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Katie McClain - High School Video Production - Clark County, Nevada
266 Plays8 months ago
Katie McClain is a seasoned educator with six years of dedicated service in the esteemed Clark County School District, specializing in high school video production. She embraces the dynamic intersection of creativity and technology within the educational landscape, guiding my students through the intricacies of multimedia storytelling. She is a Career and Technical Education National Board candidate.
In this episode of National Board Conversations, she talks about her journey to this point and gets into the intricacies of how she has been able to weave her first career in broadcast journalism with becoming a teacher on her way to achieving National Board Certification.
Twitter: @NBPTS
Instagram: @NBPTS
Facebook: The National Board for Professional Teaching Standards
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Transcript
Introduction of Guest and Podcast Overview
00:00:04
Speaker
Welcome back to National Board Conversations. I am your host, Danielle Brown, a board certified teacher here on staff at National Board for Professional Teaching Standards. And today we have such a dynamic guest.
00:00:18
Speaker
I had such a great pleasure of getting to learn more about our guests in a kind of pre-meeting. And so we're going to pull the curtain back. We're going to hear a different perspective than we've had on the podcast before. And so let's just get started. Podcast guests, I like to like leave some mystery. Lots of people know who you are, where you're teaching. I'm a little bit about yourself.
Teaching Video Production and Pursuing Certification
00:00:41
Speaker
Okay, my name is Katie McLean. I'm a high school teacher out in Las Vegas. I teach video production, one, two, three, and advanced studies, so I teach all four levels of our program. And I'm going for the CTE, National Core Certification. So the reason I set it up that way is because now that I'm thinking about it, everyone that we've had on the podcast so far has been a generalist, whether they've been
00:01:09
Speaker
early or they worked in special education, but CTE is one certificate area that overall there's not a lot of people who go through the process through CTE. And I just think even like your extra level of video production might even be more of like kind of like the diamond in the rough. And so, so excited to hear your perspective.
00:01:31
Speaker
what you're learning about the process and yourself as you've gone through it. But before we get into the nitty gritty, we like to start off the podcast with just like a humanizing grounding moment.
Passion for News Media and Student Collaboration
00:01:42
Speaker
And I felt like this question was super fitting because of the work that you do. So we talked about our consumption or creation of media and our pre-planning meeting. And so I'm so curious, Katie, what is your favorite type of media to consume or even create?
00:02:00
Speaker
Well, so I take the kids through both film and television. Obviously, my degree is in broadcast journalism. So I'm a journalist at heart. I love the news. I love the fast pace. I love going live and saying, this is it. This is our only shot. You know, getting that pressure, putting those pressure tests on the kids, you know, and seeing how they thrive and, like,
00:02:23
Speaker
high intense anxiety driven, you know, like environments and seeing what they can actually create. So obviously the school news would be my number one, where Hawk Media Group or HMG as we call it, I say, who are we and they go HMG, you know, we are. But when I started developing more into doing film, you know, and actually teaching the kids like,
00:02:46
Speaker
just seeing some of the stuff that they do like we do everything from fully sound effect recreation to music videos to our romance that we just you know did and high school versions of romance you know sometimes are hit or miss or
00:03:01
Speaker
whatever, but we kind of think about it. So when it comes to media, I love the storytelling aspect. I love the teamwork and camaraderie. So anything that involves having a team doesn't matter what project we actually do. It's just my favorite part of just the media program is just seeing the teamwork of the kids come together, if that makes any sense. So no matter what we do, as long as it's a big team group effort project,
00:03:29
Speaker
I'm I'm all about either aspect, you know, I love that. And I think you probably have such and maybe we'll get to this later, but you probably have such a different experience with having your lessons recorded coming from the industry that you came
Teaching Improvement through Feedback and Experience
00:03:44
Speaker
from. I think oftentimes candidates get to component three and they're like, I have to record my teaching like someone's going to be in my room. I'm going to see all my mannerisms and like pick up on the things I didn't realize.
00:03:56
Speaker
But I wonder coming from the industry that you come from, was component three as nerve wracking as maybe it might be for others who are like, I don't want to see myself on camera. I don't want to hear my voice. I don't want to see if my shirt's tucked in or not. How was component three for you? Honestly, component three was pretty eye-opening in a sense because I recorded myself doing a couple of different lessons, like a lecture, like a one-on-one with the kids.
00:04:24
Speaker
A like camera lesson a broadcast lesson and I record all these things and my dad is
00:04:34
Speaker
he taught workforce education for many years you know came from CTE was an ag teacher you know was you know FFA state director did a lot of different things so he did the high school route and he taught people like myself who come from industry to become a teacher you know and so i think the most nerve-wracking part wasn't me being on camera but was me showing my dad my videos because i'm sitting there thinking
00:05:01
Speaker
I hope he likes it because everybody in the school district who's been around for a while kind of knew him, you know, and knew and liked me because they liked him. So I didn't have to work hard for people to like me, you know, but then seeing all the stuff that he's taught me and all the stuff that he's brought, like that was a nerve wracking part. But until he broke it down for me and showed me little things and little tricks, I started enjoying my teaching style more.
00:05:30
Speaker
I started changing up some of the things that I did, calling on the kids. One of the things that he really taught me was to not accept the, I don't know, answer. Lead the kid to the question. And so if I asked a kid, especially, because I probably am like other teachers. Well, hopefully, if you are doing component three out there, record a class that you know engages with you, please. Just do it.
00:05:58
Speaker
Like, cause some people want to be like, I'm going to take the hardest class and see what I did to the, no, you want to work from kids that you can pull from and say, yes. Okay. So not in a scripted way. Cause honestly, I didn't tell the kids I was recorded them. I had a student aid and I made him stand in the back in the classroom and just record the class. And most of the kids didn't even realize they were on tape because I was just so.
00:06:21
Speaker
upfront engaging, you know, and keep recording, keep recording, we'll see what happens. And it's, it's fun, because when we go back to the I don't know question, I can go over to the kid, you know, and try to lead it to them, try to figure it out. And even if I did had to, I learned, you know, I just
00:06:41
Speaker
give him the answer, whisper the answer, he'll say it and I'll be like, oh my God, you said it, good job, everybody, repeat it, here we go. Because kids shouldn't have a cop out of saying, I don't know. And those are the types of things when, especially when you're recording yourself, yeah, you definitely want kids who can give you the answer and call on that kid that's like, you know the answer, but it's more fun to lead a kid to a question who made me unsure and try to unlock them their brain if they absolutely can't,
00:07:10
Speaker
just help them out for a second because you don't want to embarrass the kid in front of the class if they don't know, you know, but you also want everyone else in the class who may not also know, know that you may call on them, you know, and say nobody's safe here, you know.
00:07:26
Speaker
That's that's the kind of thing and I caught myself saying like okay after every couple of instances I'd eliminate okay from my thing and how I stand and engaging but Yeah, the most nerve-wracking part wasn't being on front of camera because I've done it, you know, basically my entire life It was showing my dad and thinking this top teacher educator What do you think about this? you know and him giving me the feedback and really enjoying some of the stuff that I tried and I've learned and it was kind of like a proud like
00:07:56
Speaker
I don't know, family moment, I guess. I wish people can't see us, but you'll probably hear it in my voice. I am literally smiling from ear to ear because I think it's so beautiful that you have your father in this profession.
00:08:12
Speaker
who kind of knows of the work that you do can give you feedback. But also that like that was kind of like your nervous point of like sharing it with another educator who happens to be your father, who happens to know kind of like your capabilities and where you've come from. And so I just think that is such a dynamic experience that maybe not everyone gets to have, right? You might have your peers, you might have the people who coach you, but I didn't have my dad watch my video.
00:08:39
Speaker
I don't know what he would be able to provide for kindergarten teaching, but just I can't even imagine. I love that. I love that. I just want to say, my mom watched it too, and she thought it was cute. But thinking of, my mom was also a professor at UNLV. She has her PhD in education as well. And it's just nice to hear both of their perspectives, because my mom taught more in medicine, the facts.
00:09:03
Speaker
She also she did multicultural education. So she always taught kids or their students like the platinum rule. Right. Which is, you know, treat other people. You want to be treated the golden rule, but you want to treat people the way they want to be treated, you know, and it's like knowing, OK, I need to treat these kids.
00:09:22
Speaker
in a way that they would want to be treated, but also I am a teacher. I have to be here. I have to be able to answer the questions, keep them engaged, and hopefully they can take what they learned and make something out of it. So it's just seeing both of them. But my dad's watched probably hundreds of these student teaching videos and been in the classrooms. And I'm just like, OK, he knows what he's doing. He's been around. He's taught many teachers. He's saved many licenses for teachers. And now here I am trying to be
00:09:51
Speaker
not the prodigy, but like someone that he can he can say, yep, that's that's the teacher that I really want in the classroom. And it happens to be his daughter. So it's just nice. So we've dropped hints and kind of little nuggets that you were in industry. You like the live fast paced newsroom action. So tell us how are you in this position in space now of
00:10:17
Speaker
classroom educator working in CTE, what was it that brought you to teaching?
Transition from TV Industry to Teaching
00:10:23
Speaker
Because of course, from the person outside looking in, you think TV is so glamorous, you have hair and makeup. And as someone who's an early bird, sure, I can get to a studio at 2 o'clock in the morning. So why don't we know? How did you come to teaching from industry? So transferring to industry, I'll tell you. My first day at Northwest, where I'm at, I had a field trip.
00:10:46
Speaker
And I started in the middle of the year. So I started in January. I was a mid-year hire. And I didn't know any of these kids. They didn't know me. I had already come to the classroom and kind of changed it a little bit around, put some of my flair up.
00:11:02
Speaker
I mean you'll see like I have my picture on a flag on like the wall up here and I'm just like okay this is who I am this your teacher and I remember showing up and saying look I don't know you and you don't know me but you are not embarrassed me or our program here do we understand and it was a lot of pushback because
00:11:21
Speaker
I came in hard because I wanted to, one, do really well. And two, we were going to channel eight and channel three and touring their TV studios. And I want to be welcomed back. And that was the first thing that I learned that I needed to teach these kids was self-representation.
00:11:45
Speaker
You know, because if I'm going to dress in a suit, if I'm going to put on the heels, if I'm going to do my makeup and put a coat through my hair, you know, then they need to also look nice as well. You know, they need to be able to represent themselves. Don't roll out of bed. Don't do these things. So I'm like self-representation because it doesn't matter.
00:12:04
Speaker
who you are. And they won't remember exactly your name or who it was, but they'll remember me and they'll remember the program, you know, we don't want these kids over here. So when I transferred from industry, it was it was me self sufficient, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me. I had to transfer and now we're in us. We're a we. This is us. This is the program, you know,
00:12:30
Speaker
And whatever happens as a result of what these kids are learning, what these kids put out, what they produce is a reflection of me. Now, yes, they do have part to take into it, but I wanted to build
00:12:43
Speaker
basically almost a brand here of our Hawk Media group. We have our logo. Everyone will recognize it if they've been here for a while, you know, and and say, this is who you're going to be. We are a team, you know, and we're one of the hardest classes because they go through a lot of pressure here. They have deadlines. They have to communicate. They have teamwork. It's different than a regular classroom where
00:13:08
Speaker
you show up, you may take notes, you may do assignments, and you may do some collaboration with other people. But here we're doing, we are doing things, you know, and we're constantly, there is no downtime, there is no rewind, there is no time machine, you know, and
00:13:24
Speaker
you're on camera or you're in person or you're representing who we are. That was the hard part because I could do it for me and just say, I'm Miss McLean, this is what I do and this is who I am. You've met me and you talk. But then when I have guest speakers come in, my kids know, shake their hand, introduce yourself, tell them what you do and welcome them to us.
00:13:50
Speaker
I have to take those values that I have, those workplace readiness skills that I know I haven't developed them into these children, you know, ages 14 to 18. And no matter what age they are, they have some developing because the whole point about high school is making sure that, you know, like
00:14:09
Speaker
like elementary school, you probably know is about that like social aspect. You need to get kids to work together and learn, get into school. Middle school is about your feelings. You can't go through a lot of feelings. I can't do middle school, I'm so sorry. And then God bless those teachers. But high school is about creating good citizens.
00:14:30
Speaker
So at the end of the day, whether they want to do video production or not, they need to learn accountability, responsibility, teamwork, communication, you know, those things. And that was one thing where my world went from just being here with me
00:14:46
Speaker
expanding and realizing that I'm building future generations, which is why I wanted to get into teaching. Because I feel like I can make a difference on my own, but if I can touch, you know, like just a couple of kids spark into this, then when I'm, you know, in a retirement home, somewhere warm,
00:15:05
Speaker
And I can see movies or journalists or people, you know, that I have helped touch, you know, and teach in some way and move them forward into their dreams, whether it's music or podcasting like we're doing now or whatever it is, you know, like they learn something.
00:15:22
Speaker
from me. And that that helps, you know, build our society. And I think that's why a lot of teachers, you know, teach maybe they lose sight of it after a while, but not really really taught me, you know, like, we're part of a bigger picture here.
00:15:37
Speaker
We're part of a bigger group, you know, we're doing the work. We're not getting paid for the work, you know, and but we're doing we're doing the work in national boards. Thank God helps, you know, with that pay, you know, they say you're going to do all this work. OK, let's move forward. Yeah. And but but it's just it's just the bigger picture. I want to make a difference in my community and my, you know, and the society that we have, whether the kids move over.
00:16:03
Speaker
And I keep up with them after they're done. They still email me, they still message me, you know, and they say, hey, this is what we're doing, just so you know. And I bring them back to the classroom and I say, come see, come see what we did, because I tell the kids this class isn't for them, it's for the kids after them. You know, because now this year's mistakes that I have learned, next year's kids won't make those mistakes, and I'll make those mistakes, and then they'll keep pushing forward. Same with these projects, like component two.
00:16:32
Speaker
This was the project. This is what I got as a result. What would I do differently? I don't think people think about that afterwards. What will we do differently?
00:16:41
Speaker
you know, for the, for the assignments. And now I know some little things that I would do differently, how I would tweak my rubrics, how I tweak like my teaching style, how long or how short I should spend on a part of it. Like, and that's all to the bigger picture, especially if I'm going to be here for a while, you know, it's, it's just nice, I guess. Yeah. I can tell that, that core value in that deep belief in Lake
Curriculum and Industry Preparation
00:17:08
Speaker
you're helping to not only model and demonstrate what citizenship is, but like helping your students build up for themselves. Because you can easily, like as someone who's not in the CTE world and here's video production, I could just think like, oh, okay, so it's cool. Like it's a class where they're learning how to make music videos or news broadcasts. But like even when you're speaking about your work, it is so much more than that. You have used the word collaboration.
00:17:37
Speaker
teamwork, critical thinking, representation. It's so much more than maybe what meets the eye. And so before we talk about your experience in the process, I wonder if you can paint a picture either through highlights of your time teaching or products that you've engaged in with students. What is it like to be in a program like yours for someone who has no concept of video production in a high school setting?
00:18:04
Speaker
So when you start in year one, you learn the basics, like camera angles, history. And I teach the science behind why video works and all the nuances that you wouldn't think of. And I bring English in there, and I teach them writing, and I do that. And I say, hey, I'm going to take everything that you're learning in school and show you how you can apply it to video production. Video two, we do the news. And video three, we make the movies and the films.
00:18:33
Speaker
Hopefully, you know, we started opening podcasting for possibly in two years, you know, so we'll have a podcasting class for their fourth year if they want to do seniors and we can open up our own like radio station and that will be really exciting. But in my classroom, like we show up and I have them do stuff that's very difficult, you know, at the electrons level like and and because of their work, I have local PBS coming in here and they said we want
00:19:03
Speaker
on our television news spot, because they can come here, they know my kids will be ready, they're professional, they can do this, and they'll use our school as the example. The Nevada Broadcasters Association does a full-rate scholarship every year, you know, and one year they gave our kids, like,
00:19:22
Speaker
five or six full-ride scholarships, you know, to either UNR or UNLV and a job day one in broadcasting because that's what they wanted to do, you know, and they contact me. They said, we love Northwest. Well, they won't tell us during the, you know, process, but they know our school, they know our program, and they'll come do that. UNLV also donated us our news desk that we have. So we have an actual news desk that came from Channel 8 to them.
00:19:47
Speaker
And they, in turn, turned it to me because I'm one of their alumni. I used to work at the UNLV station. And they said, you want to come? And me and another guy, we showed up with a U-Haul package. Thank you. Thank you. And we drove across and we had this desk. But we've been building and we compete in SkillsUSA, which is our career technical student organization. We're competing actually next week in three different positions. So I'm taking a team of 17. But those are the kids that have
00:20:16
Speaker
auditioned and tried out and competed and are really, really ready to do this. So there's a lot of avenues and opportunity for the kids. Even some of the people that come in say, hey, we need a guy working on our set as a production assistant. Great. Here's some 18-year-olds. They're trained. I think they're good. And they'll get hired. So I get people jobs when they graduate. They go through the program. They get three college credits.
00:20:42
Speaker
for completing video one, two, and three as long as they have the B average and they get a career in college readiness certificate because they have to pass a state video production exam at the end. So they get an extra emblem on their diploma saying they're college and career ready if they needed to in video production.
00:21:04
Speaker
I have mine from when I was I'm a product of CCSC Clark County School District and I have my video production I put that high and why and I say here it is here's my certificate to like I went through the process I know what you guys are doing but I wanted I want to push them harder than other schools are because when it comes to these competitions or where it comes to us what I have the kids do is I have them watch other schools news is doing
00:21:30
Speaker
You know, let's see what they're doing. And they'll look and they'll be like, I just wanna claim, like, do you see that? How did they air that? I said, yep, that's why we work really hard, you know? Because, and I'm not putting the other schools down. I'm just saying like, coming from industry, I know how good it is and I wanna be the number one station, whether anyone cares or not, you know? Like, I don't know you. Some people do because we partnered with Switches Collegiate Partnership Program. So we have the purple check mark.
00:22:02
Speaker
And we got our first check for $87. I don't know who's watching our school news. And now you have to watch like, sorry, the bell. Now you have to watch an ad, you know, before you watch our news. And that's awesome. And you know, learning those things and YouTube analytics have been really great on our YouTube channel. So I show the kids, I said, this is when people start watching. This is when they stop watching.
00:22:28
Speaker
This is copyright. This is this. So they can see what our demographic is and what times people are watching and how many views our episodes getting versus other views. And we analyze why. And they really think, OK, so what can we do to get better? And every day, we're getting better. And that's the thing. So in our classroom, it's all about, what can you do better today than you did last time? Yeah. So that's just kind of how our classroom is, I guess.
00:22:58
Speaker
No, this is making me want to go back to high school and be in my radio production class. Because what? I mean, so many different skills and just how you brought in all the content, like your educational content, writing, the science behind it all.
00:23:13
Speaker
I am mind blown. Oh, it's fun. I don't, I teach like, like I'm not a math person, right? But I can appreciate the math that I do know and I can do well and how I can apply it. So I try to teach the kids like how to appreciate the fact that they know capitalization and I don't have
00:23:33
Speaker
Like today I had it I was showing them my video ones editing You know like copy editing like you read something you edit it. How do you edit it? And I was I was like showing top 10 grammar mistakes I said, you know that there's there there and there you are, you know, like you guys know these things right you guys know what a vowel a vowel is a consonant is, you know, and we did headlines and it's
00:23:59
Speaker
Subject plus verb plus object equals headline. I'm glad I said I don't have to teach you guys these things now You know you take those things that you already know and learn how to write a headline. Here's your formula okay, and so you're like oh Okay, or like science like I teach the kids so video isn't real oh
00:24:19
Speaker
It's it's called the five phenomenon. Basically, if you can see another picture within, you know, a fifth of a second, then your eyes don't see it as two moving pictures. They don't see the black space in between. So I said it's an illusion. It's a magic trick. This is science. And I'll say, ooh, science. Look to your neighbor and say, ooh, science.
00:24:43
Speaker
ooh science depending on the day if it's in the morning like ooh science you know like it's like exciting but but it's just like i i teach him like how we see color how our eyes work we have kids in biomed here i said any of you guys know how the eyeball works you know and
00:25:01
Speaker
I don't know. And I said, let me show you. This is how we see color. And I incorporate all these different things so that way they can understand. But also we have the humanistic quality. Like with movies, we can build characters and we can tell stories, but characters only have one story to tell. And I said, if you apply this to your everyday life, we have multiple stories.
00:25:22
Speaker
But then on the journalism side, the ethics side, we're not dealing with stories. We're dealing with real life people and their ethics and how they need to be respected their privacy, but also tell stuff fairly and accurately. You can't just rush and put some slop job out there and say, hey, these are real people. So there's two different sides.
00:25:47
Speaker
It's just, it's just really interesting to show them, you know, we have psychology and English and math and all like science and all these different things, and we can incorporate it into my class. And I just said, you know, if you don't know this, tell your science teacher, tell your English teacher this, you know, and
00:26:06
Speaker
Like tell them that you learned this today and maybe they'll be excited Maybe they won't who knows but it'd be kind of cool to see them like where'd you learn that from Oh from video? Yes some other teachers, you know, and I don't really think so but I don't I don't think they look I don't want to say look down is the word but I don't think they take me as seriously because I'm the
00:26:26
Speaker
fun video production teacher. I also teach a really hard skill and a really hard job, you know, at the end of the day. And television's hard, they'll fire you real quick. You know, like, they do not care and your mommy and dad can't call and get your job back, you know, like...
00:26:44
Speaker
And it's just like, this is how it is. There's no redos. We're live. We're here. We're now, this is money that we're dealing with. But when they start going out and learning these things, oh, I learned this, or I learned this, or I learned this. Now I get other teachers saying,
00:26:59
Speaker
What did you do? And it opens the door for me to collaborate with these other teachers in projects. Let's talk about Spanish, for example. I partnered last year with the Spanish teacher. She teaches Spanish, but she teaches the Spanish speakers class, and she was looking for something for them to do. And I said, what if we made a telenovela?
00:27:20
Speaker
You know, what if we did? And so I taught the kids to write a story, they wrote the characters, and then I gave it to her kids and they translated it all in Spanish. My kids went out and filmed it, and then her kids came and dubbed all the voices over it.
00:27:36
Speaker
And it was so cool to see Spanish and video production kind of come together and create and the kids learn from, you know, the Spanish on how to fit the voices and how to do the stuff and how that part of video works. But my kids learned, you know, that dubbing is hard.
00:27:55
Speaker
Mom is difficult, you know, but I need to portray that. But like, like, that's just one example of many things that I've collaborated on because I want to learn from other teachers as well. How do they handle their kids with discipline issues? Because again, I didn't come from teaching. I mean, I've been teaching for six years and I know how I do it, but I want to see how other teachers kind of do those types of things. How do they handle, you know,
00:28:20
Speaker
a student not turning in their work or somebody being disrespectful. And I take some things from them and I said, OK, let me try this in my classroom and see if that works. You know, so I like that aspect, but I also like seeing, again, that collaboration piece, you know, and it's really cool. It's really cool. OK, so honestly, that's a perfect segue because we talked about your teaching experience. You've been teaching for six years. You shared about collaboration opportunities that you've had with teachers in your building or in your space.
00:28:50
Speaker
And National Board, the process itself really does, I wanna say like elevate the fact that like collaboration is a key part of being a professional educator.
Motivation for National Board Certification
00:29:00
Speaker
And also just like the reflection and the analyzation of your own practice. So I'm curious, how did you decide at this point in your career that board certification was something that you were interested in, that it was for you? What was that like? What was that decision-making process?
00:29:18
Speaker
I got with a national course from another teacher and they were telling me about it and you know the perks they come with it and I was looking and I was thinking you know what because like I had a conversation with one of my oldest system principals one time and I said I know
00:29:33
Speaker
how to teach. I know how to teach what I know, right? But I don't know how to be a Clark County School District teacher, you know? Like all these other little extra things that they have you do, like how to be that. Because I came from industry. I have a business and industry license. I didn't do student teaching. I don't have an education degree. I don't have any of that stuff. I don't know any of that. So learning the classroom management was
00:30:01
Speaker
So me and then my dad telling me some things, you know, and like, sometimes like all you've been like, the kids will be working. I'll call and I say, Dad, this is this is how this went. What would you do? You know, like, okay, let's just figure this out. And then we'll work through it. And it's really interesting. So I have that collaboration piece. But
00:30:20
Speaker
like doing national boards, I wanted to elevate me as an educator. I don't want to just be that video TV teacher. I want to be the national board certified CTE teacher at our campus, you know, and only one of the other two, Renee Wiseman, she's awesome. She just finished her national boards and she passed and she's been really good at, you know, helping like
00:30:48
Speaker
Mentor me through like a couple different things when I have questions and she's you know helped with other teachers, too but I realized that ours are completely still different because she's history, you know and mine's video and The collaboration piece was hard because for me I'm my own unit
00:31:07
Speaker
Yeah, we have photography here. We have art class here, but we teach three different things. With at least history, you can collaborate with other people that teach the same subject as you, or similar, or have had the kids the year before.
00:31:24
Speaker
Like, you know, the elementary teachers, you can consult with their kindergarten teacher beforehand and stuff. I don't have that. So we got really creative. And I realized that my collaboration are our industry partners are people that come, you know, to the studio. Yeah, we have the parents. I have the parent-teacher conferences and talking to them. But I want to know how to get my kids employed. What what are they doing out there in the industry that I can incorporate into our classroom? What
00:31:52
Speaker
What products are they doing? The more I can tour and talk to, like I brought in reporters and, you know, video crews and camera people and lighting specialists, you know, and union workers and said, OK, talk to the kids a little bit. Tell them what you do and then we'll start working. And but the cool part is every time I bring in a community partner, I end up, you know, figuring out how to get them into my studio and saying, let's fix something today before you leave, you know, like
00:32:19
Speaker
How can we do this? And we have built our studio. When I first got here in 2019, it was the year of 2019, January, we were recording on tape, DV tape. I was like, it is 2019.
00:32:36
Speaker
I saw this space. I saw this stuff. I saw the old, old equipment that we had. We were shooting in 480. I was like, I don't know what has been happening here. And God bless the teachers that were here before because they built me a foundation of kids that knew what to do. But I had to figure out how to bring them into now because
00:32:57
Speaker
How are they gonna be able to compete with other people in the job fields if they don't have the correct experience or they don't have the correct updated knowledge? Not saying that we need a fancy, you know, red camera or anything like that. But if I can get something that is higher quality, it'll help them build a demo reel so they can have the opportunity to work on a set that has a red camera, you know? And all they need to do is learn the equipment.
00:33:25
Speaker
And every time we get new equipment, the way that we set it up as I find some kids, we get the manual and I said, let's learn this. And we figure it out together. And then I have them write a kid-friendly manual so that way future generations can know how to do it, you know? And I'm like, okay, this is what we built. So I have kids from years ago who have come in, like some of my first students that I ever had, and I pull up their videos because I keep them, you know, I have my archive and I'm like, look at how you guys were. And they're like,
00:33:52
Speaker
They'll say it like when one kid he was like, I can't believe we turned this in and thought it was okay, you know, I was just like, yeah, I know but look at the studio. Look at what we've built. Look what we've done, you know, look what we have changed because of you, you know, and it's just really interesting, you know, so when I wanted to get to that, I want to learn how to be a better educator in the classroom because like how we said in the beginning, my everything here is a representation of how I taught them.
00:34:23
Speaker
I can say some lessons that I did teach years ago, like my seniors now, I'm like, remember this lesson? Well, we're doing like this this time. They're like, oh my gosh, that would have been so good. I say, yep, I had to fix it because I didn't know what I was doing. That was one of my first times. Now I'm like a well-oiled machine figuring out that, but building and growing and adding more and more and more and how can they do all these things?
00:34:46
Speaker
doing national boards, I learned the importance of a really firm rubric. You know what I mean? I was like, OK, because that wasn't something I can't. I can look at somebody like, this is like sea quality, and you know it is. We can both see it, because there's a rubric here that shows us. But now I have like super patented, like nice rubrics. I'm like, OK, this is what we're looking at. This is how you get an A, you know? But I never believed in the rubric before, because
00:35:16
Speaker
I always think, you know, another lesson from my dad is, you know, you always want to give 100%, right? And, and so if you're up, you know, against another team or something like that, and you didn't give 100%, then you're given your I coulda, I shoulda, I woulda, I done that, you know, like whatever, right? But if you gave 100% and somebody beat you, then they were just better than you that day.
00:35:42
Speaker
Hey, so when it came to the rubric, I don't want the kids like me who's thinking, well, I only needed two on component four, right? I want them to run through the tape and try to give me everything that they got and in hopes to get an A, you know? Yeah. Sometimes, you know, when I look at the rubrics, I'm like, this is the rubric that we're looking on. But I want you to go past this, you know, because if you go past this,
00:36:06
Speaker
Then I can check up a couple boxes and we can get to the next thing as opposed to teach you Okay, I guess you struggle in this So now I have to take time and teach you a lesson on this if you could show me more if you can do more Then yeah, let's let's keep going. Let's You're talented kid. You won't be my editor. Let's do this. Like where did this come from? you know and I want them to show me what we got so but those little parts of making rubrics and I
00:36:34
Speaker
you know, making the charts and doing the comparisons and doing the stuff. You know, sometimes I got lost in the blur of just every day, do we do this? Do we get there? But, you know, National Boards has really taught me to kind of slow down and really think about what I'm doing in the classroom and is it effective, you know?
00:36:56
Speaker
Could my kids get a job when they graduate if they wanted to? Whether they're a PA or a camera operator or something, could they work at their local church in the little camera crew? Yeah, hopefully, something like that. And that's what I'm hoping because every CTE teacher should have the goal of being able to get a job and get a promotion without additional education because they have four years in my program.
00:37:25
Speaker
kids get really bored when they graduate and they're in their film you know one-on-one class and they're like oh this is I don't know why we learned all this I said good easy a focus on other things ask more questions get deep-dived into it yeah that's that's what it is so yeah I so appreciate your energy and your passion and you're just your authenticity about how you teach and why you teach and
00:37:54
Speaker
what you still have to learn and things that you have learned. And I think it's just so refreshing to hear, you know, like, yeah, there are, you know, some challenges going through the process, right? Like I had to figure out ways to make this process work for me based on what
00:38:08
Speaker
I am currently teaching and what I have access to. And also being open and willing to be flexible with your own teaching. The use of rubrics versus not using rubrics are what you've learned about that through the process. So at this point, you submitted components one, two, and three. This year, you're submitting four, that last one that sometimes people have a very
00:38:32
Speaker
There's a story that often comes with four. And I feel like your experience with four might be a little different.
Component Four Preparation and Strategies
00:38:39
Speaker
How did you prep for four? Is it feeling overwhelming? Is it feeling very applicable? Sometimes four gets the rap of like, oh, that's the big one. That's the one that's going to cause me the most stress. And I'm curious.
00:38:52
Speaker
Is that a feeling that you have as your completing component for this year? Yeah. So out here they call component for the beast. What do they call it? It is a lot. It is a lot. It's a lot about collaboration, you know, collaborating with students, collaborating with
00:39:08
Speaker
with, you know, parents, collaborating with, you know, other educators and collaboration, collaboration. And that's why when I brought up my industry partners, I was like, oh, I collaborate with them all the time. I call them up and say, hey, this isn't working, what would you do? You know, like, okay. And then bring them into the classroom and watch them see the kids up, you know, do the application. I even have some of the producers and people in industry, even I give them the rubric, you know, and I say, you grade it.
00:39:37
Speaker
And some of them aren't very nice. And then I'll send it back and say, well, great, like if you were in high school, you know, like, but I show the kids both my older kids, obviously, you know, they can take it at this point, as if they can beat me, who's supposed to be the meanest boss that they have.
00:39:52
Speaker
they're good out there they're good and uh but but you know and i collaborate that and then my state standards i have to say am i ticking all these boxes like i don't have a curriculum written but i have a set of standards that i need to hit the end of their three years one of the things that will test me is how do they do they pass the end of program exam and it shows me it's i don't know what the test looks like none of us do i don't know what questions are on there so all i know is just to prepare to the standards and
00:40:21
Speaker
Some people say, should you teach to the test or shouldn't you? Yeah, you should teach to the test, right? That's what we're testing them on. Some people want to throw in these left, right answers. I'm like, this isn't, right? Let's teach to the test. And I give the kids now, National Awards has taught me pre-tests are important to see what the kids know. I just assume they don't know anything.
00:40:42
Speaker
And I'm just like, let's just start. But I pretest the kids. And I said, how many of you guys think you got 100%? Woo. And they'll be like, nobody. And I'd be like, but look at your neighbor and say, you will. And they'd be like, you will. You say, I will. I will get 100%. Because that's what we strive for. I don't know. You've heard of Bloom's text on me before.
00:41:04
Speaker
Okay, so at the at the you know at the bottom you have like your base levels like your knowledge You know like levels and some teachers only get to that right where they teach they may teach to the test They say okay, let's move on. They know it they can tell me what it is great I like to teach all the way up to like that synthesis level and
00:41:25
Speaker
You know that top level because I want to see what they can do with what I taught them and how they can create something Completely new using that knowledge and that's where like our labs come in You know like our our videos like my video one kids I tell them the first video that they make I said this is gonna be the worst video you guys have ever made like look at me like
00:41:47
Speaker
You're like, thanks for that vote of confidence. It's the worst video you're going to make. We watch them and you see the kids and they're like, oh my God. I think it takes a little bit of pressure off because I said, look, we're going to make a couple more videos. I like to quote Dr. Phil sometimes because he always says, you can't fall off the floor. I said, this is your floor.
00:42:09
Speaker
So I expect something just better than this. And if they can get better every single time, you know, then I'm doing my job and I can see it in the practice. Like I don't like the test is what their video looks like at the end of the day. Can they can they do the simple things I taught white balancing focusing doing all this stuff? Can they tell me a story? Can they keep me entertained?
00:42:30
Speaker
Do they have the right graphics? Is principle spelt right? Sometimes it's not. And I'm just like, okay. You know, I'm like, okay, let's get this. This is, you put our principle up here and you spell principle wrong. You know what I'm saying? You put this in the news today. You know, like, but they learned from those mistakes. And I've been the one to say, okay, because like, that's a good video. And then they'll be like, Mr. Clay, let's see what she says. And I'm like, and I'm like this and this and this and this and this and this and this and this.
00:42:59
Speaker
these things are, you know, need to be fixed. But what I do like that compliment sandwich is that like, so keep this. Now let's just focus on maybe two of these things and forward and then you see their videos progressively get better and you see them want it more.
00:43:15
Speaker
They want to be a better video. They want to say, man, this is a good video. They see me as how I see my dad in that sense. We're like, is it good? Is it not good? What do you think? Because they know that I am not here to be their friend. I'm here to make them better. And I need to make them how that is.
00:43:39
Speaker
I guess just seeing the kids grow, especially over the years too. Because I have them freshman to senior sometimes. Like my seniors this year, I've had all four years and we started in quarantine. And I didn't get to meet them, like how you usually meet in quarantine. And now we see them now. And they're just like young adults. And it's kind of sweet to see that grow and that change. But when it comes to component for the collaboration, I'm the collaboration.
00:44:05
Speaker
I seen how they were their first year. I talked to their parents throughout the years. I know how they are. We've all fought for this program at our school, you know, and kept the kids and kept the program alive or where we're at. And it's all thanks to just that collaboration between them, each other. They're like a family. You see them and you see them be like, hey, what's up? You know, and they're just like they know each other and they really know each other because they've had those experience, this teamwork and that stuff. And so
00:44:34
Speaker
For four, my evidence is basically collaborating with obviously our state standards, collaborating with the industry partners and seeing how the kids are from then to now and what I've done to help develop that synthesis part of them.
00:44:53
Speaker
develop that workplace readiness skills. How I've used their, because I know their Myers-Briggs, right? I know their personalities, how I've used their personalities to shape them and push some introverted kids into being extroverted. I have a girl, she's one of my seniors. She was my top anchor for two years in a row. And she's a peer leader and she walks around with the middle schools and she comes to ours and she goes, this is video production. Now, if you're shy,
00:45:23
Speaker
This is the perfect class for you. She goes, I was so shy. And now look at me, I'm up here talking and I just nominated her today to be one of the speakers at our graduation. And I really hope she gets it. You know, I really do because she deserves it because I saw her.
00:45:40
Speaker
She was real shy. She's funny, but she didn't know she wanted to do this. And then the second year, I have the kids do a job application where they apply for the job. They sit with me. We do an interview. I say, this is the job that you're looking for. What skills do you have? What can you bring to the table? And I've already seen how they worked the year before. They want to be an editor, and they're editing. Not good. Maybe if
00:46:02
Speaker
A lot of kids that want to be an editor, I'll take my top editor, and now I'll have that person, instead of just be an editor, they go and help edit with other people's edits. And they say, OK, because that helps them become better. And that's ironing, sharpening iron, right? And they said, OK, this is good. Let me do this. And then I can switch them out, and I rotate them, and say, OK, you guys are going to edit this time. You guys are going to do this this time. But they sit, and they do these job executions. And she told me.
00:46:31
Speaker
I want to be an anchor." I was like, you want to be an anchor, huh? All right, let's see what you got. And a little bit was rough, and you can see the scaredness and the stuff and the nerves. But I also auditioned all the anchors, and I partner up the anchors with good personalities, things that can balance each other out. And her and the other boy that she was with, they were so good.
00:46:55
Speaker
I, it could just be at a point where I just say, Hey, let's just get this done. Hey, I need you to read this. And they could just, then they're done and they got it, you know, and it's, it's nice. And then once I see that, and I said, okay, now we're going to show other people how to anchor, you know, and that's, that's just how it is. So they'll come into the classroom and say, okay,
00:47:14
Speaker
Let's try it like this, you know? Because I'll have my older kids. I said, we need a day for training. Anybody who's done with their work in their class, can you come to my class and help the younger kids? You know, they'll always want to volunteer. And they'll come first. Well, one, missing class. But two, they want to help the younger brothers and sisters and get them, you know, good. Because they also watch the news. And now that they're not in it, they're like, what is going on with the news? I said, I don't know. Come help me.
00:47:42
Speaker
What else do you do? But the news this year just happens to be run by sophomores. And you know anything about sophomores, it's just hard for them to just, you know, smile sometimes. And I'm like, okay, come on, come on. Let's breathe. Let's do our work. Let's do our work. Do your work. But but
00:48:00
Speaker
I like seeing that grow. I like seeing that change. The collaboration has been just probably the easiest part for me because it's stuff I'm already doing. The other stuff like the assignments and comparing and saying what I do next, I would do stuff like that, but I wouldn't do it so in depth. I think one of the hardest parts for me though was the
00:48:23
Speaker
was probably the test, I think, because the test had nothing to do with video production at all. It had nothing to do with it. It was just like generalized. And if you know the CTE, it goes from middle school to high school. So there were a lot of questions about how you would handle middle schoolers doing something. And I'd be like, I have no idea.
00:48:45
Speaker
because I don't teach middle school. So I would have to really sit and think, okay, here's the emotional aspect. Or they'd be like, you're a cosmetology teacher and you're teaching this lesson and you want to collaborate with the math department. What would you do? And I'm like, I have no idea. Because I don't teach that.
00:49:02
Speaker
like general science or general history yeah it goes over a lot but general cte wild i was just sitting there in the testing thing i had the they had uh soundproof headphones and i was just in the zone just like sitting there and what i could say for cte teachers if you're worried about the test really study those
00:49:23
Speaker
those examples, I know there's only like eight like questions that they have a really down and see what they're asking and also time yourself like do a blank read of the essay questions and time yourself because thank God I did because you know one of them was actually one of the questions on my test for the essay and I was like oh thank God I practice this one because now I know exactly what I need to do
00:49:47
Speaker
And, you know, learn how to write a full lesson plan and do all those different things that teachers should know how to do. I just did it kind of backwards where I knew what they needed to know. I can show them what to do, but I didn't have it like written concrete day one objective, this, this, this, you know, and component four has really showed me those objectives and really saying, okay, this is my learning goal. These are the standards. This is what goes into it, you know, and,
00:50:16
Speaker
That was probably the only part that I really sat and was like, okay, we're going to start doing some lesson planning and actually doing this instead of saying, okay, you do this, you do this, you do this, you do this. I've developed you all. You guys all know this skill. I have my units that I teach, but they're just kind of different than I think most teachers do.
00:50:36
Speaker
just open up their binders and have all these lesson plans and say oh today is day two of this and me I'm thinking well did they have enough time did I split it do I have it like I don't know you know and let's let's just see it and it was kind of like a free-for-all not saying me of being a bad teacher but
00:50:55
Speaker
I think, you know, I'm a little unorganized in that sense where I just can't just pull up a paper and say, hey, this is my success criteria learning target. Like I'm just like, okay, this is what we can. So I actually made a poster this year of success criteria, the learning target. And literally I just said, okay, this is what they're learning. This is what they'll be able to do at the end. And that's it. And that's basic lesson plan. And I said, okay, I just,
00:51:24
Speaker
put, I just write on my little poster every day. I said, here it is. It's up here. But some teachers, I would look and say, man, this is, this is, this is wild. Like you guys do this every day? Like every day. Yeah. Yeah. And I think.
00:51:39
Speaker
Your reflection on that is so interesting because again, to your point, like you didn't have necessarily that student teaching experience, right? Or like that teacher prep that maybe others have had, but you've learned through this process. And I think sometimes people might lose that as much as this is like an articulation of your practice and a reflection of your practice, it's also a space of learning.
00:52:02
Speaker
And I think you have really exemplified that. You have already listed at least five different things that you have learned along the way that makes you now a more efficacious teacher, which is great for your students, which is great for the community. And I am just so privileged to be able to speak to you today. I'm privileged that you guys want to listen to a CTU teacher. I am pumped. You have no idea. And I can't wait to get feedback on this episode from just the education community, because there's probably a lot of educators
00:52:32
Speaker
if we're being real, Katie, who might be second career coming from industry, see board certification and they're like.
00:52:38
Speaker
Well, I don't know. I haven't had the teaching experience. I haven't had teacher prep. And they may not see themselves in the process, but I think you've painted a picture that says, yeah, there's going to be things that might be a little different as us coming from industry into this process. But it's nothing that's going to prohibit you from being a part of the process. Nothing that's going to hold you back. If anything, you just get to learn a little bit more about teaching.
00:53:06
Speaker
No, it's just amazing. And for any teacher out there, whether you teach general or you teach CTE, I think you should do it. It's a lot of work. And if your principal, because I was fortunate enough that my principal paid for my way to do this.
00:53:22
Speaker
She didn't do all the teachers with professional development. She said, we'll pay for you guys to do the board. So because it is a is a pricey number. But if you do the payment plans, if you could do like the things, even if you do one component a year and then just take the test in one of the years, you know, that you do like people say like, I know people that do component like one and three and then next year do two and four or they wait till four like myself to the end. I knocked out one, two and three in the beginning because I was like, I'm going to get this. I'm going to do all four.
00:53:52
Speaker
to April and I was like, no. But now this year it's in April and I'm like, okay, I still got evidence. It is a lot of writing. It is a beast. It is a big packet you have to put together. But if you're already doing those things in the classroom, then it shouldn't be that difficult. It's just figuring out the language that they want you to use.
00:54:13
Speaker
how you're gonna do it, who you collaborated with, but I think doing one, two, three in that order, and now four, those three prepared me for number four. And now I'm just like, okay, because these are the things that I needed to figure out in the past, the lesson planning, the rubrics, all those different things. And now I'm here, I'm like, okay, I got this. Now let's just get it out. Let's just write it down, and we'll figure it out that way.
Acknowledgment of Students' Support
00:54:41
Speaker
OK, Katie, so as we close this conversation, because you work with high schoolers, so they're a little bit older, because of the work that you do in media, video production, potentially there's a podcast studio happening in your near future. If there's anything that you want to say to your students, we just want to give you that space now in the event that they hear this, because they are integral to your process, right? Like without students in the classroom, the National Board process
00:55:11
Speaker
isn't a process. Like I can pretend all the things I want. I can wish and dream the type of teacher I want to be, but my students are really the key to the work that I do. So I'm curious as we close, if there's anything you want to say.
00:55:25
Speaker
to your students who might be listening. Yeah, my students are coming in now as we speak. The one thing that, you know, I'd like to say my students and past students is thank you for writing this out with me. I'm a human too. We're learning how to navigate through this and doing the national board part has been really hard because again,
00:55:45
Speaker
back to the very beginning of this is a reflection of me. And if I can give them any type of, you know, deal when it comes to learning or coming here or doing the things that they need to be doing, then I just want to say, you know, thank you because it helps me become a better teacher, a better educator and help other kids that come after them in their learning experience and what we can do. So that's what I would say.
00:56:11
Speaker
Well Katie, we appreciate your time so much. Thank you for kind of in between classes doing this with us. That's really what teaching is about also. Thank you for your students who are so willing to share their expertise and I'm so excited for you. I'm excited for submission and December 24. I got this. You got this. Thanks so much Katie.