Dr. Amy Vujaklija and Dr. Joi Patterson reflect on their podcast's journey, which began during the COVID-19 lockdown in May 2020. We have released a number of episodes, discussing diverse topics through the lens of diversity, equity, and inclusion. We highlight the importance of being reflective practitioners, emphasizing self-awareness and impact. Notable guests include psychologists, counselors, and educators, who share their experiences and solutions. We discuss the impact of our conversations on educators and the broader community, noting the importance of addressing tough topics and providing practical strategies. We encourage listener engagement and plan to cover topics like bullying and homework balance in future episodes.

SUMMARY KEYWORDS

reflective practitioner, self-awareness, diversity inclusion, remote instruction, hallway conversations, guest perspectives, tough topics, equity impact, solutions focus, teacher retention, Facebook Live, listener engagement, podcast impact, educational challenges, guest interviews

SPEAKERS

Joi Patterson, Amy Vujaklija

Taking this time to be a reflective practitioner really brings about self awareness. What am I doing? Who am I impacting? What are next steps? Am I achieving? What I thought I would achieve?

This episode was originally released under the podcast titled teaching and learning theory versus practice. This rebooted episode has been migrated to teaching and leading with Dr Amy and Dr Joi I am Dr Amy Vujaklija, Director of educator preparation, and I am Dr Joi Patterson, Chief Diversity Officer, our podcast addresses issues through the lens of diversity, equity and inclusion, along with solutions for us to grow as educators. So join us on our journey to become better teachers and leaders. So let's get into it.

Good morning. Dr, Joi, good morning.

Dr, Amy, how are you?

I am blown away that it's been over a year since we released our first podcast episode.

So how many episodes are we at now?

A lot,

a lot, 6070, that's a lot of episodes in a year's time. And when you go back and you think about when and why, the whole genesis of this podcast, do you remember that Amy,

we were locked in our homes. We started talking about this back in May of 2020. We prepared a Facebook Live event, and so we had spent a month or so preparing for that Facebook Live to help prepare teachers for online instruction in the fall and what that might look like. That was fun.

That was fun. Things have changed so much since that time of what we thought remote instruction would look like and what it looks like now. So things have really changed. I really like that. It gave us this opportunity to still connect number one, and you and I both like to think outside the box. We like to share our knowledge. We like to talk to people. We like to get information out there. So this was a perfect way for us to continue to do that. I did miss you, though. I did miss you coming down the hall. So

being only a few doors down, we had those conversations, and we've turned those hallway conversations into podcast conversations. What I find so fascinating is that we're not alone in our conversations. We're bringing other people in to share their perspectives, to really push our thinking. Because sometimes I'm in an uncomfortable space or an unknown space, not having had the same teaching experience or student experience as some of our guests, and it's just important to listen. That's what I have found over the last year, is listening has been so valuable, and it's really taught me a lot about other people's voices and experiences, how those experiences have shaped them as educators, right?

So our audience is probably wondering, Where's your guest today? We don't have a guest today, because today we're going to focus on just being a reflective practitioner, and that's important for all of us. I know it's important for me to just take a step back sometime, and taking that step back is what catapults me to the next thing. So when I take that time to be a reflective practitioner and really kind of absorb my work, meaningfulness of my work, because sometimes you're just so we're so busy, we're just doing doing, doing doing, and we forget about why we're doing, you know, we forget about the philosophy behind what we're doing. Taking this time to be a reflective practitioner really brings about self awareness. What am I doing? Who am I impacting? What are next steps? Am I achieving? What I thought I would achieve. This is an opportunity for some reflection, which I think, after all of these episodes, I think we need this opportunity to reflect.

I'm looking at some of our objectives that we brainstormed when we first began. One of the questions was, why are we doing a podcast and to follow that? Why is this important to us? Why is it important to you?

I like sharing. I like learning. So more than anything, I've learned a lot. You know, we have interviewed some fantastic people. Maybe we'll talk about them in a Minutes, but we've had everyone has been fantastic, from psychologists to counselors to medical doctors to parents to high school administrators to university leaders to researchers to scientists. I mean, they have all been amazing. Not Oh, also students. So we also had students, and I have learned a lot. So I've gone into it with a little bit of knowledge, a little bit of research, but more than anything, I've learned a lot. So the goal was to be able to share that, to be able to share so people can take their time to digest, to be an additional resource to connect to educators. And I mean that broadly, because as parents, we're educators, you know, as teachers, we're educators, but I mean that very broadly, so I just wanted to have an impact on our daily lives and outcomes as educators.

What

What I appreciate, what has really become very meaningful to me is that we don't shy away from some tough topics. It's not always easy that to have the conversations that we have and to learn about some of our students lived experiences our educators why they went into the field of education, it was to make a difference. It was to make lives better for our students, and sometimes that was in spite of some very troubling times and major obstacles. Those perspectives have opened my eyes to other people's lived experiences, and I hope, I think, made me a better educator, more aware, and I think that really adds meaning to what work I do in the classroom, outside of the classroom, in higher education and preparing curriculum, the committee work that you and I do, and the impact that some of our conversations have had on the bigger community outside of Governor State University.

You know, going back to what you said about the tough conversation, some of them have been tough, and I can recall, I don't know if my skin is being thicker or what by this, but I used to get teary eyed a lot,and it seems like no matter what the topic was, it always went back to equity. And so those moments really made me teary eyed, that it always just went back to equity. And what kind of impact are we having so that just really, really resonates with me. What about this whole thing resonates with you? Amy,

what resonates with me are the solutions that are being brought to the table. I love that when we talk to guests, we don't stop where the problems are being brought to us. We don't stop there. We don't stop with the difficult situation, whether it is with social, emotional learning or digital instruction or remote teaching and learning, whatever that might look like. We ask our guests, we ask each other, what can we do? What tips are available to our listeners, what strategies might they try today, tomorrow, the next day, or thinking about as they plan instruction for the upcoming month they can implement right away. As a reflective practitioner, I want to see how I can be better. There's a lot we can't solve, but individually and then again, collectively, we can make small strides to impact our students in front of us and to be supports for each other. And although I might not have a voice that extends nationwide. I know that the people who are with us today, who are our students, who are our colleagues, can gain something from our conversations, because like you, I'm learning a lot.

Yeah, well, actually, you do have a voice that extends nationwide. According to our statistics, we're widely listened to nationwide, but also it's given our guests the opportunity to share nationwide, right? And so it has given them an outlet some of the topics, especially when we talk to parents or students or counselors, you know, people that are not researchers, and they have these wonderful things to share and can't imagine how to get it to the public, and so it's given them this outlet to be able to share, and we've learned some amazing things.Things from parents and students.

Remember our conversation with a college student, Aaron West. He talks about pathways to college success.

Yes, I love that. That's probably one of my favorites, because Aaron did not go through college in a normal path. He did not finish in four years. He finished in six years because he had a lot of bumps and turns. So I think when other college students hear that story, they don't feel so defeated and so that they know that if I just push a little bit harder, you know, and I don't have to follow the same path as everyone else, I can make it sort of like with Nicole de Lali and her experience getting through college. You know, as a first generation student, right? That's that can be challenging. You don't know the answers, you don't even know what you don't know, and so you make a lot of mistakes. And for me, as a first generation college student, it took me longer to get through college. It may cost you more money. You just don't know, but you don't know. So for people like Nicole and Aaron, who are not researchers, it gave them the opportunity to share that their story, that I'm certain, impact others.

The same is true for Stephanie Kraus, who we interviewed about her book Making it what today's kids need for tomorrow's world. She dropped out of high school. She had siblings who had very different pathways, and she took what she learned, crafted her own pathway. Went back to school, but on her own terms, and she shares what it takes to have those competencies, to make those connections to, of course, get the credentials you need and the necessary cash to be successful, yeah, and there were some very difficult ones.

You know, when we talk about teacher shortage and why there's a teacher shortage, those were very, very difficult conversations. And I think that propelled us to come up with solutions, such as parent to teacher initiatives, things like that, that we actually had to follow it up with some action, because those are difficult conversations. But then we kind of balance it out, like when we talk to Dr Guimond about myths about teachers pay. It's a decent salary, right? You can live a decent life on a teacher's salary and have all the benefits of being a teacher. There's so many benefits of being a professional educator.

Well,

Well, one benefit I can think of is having some really introspective and interesting and innovative conversations with people who aren't like minded, because we like to have conversations with people who are of the same mindset as we are. But we even started this podcast theory versus practice. We don't necessarily have the same mindset, but you and I certainly do have similar goals.

Yes, we do. So we are more alike than we are different, so we don't hear it as much in our podcast anymore, you know, whereas Amy Dr, Amy versus Dr Joi. But it kind of felt like that when we were interviewing Chris Glock, I think he felt like he was being attacked a little bit when we talked about dual credit. As you know, I'm not a huge advocate of dual credit. I think in small doses, dual credit is great getting an associate's degree while you're in high school. No, not, I'm not there.

So often our conversations are about balance and yes, there is a good salary for teachers, but I urge teachers administrators strike that balance. If you're a first year teacher, you should not be saying yes to any additional duties. You've got to focus on just being the best teacher you can be in those first few years. And I urge administrators to remember that who in their first year is going to say no to an administrator,

right, right? Like, do you want to be the cheerleading coach? And you have no cheerleading experience at all? So I think we have a lot to do. Amy on teacher retention, a lot of conversations to have. You know, one thing that strikes me as the most interesting thing is that people want to talk to us. And we've met some amazing people, you know, we reach out to them, like Dr Jean Marie, that's amazing, right? Dr Gerard McClendon, that's amazing when you we reach out to some of these individuals, and they are excited to share what they're doing and the thanks and the praise that we get for allowing them that opportunity. And then Dr green to interview our very own new university president, and for people to take that time. You know, that's what I love, that these educators, in some shape or form, that they're willing to take the time of their day, because we meet with them twice, that they take the time to say, yes, I want to share my work with you. I want to share my thoughts with you. To me that is amazing.

I agree when people say thank you. No, I say thank you with some of the people that we have had on this show, it only raises more questions, more topics that I'm interested in. Up and coming, we will be talking to professionals about bullying in schools. We have another guest who will be talking about homework and the balance and lots of other topics, I would like to encourage our listeners to reach out to us.

And what do you think they want to hear? I like the Facebook Lives. Do you like the Facebook Lives? I'd love for our listeners to tell us what do you want to hear about, what are great topics? Who do you want to hear from Do you want to chat with us on Facebook Live? I love doing the Facebook Live sessions, but you can find many of our Facebook Live. Friend us on Facebook, so go to Governor, State University, friend us on Facebook, and there you can find many of the videos. So we love for you to take a listen. We'd love for you to reach out to us. We'd love for you to join us in these conversations. This is how we learn,

and I love learning with you. Thanks for talking about this this morning. Joi, I was really wanting to have just a pause and to think, what is it that brings meaning to my life as an educator? Well, a lot of that is a conversation with you,

so I'm feeling pretty good today. This has really made my day, because this is a happy place for us. Amy gets in trouble all the time. She has other projects she should be working on, and she'd rather be doing this. So this is really our happy place, being able to share with you, and we just love to hear from you, because we want to make sure that we're bringing you the right information, things that are going to impact your lives

you have a great rest of your day

will do and you have a great day too.

Thank you for listening to teaching and leading with Dr Amy and Dr Joi. Visit our website at G, O, v, s, t.edu/teaching, and leading podcast to see the show notes from this episode,

we appreciate Governor State University's work behind the scenes to make publishing possible. Stay tuned for more episodes with Dr Amy and Dr Joi.