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Season 3, Episode 12 - happilyeverelementary
102 Plays2 years ago
With nearly 200,000 followers on Instagram, Loreal Hemenway and Stephanie Osmundson (known as "happilyeverelementary" to their followers) are working to make a huge positive impact in schools each and every day in their own way. They share many videos on how to enhance classrooms or make a bulletin board more exciting to students. The ladies are fantastic humans and educators, and their ripple effect has been felt far and wide in the educational arena. It is a great conversation with great teachers who just want the best for their colleagues and all students.
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Transcript
Introduction to L'Oreal and Steph
00:00:10
Speaker
Good afternoon, and thank you for joining the podcast. Today, I have two very special guests. Sometimes things just work out. A few weeks ago, I had Leanna Mackleprang on the program, and she was fabulous, the APH Shirley Barber. And I had absolutely no idea that her sister and her partner listened to the podcast as well. And
00:00:32
Speaker
Magically, they were kind enough to give me a shout on Instagram. They are better known as happily ever elementary, but they go by the real names of L'Oreal and Steph.
Mission of the Podcast
00:00:43
Speaker
Ladies, thank you very much for being here. I appreciate the way this all worked out and I appreciate your time.
00:00:48
Speaker
We're so excited to be here. Yeah, we're so super lucky. My sister only spoke nice things about you. And so when we listened to the podcast, I had to shout it out because it was super incredible to listen to two educated teachers and leaders in our district talking about things that matter.
00:01:04
Speaker
Thank you. The whole idea of the podcast is to basically get some ideas out there, perspective. I'm going to get to this in a little bit, but you too have been on the cutting edge of things for a while and I try to be, but I think when you can get two people or three in our case talking about education, especially in Clark County, perhaps
00:01:27
Speaker
people will listen and want to make some positive changes. That's really the goal for it. So yeah, Leanna was great. And then of course you, you both are going to share some nuggets of wisdom.
Origins of Happily Ever Elementary
00:01:37
Speaker
I have to know, I know your story a little bit, and I'm sure you share it all the time, but like, when did you look at each other and think happily ever elementary?
00:01:49
Speaker
Okay, so first and foremost, L'Oreal and I go back to high school days. And shortly after we met, L'Oreal was like ready to go convincing me to become a teacher because my background is musical theater. And so once L'Oreal did an incredible job of convincing me of that, I was a couple of years behind her in college. And once I joined her at, actually Ann Leanna,
00:02:12
Speaker
at Wallen Elementary. We started working together and there were so many ideas shared between the two of us and our friendship. And we're so passionate. We didn't have kids at the time. So we always said like teaching was our profession and our hobby. And we were just constantly looking for the next thing. And Instagram had started shortly before that. And we were obsessed with some of the teachers we had happened upon. And we were like, why not us? Like why don't we share our ideas and start an Instagram together?
00:02:40
Speaker
And at first it was a little bit of pulling teeth with L'Oreal just because she thinks things through so much and I'm just ready to take the leap. And so I was trying to convince her for a little bit and was coming up with these ridiculous,
00:02:55
Speaker
account names and everyone had like a tagline. And so it used to be on there. It's not on our account anymore, but happily ever elementary is what we landed on because we believe in making environments that feel like Disneyland and giving teachers and kids a happily ever after at school. And our tagline was making classroom dreams come true.
00:03:15
Speaker
And so once we kind of felt confident enough to take that leap, we have not looked back.
Challenges and Accessibility in Teaching
00:03:19
Speaker
So we've had that account for maybe eight years and it's grown obviously, but it really just started with like the desire to constantly better ourselves as teachers and to make it a collaborative conversation, just like what you're doing with this podcast.
00:03:31
Speaker
Yeah, you make a good point. What you said there at the end was it started with a desire to make ourselves better. Yeah. And I think that's really what our goal is. This is just to help people think and show them ways to maybe look at a different angle and become better at what they do, which you just kind of pushed me right into a question. Why are some teachers not like you? And what I mean by that is,
00:03:59
Speaker
Do you feel like or do you see around the district of the world? I mean, you're fairly insta-famous. Do you see teachers who just don't want to get better or are unwilling to take your ideas and maybe create their own thing?
00:04:13
Speaker
Yes, of course we do. I think we knew we were a little different from the beginning. We would consider ourselves very extra and that's not for everyone and that's not every everyone can't produce the same things we do because it comes very natural to us. And I think having the platform we have really tried to make things very easy for people to recreate
00:04:34
Speaker
and to give them the option to recreate. If you like this bulletin board, you can do it too. We'll show you how. That's free learning that we can give. But if you don't and you don't want to, you don't have to, we're lucky to work in a very...
00:04:47
Speaker
a great school that has a lot of educators that are on fire for learning and we feel lucky we see that at your school too. You have some teachers that are very incredible and they're all hands on deck but we have been at schools and we have been around teachers where that passion and the extra component that we bring to the table is always there and
00:05:05
Speaker
We can't blame them because we get it. We're in a thankless job sometimes where it doesn't feel like all of this is worth it. But we always think of the bigger picture of who is
Creative Teaching Approaches
00:05:15
Speaker
this benefiting? Does this excite us? Do we enjoy it? And at the end of the day, we do. So that's why we do it.
00:05:21
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, I understand what you're saying. And I think one of the struggles that I have is motivating people to be quote unquote, extra, and to do more things. And I think so what you're saying is that you just that's just who you are. And you just you wouldn't know how to be the other way. No.
00:05:40
Speaker
Do you think you could ever just like unplug Instagram now and just like cut it off? No. Oh my gosh. That sounds painful. That would honestly do like suppressing such a huge part of us now. But I think too when you're talking about like turning on this extra factor, our personality types are creative.
00:05:59
Speaker
So like Gloria said, it's like a natural thing. Some teachers, like their bread and butter is data and less maybe about like the environment and experience. And so it kind of, I think as a school coming up with your mission statement and where are we going to put that focus is a constant conversation that needs to be had. I think Gloria and I personally value the fun and again, the experience we can provide almost like disguise the learning with memorable
00:06:28
Speaker
memory making for sure. And so I think that's where, again, we care about data and love data. But it's kind of where you just prioritize the focus and ours just as labeled as extra.
Transition to Specialists
00:06:40
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, it's not a fair label, honestly.
00:06:43
Speaker
You know, I struggle because for me, like I, you, I don't know. I mean, second sucks. I don't want to be second. You know, it's the first loser. And so people look at it as like extra. No, we just have a different set of expectations, I believe. And some people don't like that. And I, I struggle with that. I don't understand why anybody would assign them to just be average.
00:07:07
Speaker
We agree. Yes, awesome. So, Maddie McConnell teaches at my school and she was a specialist last year. And about October, she knew she did not want to be a specialist anymore. She was a third grade teacher. She went to STEM after Sarah DeLouis left. And then October, she's like, I don't want to do this anymore. You all came from kindergarten, first grade.
00:07:32
Speaker
Have you loved the change to being a specialist because it's different than having your own class?
00:07:38
Speaker
We have loved it so much and I think for a variety of reasons. Our hearts are definitely primary minded. We still have a really big soft spot and maybe a little bit of a void from having our own classes that we can really pour into. However, the change came when it needed to in our lives. L'Oreal has shared this before. We're really open about our own mental health journeys as teachers because obviously it's a huge topic right now with teaching.
00:08:04
Speaker
And I was going through some postpartum depression during COVID. I had just had my first child and then the world shut down and L'Oreal called on my behalf to see if we could split our contract and that was not going to be an art. It was going to be in any position
Creative Freedom and Support
00:08:16
Speaker
that our principal was okay with and it just happened to be an art.
00:08:20
Speaker
which felt, one, really- Yeah, that's perfect for you. Right. Perfect for us, perfect for planning when it comes to teachers that are splitting a contract and job sharing. But it ended up having these benefits such as us having our students again, students that we had said goodbye to, and now we're teaching again, and it's been so amazing to witness their growth in the upper grades. Then also the fact that we have a little bit more work-life balance just in the sense that we can lean on each other,
00:08:49
Speaker
And what we plan for art, once it's done, it's done. There's not as much differentiation required. Like every day in kinder and first, we were constantly having to go back to the drawing board because we're reassessing, reassessing, which means we are reevaluating, replanning. And we're constantly on our toes. We have found some peace of mind in the sense that we've planned this great art lesson. We're going to enjoy it with all these grade levels. And it's just allowed us to kind of
00:09:17
Speaker
enjoy it a little bit more because there isn't the pressure of every single subject.
00:09:22
Speaker
We miss it at times, but it definitely has its perks in getting to just hone in on only art. You can elaborate on that, L'Oreal, if there's things I missed. Yeah, I think that we are in the honeymoon phase for sure. This is year three of being out of the classroom, and I don't see us ever going back as of right now. We find so much joy in what we're doing. There's pros and cons to being a classroom teacher versus a specialist. We see both.
00:09:48
Speaker
but where we're at in our lives right now with between both of us, five young children, one of which we get to teach in art, and now we have this new fire for the lessons. I always tell her, like, kinder lesson has to be the best because it's where my son is right now. So every time we're like, but it's kinder, I'm like, but it's my son's lesson.
Balancing Structure and Freedom
00:10:07
Speaker
I think that we've just found so much joy. So I
00:10:10
Speaker
I don't see us going back anytime soon. And we have a really great specialist team. We do. So it feels really awesome to get to partner up and be creative again because that is like what we identify as, is creatives. And it's just been nice to give back to the school in a different way because for a while our reach was maybe to 20 to 30 students.
00:10:31
Speaker
We're so sorry. We're going to show you really quick. We have our Halloween decorations and when the lights turn off, which they do regularly, um, the ghost goes off. Hold on. Let me get the lights. That's funny though. It's cute. The kids love it, but, um, wasn't expecting it to go off. She put the ghost away. Back to it. I was talking about our amazing team. Sorry. Is it crooked now? Yeah.
00:11:00
Speaker
Our team is just really incredible, so it's been nice to collaborate outside of just one grade level as well. We have a reach that hits the entire student body and that feels like such a privilege for sure. Do you find, so one of the struggles I have, I'm very trusting. I basically trust people until I can't or until I have to go help you.
00:11:24
Speaker
Do you find that you prefer more structure or more freedom? Because people who come to Thompson from a very structured environment struggle with all the freedoms that I give them. And likewise, I think people that maybe leave Thompson, they are looking for more structure.
Handling Negative Feedback Online
00:11:42
Speaker
So which do you prefer and why?
00:11:45
Speaker
That's an interesting question. I think Stephanie and I absolutely thrive in an environment where we have freedom, but we can also see that other teachers don't thrive in those environments. And that is where it is hard, especially as a classroom teacher, where you see other teachers maybe taking advantage of their freedom. And you're like, well, that person needs structure, but don't put that structure on me because we will always do and show up for our kids. So that is really hard.
00:12:14
Speaker
I don't know, we just like to be free birds. And we like when our leadership has trust. I think that's huge when your principal or administrators trust that you will make the right choice given any situation. And we really value that with good leadership. So I think we've only experienced the freedom because we have always shown up and do what we're supposed to do. But we can see that in a school that maybe allows too much freedom, you can see teachers take advantage of that kindness. And that's where it's really hard because
00:12:44
Speaker
No one should take advantage of it cuz it's such a privilege to have. Yeah. So when you look at CCSD ladies and you know, I mean at some point in time your principal is gonna retire. Yeah at some point time you're gonna have a new boss and
00:12:58
Speaker
you're going to hope that the new boss will allow you freedoms. But when you look around CCSD right now, it feels like they are taking all the freedoms away in many ways. So when you think about that, how grateful are you that you don't have to teach reading right now? We are extremely grateful. Just in like the less than 10 years that we taught in the gen ed classrooms,
00:13:21
Speaker
We had several programs pushed on us. And mind you, we've always been in environments where we don't have to teach with fidelity. And like L'Oreal said, we've been trusted. We were both leads in first grade and kinder. So we did get to make a lot of decisions for our students in areas that we were looking for what is best for them. And it wasn't often a program, but it is hard. We feel so bad.
00:13:46
Speaker
not being in the trenches with our Gen Ed co-workers. And we do feel very grateful and we feel relief because those things from our district aren't impacting us in the same way. They are going to impact our children. So we are really quick to jump in where we can and be like, how can we support you? What materials do you need? Is there any way that as specialists we can take the freedom that we have or maybe the leniency in our curriculum and support you guys in any ways we can collaborate over?
00:14:16
Speaker
it would be really hard if we had to tailor our, again, content-based instruction around what is being enforced. So I think, I don't know if you agree with this or not, I think it's all about control.
Staying Positive Amidst Criticism
00:14:31
Speaker
People want to control the people that they're over. And I think it's really hard to let people just go do what you two do. Because you might, I mean, not that you would, but what if you do something that is a little bit,
00:14:47
Speaker
controversial or something. So it's hard to let people go, just post. I mean, you guys post so much. Have you ever felt like you were stifled on what you could post? Or have you just ever been trusted? You've always been able to do what you wanted to do. Have you ever worried about getting in trouble for what you've done, what you've posted?
00:15:11
Speaker
Um, it's, it's interesting cause our audience is very separate from like our job here in the district. We feel cause we're reaching so many across the world to be honest. And so sometimes we do oftentimes talk about what we're posting. We pretty much stay in our lane. We have a niche. So whenever we recommend people to start a page or if they want to do this, you really have to hone in on a focus. You can't just be all over the place. You have to really have your,
00:15:39
Speaker
what people look to you for so people look to us for we do classroom renovations we do bulletin board kits we make things on teachers pay teachers we share free ideas tips and tricks so that they're coming to us for if we ever want to go outside of our niche we'll talk through things we really like to make sure we're looking at all perspectives make sure it's not going to be received
00:15:59
Speaker
in a way that we didn't intend for. It's all about perspective. It's all about perspective. Very good. Very good. Very good. I think that we having two minds working together often will bring different sides. You know, and social media is not a perfect place. So sometimes we do get negative feedback or we do get comments that are unkind and we're putting ourselves out there. We know what we're setting ourselves up for and we can anticipate a lot of backlash. Yeah.
00:16:25
Speaker
Yeah. And we know that our experience is unique. And so there are always people right now, I feel like in social media, trying to one up the suffering. And so it's like if a positive thing, there are always people that are like, well, must be nice to have a bulletin board or must be nice to get to put paper on the wall. And we're like, okay, well, maybe this idea wasn't for you. We're so sorry.
00:16:49
Speaker
But so we are able to kind of anticipate, but like L'Oreal said, what's really great is that we both can bring our own personal insights to the conversation so that we can kind of anticipate and prepare both mentally and professionally for anything like that. So you, in the book, it's all about perspective that I wrote. I basically said, you will never change someone's mind with an argument online.
00:17:18
Speaker
Do you take on people who are the haters or do you just let them do their thing? Because I used to. That's really where that chapter came from. I got into a disagreement online and I just was like, I just got to get that out of my life. And I think it was a good thing. But you know, you I mean, you have so many followers and so many people are probably jealous. They can't do what you do.
00:17:40
Speaker
Do you take them on, or do you block them, or do you just let it go? Because it hurts. It hurts when people, I can tell, just by looking at your faces, one of you wants to fight, and one of you probably doesn't. OK, so I am the one that is, I mean, it's not the first time. L'Oreal and I are often, simply put, sweet and salty, or sweet and feisty. I am also Hispanic, so I just feel like that label is so easily thrown out. Obviously, I like to say passionate or honest.
00:18:10
Speaker
or honest, right? I feel like a lot of the times people don't like to hear certain things or they like to brush it over. So the person that does talk about it is labeled brash, right? Or like a fighter. But anyways, there's, we pick and choose a lot of things we can brush off really simply. And we don't need to acknowledge because we're like, it's not worth our time or energy. And you clearly are either misguided, did not interpret the information correctly. Maybe you're missing information.
00:18:35
Speaker
and you don't understand the intention of this post or this reel or whatever it might be. However, there are a couple people that come for us in a way that I just feel like is so incredibly inappropriate, either as moms or as teachers, where I'm like, no, no, no.
00:18:52
Speaker
We're going to take a moment and we're going to fill you in and then we're just going to leave it.
Viral Controversies and Social Media Growth
00:18:56
Speaker
Like I don't feel like it ever needs to be a conversation, but I will, L'Oreal will know because she'll be like, I saw that comment. I was going to wait. And I'll just say things really matter of fact and just leave it for them. Like I don't, I'm not going to check back to see if you even respond. I just need you to have the intentions that we were, you know,
00:19:15
Speaker
Leaving with that post or the information you're missing like sometimes again people make assumptions about us our schools our husbands our Children and it's like if you if you haven't been around to get the full picture of who we are and what we're about But you're making these quick assumptions or these quick messages. I'm just gonna really quickly fill you in
00:19:34
Speaker
The funny thing is is TikTok is kind of a scarier place. We do like recycler content and post it on both platforms, but all three of our top pinned videos that have gone in some of the terms of viral is a war amongst themselves in the comments. And it's only giving our videos more engagement. So we're like letting go, but one of our top pouring videos is us doing the grand reveal of our makeover winner. We turn her and she has like a surprise. It's like a 10 second video.
00:20:02
Speaker
It is completely authentic. It is. And we'll say it now on this podcast, it is 100% authentic. But the comment section is just all saying it's fake and that it was staged and that it's just hilarious to us because it's not worth arguing because we know the truth. It's just hilarious because those are the things that get the most attention and we're like, okay. And they've already decided it's fake. Yeah. Like we got to convince you of it. Like the teacher who we turn around and surprise, she says like,
00:20:31
Speaker
oh my gosh and they're like okay how many times did she film oh my gosh and it's like once but like if you're choosing to think that this is a rehearsed oh my gosh like you know what that's that's you that's your life that's what you can believe and that's fine so we like to laugh about a lot of things but there are some times where they cross the line and it is hard to sit back and not say your piece and I think that's where Stephanie pretty much will leave it she'll probably like say one piece get it out off her chest and feel better and then we leave it if they want to argue they can go somewhere else
00:21:00
Speaker
See, you're better humans than I am probably. So I would like to argue with you because one of the things that I find joy in is trying to get people to come to my side through a discussion of why I'm doing things. But you're right. They've already made up their mind. But it's also, so I don't know if you know much about Enneagrams. I'm sure you do. So I'm an Enneagram too, which means if I say something that hurts someone's feelings, it bugs me.
00:21:29
Speaker
Even as a principal, I got to say things sometimes that hurt your feelings, but you know, at night I'm going to be like, Oh gosh, I hope they're okay. Um, and so like, it's such a balance, I think, on who do you want to take on and who you don't, but.
00:21:42
Speaker
you know, how do you how do you decide what and who is the challenge for me personally, but but you know, you have all experienced what a lot of people wish they could in which many people, I don't know if the people realize that once you start putting your thing your name out there or doing stuff, there's you're already have haters just because you're on a platform, right?
00:22:02
Speaker
So I don't know. I just I struggle with that. I don't know why people have to be so negative all the time. That's what it is.
Creating Positive School Culture
00:22:09
Speaker
It really is. It's like we said, we're in a culture right now where people want to constantly negate what they're seeing. Like, well, that only can happen because your school must pay for that. We can't tell you how many people assume that we walked into this art room and it looked just like this.
00:22:22
Speaker
must be nice. And we're like, I mean, it wasn't nice. We put this entire room together in 24 hours and it was exhausting. And we've put our own money and time into this. And it's like, but people are showing up and deciding that we were handed this. So it's like things like that, not worth our time. You have been around our page to see us put all of this together. So it's again, not worth our time today.
00:22:41
Speaker
And I don't like, you know, we did rocker school last week and Willy Wonka was amazing. And I can't help but wonder how many people were like, oh, must be nice to have time. Well, we were there from four to midnight and got back at four in the morning, but it's not about us. It's about the environment and the kids. And I just struggle. Why are you in this profession if you're not trying to do amazing things for kids or for a school?
00:23:03
Speaker
Right, and we get there has to be limits, like don't kill yourself. And we know most teachers have families, you know, and you need to find like a way to make it possible for you to achieve those types of things and quote unquote be extra. But there are ways to make it feasible. And like Gloria said, one of our missions is to bring these options to you and show you exactly how, tell you the cheapest way to do it. Sometimes if we were able to make it a downloadable resource so that you don't have to
00:23:31
Speaker
go through the process we did, we will do that for you. But there are just some people that still aren't open to it. So like you said, why? I don't know. I don't either. So hey, let's take a topic which I think we're going to disagree. Okay.
00:23:47
Speaker
You all love bulletin boards. Oh no, he's about to come for our bulletin boards. That's fine. All right, go ahead, Robert. That's what I said. I'm thinking something that we can have a little back and forth on. You love bulletin boards, obviously. I personally find very little ROI in them. OK. And that's just, again, it's all perspective here. Why do you believe bulletin boards are so important? And what do they add to a school?
00:24:15
Speaker
Okay, I'll start, and then I'm sure you'll have some to add. Yeah, she's the feisty one. For us, part of our excitement of becoming teachers, to get us in the door, to get Terra to convince, to join us, was these things. And I know they sound superficial to a lot, but we dreamed of getting keys to our first classroom.
00:24:38
Speaker
We dreamed of setting up an environment that students would get excited to come. We knew that the education, like the math and reading and writing, isn't what's going to excite the kids. We knew it was creating an environment. That's why Disneyland is the way it is. It's what you see, it's what you smell, it's what you hear. The rides are great, but if you take all that out of it, you're just moving on a moving car. It's not as exciting. So our bulletin boards are in the hallway.
00:25:03
Speaker
We want to create excitement and interest. We want to show off student work. We want to show off the data that's on them in a way that's going to be enticing. It's like looking at a book cover that gives you nothing. You'll never open the book.
00:25:16
Speaker
You're never gonna look at the student work if it's just a piece of paper stapled to a board. You're gonna look at the work if it has hanging disco balls and fluffy borders and things that bring kids in to wanna look at it. And now they're looking and reading their peers writing. So for us, it is all about our passion and our joy with them, but it also has so much more that we can argue is important just mostly to an elementary school or any school's environment.
00:25:44
Speaker
Yeah, I'm going to use a buzzword, culture. So we want to create this community and this culture where, like L'Oreal said, not only is it going to draw them in, but the kids look forward to it. We'll have done a project. We'll have done all the grueling work, the graphic organizers. We have edited and done final drafts on our writing. And then, mind you, kindergarten first. So make that exciting when it's like pulling teeth. And half of my kindergartners were just starting to write. It was so hard.
00:26:13
Speaker
And yet, they knew when it went on the board, they would come to school and see a whole new display around it. And we'd have already talked about what it was going to be or what the purpose of this writing was. And the kids in the hallway, oh my gosh, I feel like I miss it now. I'm getting emotional. When you would walk your kids out of the room for the first time that day, whether it's a bathroom break or lunch or specials, and you take that moment where you're like, all right, guys, here it is. You walk past the bulletin board, and they have that big reaction.
00:26:40
Speaker
It is so special. That is like a fuel for us. It's really hard when we work in other people's schools and we're not there for the initial reaction of students because that is a driving force. But to be honest, also with bulletin boards, I'm not sure if you're familiar with one of our resources, but it's our student portfolio.
00:26:57
Speaker
And we hang it on a wall where you're building on it all year long and it's like very student
Collaboration and Support Among Educators
00:27:02
Speaker
centered. But it is such a beautiful way to just constantly monitor growth and to also have representation of your students. Like that is such like a fun way. Yes, it's like aesthetic. Okay, fun. We love fall. Let's bring in the fall vibes. Cool.
00:27:16
Speaker
But at the end of the day, the kids are so excited to see the switch up. It's not stagnant. It's not clinical. Oh, my gosh. When we go into a school, we're like, is anyone here? Is anyone experiencing life in these halls? It is so clinical sometimes. There's obviously a way to do it to still make it like a system and not have it be like, whoa, this is too much. Is it taking away from the learning? We try and make sure of that, that we're not doing too much.
00:27:43
Speaker
But again, it's like this excitement piece while you're also monitoring growth, and it just makes it so exciting. It packages it nicely, you know? Okay, so I'll give you the admin side from my perspective. If I had a school full of individuals like you who wanted to do all this stuff and found an ROI for it, then I could probably get on board. From my side, you have your bulletin board, and then what about the teacher who's next to you?
00:28:11
Speaker
That's a good question. And then, you know, I mean, do you like, does it create animosity because there's, doesn't have disco balls hanging or, you know, like, do you see what I'm saying? So then, or you have the teacher who has very limited talent and they don't buy your resources and they don't want to spend hours doing a bulletin board that maybe shows off some work. Or you've probably seen the bulletin boards that have like faded paper.
00:28:36
Speaker
or like, welcome to school, but it's actually like March. Stuff like that. And so it's one of those things where if you put the expectation out there, you then have to inspect it. And I don't know if it's really worth my ROI when I'm running around trying to do everything else to inspect bulletin boards. So that's just my perspective. Feel free to push back.
00:28:56
Speaker
No, I feel like that makes sense. We have been very lucky to work at schools where the bulletin board level is pretty consistent. And when we have teachers who need help, the girl next to me who's left my school, our bulletin boards touched. And I always asked, can I have that with you? And she was always like, please, please. And so I would connect our bulletin boards and show off both kids' work and use my passion to help her. But also all teachers at our school know if they need a bulletin board.
00:29:26
Speaker
with zero cost. We are here for them. As our jobs as art teachers, we will show up and help, so. And just to throw it out there, our Baltimore kids have borders, writing, differentiated writing, the crafts, the letters. So it's kind of all income scene. If our teachers need anything, they don't have to even think twice. They'll just shoot us an email and we can support them. But I also think like for teachers, if they find that, I don't even want to say like conflict, but because it shouldn't be negative. I should not.
00:29:53
Speaker
It should feel like a team conversation because i know laurie and i were the first to be like well does any if you want this work here to support you because it is something that's easier for us because it's a natural thing and natural ability but i think also i had we had teachers on our teams that weren't into it.
00:30:09
Speaker
And they were confident in themselves to be like, I'm just going to put clothespins up and their work is just going to come down from the clothespins. It's not going to have these amazing letters or paper flowers, and I'm okay with that. I'm confident in my abilities as a teacher to just switch out the writing every month, and that's enough.
00:30:24
Speaker
And so if you're just aware, like that teacher's confident, they're not combative. They're not upset. They're not taking anything personally. We're going to be fine this year, you know? So they should just have open communications. I know teaching can often feel competitive, which there's a good way to be competitive. Like Lori all knows that better than anyone. Be competitive with yourself. Be competitive with other schools. Like you said, we'd love to always be number one, five star, all of that. But also like,
00:30:49
Speaker
in your grade level specifically, but work as a team. Like we're all trying to be number one. Let's do it together. How can I support you? Yeah. Like I struggle, um, try competition. You said it. So, um, you know, shameless plug. I have another book coming out with Brad Johnson in December. Uh, do you know who Brad Johnson is per chance? Uh, relationships before rigor, grades before grades. Okay. Thank you for nodding. That's good. I'll be sure to tell Brad that he needs to go to
00:31:17
Speaker
But anyways, one of the chapters basically is about competition within yourself. And all you gotta do is be better inside, and that makes your team better. For some reason, I feel like many schools or many teams, the competition is against each other, and that creates animosity. For example, my wife, Christy, won Teacher of the Game award.
00:31:39
Speaker
many years ago, and her and Melissa would win awards all the time, but it would create animosity amongst our team. Oh, look, they're winning another award, rather than thinking, wow, they are doing so great in first grade, that's going to help our school overall. And I assume that you are like me and that you do not understand that mindset of
00:31:58
Speaker
competition against each other. Like I always use the Golden Knights as the example. Like Mark Stone does not care who scores the goal. They scored the goal. They won the game and I don't know why schools cannot be like that. I don't know if you have any thoughts on that. We've been in both environments. I feel like early teaching we were in a very competitive environment where
00:32:19
Speaker
you would get recognition for doing things that were extra or maybe more innovative and you kind of wanted to keep that treasure for yourself because if you shared it and someone else got recognition and that was your idea and credit wasn't given, that was like hard. But I feel like we all snapped out of it and I think it helped when we had our own families when we're like, okay, big picture here.
00:32:42
Speaker
big picture here is we want to create a school as a whole that is good for our kids to be a part of. And once we have the perspective of our own children, not other people's children, it really did help us take a step back. We're in our own lane in art, so we are just
00:32:58
Speaker
in our own space so we can do as much as little as we want when we have time for it. It doesn't affect anyone else. No, but in a gray level, it is hard. You have to be very close to your teammates and we've only experienced great teamwork here at Ellis and we're very lucky to have had that because we haven't had those
00:33:16
Speaker
issues of competitive nature come out. I do think it actually helped. Actually, I know it helped. We opened this school. Yeah. Right. We were a part of, we are the founding fathers. We are a part of the team that got to decide like moving forward, what are we prioritizing? And here at our school, like our staff are really excellent communicators. Yeah. It has been clear how quickly people kind of get weeded out of our staff and look for different environments if they're not as open, if they just want to shut their door and do their own. Not easy now because I have four former former
00:33:44
Speaker
former Ellis people at Thompson's. Those were great losses. Those were great pick ups on my part. No, no, no. I'm not talking about like, I'm talking like year one. Those friends were, they just left us. They could. Yeah. We're talking. So I understand what you're saying. Like the first year that people that left.
00:34:01
Speaker
went to find a different environment. Oh, that's a fun story. I was supposed to get surplus. We were going to open Ellis, and there was someone that truly felt like this community, this mission statement isn't for me. And they took my spot, and they ended up self-surplus-ing, and I did not get surplus. Because I was on year three, four, when we opened Ellis. And yeah, it was like they did not vibe with the school so much that they self-surplus. So that's what we meant. Obviously, there are other teachers that
00:34:28
Speaker
left us for their own reasons. We're not. I am okay for it though. You're very well off. Actually, they're incredible. We love you guys. But anyways, I think just for us, it was nice opening the school because we did get to make those big choices of how we're going to communicate, whether it's through PLCs or we have a group text with our grade.
00:34:54
Speaker
level and stuff like that. And I think just cherishing the fact that we can learn so much from each other, it kind of takes the competitive piece out of it. It's like you said, there's a teacher that's like, award after award. It's like, I want to know what you're doing. I want to learn
Balancing Work and Creativity
00:35:07
Speaker
from you. Like, do you have a second? Can I pick your brain? Be like me giving you hate for you being successful. It should be me saying, Oh, we have this amazing tool and resource that we can all tap into. Let's see if she's willing to run a PD at our next staff development day. You know what I mean?
00:35:22
Speaker
Is there any way what you just said you can sell? Because if you can sell it. Let us know. I know. I know. I just don't understand that. It's a team game, which I was saying. What is your favorite project of all time? Oh, just a project that we've had. Whatever comes to your mind.
00:35:45
Speaker
Oh man, honestly, every time we do a new project, we literally look at each other and be like, this is our new favorite. I'd say Last Makeover had a special place in our heart because it was our decor line created with Carson Delosa. So not only to create a decor line that's in stores, which was huge for us.
00:36:05
Speaker
But then to put it together in a teacher's classroom was pretty special. I think our art room would be a close second, because that was kind of a crazy situation. It was on a TV show, and they're like, you have 48 hours to flip your art room. Ready, go. And we poured into a space that we knew is home, and we still love our art room.
00:36:23
Speaker
I'd say both of those are top two. Do you have one of them? No, I get really emotional because I'm like, we are really blessed. I think we're really quick to take any opportunity that presents itself and just to see the things we've gotten to do because we have that attitude of just like, again, taking a leap. When they asked us to do our first makeover, it was for a classroom. We ended up doing our art school's library, but it was with their already made decor line and then that turned into us designing it and it felt so special to be able to put
00:36:52
Speaker
our ideas and our input into something that teachers everywhere can purchase in Laureals, right? It was really cool to see all of the intention and time that we put into that translate into a classroom that needs to function for students. That was like, again, an opportunity of a lifetime and honestly an honor. And then our art room is like,
00:37:10
Speaker
our home and our kids, our actual kids and all of our students that we taught in kinder and first are coming through this space that we created. And it again, it's like such a privilege. So I think we, every project we put our, our all into. So we, we're known for saying this and it's really annoying. I'm sure to people, um, our new bulletin board, it's our new favorite, our new mural, it's our new favorite. And it's because like,
00:37:33
Speaker
at that time, we're obsessed with what we're doing. And so it's like, we don't look back. We're not like trying to recreate the thing that worked last year. It's like, we're always trying to put our new ideas out there. We're trying to do the best we possibly can. And so everything we do, we treat like another child of ours. And it's just, it's really great that we've had those opportunities. Yeah.
00:37:52
Speaker
So I think one of the things that probably a lot of your followers struggle with is, you've talked about a little bit earlier, is a work-life balance. And I think the halftime contract definitely helps. If you're a full-time teacher who follows you and wants to do all of these things, that's difficult time-wise, which makes me think, do your husbands ever get jealous of you having the relationship that you have?
00:38:18
Speaker
Oh my gosh, I think they are grateful for it. I think so too. Really? I think that, yeah. Because if we weren't doing projects, we would be roping them into like, let's repaint our house. Let's do this. Let's craft. It's an outlet. Yeah, we would be like crafting our Halloween costumes from like literal like. Do they ever, do they ever be like, don't you guys have a project to go do? Just go do something? I think that we have been so lucky to be the,
00:38:45
Speaker
The caretakers of our home when it comes to child care, we are there for most of the days, most of the times our husband can work their full time schedules and that has been a huge blessing. But when it is time for us to do a project or to go on a teaching conference on a cruise ship or to do those things, our husbands are like your turn, you've earned it.
00:39:05
Speaker
provide for our families doing these things. So I think that they cannot question what we're doing. And because we've met when we're all teenagers, I know this also is annoying because not everyone has this opportunity. I grew up a military brat, so I didn't have a best friend until I met L'Oreal because I moved so frequently. But we feel really lucky that our husbands have known each other since they were like, what, 10? Yeah. And so we feel very family focused, not only because we have kids and we have to, but because we grew up together.
00:39:33
Speaker
Our husbands and us, we're close with each other's husbands.
Sources of Inspiration
00:39:37
Speaker
Our husbands are also close. We treat each other's kids like our own. I think, like you said, it's really hard to have that work-life balance, but I do also think the part-time thing is major. Like I said, I was literally ready to take a leap of absence because I was dealing with so much postpartum.
00:39:52
Speaker
I think our relationship is such a tool and our husbands recognize that and I think hopefully even if you're working full-time if you can find like we said team team is everything working together but relationships are so key for our students but really also for teachers mental health admin comes into play there like you are so beyond supportive of your teachers and that really reflects in clearly their morale and their efficacy
00:40:15
Speaker
And I think we're very aware of how our relationship is one of the biggest foundational pieces of us as teachers. Yeah, so we have a theme every year. Last year, our theme was relationships over everything. And I'm so glad you said that because unfortunately, it doesn't feel like the district or many principals, sorry, principals, but it is my perspective.
00:40:39
Speaker
Relationships don't matter. You're just a number in a classroom. And I think that's sad. So I'm glad that you said that. What inspires you to? Oh, in life or just for a new project or just... So do you just, you know, do you just see something and then boom, an idea happens or, you know, do you dream of ideas and then you make them happen? How does this process work?
00:41:05
Speaker
Yeah, we are big on bouncing ideas back and forth. It can start with a t-shirt at Target where we're like, oh, that's cute.
00:41:13
Speaker
And then I'll send it to Stephanie and say, help me out with this. What do you think? And then she'll send it back to me. So we bounce everything back and forth. It can just be something that our kids are interested in, that we're like, oh, did you see that they're now saying this quote or what's trending in media right now? And anything really inspires us. We are girlies of love, of color. So if there's a color palette that we see, we love looking at anthropology window displays. We have our places where we look for inspiration.
00:41:41
Speaker
But it's like, whatever we enjoy, I feel like starts inspiration and then it's like a team effort to make something happen. And I think it comes back to that creative nature in us. Like we went to, what is that place you took me for my birthday? Oh, it was the Meow Wolf at area 15. We go to places like any place and we're like, how did they make it? We'll be like, how did they do this? And like things like that where we're just trying to get on the inside and say like, how can we bring this to a classroom? How can we make it affordable?
00:42:09
Speaker
digitize this so we could just email it to people. I think we're just constantly trying to problem solve in that way, like the creative piece of it of like, ooh, how can we replicate this and make it purposeful and make it standards based and do all this. We always make it educational, but we just find we're fascinated by things all around us. And hopefully we try the purpose of the art room, which I'm looking around now, was to have kids come in here and be like, ooh,
00:42:35
Speaker
How did they make that? I want to make something just as cool. And I think that's how we walk through the world. We're like, oh, that is awesome. How do we get that? Yes. You're so much like me. Like whenever I go to a show downtown or I'm like, oh, so we were at, I think my big Katy Perry.
00:42:52
Speaker
Oh, yes. And I'm like, oh, we can do like big stuff in the main hallway. I can't do it. Yeah, yeah. And then like Luke Bryan has like all the lasers. And I'm like, oh, we're getting lasers for the main hallway. And then they do like poppers at the end. So we like put that into the dedication. And so there's so many good inspirational things around Vegas or just in the world. And you can just be like, oh, like we can do that. And I think you like it's nice to know like someone who understands what I feel.
00:43:20
Speaker
Is there any specific people that inspire you? Anybody that's listening, go check these people out.
00:43:28
Speaker
Oh, there's so many. We follow a lot of artists and a lot of art teachers that in our own, like she said, niche or lane, we're constantly looking for inspiration. Caitlin is her handle is art with Miss E. I'm trying to think. Oh, there's a girl that was on a show called Made It or Making It. Her name is Jo and we watched her on TV and then we got the chance to meet her. And so we collaborate often. Oh, they're not up right now. She creates some stuff for our art room. She sent us and she's an incredible artist and
00:43:56
Speaker
mom and so her name her handles oh so Joe but honestly I think we're just constantly inspired by the people we work with to be honest yeah that's awesome so you you obviously I mean you're you're humble I'm guessing oh did you just so you have a major major influence in education how does that make you
Influence and Gratitude in Education
00:44:21
Speaker
feel
00:44:21
Speaker
Oh, that's tough. Do you feel pressure? Yeah. Do you feel just grateful? Yeah. I mean, do you wake up in the morning and think, oh my gosh, we can't let our people down. We have to come up with something? Has it created more pressure being as insta-famous as you are?
00:44:38
Speaker
I think for us, we live each day with a grateful heart. We wanted nothing more in this world to be moms and having beautiful children and a job that we can be there for them and a job that we enjoy. I don't think we put pressure on ourselves in a negative way. It has only been a positive experience for us. We feel like we are literally living in a dream, which has really
00:45:00
Speaker
hard right now because the morale in our district is not that feeling amongst teachers. So when people are like, how are you doing? And we want to just be like, the best I've ever been in my entire life, literally living a dream. You don't want to brag. You don't want to come off in a way where it's insensitive. Yeah. So it is hard to live in
00:45:19
Speaker
an environment where we just feel and we want to support our teachers, but amongst ourselves, we're constantly giddy over the opportunity. I mean, if you were to ask me however many years ago when Stephanie was pushing me to do social media, I was like, this is so awkward. And we were literally getting on stories and talking to 10 people and half of them was like, our mom. And I was like, this feels so weird. If you were to ask me if it would turn into anything like this, I would be like, no, we had zero
00:45:45
Speaker
I hope that it was going to blow up like this. And we just feel very grateful. We live a very grateful life. Like she said, when people are like, well, how are you? I've like, I will not say anything else, but I say.
00:45:59
Speaker
I can't complain. That's where I just leave it because it seems so neutral. I can't complain. Because I won't. I won't complain. We leave, like L'Oreal said, each other audios. That's something else our followers know is that we message each other, we leave each other voice memos all day long to fill each other in with our jobs. And then just because we work opposite schedules, obviously when she's at work, I'm at home and vice versa. We want to fill each other in on the personal stuff too. But we will just randomly be like, I was at the park and my son did this amazing thing.
00:46:27
Speaker
I'm just so grateful I was here for it. We really do. It's so cringy to express because like L'Oreal said, it might not be a shared experience unfortunately. We wish it was, but we really do lead with gratitude. I think it is hard at times. We don't feel a pressure from people. I think we put pressure on ourselves to want to
00:46:48
Speaker
Try and make it fair and try and make it easier because teaching should be fun and like truly. Yes, we're passionate about all the creative pieces, but we're really, really constantly. Amazed at our kids and the things that they're able to do in this room in the environment we've created. We're constantly blown away. We feel so lucky to be a part of their journey and.
00:47:08
Speaker
We wish that teachers could enjoy those pieces and not feel so weighed down and bogged down by, like you said, things that are unfortunately come from the district and just get pushed down on teachers instead of helping to lift them up in the ways that they need.
Future Aspirations and Projects
00:47:21
Speaker
We are definitely in a very unique situation. And we wish it was more obtainable. Agreed. So last question. Well, actually not. Two more questions. Where do you see yourselves in five or 10 years?
00:47:38
Speaker
In 10 years, all of your kids will probably be close to middle school, which is a whole different world, let me tell you. I assume if you had to choose, you'd be doing the same thing, halftime at Ellis, doing what you do. What do you think out there? What do you think? I mean, someday the honeymoon's gonna, you know, I mean. That's tough because I always question
00:48:06
Speaker
Is this our peak? Like was this our peak? Great question. Is this the highlight of where we will be like having our own decor line, doing makeovers every summer, like presenting like, is this where we're at? And then where does, where do we go from here? But we've been very lucky. The opportunity just finds us. We didn't seek any of these opportunities. So we always tell ourselves when we're stressed about what's next, or maybe we're having a lull in our engagement and we're like, Oh my goodness, what's going on?
00:48:31
Speaker
just to continue just to be us and do what we're doing and those opportunities will come. And if we can continue this and keep the financial aspect up for our families to continue to work part time, I feel like in 10 years we'll be doing this. Hopefully more opportunity finds us. We don't know what is something
00:48:52
Speaker
I think every goal we've set, we've hit. We used to look at presenters at conferences and be like, we want to do that. We've done it. We looked at decor lines that we were stapling up and be like, isn't it? Wouldn't it be cool if we did that? So I don't think there's anything else that we're really... I think there's things we wonder about because I think we're capable, but I'm sure you're the same way. Do we add something else to our plate? I think something that we've talked about, long-term goals, which maybe 10 years is the spot.
00:49:21
Speaker
We'd love to maybe try our hands at writing a children's book. I don't know if you're aware, my son is on the autism spectrum. I think we've really cherished lots of literature with representation, and we have the creative side of it. I just think it would be such an amazing opportunity to get to put some more stuff out there that make kids feel seen.
00:49:44
Speaker
and to learn about others, you know? And so I think that's something down the line that would be really fun to try. But other things too, I think, I don't know, like right now what's really popping off online is courses. And we're constantly trying to say like, well, are there things that you guys want to learn from us? And like, it's like just a question mark of like, do we try and make like a course? I don't know. But those are things like right now we're just not interested in looking into, but like, we're also, we don't have our doors shut to anything.
Collaborations with Schools
00:50:14
Speaker
How do you, so last thing, I wanna make sure, so for the principals listening, what do you, what can you offer principals? Like how would they get ahold of you? Not how they get ahold of you, I'm sure they could find you pretty easily, but give us, you know, give us the info, like hypothetically, if I want you to come to Thompson and do a makeover on the playground or something, I know you've done projects, like what are some of the projects you do and what might principals, you know,
00:50:42
Speaker
take from that or how can they utilize your talents for their school? I think one of the biggest things that principals that we have worked with have shared is that there is this lack in morale. A lot of the schools we've worked in are older schools. They didn't have the opportunity we had here at our current school of opening and getting to just pour ideas into it. There's definitely been new administration, new teachers.
00:51:07
Speaker
Sometimes there's some OGs that have been there like all 35 years, but I think they're trying to look for ways to breathe new life into the school, not just for the children and to excite them, but to excite the teachers once again. And so I think something as simple as a mural or a lounge makeover, we've done lots of those, can really feel like a way to give back to everyone.
00:51:27
Speaker
everyone that goes into those spaces instead of maybe just looking for like, oh, you guys need differentiated readers. We'll make sure to get that for you. That's great. But sometimes it's one of those things where it's like, how can I make a large impact with my entire student body or my entire staff? And so these are the types of things that we can do to give back to a community and to a school. And it's usually a pretty, pretty quick and simple project, but it makes a long, long term impact.
00:51:56
Speaker
For sure. I agree with that. And I think you do a good job as an administrator taking care of your teachers and listening to what their needs are and making them feel heard. And if there are teachers at a school where they're like, I'm sick of looking at the same dated mural, it doesn't feel like home. I put all this time in my classroom and then I leave my four walls and I'm haunted by maybe some art that just doesn't inspire me anymore. And if that's something that
00:52:21
Speaker
Teachers are looking for that's kind of what we've done in the past is just doing some updating at schools Our schools have become very outdated and the artwork you know served a beautiful time and just needs more color and that's kind of what we've been spending a lot of summers doing is painting murals and Creating a space that teachers are excited to show up and come to work in yeah when you're proud you work hard for that space, you know and
00:52:45
Speaker
You do. Having opened a new school, I understand. And having been to older schools, I understand. I think principals are listening. There is so much return on your investment of time by putting effort into the environment. Fresh coat of paint will change morale a little bit. So definitely reach out. Ladies, I know as someone who tries to change the future for education and tries to
00:53:09
Speaker
you know, agitate the status quo a little bit. I know you've done the same. I greatly appreciate you coming on. I appreciate all the things you've done for kids and for moving the profession forward. And no matter what your haters say, just remember in the end, it's
Closing Remarks
00:53:27
Speaker
all about perspective. That's right. Thank you for your time. And I appreciate you. Thank you so much. We love talking to you.