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Joey Brewer values local history
14 Plays40 minutes ago
- Forgottoniaproject.com (Oral History of Forgottonia section in particular is where student projects live)
- Email - joeybrewer8989@gmail.com
Music by AudioCoffee: https://www.audiocoffee.net/
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Transcript
Introduction to the Learner Centered Spaces Podcast
00:00:14
Speaker
Welcome to the Learner Centered Spaces podcast, where we empower and inspire ownership of learning. Sponsored by Mastery Portfolio, hosted by Star Saxton and Crystal Fromert.
00:00:28
Speaker
In each episode, we will bring you engaging conversations with a wide variety of educators, both in and out of the classroom. This podcast is created for educators who want to learn more about how to make the shift toward learner-centered spaces for their students, schools, and districts, or education at large. The Learner Centered Spaces podcast is a member of the Teach Better Podcast Network.
Guest Introduction: Joey Brewer
00:00:54
Speaker
Get ready to be inspired as we dive right into the conversation with today's guest. We are so excited to have Joey Brewer on the show today. He served as Dean of Students at Spoon River Valley School District, where he also was a GED instructor at the community college.
00:01:12
Speaker
Previously, he worked at Beardstown Middle School as Dean of Students and spent many years at Cuba High School teaching history and social science. We asked him about his purpose and passion. He says, to walk alongside educators as we help develop extraordinary young people.
00:01:31
Speaker
some awards that Mr. Brewer has accrued. um He has been selected for the inaugural Smithsonian Democracy and Dialogue Virtual Exchange. He was also selected to participate in the NCHE Rural Experience in America grant cohort.
00:01:48
Speaker
And he also helped pass statewide AI guidance for educators through work with Teach Plus. He likes reading, writing, hiking, camping, and a huge sports fan.
00:02:01
Speaker
And fun fact, he was the captain of his college football team, but he also played trombone in the college jazz band.
Joey's Educational Philosophy and Rural Focus
00:02:09
Speaker
So that's what you get when you go to a small college, you get to do lots of different things. So we are so excited to have Joey on the show today.
00:02:16
Speaker
Yeah, thank you guys so much for having me. Welcome, Joey. i I knew when you and I met this year that you are definitely somebody we wanted to have on the program. So can you tell us a little bit about a defining moment in your career or something that you're working on right now that you'd like to share?
00:02:35
Speaker
um Yeah, thank you. So ah originally I was from the greater Chicago area and I went to a high school that was over 2000 students and we had everything from, I mean, I remember this, we had a water polo team ah for goodness sake.
00:02:49
Speaker
And I got my first teaching job in downstate rural Illinois and absolutely fell in love with it. And I really became a rural teacher. I really feel strongly today. A lot of um innovation can be led in rural rural places. So for me, the aha moment, the change came as I was teaching history.
00:03:06
Speaker
um you know we We have all these requirements, all these mandates to teach things and in in textbooks that we were using, but I kept learning so much about local history in my area. And I was blown away about these amazing stories, but we didn't really have space for them.
00:03:21
Speaker
So, and I don't wanna turn this guys into a nerdy history podcast here, but there's just some incredible stories I'll just touch
Local History and Community Engagement
00:03:26
Speaker
on this. For instance, there's a guy named Free Frank McQuarter who founded a town called New Philadelphia. This was back in 1830s.
00:03:34
Speaker
And it was the first town plotted and organized by a free black man. And this is 30 years before the civil war. And this guy ended up saving money, pennies and pennies to, to he ended up rescuing 17 of his family members um that that he purchased their freedom.
00:03:49
Speaker
And it's incredible story. And it's just like an hour away from where I'm living in rural Western Illinois. um And it was just sort of a muted story that no one knew. And this guy should be up there with like the Harriet Tubman's and the Frederick Douglass's.
00:04:00
Speaker
Well, how is that story? None of the textbooks. the The students are situated around this old World War II camp called Camp Ellis that a lot of students never knew about. um There was even famous criminal brothers, the Maxwell brothers story. These two bank robbers and horse thieves that that grew up right in our town that there just wasn't a lot of space for.
00:04:17
Speaker
And guys, I could go on with so many stories, but there wasn't a space for this. Um, But then I also read a book by Dan Rosting. A few guys have heard of Dan Rosting called Make Just One Change, Teach Students to Ask Your Own Questions.
00:04:31
Speaker
And it really hit me, wow, I don't need to write a new textbook for this. I just need to give my students that independence, that freedom, and teach them that valuable skill of asking your own questions. So once I started doing that, that was a game changer. That totally shifted how I approached the classroom.
00:04:46
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um um and And it also started naturally making community connections ah to the people and the problems. um We started having class at the coffee shop.
00:04:57
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We started um seeing ah students wrestle with problems that I really didn't know the answers to. And I even thought, why am I giving students questions all the time to answers that I know, why not give them questions that we're really wrestling with in our community?
00:05:14
Speaker
ah From there, we organize a really cool learning space. And I did this totally with my students called the Forgot Tonya Project. it was ah It's a podcast and a blog. You can still check it out. It's a very messy, ah we call a sandbox kind of space, but it's our learning lab um where we ask, we pursue these questions and we share them with our with our community.
00:05:35
Speaker
That is amazing. And as somebody who also really, really nerds out around local history, I think you're providing your students with this really rich in like experience that isn't just about learning history, but also its application and impact.
00:05:52
Speaker
along the way. So as a good segue into our usual second question about, you know, what makes a really good learner-centered space if people were to look at your rooms and what they look like, how does this unique rural um history environment create the space for your kids to have those fertile questions that you were talking about?
00:06:16
Speaker
um Awesome questions. Yeah, think thanks for that. i There's also this this understanding that, um and and I just learned this the other day from talking to two outstanding um um professors that are that study social studies education. And they talked about a study that they just did of some of the textbooks and
Addressing Rural Disengagement
00:06:34
Speaker
some of the the lessons, the history lessons, the civics lessons and spaces to just confirm What we really know is that when you grow up in a small town, there's so much deficit thinking ah that this is a place where you're going to leave, that the roads are really built to leave that town.
00:06:48
Speaker
And so this kind of approach to the classroom really helped us shift that to leading with our assets as well. um And ah well when I really believe we know we have... um maybe we have the most disengaged generation from school of students with, despite all of our amazing technology apps and these like these things, we might have um a disengaged generation, but we really do have ah such a creative generation. And so I've found that when those students...
00:07:17
Speaker
have an opportunity to address some problems, um to ah try to put their brain power to some of the um tough, tough challenges that we face, that they're likely to come up with some creative solutions.
00:07:29
Speaker
And if not, at least they see a stake in the community. um So I know in Illinois, and i I imagine this is probably true in a lot of states, that i mean every state has this kind of rural, urban sort of feel, sort of divide.
00:07:42
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um But the biggest demographic of people leaving um our states, leaving our towns are really your rural youth. And there's not much, um they don't see themselves very much in that place. So for me, that just kind of came a priority um approach that I wanted to take in my classroom.
00:07:59
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And I'm not sure if I ah addressed your question or got a little bit on on the tangent there, um um Star, but those are kind of the thoughts that I have is how do I address this thing of rural kids um feeling disconnected from their community, feeling disconnected from school, you know how do I reach them?
00:08:14
Speaker
And that's kind of where this approach sort of came in. So before um i pass you off to Crystal for another question, Joey, can you tell us a little bit more about that? What was the student response?
00:08:26
Speaker
What, like if someone else in a rural community wanted to set up some of these partnerships and create the same environment you did in this particular way, what were some of the steps that you took to get there?
00:08:39
Speaker
um That is a great question. So for me, the um the community partnerships, the community connections, it's a great point because what I learned is I, not only do I, I can't do this alone, I don't have to. And I have so many people that are willing. And and um in fact, they really require to do some heavy lifting with us.
00:09:00
Speaker
And that's where I found out our best asset, especially in small schools. And I know every town, every community can do this. But we have such strong social capital, such strong social wealth, right?
00:09:11
Speaker
We are all so socially connected. It's amazing. So for me, um community partners is essential to this work. So I have a great partnership with the Western Illinois Museum, um the director of the Western Illinois Museum. It's a constant trip that my students make.
00:09:26
Speaker
um The director there also gives real time, real feedback to students' projects and students' questions and things that they're trying to address. um ah all the students, when we have these amazing questions, then we can really play with them. you know It's kind of a play-based approach to the classroom too. As I talked before about this so seriousness of all our problems, it really is kind of an exploration play-based approach. I take my students to the Western Illinois archives,
00:09:49
Speaker
And they work with amazing professionals who already um do some digging and help direct students to to some sources and get my students to think about how do you really know what you know about the questions that you have.
00:10:02
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um And the sharing of what you learned, it's really led to some amazing conversations with just um and And even think about who gets to be an expert. um So just in our town, we have a guy named Peck. Peck is 100 years old.
00:10:16
Speaker
He is a veteran of two world wars. He's our last miner. Our town is a huge mining area. And um he's a community partner. My favorite thing to do is to just get out of the way, take my students to some maybe a coffee shop and have them have them listen to Peck's story.
00:10:30
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you know um so So things like that. So for me to do this work, it's really required... um these community partnerships and kind of me becoming less and less in front, more more facilitating these ah these experiences.
00:10:44
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But I do want to say star two for a how to template of how to do it. And I'm i'm so happy to talk about that. it's It's been messy. you know it's been It's been quite challenging and it's been a lot of unlearning, a lot of letting go of things I feel like I was supposed to do, I have to do um to to kind of commit to this approach.
00:11:03
Speaker
The way you're describing it, it sounds a lot like the movie Dancer Texas Population 81. Have you heard of that movie? No, no. You got to tell me about this. I love i love weird weird kind of things like this though. What is this? It's a late nineties movie. It's actually pretty good. And it's about obviously
Cultural References and Smithsonian Program
00:11:19
Speaker
a town called Dancer Texas and it's in West Texas with population 81.
00:11:23
Speaker
And it's the it's the coming of age story of do I stay? Do I leave? Do I go off to college somewhere else? It's just, it's a very um interesting movie and way you're describing like all roads lead out and it's a mining town. So probably the students are going to go off and do something in a different industry.
00:11:41
Speaker
It just reminded me of that movie. So I do recommend it. Yeah. i Thanks for mentioning it. I will have to see that because that question is the defining question. Even if students don't know that that question exists, how they respond to that really is one of the most defining questions for our rural communities and our rural schools.
00:11:58
Speaker
Wow, yeah. And I know you're doing some work with Smithsonian with virtual exchanges. Can you tell us more about that and and how that's benefiting your students to expand their horizons?
00:12:09
Speaker
I love that question. um and And to see the bigger picture of this approach is, um it really is about storytelling and democracy is about storytelling. um And we ah the Smithsonian is doing this amazing program called Democracy and Dialogue Virtual Exchange Program.
00:12:25
Speaker
And it's in honor of the 250th anniversary, which is going to be next year, 2026. And they're they're starting this cohort of teachers around the nation to have their classroom collaborate and be in dialogue, reflecting on this question, how has your community experienced 250 years of American history?
00:12:45
Speaker
right So it's kind of taking local history and maybe maybe local civics, ah getting students to reflect on this. And we're finding too, a lot of students, despite this you know school experience of all these mandates and requirements that we don't really provide a lot of space for students to reflect on the changing nature you know of how their communities experienced history.
00:13:04
Speaker
um Because you know America is this beautiful, beautiful, but multi-storied place. So it gets students to kind of think about that, but to be in dialogue with other young people. And it's beautiful too, as got to go to DC and get training and meet some other teachers that were selected to do this cohort.
00:13:18
Speaker
um But it it trains us too, to get out of the way and how to have a learner centered approach to um your classroom. And for students to really reflect on their community, to reflect on um their sense of belonging, you know, in the community and to reflect on how someone else has experienced that as well.
00:13:34
Speaker
And boy, we have witnessed some incredible dialogue this this past year in Beardstown. Our students were talking with some other students from um Boise, Idaho, from um a small town in Texas. My favorite was ah we we got to meet some students from Hawaii.
00:13:51
Speaker
And everybody it's just so amazing how diverse America is, but how um great our young people are. They're really inheriting a lot of the um um history. you know And it's really important for them to see themselves in that history too.
00:14:04
Speaker
Well, sounds like you know the technology is really helping you as an educator to expand your world for your students. And you're doing some work with AI guidance. Can you tell us more about that with your students?
00:14:16
Speaker
Oh, yeah. Great, great question. i think i think it's ah it's really important for teachers to understand, too, that technology can definitely enhance these practices, but not replace them. You know, so I'm always really... um I feel really responsible to make sure we we tell teachers that it's it's okay to not have all the bells and whistles, um but yet how can you use these these um tools that we have do?
Technology and AI in Education
00:14:39
Speaker
to us in. So for instance, the DIDV program, um we've built a Padlet. So a lot of the students are kind of having dialogue in Padlets. And then we organize some more real time dialogue a couple of times throughout the years.
00:14:52
Speaker
ah But it's really interesting to sort of see that Padlet that you can kind of organize a laboratory space around. um I know a lot of teachers used to use Flipgrid, but I think Flipgrid kind of went away. And so Padlet's been an awesome, awesome tool. um um And for me, podcasting is just one medium um where we I've i've you know had students to try to master that art of communication and and have dialogue with um but informed experts about questions that that matter that matter to them.
00:15:22
Speaker
And so with that, you know I've i've um also not been afraid to have students help me you know learn the kind of nuts and bolts of some some technology. Oh my gosh, I got to wait. You asked about AI. Yeah, AI, right? Which is really interesting. So um we've we've we've played with AI a lot. but The story that I use, and I got to share this story And just this this past past year, I was able to testify in front of the House Education Committee and the Illinois legislator. This rural teacher guy is is in front of the House because I was working advocating for a bill to ah make sure that we can use AI in a way that will close our equity gaps that that we see but and and do it safely.
00:16:04
Speaker
Right. um There's a lot of concern about some of the market forces. There are a lot of concern about how can this be used to enhance our learning and not replace it. And so I shared a story of how in our town, um and I'd mentioned Spoon River Valley before. Spoon River Valley is really a nod to a guy named Edgar Lee Masters. have you guys ever heard of this?
00:16:21
Speaker
He is. Yeah. A famous writer from kind of the early 20th century. And his his best book is a collection of poems called Spoon River Anthology. And I mean, they this is like standard reading in a lot of places across the country, um in even the world. I understand a lot of people from from China read this guy's work.
00:16:38
Speaker
And he is from right here in just just ah ah Lewistown, Illinois, just a few miles away. from Cuba, where I taught for many, many years. And all of these things are called Spoon River after this Edgar Lee Masters guy. But the students have no idea who this guy is.
00:16:53
Speaker
ah Just recently, we bulldozed his historic home. It was falling apart so much. And we put up a Casey's gas station. And Star, I know you know about Casey's. Casey's been here in the Midwest.
00:17:05
Speaker
Yeah. But the kids just don't have a collective memory of him. And when we try to read his poems in class, I mean, it is just, um you know, it's hard to get students to engage with it.
00:17:16
Speaker
So for fun, we we would use AI as teen speak, um as a translator. How would this poem connect with some students today? Can you help us pull out the themes? How could you update it in modern slang, modern language, those kinds of things?
00:17:29
Speaker
And what what we started to see was connection. The students were kind of like, oh, I get those themes. He's actually talking about maybe some of the the rural urban divides that I feel. um And Spoon River Anthology is a really unique collection of poems.
00:17:42
Speaker
It's actually poems written in the perspective of dead people. It's all set in a cemetery. Everybody that's writing a poem is a voice of someone that died, but they have these secrets.
00:17:53
Speaker
um And it's secrets of people from like small towns and guys, I'm so sorry. I'm nerding yapping about my local history again. But from there, students started seeing engagement. They started seeing um um um how how else can I modern adapt this? You know, what are those themes that I'm
Advocacy for Learner-Centered Education
00:18:09
Speaker
connecting with too? um When we had students also wrestle with questions, why don't more people know about these stories?
00:18:14
Speaker
ah Some students get a little bit um upset about some of the historic homes not being preserved and just wrestling with those kinds of questions now. And so his memory became a little bit more important. But now on the flip of that, and I'm so um you know desperate to engage my students, but I really didn't have a lot of training with the safety part of it.
00:18:31
Speaker
So I think what I'm trying to say though, um um Crystal Star, is that when you're really committed to a learner-centered space, um and this this kind of gets to another question, um one of the things I'm working on is, wow, it's really important to be an advocate.
00:18:47
Speaker
to find our roles as as teachers, um to advocate for the things, the kind of tools, the sort of changes we need to embrace this. Because at the end of the day, this is the sort of learning and approach that students deserve.
00:19:00
Speaker
So did you grow up in a suburban setting or urban setting yourself as a student? Yeah, I did. and And I think that's one of the reasons I see this a little bit more. So ah the high school I went to was over 2000 people. um And you know we had just gigantic you know ah graduate classes.
00:19:17
Speaker
um And now i' I'm shifted to ah class sizes of you know somewhere between like 10 to 20 to 30 some years. it's It's been quite a mix. um But it's really small and it's incredibly intimate.
00:19:29
Speaker
Guys, I have never, I can't remember the last time I had to learn a student's name. you know You just know these students for life. um ah Graduation ceremonies are really emotional because the the kindergarten teachers all the way up to the high school teachers um have have really...
00:19:45
Speaker
um strong relationships with students and everybody knows what students plans are after you know and yeah for every town the school is definitely the center of of a town I think you know people care a lot about young people but you know in a small town it really is the pulse it's the heartbeat um we have things like promenade you guys ever have that this this in school promenade when ah during prom people announce the king and the queen people kind of show up they walk There are people that show up that have no kids in these these events. There's ball games. They don't have kids, but they go to those things because the school really is the heart of the community.
00:20:18
Speaker
And I think I've loved that. And that's why i've i've I've stayed and just kind of turned into this rule guy. We have so many challenges, guys, but I'm telling you, rule schools can lead the way in a lot of innovation. Um, we, we, a lot of us in rural schools have regular relationships with organizations to just say, Hey, I'll pilot that curriculum approach and I'll give you feedback on how it is.
00:20:37
Speaker
Um, because we're willing, we're willing to do that. We have the space. Our kids don't always have to be cogs in a wheel a little bit, if that makes sense. Um, if you, if you allow me just a really quick story to illustrate that is I had a young man um named Braxton who was really curious about our mining history Cuba, where I live, um was at one time the strip mining capital of the world.
00:21:00
Speaker
And our mascot is the miners. And Braxton played on the football team. And he's like, we're the miners, but I don't see this. And Braxton learned he grew up right where some strip mines used to be. And he had so many questions.
00:21:11
Speaker
ah But the the town expert on mining was a guy named Mr. Mowry. And Mr. Mowry just didn't give any more public presentations. Mr. Mowry was getting kind of older. And Mr. Mowry had all this incredible stuff at his house.
00:21:22
Speaker
Well, Braxton has a really important schedule. He's got to get through his credits. He's got to get through the required day. um And then he has practice and then Braxton is working. Well, he actually broke his leg. This poor guy broke his leg playing football.
00:21:36
Speaker
And we were able to get special permission that he could have a season of his day where he could just go to Mr. Mallory's house and he could dig through some of these mining pictures and he could learn about some incredible stories about our mining heritage.
00:21:49
Speaker
And what happened is Braxton took ownership and now kind of preserving this history. It was almost like Mr. Mowry was passing the baton. And we were able to do that pretty easily because, you know, we're we're um you kind of get cogs out of the wheel a little bit.
00:22:01
Speaker
Now,
Innovative Learning Spaces and Community Ties
00:22:02
Speaker
I would love to advocate in design spaces where we're intentionally doing that in an equitable way, where we expect that, we anticipate that. So in kind of addressing that question, and guys, I'm so sorry I'm yapping, but these are just so important things that I that i feel really passionate about.
00:22:15
Speaker
And, you know, in yapping about what does it look like to have a learner centered space? Well, sometimes your your students might not be in that school. They're not bound to that brick and mortar anymore because they have an interest that they took ownership of some sort of learning.
00:22:28
Speaker
And, um you know, and this is a ah student that's able to drive. He's a junior at the time he was doing this. um But yeah, things like that I think of. Okay, Joey, it sounds like there's such rich things going on where you are.
00:22:42
Speaker
If you had to shout out folks who have made all of these things possible that you think our listeners need to be following on social media or know about, who who should we be aware of? What program should we be aware of?
00:22:58
Speaker
OK, so organizationally, um every state, most states have some sort of humanity sub. So for me, um when I'm talking about activating stories and spaces, I have a relationship with the Illinois Humanities.
00:23:10
Speaker
They also help coordinate some of those school to school connections. ah feel unfortunately we have such a, it's difficult to teach it this way too, because we are, um as as as educators, we are we have a lot of responsibilities that do keep us to that brick brick and mortar. And so um it's really important to have that relationship with an organization and the humanities for me, they are actively trying to activate um educators to do this kind of work.
00:23:35
Speaker
um The advocacy thing, I know it's not just, I don't mean to just launch it as a giant word, but for me, I got involved with Teach Plus. They are in um most states in Illinois.
00:23:46
Speaker
They're pretty strong here in Illinois, but they actively teach teachers to find your voice, to find your role. So for me, um you know as I love to talk and I love to yap, I actually love to write.
00:23:57
Speaker
And I attended some trainings with Teach Plus on on writing op-eds, You know, you get 750 words and you got to craft the story and what you're advocating for. So that's something that's really helped me. But everybody has a role. Everybody has a voice. My wife is an art teacher and you should see some of the posters that she builds.
00:24:12
Speaker
She doesn't want to talk in front of people. She wouldn't want to do a podcast like this, but her art reaches people more than anything else. And everyone as a teacher right now, we are in such a um brink of something really beautiful, something new, but we are at a really tough time. I think in Illinois, um one of our union organizations just did a poll that said three out of five teachers are looking to get out.
00:24:34
Speaker
They are just done. Either they're actively trying to get out or they're just so burnt out. um They're not enjoying this anymore.
Conclusion and Call to Action
00:24:41
Speaker
So I think all of us have a responsibility to to to um share our experiences, to tell our own story of what we're seeing and why what we do is so important.
00:24:51
Speaker
And maybe I'm just talking about purpose, guys. so um And there's organizations that are helping us as teachers that want to lift us up. So I i mentioned, too, that everyone has in their state, in their community, ah find those humanities people.
00:25:02
Speaker
find the, if you have a teach plus organization or somewhere that teaches advocacy like that, ah find them. And I know there's probably so much more, but I'll just share those two.
00:25:14
Speaker
Thank you. That's really good information. So can we find you online? Can our listeners follow your work? Yeah, if you guys go to ForgottoniaProject.com, you will find a ah very beautiful but messy space where we share a lot of the conversations um that students have. and In particular, if you hit the oral history of Forgottonia, and Forgottonia is a whole other podcast for another time, but the the region and the 16 counties in Western Illinois are collectively and sometimes affectionately referred to as Forgottonia.
00:25:46
Speaker
ah But some of the stories of that region that my students were interested in are in that space as well. Well, thank you so much. We will put all of that information in the show notes. And Joey, we appreciate you being on the show today. This has been great.
00:25:59
Speaker
Oh man, thank you ladies so much. I love you guys. Oh, thanks Joey.
00:26:08
Speaker
Learn more about Mastery Portfolio and how we support schools at masteryportfolio.com. You can follow us on X at Mastery for All and LinkedIn in our Mastery Portfolio page.
00:26:22
Speaker
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