A Geek History of Time - Episode 329 - Two Teachers Who Left (the classroom) Part II

Episode Date: August 15, 2025

We were saying that we were going to get into the movies. Yeah, and I'm only going to get into a few of them, because there were way too goddamn many for me to really be interested in telling you this clone version or this clone version in the early studio system. It's a good metric to know in a story art, where should I be? Or there's beast, I should step over here. Yeah. At some point, at some point, I'm going to have to sit down with you, like, and force you, like, pump you full of coffee and be like, no, okay, look.

And are swiftly and brutally put down by the minute men who use bayonets to get their point across. Well done there. I'm good, Damien. And I'm also glad that I got your name right this time. I apologize for that one TikTok video. Men of this generation wound up serving a whole lot of them as a percentage of people. population because of the war because of a whole lot of other stuff. Oh, yeah. And actually, in his case, it was pre-war, but, but, you know. I was joking. Did he seriously join the American

Navy? He did. Fucking. This is a geek history of time. Where we connect nerdery to the real world. My name is Ed Blaylock. history teacher here at the middle school level in northern California. And in the last couple of weeks, some of my students and, you know, students that for whatever reason have decided, they've internalized this idea that they have a beef with me, you know, because I hold them accountable for their poor behavior, right?

But as I'm walking in the campus in the morning from our parking lot, it has happened a couple of times that I would hear student voices shouting my first name. And I just ignore them because they don't have first name privileges with me. And I'm not going to give them the satisfaction of giving them a reaction, right? They're trying to pull some kind of bullshit. And I didn't know who it was. right and whatever it happened a couple of times it wasn't a big deal well yesterday afternoon i was out doing supervision after school and i heard a couple of them do it again and i ignored them and then and then they escalated to shouting my my first and last name now i'm not going to say

my full name because they don't know my middle name but they're their you know first first First they're Edward Blaylock, and I ignore him because, you know, it doesn't matter. And one of them in particular, and I know exactly which one it is, just starts shrieking my name. Absolutely just like I can hear his vocal cords fraying. He's just screaming, trying to annoy me enough, you know, to get me to, you know, turn around and give him some kind of, some kind of response. Well, I didn't know it at the time, but my vice principal, you know, saw them doing it and walked over and told them to knock it off. And there's a whole disciplinary thing beyond that. But what struck me in the moment was like, dude, if you fray your vocal cords screaming at me today, it means that on the next school day, I don't have to listen.

you talk anymore not only that but like I know who you are yeah idiots I love it like really no middle game no middle game none no opening there's nothing there

there's nothing there's no game at all like and And, you know, and then on top of that, you know, talking with the, with the vice principal after supervision was over, she said, oh, yeah, I know, I'm, I'm lining up, how did you put it? She says, I'm researching and lining up the referrals so I can, I can G-code them for a week. So they're just not going to be here. I was like, okay, I win even harder. That's awesome.

That's great. Cool. like yeah so um the the joys of teaching middle school i guess i don't know uh how about you what have you had going on uh well i'm davian harmony i'm a u.s history teacher at the high school level up here in northern california um and i i had a really fun game of d and d with two other teachers and one of their husbands um it's a small group that i've studied started and we don't play as frequently as I would like but that's okay it's almost all of their first time at it it's certainly their first time or most of their first time in this system

but like it is basically everybody's first time together you know for sure and so there's somebody who has a little bit more experience and then the other two who are like okay so do I add the modifier here do I do this you know stuff like that so it's lovely it's really yeah they finally leveled up to level two and nice yeah finally is is relative term but um the way they leveled up to level two was there is i don't do XP anymore i do milestone right they solved the mystery of the spider infestation hmm they solved the problem of the spider infestation and i need them to get to level two before they get attacked by zombies in the next morning So they were very, very excited, and it was a really cool game.

And there was zero combat the whole night because it was all just role-playing. It was going and investigating, figuring this out, figuring out how to get through here, figuring out how to do this. And, of course, they turned left when I thought they turned right. So I had to create all kinds of lore on the fly. So now the chief matron of the city has a really nice garden next to her casino. know okay because they needed like it just it was all kinds of and and afterwards they're like wow that was really cool I'm like yeah I made all that shit up right then and there and I'm like what yeah you you do realize that your DM is a stand-up comic yeah with a with a with a with a

subclass specialization in punster and and improv so like yeah yeah it was a lot of readover yeah so it was a lot of fun so very cool they had a good time i had a good time um so okay last episode uh we ended it by saying there's going to be a second one and sure enough uh this episode we're going to continue to interview dominique and kendra um talking about talking with two teachers who left the classroom yeah um and who didn't necessarily leave education but they did leave the classroom i would have loved to have found teachers who also left education as well entirely yeah really cool contrast but such was my reach so yeah anyway uh please enjoy part two of those who left uh and with kendra and dominique um cool can we move to a more depressing topic

what was teaching like for you before COVID so pre-pandemic so all the way up to and including the fall of 2019 um what was that like for you uh and and ed and i answered this in the last one so i think we'll sit out on this um um uh dominique what was it like for you pre well up to and including 2019? I think I had a lot of fun the first couple of years and then I had a patch that was that at some point I think fall of 2019 I was starting to have a good time again and then spring of 2020 it was rough when I say a good time. I had fun teaching the whole time, but I mean, I was like, oh, yeah, I can totally do this, right?

Like, that kind of a good time. Like, I was moving and grooving and, you know. Hitting your stride. I was hitting my stride. So, yeah. There was a two-part question. Oh, no, no, we're going to come back to a different one. So I'm just trying to get a baseline of what it was like for you all before COVID.

then of course we're going to go chronologically into the lockdown but i want to see how it was for you because again i've stayed despite well because the lack of options but i've stayed and and y'all had the good sense to leave so i'm trying to see what was different uh through those so um kendro what was like for you uh prior to covid yeah i i finished my master's in 2017 and i think when I think back to my 13 years in the classroom, I think about different, like I feel like I leveled up at certain points. I feel like leveled up in year three.

I leveled up in year seven. I leveled up in year 10. And so around, you know, years 10, 11, 12, which was right before COVID, I feel like I had also like hit my stride, except for, and I will say this, the day we went home for COVID and not to jump ahead chronologically too much,

I always said that going home, home that Friday saved my job because that year was really, really rough. And in particular, that last month in the classroom, I was dealing with a lot of bullshit that teachers should not have to deal with. I was being sexually harassed and administration wasn't responsive in any way, shape, or form. And I don't mean punitive. I mean also in the restorative sense. They were just not handling it, right? and they were saying that they were handling it.

And so when I would go do my due diligence and check to make sure, then that person that I checked with came back and said, why do I have a teacher reaching out about something I've never heard about? And then that admin would talk to another admin, and then there was resentment. And it was really to a boiling point. And we went home, and I have always said that I was going to lose my cool the next week

because it was to a point where I could not teach. You know, the earlier I'd mentioned that the cohorting, the school I was at was operating wildly out of compliance in terms of designated EL classes. And instead of capping those classes at 20, which is what they were supposed to do when you get Title III funds, they were shaving off the bottom percentage of scores and putting everyone into one class together at 35. and then giving them a triple block of ELA, which then monopolized their entire day. Right. And they only rotate together. And so I would have one class that was wildly successful at the lesson, and then the next class that needed really heavy language supports.

But admin wouldn't own up to, yeah, that's because this class is being tracked. All the teachers kind of had to put the pieces together. And it just was a lot. I mean, like I said, out of compliance, right? So it shouldn't have been the case because it's not serving the students. And it was really, it was really hard on those teachers because they are trying their best and not able to do what they want to do. And so that year was a hard year.

But prior to that, the two years prior to that, I felt like I had really hit my stride. I think I underestimated how much I love being creative with my lesson planning. Of course, spending your personal time to create lessons is not ideal. But like the ability to create these learning experiences, I totally underestimated as a part of something that I need in a job, that I need to have that outlet for my creativity, right? And so I felt like I was really leveling up with that again. and then the tough year and then we left you know i i do want to uh piggyback on that i i remember

pre-covid i did so much work for free i gave up so much free labor and anybody who knows me is like what but i i gave so much work for free i i did you know i had my own latin program so it was you know this the the devil's bargain you know but like also just like No work-life balance. Just, you know, gave up that work for free pre-COVID. Kendra, what about during the lockdown? What was it like for you? It was a breath of fresh air.

Wow. It was a breath of fresh air. My master's was in educational technology, and I had done my action research on the flipped classroom. And so I was very, I had research-based knowledge of how to create instruction. videos and you know the biggest obstacle the biggest hurdle the biggest challenge during distance teaching was attendance and how to get kids caught up if they weren't there and they and they could they could they may have missed class for a number of reasons you know and and all of them valid right but we have to have a plan for how to get them caught up and that just was such an

unsurmountable task given everything that was going on so to have that foundational knowledge and how to make instructional videos was a huge asset to me during that time, you know, being able to, just, you know, looking out the window, having the window behind the computer and seeing a beautiful day outside, neighbors going for a walk because who the fuck knows what, you know, how they're coping with the whole situation. but in particular just having a little bit more peace in my environment and ability to kind of execute my job, right? I didn't realize how sensitive I was to just like noise and getting overwhelmed,

overstimulated, so having a little bit of peace there. Too much peace, though. My dog had passed away before COVID. I made it two weeks into quarantine without getting a new dog. I had to add a little chaos back in. But overwhelmingly, you know, I worked hard. I was able to provide my students with videos if they weren't able to make it to class,

which I think was a huge resource for them. And just having that foundation in educational technology, I think kind of transformed my experience at that time. Dominique, how about you? What was it like during the lockdown? down during distance learning. You're muted, I think. Yeah.

I had a T-Ker at that time. So just like trying to set up tech with that was interesting. And then transitioning to kindergarten also, with like a kindergartner in tech. I actually ended up going down to Southern California and spending like the first three weeks of school with my family, which helped a lot just to have like my mom like wake up and do tech support.

But like talk about privilege, right? That just doesn't get to happen. So it was that was pretty intense. But then also I think I learned making shorter, more pointed lessons. So like that, I think that was a game changer and like getting more organized on chunking a lesson with like, how do you start? What's the bulk of the lesson? What do you want students to take away?

And then like getting really better at layering from, you know, part A, part B, part C and some kind of. like summation of the things. So that schedule, right, we didn't teach as long and directly because of like the idea around students kind of doing more independent learning versus like our full facilitation that happens in person. But that, I think that shift just really tightened things up for me and like in a good way. Yeah. Distilled it.

Yes. Yeah. So it sounds like both of you were saying that the, what do you guys call it? I always call it the lockdown, which it, it wasn't. God, I wish it was. We would have like, you know, beaten it. What do you guys call it? Because it sounds like it was, I could characterize both of yours as being largely positive experiences. Am I misrepresenting it? No, I felt quarantine, maybe not locked down. I don't know if there's really a difference, but, you know, during that time, the outside world was doing a variety of protocols, right? There was a shift going on while our jobs kind of stayed in that space. Yeah. Dominique, what did you call it? I think I called it the shutdown.

Shut down. Like some things were shut down, but people were still kind of out and about. especially in January 6th um but am i correct in characterizing it for both of you is a largely positive experience i would say so yeah i would say so it helped you know like you talked about you used to do a lot of free labor before you know i think it for a lot of people not just teachers but i think for a lot of people it really helped realign what we want in our own personal lives and where responsibilities we're approaching on our personal time. Dominique, how about you?

Yeah, I wonder, I think I gave up even more time in the lockdown, shutdown era. So that's an interesting reflection to process. I think maybe it made me realize that I could work with different people and take on different projects and have a different type of impact and I got like more curious about that and that like you know has played a role in like me deciding to leave the classroom being okay with it and also staying out I will say also that like in my own reflection of that time it's the first time I'd been through something like that right I was taking care of my needs. I don't have a child that I, you know, and when I think of my physical classroom

versus my, my virtual one, there were definitely pieces of me that I shed completely, that I didn't reinvent in a digital way, right? And I didn't have the capacity to do that. I didn't have the capacity at that time. And maybe I didn't know how to recreate, you know, community to the same degree, and maybe I didn't appreciate at that time, even what my own needs were for a community, let alone for my students or how to do that for children, right? I think that that is a definite reflection of, you know, what I could have done better, probably at that time. Yeah, I'm recalling back to the earlier questions that we had.

Dominique, what keeps coming through is the concept of community. So it makes sense that you would be taking on. more when the community has been made digital only to make up that gap. And speaking only for myself, I was allowing a system to exploit me so that I could create a community. And then that system destroyed that community. And so I basically pulled back and was like, okay, no long exploited um and i focused on my kids you know a lot more because you know they were they were right there um but i i wasn't that interested in it's almost like i i knew my limits more than i knew my needs um and i had my kids here and they were older than a tk and a and a kinder and there were two of

them and I'd just gotten them into role-playing games and like we couldn't go anywhere so we started playing Star Wars because then we could go everywhere and you know and stuff like that so like I was substituting things for them and I was just so focused on them that um we had certain rituals around school so as to not let it pervade and invade all of our spaces um and it's it's interesting because community is very very important to me in a classroom as well um and i'd seen it getting cut down uh prior to covid and so my reaction was not to work more to keep it or to create it because it was already being shifted away i just i'm i feel bad that like you didn't get paid for the extra work that you did during that time but like it seems like you felt

the need, and feel free to amend or correct me on this, you felt the need to continue those communities and that mattered more to you than whether or not you were getting paid for it. I got paid for lots of things. Well, you did. I mean, not lots of things, but pretty much everything. I just lack imagination then. It wasn't particularly nice pay, but it didn't go uncompensated, you know. Okay.

And, yeah, and now I play a role of also, like, identifying opportunities to connect and pay people, right? So, like, that's kind of a cool thing about my current job. Yeah, I think the, I think I also maybe entered spaces during the pandemic that made, me realize that online community building was possible. So even now, right, like Zoom is still like this thing that we're doing. And I noticed that I have habits around meetings with people that certainly change because of the pandemic, where people started meetings with check-ins or play music during, like, pause. housing times and ask people about where they're where they're zooming in from in the chat or

right so I think we're more pronouns forward and I wonder how much of that like has played out in Zoom meetings right so I just like there's some like growth opportunities yeah yeah it shifts in our podcast we used to record around my dinner table yeah if you listen to episodes one through 45 it was around the dinner table and there's audio issues that that come along with that but we had this wonderful timing and then we switched to digital and it it was some growing pains for a bit like we we really would step over each other more than is charming uh we would uh you know we'd cut each other off in ways that were not productive uh now we've kind of hammered it all out but but but but and now this is the norm because now we're

we can record multiple hours of content instead of just like, well, okay, we did one. Let's hope we stay ahead of it. So it shifted that for us. In a big way. Yeah. So having kind of set the baseline of what things were before COVID, having looked at how everything got flipped on its head and then, you know, grabbed by the lapels and shaken violently in all directions during. quarantine, shut down, lockdown, whichever term, you know, it is in your head. What did you see having changed post-COVID?

And Kendra, we'll go to you first. Can you clarify the question? What do you mean? Okay. What are we focusing on in that question? When we went back to what everybody, wanted or what lots of people I don't want to say everybody when when society at large wanted us to go back to status quo pro ante you know get a you know go back to go

back to physically being in class what did you what changed what did you see having having been away and now come back what what was what was altered by the experience for for you for the kids. Clarify the question. Fuck you. I'm trying. I mean, when we first came back after having negotiated and struck for our working conditions, they were far from normal, right? We only had half the class at a time.

And we were expected to Zoom and teach in front of the class, which I don't think I, you know, know, did to the letter of the law, I think I continued to teach the way it was just report for work. And, and then that was my last year in the classroom. A very anti-clomatic ending, I will say, for a classroom that had some really beautiful moments of learning, right? But for me, in the classroom specifically, I did not return to any kind of normalcy whatsoever. And then I left the classroom. So you came back March of 21 and left after June of 21. Yeah.

Wow. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, the position I left for was ESSER grant funded. So it was going to be the nature of the situation that those funds existed at that time. It wasn't necessarily like, oh, this is burning me out, this whole situation. Like, COVID did a number on me personally, but not necessarily professionally.

It's just that I, you know, I had gone, gotten my master's, like I said, in 2016, 2017, and I picked a program because people always assumed I was a technology, what do they call them, tech natives, where like you grow up with technology, but I'm not, I'm older than that. And so I said, let me do an ed tech masters and get the skills that everyone keeps talking to me about as if I'm supposed to have them. And so then that obviously came in handy for the pandemic. And then the position I took was based on educational technology as well. And it was ESSER grant funded. So it was by nature going to start at that time. Gotcha. Dominique, how about you?

It's so I'm like a little. little giggly thinking about it. It's not that I think I knew all the things, but at some point, I was like, I think we can do different things when we're working with students, and I don't know that anybody's hearing me, and I would actually like to have much more of an influence there. So I nominated myself in the department chair election, and I would, uh, I would was not very popular. Yeah, around, and I think this was all virtual, and around that same time, someone had

let me know that the position that I'm currently working in would be proposed to exist and be posted, et cetera, et cetera, and like what I consider applying for such a job. So, and then at the same time, my teen sister and I were in conversation. about her moving to Sacramento and to live with me. So I was promised that my new job would be partially remote and it was,

the salary was several steps higher than where I was as a teacher. And, you know, I'd have all the health insurance and all the benefits. And, you know, that sounded really good to me. It was, I could be more flexible and make more money and, right and it was also for an organization that I worked with as a teacher so I really respected

the organization and like folks within it respect me and it's in professional learning so like that's really cool and having that contrast from the department where I was like hey should we like you know co-develop a rubric on this and like getting crickets it was just like you know what I don't got to do this anymore. Sure. So when was your, did you come back March of 21?

I did. And you stayed through June. No, you said you, your last time was in September. I came back in March of 21. I did the hybrid thing using those really cool cameras that

on you, the Polly Camps. I think that's what it was. And I had so much fun with my students. I enjoyed the hybrid. I can't believe I'm saying that out loud, but I did enjoy the hybrid thing

because it was really nice having like eight to 15 students at a time. Like I, that part was really, that part was really cool. And sadly, surely the conditions of loneliness like precipitated the like general calm of the classroom.

that like didn't exist pre-pandemic. So like that was certainly something. And then I taught summer school, which was it sounds kind of like cool thing. Was that when we had learning hubs? Is that what they called it? That sounds right. Yeah.

It sounds correct. I wouldn't say it sounds right. Yeah. But yeah, I think we had learning hubs. Because yeah, we turns out COVID was was soaring through the roof in certain areas. where we had learning hubs.

Oh, yes. But, you know, I don't think, right. I think summer school that year, they were doing, like, makeup classes online. And then you went to a certain teacher and kind of just hung out there. Yeah. But because my class didn't have an online version, I just taught a regular short class.

Oh. Which was really fun. Yeah, a fun swan song. Like, did you know you were leaving? at that point? I had interviewed or I had applied and I was waiting for an interview

and I don't think I still was sure that I was going to do it or that it was going to come through for me, right? So I stayed until I knew for sure. Huh. Which was after the school year started.

Yeah. Yeah, which, you know. How was that for you? Well, the school did did threaten to revoke my credential if I left the classroom during a teacher shortage, although the union contract clearly says that you're entitled to a leave of absence to do like a professionally parallel job to one year. Yeah.

And the job only had a one year post so that totally was in alignment. And yet I have to fight to not have the district revoke my credential. Wow. Jesus. Oh, I mean, okay So you two both went back in March Ed, did you go back in March as well? My district did not go back

Until the following Hold on. Shit, I'm trying to remember There was a period of time where I was Yeah, we went back in like April It was the dumbest fucking thing It might even have been May But in our Our model was different.

We did virtual teaching in the morning to all of our students, and then we had like an hour gap. And then in the afternoon, kids that needed or the district determined, you know, well, they really need one-on-one, you know, in-person attention. We had a very small number of, like I had three kids, you know, would come in and physically be in the room, which was. dumbered and shit because I was supposed to stay at the front of the room the whole time behind you know stupid little Lexan shield you know while they're you know working on the everything is on a Chromebook now because that's how we're doing everything anyway so they're sitting at their desk right on a Chromebook so it's like are you going to shout your questions to me sure you know like like I didn't I didn't understand what the benefit was of them

being physically in the room if we were going to have all of these other restrictions, which like the other restrictions made sense, but like if we have to have all these restrictions, why are they here? Yeah. You know, so it was, it was clown shoes. It was absolute clown shoes. It's like singing happy birthday song, but stopping right before you get to the final you.

Yeah. Happy birthday to. And then that's. Yeah. Yeah, that's a great analogy. Yeah, it was. No. I'm going to stop telling you stuff like that.

Nah. How long have we been doing this and I still keep? All right. I'll email Beth. She'll knock me down a few pegs again. It'll be great. Yeah, there you go. But, yeah, for me, so I didn't go back at all.

I actually, so I was the only Latin teacher in our district. And I didn't go back at all. And the reason I didn't go back, I said, look, if you want to have a sub be there, go for it. And then I will teach remotely while the sub is there handling any tech stuff if that's how you want to do. If you're insisting that kids come back, get a sub because otherwise I'm going to take a leave of absence for family because I was not like historian. You know what we were studying right before we left when I was teaching world history. I was

we like Gavrilla Prinkip was eating well he wasn't actually eating a sandwich but like the car turned in front of him and he aimed his pistol we were just about to start World War I and then after that there was going to be a three week unit on the rise of fascism

no no I'm sorry before that there was going to be a three week unit on the avion flu influenza yeah yeah and then a two week unit on the rise of fascism And I always joke that because of our dalliance with fascism, we blew it on the pandemic. And therefore my kids got to learn neither about fascism nor the pandemic.

And yet they got to experience both. But when I was teaching Latin, I was like, I ain't coming back to the classroom. I will take a leave of absence because I'm seeing what's happening. And I'll be damned if I get my kids sick because y'all thought my life was less valuable. and I went round and round and I just told my principal I said look you're going to need a sub in that room either way so do you want me to teach while the sub is there and I can keep getting paid or do you want me to not get paid and then the kids don't learn Latin it is your choice and you know basically I laid it out in such a way that he's like yeah no let's keep you at home and that's perfect fine so I stayed at home the whole time and then I came back in

September and my Latin program had been completely dismantled anyway, which I knew it was coming. So I was like, okay, well, this is either going to suck and I'll get my kids sick or this is going to suck, you know. But, but yeah, so I didn't go back in March at all, which I was very grateful for. And I'm always stunned. Again, I'm stunned when people don't know what they want to do, you know, when they get to college. And I'm also stunned that people also went back in March. So there's a bit of myopia there. So, okay, you both left shortly after that. Dominique, you said you left in September. And Kendra, you said you switched to the new gig after June. So within a season of each other, you both left, I want to know what it was like transitioning to the new job

from being a teacher not like oh the onboarding was cool and all that but like the the experiential difference because this is part of what lit a fire under mass to do this this panel was because there were so many teachers who were like guys you can go to bathroom whenever you want to you know and like just like little things where I'm like wait wait wait no your life is regulated by a bell that doesn't ring half the time so um Kendra what was it like for you transitioning from being a teacher to being your new gig. Yeah, I would say, I would consider myself very self-aware for better or worse. And, you know, I've been in therapy for about 10 years now and was really, really lucky.

No, I don't like the word lucky. I'm trying to get away from that. Fortunate, yeah. To have a supervisor that was emotionally intelligent. And I was just very upfront with her. And I said, teaching has, you know, I, let me take a step back. I came to the realization that I picked a profession that tapped into all of my childhood shit, tapped into my proving, you know, needing to prove my goodness, needing to be perfect.

It tapped into all of it. And it had just wound itself so tight. And it rears its ugly head at weird times. And I, you know, it could be just pressure on yourself. It could be, you know, talking too quickly instead of letting the conversation meander, things like that, needing to know minute details before taking the first step so that we know which direction we want to take that. step but I just told my my supervisor I said my nervous system feels like it's on pins and needles it feels like I am it's not it's like not foggy headed but it's foggy headed and sharp at the same time and I and she just gave me the grace for when my anxiety was super heightened to kind of process through that whether that be like just finding a space to work on my own or just expecting big emotions randomly or whatever but my my nervous system was fucking shot it was shot so my my whole body had to like d go through detox after yeah it's i mean like you just um have to always be on 10 handling everything being ready multitasking i got a single task

holy shit i get to single task i get to focus on a thing i get a focus on a thing i i you know I still don't recognize when I have to pee, quite frankly. I still don't know. I still like by the time I realize I have to pee, I have to really, really pee, which is just, you know, then I take some time to unlearn still. But, yeah, it was pretty profound to kind of experience that because I didn't realize it had gotten that bad. How long until you got to this new normal? Like how long until you stopped realizing the difference?

or have you gotten there? Probably a good year. Wow. Probably good year. No, I mean, if you have an anxiety disorder, it's an ongoing thing. But I would say to the degree that I'm describing, probably a good year. Okay. You know, your body learns survival.

Right. There are certain conditions, right? Yeah. No, I, speaking of pee, just real quick, I go to the bathroom every hour. Yeah. I basically go between every class. Yeah. Because what if we're on another lockdown like that?

Yeah. No. You know, and it sucks in the rest of my life because I've basically become that kid in first grade again. Like where like I had a doctor's note. Like he has to go because, you know, I grew too fast and what have you. But like I now, if my bladder is even the slightest bit full, I'm like, oh, I'm going to have to I go to the bathroom before I get in

and part of this is because of a car accident I got in. Oh, I'll just go to the bathroom when I get home. Strap to a gurney two hours later I'm in a hallway. I'm like, I have to go and they're busy triaging doing other stuff, you know? And I was just like, I'm going to go on the floor

if I don't get a basin. And finally somebody came with a jug for me. But that combined with when we had to go on that lockdown into that evacuation. Yeah. Any anytime my bladder is more than, you know, and I have the opposite when it comes to my, my car, if it gets less than half a tank. I'm like, I got to go fill this up. Yeah.

Because of the wildfires. So like, yes, we do learn these things. And mine is to go the opposite way. Like before I take any trip, before I get in the car, before I leave the house, before I leave school, before I leave anywhere, I'm going to pee. I'm going to go potty real quick and then I'll come, come back. I'm telling you, I never learned my lesson because I left, you know, You know, and from Fruit Ridge going on to 50 East, where all this whole construction's going. It took me an hour at noon on a Tuesday to go from Fruit Ridge to 59th Street. So I still haven't learned my lesson. I still need to keep your advice.

Yeah. I also just wear dark pants now. Dominique, how about you? What was it like for you to transition to the new gig? And how long before you didn't, how long before you stopped noticing the difference? Um, you know, I think I noticed the, one of the things that I noticed that felt very different that I point out all the time is that I do not laugh as much. And I, it occurred to me that other people are laughing as much as teachers during a workday.

and it took me about a year to realize that that like when you're in a room full of kids you are probably laughing like at least once an hour and that doesn't happen in my world I think we're seeing the high school middle school divide here we really are really are so okay so you don't yeah that's that that feels like a thing but uh Kendra brought up y'all are bringing up all those like really um very basic things that, like, you don't take for granted after being a classroom teacher is I eat a real breakfast, like, on the clock that I make at home and, like, sweatpants. That feels really awesome. I work the time of the day that I said I was going to work, and then I stop working when I'm done with it. I like to learn stuff.

So I just ask people to buy books for me that I want to like have for my personal collection. My job pays for me to travel to conferences and I can apply for like travel funds. And that's really easy. And also I just get to make stuff up all the time. And I get to spend money. So that's also really great.

like those are all things that feel like really empowering and powerful and I got influence and that is like also pretty cool and sometimes people say things to me like yeah I learned this thing the last time that I was with you and I tried it with my students and they loved it too it was so awesome and I'm like wow I worked with plenty of people who were like you know looking at me like I was Charlie Brown's mom when I started talking about teaching so Dominique a lot of what you said resonated with me right now

and I think the first one was like I got out of touch with my body like in terms of eating you know because you eat on a clock you have to eat whether or not you're hungry you have to eat when lunches or whatever and that's been really hard to reclaim still that one I'm still working on

but in my coaching it has been so nice to just step in and realize I haven't lost it. You know what I mean? Like if you're coaching someone and you see them struggling and sometimes I'm like, you know what? Just go outside. Take a walk around the quad. I got your class and just knowing that they're a little intuitive things.

Like I'll be talking to the right and something's happening to the left. So all I got to do is put my hand on the desk and that thing stops. I don't have to say anything. I don't have to fuss out of you. You know what I mean? Like little moves like that. Like you got eyes in the back of your head. but something I carry with me when I'm coaching is all these things that I experienced

when I left the classroom, knowing that teachers deserve that in their current positions and they don't get that, right? So it could be a bathroom break. It could be a mental health, you know, lap. It could be a lot of things. It could be even talking about boundaries during a coaching session, right? But I agree, like being back around the kids always rings joy for sure. okay um and so our kind of final final question here

why will you why why won't you come back what what keeps you out of the classroom at this point and i i don't we don't want that to come across as like you know sounding judgmental we just want to know what is what is the thing about where you are now that is going to keep you where you are now rather than coming back you know why why how can you quit you know the reverse of broke back mountain i can't quit you know what what what what keeps you where you are and Dominique, we'll start with you. My current job is just so flexible and has so much at the intersection of like things I can do

and things that I want to do. So that's, and like at the pace that I want to do it. So that's, that feels really cool. I also don't know how long it I also don't know how long it's going to last right like at some point might not be the thing that I want to do I did consider some a classroom return recently but then also with that being said I'm like oh well maybe I maybe it would won't be teaching

nine through 12 anymore. Maybe there's like a community college move or, you know, right? So anyway, I don't know. Okay. Jendra, how about you? Damien put something in the chat. I'm like,

crap, I got to go grab a seat. The question was, oh, what keeps me from coming back? Well, currently, what I'm doing now feels like the natural evolution of my career, right? So now I am providing those same learning experiences I did for students with that same skill set, but for adults, right? And, you know, the thing that I really do miss is I do miss geeking out about the lesson planning of math in particular.

I don't get to do that in depth anymore. But in terms of my own healing, it feels very serendipitous that my job now is to care for educators and coach them in a way that is non-evaluative that is purely supportive and is able to address really harmful things that I see going on in the classroom. And, you know, trying to give those teachers, those tools, again, through love so that our students feel seen and affirmed in the classroom, regardless of what, you know, subject area that is. So it feels like it is aligned with my own healing that I would try and provide that same authentic support to teachers as well. Very cool. Nice. Very cool. Well, I mean, the classroom's loss, I think, is the world's

gain here. And I don't know. I think in a perfect world, we would have better classrooms that wouldn't shed great teachers and that's not a knock on the students I think that's a knock on the way that we organize it we seem to be more interested in moving the meat than anything else as an institution and I think that that will absolutely grind people under the wheels

but I'm also so very glad for both of you that you got out from something that was not working for you yeah as well as it this thing that you're doing now is like yeah i i had this this thing that when uh as as a divorcee um when someone leaves you uh it it always bothered me when like dating or or married when a person would leave me and then they'd go do worse it's like no no don't throw me off to the side to go do worse you're supposed

to go do better and i recognize that everybody has a different journey and and what they had is still you know i was enough of a reason to leave that doesn't mean that they're going on to the next best thing you know but at the same time there is kind of uh you know i don't like the idea that people leave to go do something that's less fulfilling or uh less uh affirming uh so i like that neither of you have have done that you know um and uh yeah so i'm glad for you both um i'm sad for the students that we'll never get to have you but i am super glad for the both of you um so at this point we're just about done so ed and i like to plug a book uh or a movie or an album um and so uh i will start um and then we'll just go round robin it'll be go go me then ed and then

one of y'all to um whoever ed calls on i guess or whoever jumps in there uh so I'm going to, I've plugged this book, I think, two, three times now, but it's by Joy, Buolam, sorry, I don't have enough water me, so I'm all cotton mouth. Buolamwini called Unmasking AI, my mission to Protect What Is Human in a World of Machines. And she, she basically is looking at what we call AI. And she looks at, essentially, she, she founded some. something called the Algorithmic Justice League, which just sounds really cool. But she's looking at how AI is used as a tool of oppression, and it has to do with the fact that it was designed by the ruling class on a lot of levels, and therefore the very

algorithms themselves are a problem. She doesn't use this metaphor as far as I can remember. I think it was somebody else. But they pointed out that photography, was set to Caucasian skin, like calibrated to Caucasian skin. And she actually points that out with the algorithms that AI uses and how they're used in police work and all the dangers and problems with that, but also in how it just constantly regenerates itself and stuff like that. So it's a really good examination of something that is plaguing us who stayed, which is the use of AI and large language.

language models. So it's called unmasking AI or A1 if you're the Secretary of Education. Ed, how about you? I am going to recommend a TV series this time that I got sucked into because my wife got into it. And it is the residence. It is a really. Does it end in a CE or a T.S? CE residents and the residence that it is referring to is the White House and it is a murder mystery short series limited limited series that I guess is the way we're calling it now on Netflix and it is absolutely delightful on every level it is funny it is uh heartfelt uh the characters are uh you know exaggerated and and entertaining but they are they also have depth and and they are rounded and like i could gush about the show for forever but it's it's eight episodes um and yeah i cannot recommend it highly enough the residents on netflix um just a great great fun escapist murder mystery show how many uh it's awesome eight i believe

cool so either either one of you ladies want to go want to go next um i'll plug this book it has uh it is i'm sure dominique is familiar with it it's uh faith made flesh it is an book centered around Sacramento, around community, around health, and it is a really powerful read. Okay. Who's the author? There's a number. So I got this book at the board, and Misha Wynne, Kendra Montgomery Block, Lawrence Tori Wynn,

are a few of the authors. Okay. Thank you. And I just like how sophisticated. y'all's answers are like the thing that I'm enjoying right now was like a romance novel series by Kennedy Ryan it's the Skyland series my book club had the in celebration of May as mental health month the last book was around mental health and the main character and before I let go by Kennedy Ryan goes through a journey of like reflecting on her therapy journey while her

husband and son are on their own therapy journal and it explores like her friendship and divorce and then the second part of the series is about her friend and it's just this like I love a sisterhood story I was like a huge fan of the sisterhood of the traveling bands. So it's just really fun. There's like millennial moms just navigating like real life. Yeah. That was in air quotes. Yeah. Yeah, we, we, a quarter of our episodes are about professional wrestling. So you're never going to see us look down our nose at what other people find worthwhile. And any other, any other 25% historically have been about that. Batman.

Oh, the more episodes we do, the fewer. That's true. I mean, yeah. But yeah, no, you actually might have brought the first romance to us. So thank you for that. Yeah, expanding our reach. That's awesome. Cool.

Now, we also ask if folks want to be found on any kind of social media or other platform that they're active on, that they plug it. And if you don't, that is perfectly legit. Ed has always been in a shadow. in the warp. Dominique, is there anywhere you want to be found, or are you cool with being where you are? Please do not precede me. I like it.

I like it. She's like, actually, I do want a pseudonym. Kendra, how about you? You want to be found at all? No, thanks. Okay. Oh, thank. Yeah.

Well, as always, you can find me at the comedy spot on the first Friday of every month in Sacramento, downtown Sacramento, at 9 p.m. with my folks from Capital Punishment. By the time this airs, Emily is our new host. And yeah, she's back and better than ever, and it is so much fun. So come on down and check out how she's running the show. And make sure you get your tickets in advance. Go to satcommodyspot.com, plunk down your money. We have merch, so come in for that as well. but oh my god you uh kendra has been a number of times uh she can vouch for how always sober so sober when i'm there always sober stone cold sober uh and and how much she enjoys it um but uh but yeah you all need to come down uh get your tickets in advance uh so like i said it's first friday so by

the time this airs i'm going to go on on a limb and say you're you probably missed the august first show So go to the September 5th show, the October 3rd show, and the November 7th show. All of them at 9 p.m. So cool. Well, Kendra and Dominique, thank you both so much for doing this with us. I appreciate your indulgence and your honesty. I mean, this is. Yeah, and your openness to answering all these questions.

Thank you very, very much. We appreciate it. Yeah. Thank you both. Gailman, it's wonderful to meet you virtually after hearing much about you. I will see you in real life soon. It's going to happen. I think that's how it happens.

You know, I dare say there's a comedy show you guys could. So for a geek history of time, I'm Damien Harmony. And I'm Ed Laylock. And until next time, ignore me.