Harrisburg 41-2

Celebrating CTE Month with Educators Rising

The Harrisburg School District Season 1 Episode 11

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:

  • Tracy Kern, Educators Rising Advisor (FCCLA Advisor), FACS Instructor
  • Elle Swenson, Educators Rising, SD Chapter Secretary
  • Kyra Johnson, Educators Rising, SD Chapter Vice President of Communications



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. 

 

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