In this episode, Dr. Jenkins is joined by middle school music teacher Nicole Carrion Vaughn. She shares her story of how she came to MMSD. They talk about some of the challenges and opportunities of teaching, and the ways she is working to engage students.
They're finally feeling comfortable enough to raise their hand and say, ‘Ms. Vaughn, what did you say about your musical theater? Like, where did it start again?’ Trying to get those, if they were distracted for a moment by talking, trying to get that back. Now, of course, in the moment that might be annoying to a teacher, right? Where you just said it probably three or four times, and then a student who was talking says, ‘Hey, Ms. Vaughn, what'd you say?’ Like, [chuckle] it can be annoying, but at the same time, understanding that these are kids, like they're going to be like that. And of course, I'm going say, ‘Didn't I just say it?’ And they're like, ‘'m sorry Ms. Vaughn, I was just talking.’ I was like, ‘Okay, so then what'd we learn?’ Then they're like, ‘we probably shouldn't talk.’ ‘All right. So then do what you need to do to make sure that you're going to focus.’ And sometimes they'll get up and they'll move. Sometimes, that's something that I've noticed a little that's actually very exciting is that students are actually making that choice for themselves, [wow] to go someplace and sit in a place where there's going to be the least amount of distractions, things like that.
