beginning of August, we were like we didn't even know that some of these positions were actual things.
00:22:15 Kira Johnson
And yeah, it really opened to my eyes about how big a school is as a community and how many people are really involved in it.
00:22:23 Tracy
In November was National Education Week and we did some community service involved with that and at the local level and then for those listeners that don't know, CTE month happens to be the month of February and so all the CTE organizations within our district here at Harrisburg are going to do some Community service projects which happens to be the first one is we're going to work at feeding.
00:22:46 Tracy
Of Dakota.
00:22:47 Tracy
So these girls don't know this yet, but there's some information coming their way.
00:22:52 Breanne
Also, you know if there's any community members who are listening and they would like to connect with Educators Rising, they'll be our contact information below this podcast, and I know that we would love to have more advocacy opportunities and volunteer service community projects, so just go ahead and reach out to us and Mrs.
00:23:08 Breanne
Karen will help connect with Educators Rising and for projects that make sense.
00:23:12 Breanne
Alright, we're reaching the end of our time together.
00:23:14 Breanne
Is there any specific person or organization you'd like to throw a shout out?
00:23:17 Breanne
Or thank you too.
00:23:19 Elle
Definitely Mr. Lape
00:23:20 Elle
Yes he does a lot of running around with to get things organized for us and there's a lot of work he puts into this organization that it wouldn't.
00:23:29 Elle
It wouldn't function at all without Mr. Lape
00:23:31 Elle
All he does for.
00:23:32 Kira Johnson
I don't think it gets recognized enough for what he does for us.
00:23:36 Kira Johnson
He's the true backbone of the entire organization for the state.
00:23:41 Tracy
And we and we are lucky to call him ours, yes.
00:23:43 Breanne
Yeah, I guess they'll claim you Mr. Lape
00:23:46 Breanne
Luther Smith.
00:23:48 Elle
I'd also like to thank Mrs. Norris this year. She was our Competitions director again like last year when we did competitions, no one was really there to explain anything, so you got really thrown into the deep end for what you were expecting.
00:24:02 Elle
The paperwork was confusing and so you didn't know what to do and this year we have Lisa Norris who kind of guides us.
00:24:09 Elle
You can always ask her questions and then we ran through like practice rounds.
00:24:14 Elle
This year at Mount Marty, so that you kind of knew what to expect when you went there and you could give the best version of your presentation.
00:24:22 Kira Johnson
We also had some collegiate mentors that helped with our competitive events this year.
00:24:26 Kira Johnson
They dedicated their time and correspondence with emailing back and forth with us, giving us some ideas, just helping us get better prepared for our competitive events for this upcoming competition.
00:24:38 Elle
Season and of course thank you, Mrs. Kern, for running this whole organization for us.
00:24:42 Breanne
And all the ctso things that you.
00:24:45 Elle
Do Oh yeah.
00:24:46 Tracy
The list is small.
00:24:49 Breanne
What would you say to because you have a cool story about how you helped your - you know the young version of yourself kind of find this pathway just by playing on the street with other kids in your neighborhood and playing with your sister and that kind of thing.
00:25:02 Breanne
And I think most people fall into education one of two ways.
00:25:06 Breanne
It was like this thing they were born to do, and they always knew that.
00:25:09 Breanne
Or it was like completely accidental.
00:25:11 Breanne
But again, they are so happy they're in it.
00:25:14 Breanne
So maybe what would you say to a younger version of yourself or to you know if you're talking to a younger sibling or an elementary student to maybe cultivate that interest in education?
00:25:24 Elle
Just do what you love your your time on Earth is very, very short and so it's not something you should waste.
00:25:32 Elle
And so, like teaching is something I'm 100% confident that I will spend every day enjoying. Mrs. Kern always says that she comes to school every day. Glad that she chose this, and so if it is something you're interested in.
00:25:46 Elle
I encourage you to go for it, and if I was talking to a younger version of me.
00:25:51 Elle
Just it will all work out however you want it to go.
00:25:53 Elle
Like you said, either you're born for it or you fall accidentally into it somehow.
00:25:57 Elle
But life will snap into place.
00:25:59 Kira Johnson
Yeah, that's what I was going to talk about.
00:26:01 Kira Johnson
Is it?
00:26:01 Kira Johnson
It's gonna feel right.
00:26:02 Kira Johnson
I think you shouldn't feel very wishy washy on it.
00:26:05 Kira Johnson
That should I do this or should I not like?
00:26:08 Kira Johnson
I think I finally came to peace on like this is what I meant to do.
00:26:11 Kira Johnson
But back to the just it happening happening accidentally.
00:26:14 Kira Johnson
I've definitely had friends that are just like no way I'm going to be a teacher.
00:26:17 Kira Johnson
And then here we are, and they're living the.
00:26:20 Kira Johnson
Life mm-hmm
00:26:21 Breanne
You're looking at the lady who said?
00:26:22 Breanne
She'd never be a.
00:26:23 Breanne
Teacher so I get it, Mrs. Kern did you always know you were going to be an educator.
00:26:29 Tracy
I knew at an early on that I would wanted to do education.
00:26:33 Tracy
I have a really I like to call it a powerful story and the importance of CTE.
00:26:38 Tracy
I just think CTE changed my life as a younger version and through that CTE I was able to cultivate and to learn and grow.
00:26:47 Tracy
And who would think that almost 30 years later I'd be working with future.
00:26:51 Tracy
Teaching - it has been a great profession.
00:26:54 Tracy
I get up in the morning and I don't dread going to work and how many people can say that I get to come to school and work with kids that I love and I adore.
00:27:05 Tracy
Who can say that and I go home at night feeling good about what I did, and I think that's a lot.
00:27:11 Tracy
Who can say that?
00:27:12 Tracy
And it's just been a really great career and I hope that by advising this organization, students will see and feel that from.
00:27:20 Tracy
Me in my feeling.
00:27:22 Breanne
I think the generations of kids that have been educated by Tracy Care and definitely feel that message every day.
00:27:27 Breanne
Would you?
00:27:28 Breanne
Agree totally.
00:27:29 Elle
And that's like another thing for like, especially like middle schoolers.
00:27:32 Elle
Right now that are coming into high school trying to figure out what they want to kind of do with their life before college.
00:27:37 Elle
If you grew up with the teacher that made a huge impact in your life.
00:27:41 Elle
You were one of the kids that stayed after school in classrooms where you just had a teacher that completely changed your life and made you into the person you are today.
00:27:50 Elle
I think teaching is something you should consider so that you could give back in that same way.
00:27:54 Elle
Find something you're passionate about, and then put yourself in the same position.
00:27:58 Breanne
And tell them right can we please can we please please please shout like our gratitude to all these teachers that impacted us along the way and it's never too late to tell them, right?
00:28:06 Breanne
Yeah, I mean if it's your elementary teacher or a high school teacher and you're you know 50 years out of high school, that's OK.
00:28:13 Breanne
Like send the note, write the card, send the e-mail text message, make the phone call right like it always.
00:28:19 Elle
And always do it sooner rather than later.
00:28:21 Elle
It's kind of a sad story, but one of the teachers that really pushed me into being a teacher was Mrs. Plain and she passed away from cancer freshman year.
00:28:29 Elle
And I never really got a chance to tell her that that she was the one that kind.
00:28:33 Elle
Encouraged me or motivated me that this is what I want to do.
00:28:36 Elle
I want to be the teacher that lets the kids fool around in the lab and gives them memories and helps them grow more than just learning lies.
00:28:44 Elle
But as people.
00:28:46 Kira Johnson
You know, I was just going to talk about how I've still been in correspondence with some of the best teachers I've had within the past years.
00:28:51 Kira Johnson
I actually just had a teacher reach out to me last Monday because she saw one of my performances and she was just like, hey, I'm so proud of you for all that.
00:28:58 Kira Johnson
And I was like I wouldn't be here because of you, but even like back to elementary school, still talk to my elementary teachers.
00:29:04 Kira Johnson
Maybe set her.
00:29:05 Kira Johnson
Grandkids, so yeah.
00:29:07 Breanne
We're a little biased, but teachers are the best people, right?
00:29:09 Kira Johnson
Oh, they are 100%.
00:29:12 Breanne
Well, that robs of our CTS podcast featuring Harrisburg Educators Rising.
00:29:17 Breanne
Thanks for joining me today.
00:29:19 Kira Johnson
Thanks for having me yeah.
00:29:20 Elle
Thanks for having us.