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Phil Januszewski is a tattoo-covered, Netflix baking-show flopping, motivational speaking high school chemistry and physics teacher with a master's degree in teaching leadership. His mission is to bring happiness to others through education, motivation, and entertainment.
In this episode, we go in a totally unexpected direction weaving two content areas together as we apply our step-by-step unit planning protocol. It’s a wonderful example of the messiness of the unit design process! Unit Planning Step 1: Context/Spark NGSS Standards. Have to prepare students for the exam. Wants to build in more SEL touches to the Science standards. Can we weave in positive psychology and gratitude into an upcoming thermochem unit? Let’s further students’ development as humans, not just scientists. Unit Planning Step 2: Pursuits (from Dr. Muhammad’s HILL Model) Intellect/Content: Shifting energy. Endothermic, exothermic. Phases of water. Lots of algebra. Skills: Data collection/observation (review); Explanatory models/metaphors (next level) Identity: How will our unit help students to learn something about themselves and/or about others? Gratitude. Fostering connection to teacher, students, school community. Embracing the good. Criticality: How will our unit engage students’ thinking about power and equity and the disruption of oppression? Lack of belonging inhibits learning. Joy*: How will my unit enable, amplify, and spread joy? [Joy is: beauty, aesthetics, truth, ease, wonder, wellness, solutions to the problems of the world, personal fulfillment, art, music.] Experience joy during learning. Unit Planning Step 3: Driving Question Is our community more exothermic or endothermic? Note: We didn’t come up with this exact version during the show, but I think it takes one more step to bring together the student examples to analyze the community sense of belonging Phil talked about. Unit Planning Step 4: Summative Project (Publishing Opportunity and Possible Formats) Phase One: Traditional project/assessment on Science knowledge Phase Two: Students choose a situation that’s important to them and pose it to the class to discuss the question: Is [this example from life] more exothermic or endothermic? Phase Three: Suggest a practice or policy change to fix an exothermic situation. Stay Connected You can find Phil on his website at www.philjanuszewski.com He’s on Instagram and Twitter @PhilJanuszewski His Linktree is: https://linktr.ee/PhilJanuszewski You can email Phil at: [email protected] To help you inspire flourishing and positive psychology in your school, Phil is sharing his 3-Step Classroom Happiness Practice worksheet with you for free. And, if you’re looking for more details on the ideas in this blog post, listen to episode 122 of the Time for Teachership podcast. If you’re unable to listen or you prefer to read the full episode, you can find the transcript below. Quotes:
TRANSCRIPT Welcome to our episode. Today, I get to talk to Phil Jezewski. He is a tattoo covered Netflix speaking show, Flapping, motivational speaking, high school, chemistry and physics teacher with a master's degree in teaching leadership. His mission is to bring happiness to others through education, motivation and entertainment. And let me tell you today's episode does not disappoint throughout. We kind of get into the messiness of everything and we are still feeling the positive psychology. So let's get to this episode with Phil. I'm educational justice coach Lindsay Lyons. And here on the time for teacher podcast, we learn how to inspire educational innovation for racial and gender justice design curricula grounded in student voice and build capacity for shared leadership. I'm a former teacher leader turned instructional coach. I'm striving to live a life full of learning, running, baking, traveling and parenting because we can be rockstar educators and be full human beings if you're a principal assistant superintendent, curriculum director, instructional coach or teacher who enjoys nerd out about co creating curriculum with students. 00:01:05 I made this show for you. Here we go. So welcome to the time of our teacher podcast. I'm so excited. You're here today. Thank you. I am absolutely open and up for everything and anything to learn from, you always admire and appreciate what you do for the world Lindsay. Oh my gosh, right back at you and I am so excited to hear about like all the thoughts that you have and just if you want for listeners to just kind of paint a picture of, you know, what's the context that we're designing this unit? Dreaming kind of episode? We're, we're doing, we're really dreaming up a unit. And so what's the context that that is being created in, you know, kind of what's your current process of pleading and what are your hopes for today or any sparks of ideas you have? Yeah. Thank you for that. I would say that. So I've been a chemistry and physics teacher for 18 years. So developing content or units has really revolved around a certain amount of content we have, I'm in Illinois. So we have what's called the NGSS science standards that we are expected to meet. And from there we meet as a PLC with my uh like minded subject area teachers. 00:02:14 And we figure out all right, what are the units and orders that are going to naturally make sense so that we can not only fit all this in, in the school year, uh but also honor the standards that are expected of us, but also do it in a way that makes sense. So that kids can achieve, they have the opportunity to build and grow on other concepts. So now for a while, as you could imagine, after 18 years, we have a really good recipe for an order that works or seems to be the most successful for students. So once we dive into that, then we go into specific units which are again, content specific and driven. So for example, me in chemistry, we just finished up a unit right before spring break on gas laws. So just how gasses are working, how they interact with their everyday life, but also the math and quantitative data behind it that can back up what we're seeing. So as you know, uh spring break approaches and all of a sudden you want to get in everything you can so that you don't have to test right after a spring break. 00:03:19 I mean, this is reality. So we really get into focusing on what do we need to teach? 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, in order for the students to be successful, have the opportunity to learn, make mistakes grow so that by the end of the unit, they're strong and feeling confident. So Lindsay, as I've said to you before, I am absolutely nothing pretty on paper as far as wow, Phil is a master unit builder. I would say that I am a mas uh a master unit survivor. I am just trying to fit in everything in the allotted time so that my students can get what they need. And then as I would say, transparently and honestly, I am far from being happy with building in those uh sel touches those extra things that can really allow students to extra connect with the material. And I think sometimes due to rushing to make sure we honor and fit in everything we're expected to do. I do feel that I'm, I'm not happy with my craft yet in reaching, reaching those standards or those pillars yet, but I'm certainly trying to make my way towards those. 00:04:28 I think that is going to be highly relatable for everyone listening in, in just terms of like what their current planning process is and the things that they're trying to do and aspire to do as well. And I just really appreciate you sharing that like this is, this is how it is and this is where I wanna go and I think that's like it's gonna be beautiful what we create today so well, thank you. I'm excited for the opportunity. Anything that is better for the kids is better for me too. So I love it. Yeah, it makes it easier to teach when they're really enthused. Yes. So I am curious. Do you have any sparks of ideas or kind of directions you might want to go even if they're just tiny little sparks at this point? Yeah. So for me as far as like units, I mean, I'm good with order and allowing my students to be successful for the exams so that hey, you can demonstrate these chemistry. But something that I think a lot of students could use and I am very passionate about is the world of positive psychology. And I'm really interested in finding unique, creative or all the overlapping ways to introduce different ideas that allow for students to feel more joy, to feel like they're flourishing more and to feel like more, I don't know, gratitude or just a, a moment to reflect and feel appreciation and connected with this, this thing we call school when students come in. 00:05:48 I like to, you know, like I call them my chemistry family. Like, all right. So I do want them to think of us and we joke, we're a dysfunctional family. But I think in the end we're, we're all here for each other. And I think that that might be weird at the beginning of the year. But by the end they know like I'm, I'm here for you and I'm here for you as whoever you come as I'm not trying to turn you into something else. And I think they finally figured that out. At least I'm lucky to have him a full year. So after a full semester, I think they get it like, yeah, I'm your chemistry dad, not the dad you ever wanted or asked for. But here I, I am, I'm not going away. I'm consistently showing up. So I think by the second semester, most of them trust me. And so I want to find ways to help them further themselves as humans, not just scientists. Did that make sense? Absolutely makes sense. Yes. So I love these as goals for kind of the, the things that they're doing. And, and I think about this in connection to Dr Goldie Mohammed's work around the Hill model and like identity criticality, joy. 00:06:50 Like I heard a lot of stuff around joy in here. Um The identity piece too. I don't know if you want to speak a little bit more to kind of the thought you're, you're thinking in terms of their pursuit as humans. Like what, what does that mean to you to be humans or like what pieces of identity might you want to tap into? Because I mean, so many students, right? As people, we hold so many identities. Is there something that you're like, oh, I'd, I'd like to dive into that piece a little bit more. Yeah. Great. Great point is, yeah. II I blanketed that big time. There's so many areas we could go into. I feel like something that I'm purposely and intentionally drawn to is like gratitude, appreciation for what we have in the moment. The fact that we come to a school that's safe. We're full of teachers that want to teach you and full of most students that are OK with being there. And I feel like once we have that sense of gratitude, we feel more comfortable and can get into the learning maybe in a more comfortable way. So for me, I, I'm really drawn to gratitude and appreciation and I feel like that might lead them to better connecting with not only me and my classroom but the school as well. 00:07:55 So that's something that naturally calls to me. I don't know. Again, I don't know. You, hopefully you can work your magic. You're the the magician here. I don't know how to fit in gratitude when I'm forcing them next. They're gonna be doing thermo chem. So they're gonna be doing equation ass on its shifting energy from ice to water. So again, any way that I can somehow relate this, this thing that a lot of people think is, you know, hippie dippy or touchy feely is something that I think is almost more important than them. Learning. The science is like learning to be joyful in the moment and that opens you up to the learning. Yes. Oh my gosh. Ok. So I'm really excited about this. I was terrible at chemistry. It is one of the lowest grades I've ever in my life. So we're gonna really leverage our strengths here. I think what I think would be great sometimes. I actually think it's best to almost have like a novice mindset coming into to do a new project because you're like, oh, I see this in a very different way. So hopefully it will be helpful as we, as we think about like that thermo chem piece. 00:09:00 Can you tell me a little bit about? I love the um a specific example you gave about shifting energy. Can you tell me some of the other principles that you talk about within that unit or like high leverage, 23 concepts that they're learning about and then we can kind of go from there. Yeah, absolutely. I think the main idea of that whole unit is going to be, as you already said, the the shifting of energy. So when you put energy into something it's in and that energy goes in, we call that endothermic and then sometimes energy is lost or given off and we call that exothermic. And that's the main point and idea when we shift between phases of matter, for example, why would something as simple as ice melt into liquid and then eventually turn into water vapor or gas by having that simple example that they've seen all three phases in their everyday life. That's when we can really dig into the math, the actual reason and science behind why and how that's happening. So water is a really great specific focus for that unit because there's not really any other things in their life that they see every day in all three phases. 00:10:08 So this is something that's relatable to them. So yeah, we're gonna be doing calculations. I don't know how deep you want me to go Lindsay. I hope you don't have PTSD from these terms from your horrible chemistry experiences. Uh But we'll get into like specific heat and then things like heat of fusion, like the melting process, but everything related to energy. And that's a lot of numbers in algebra which isn't for my, mostly my sophomores or who take it in my chemistry class right now. Uh Not all of them are super confident with their algebra that is super helpful. So I think what I'm wondering and you can tell me if this is too out there, but I'm wondering if there is a metaphor to be seen here that parallels the idea of energy and energy out phases of matter and the self and the psychology and what gives us energy and what gives us energy loss? Um What are the different kind of like phases that we move through? 00:11:13 Um One of the questions that I'm kind of bouncing around here my normal process. But one of the questions stems that I love for a driving question that frames the whole unit is what's the formula for? So I almost wonder if it's like, what's the formula for? And they are creating some kind of formula that is related and you'll have to help me with the science math connections here. But this idea of the formula for like a to use positive psychology, like the formula for flourishing in life or something like what's my best state and what's the formula for getting there or, or something like that? I'm not sure what the exact question would be, but if there was kind of the concepts that they were playing with and they're using the concrete math and science, but then they're extrapolating out to be like, oh, these same principles are underlying concepts of energy and energy out. Um Like, what does it look like when I melt? Like when I have, you know, like, have I melt down or something? You know, like all of these different pieces, I wonder if there's kind of a, a positive psychology connection to that? Does that seem too out there or should we bring it back in? 00:12:15 I mean, I'm certainly not opposed to it. I mean, I think we're definitely getting in that hippy dippy area and I'm totally, totally cool with dancing in that area in line. Uh I'm not sure how it'll look, but I'm open to journeying there. OK, cool. So I, I'm wondering, as you think about like the connections, knowing all the math and science behind it, when you think about like the, the positive psychology piece and wanting students to have like these um kind of just like experiences of flourishing and gratitude. What, what are the examples of how those might play out within a unit like this? Like, is there a specific um kind of lesson or activity or idea or concept that will bring students joy or do you want to see it as kind of the metaphor lens? Do you want to think about it as? Um well, I'll stop rambling. How, how are those connections seem like what's going through your head as you think about this? Yeah, I suppose. Um I'm trying to think of positive psychology in this idea of like an upward spiral that when we think of gratitude and we think of things we appreciate and again, not ignoring the negatives, but embracing the good things that are already happening. 00:13:29 It like broadens our perspective. We're more open to learning, we're more open to more positive action. Uh So I suppose like if you're open, you're open to receiving or absorbing. So that I guess I guess we could kind of go with, that could be like endothermic like you taking in positive energy. And when you take in positive energy on a a heating curve, we call it. But as you take in more energy, your energy on the graph increases. So you get to a higher energy level. That's why again ice would turn to liquid, it absorbed energy was endothermic. You had to put heat into it to, to, to turn it to the next energy level, man. Are we man? We're getting like philosophy mixed with heat signs and I'm gonna start wearing a tie dye shirt. I love this. But I suppose there's a relationship here that when you absorb energy, you go to a higher state a higher energy level. And I would say that's kind of similar to that upward spiral phenomenon in positive psychology that the more you take in, uh, the more you're willing to take in and see, I don't know, is that too big of a jump? 00:14:42 Yeah. I don't know. I think, I love this idea though and the, and the bringing in, like, the broaden and bills model of like, the, the positive psychologists and stuff. I, I think that there's something here. I'm wondering if we take a step to the next kind of step and we kind of like come back to this idea or maybe, ok, I know what we're gonna do. I'm wondering from a criticality standpoint, let's, let's try to bring that lens in and then maybe that'll connect all the dots for us. So I'm thinking if this is a justice centered unit that thinks about positive psychology and flourishing for all people, so we're kind of bringing that piece in. Um, is there something that would be relevant or connected or kind of like just maybe even where does your brain go when you think about that criticality element where we think about power, equity, disrupting oppression as it relates to just kind of this very broad positive psychology. Thermal Cabin connection. Hm. That's a great question. Well, I feel like if people don't uh feel like socially a part of an institution, right? 00:15:49 If they don't feel like they fit or that they're welcome as they are. Like, it's hard to be open to learning if, if they're not feeling like, oh, me the way I come to school, I, I don't, I don't know, I don't, I don't, I don't know how to say it, like, fit the, the expectation and therefore, if I don't belong, therefore I'm not as willing to learn, I'm more guarded. But I, so when I think of like criticality and then equity and that, I imagine that, but that's where my mind goes. But as far as making that connection to the energy piece, could that be like me giving them energy, allowing them to know that they, they do belong? They are welcome here. Uh I mean, I feel, I feel like I'm stretching on a limb here, but I'm definitely brainstorming. Yeah. Oh my gosh. Yes. No, this is wonderful. So I do think like, yeah, we may, we may be hanging on to the metaphor. Maybe I may, I'm pushing it too much. I think one of the things now that my brain is going to is kind of like skipping to what is the final project. 00:16:55 So I'm wondering if that's something piece too. So sometimes I bring in criticality as like, where do students go with this? And I know earlier you mentioned, you know, we're, we're really thinking about how can students be successful on maybe a test or a sum of assessment or something like this? If there was some sort of application project where you were having students create even in a traditional sense of like a science experiment or something that they're doing, what would that typically look like for a project around thermal cam and shifting energy? Like a, a kind of a high school level thing that they would do. Yeah. On, on the outside, a typical lab we do that would be like a main assessment for them would be, it would look simple. But the math behind it is a little more complex form. That would be we would start with ice water and, and monitor the temperature and then you would slowly heat up that ice water and take note when all the ice melts and it's fully liquid and then you know, every 20 seconds you would take the temperature as you continue to heat up this until it boils. 00:17:57 The reason we do this is when water boils, most students assume that the water temperature will continue to get hotter and hotter. But what they find is that when water is boiling, it never gets hotter than the boiling temperature. And the reason for that is um is once the water gets a high enough energy level, those water molecules escape as gas. So you lose the energy that it was putting in. So when a phase change is happening, the temperature stays the same. Now, I just put everybody listening to sleep on that. But that mathematically that's, that's important. They're, they're actually measuring the energy which is the temperature and they find that the energy all of a sudden stays constant it at the end. And then we can get into the math, the algebra behind it. And if they understand all of this and then they put the math in, they fully master the concept like OK, this was endothermic. We put energy in, we went through two phase changes. The final phase change got stuck at the one energy and we can then kind of explain everything from the unit that way. 00:19:01 Hm OK, I love this idea of being able to explain. OK, this is great. OK. The things changes I love and being able to explain things. I think this concept of being able to explain with an underlying concept is what maybe is the linking piece. So like that's the kind of the connection to and it might be a very different phrase and maybe that's a compare contrast or something in terms of that positive psychology energy and all of those pieces like is it that you, you know when you're kind of um two things here, one is the process of the energy and the phase changes as like a human being. And you know, how does that look? Does, do you go through multiple face changes? How many? And is there a point that goes above boiling quote unquote? And like what does that mean? But then there's also I think this like skill, which is really it it translates to in some ways this broader kind of like participatory action research skill almost where you're in community and you're collecting data from the community. So you have kind of this data collection observation, tracking measurement graphing skill that sounds like it's happening at the same time. 00:20:08 Does that feel like the position of this unit? Is that like a new skill for them? Is that a review? Is that like they're ready to take this to the next level? Yeah, great point. Since it is later in the year, I think they are expected to be comfortable with taking data and recording it even graphing it the hardest part definitely at this level and this course is making meaning of that data. Like here it is, you've got it, they're very good at doing that. It's the next level that they struggle with and definitely need bridges to get there. You know, hey, what with the shape of this graph? What does that really mean? And now think back to what we've already learned, how does what we've learned? How is it supported by this data? And I think they do, you need a lot of hand holding for that. It's a tough thing for a lot of students to do. And I don't think there's anything wrong with that. I just think it's a tough skill to master. So I think that's where I come in and you know, not to sound belittling, right? But I do the hand holding for that, you know, this is where we're at. 00:21:09 What did you see? And it really is a struggle. So, yeah, I think that the main goal besides understanding the content is to start making those connections between the data and what, what theory we've learned to support it. So I'm wondering if this idea of data collection connection to theory? I like, I don't know if it does modeling and like creating a model sound related to this or is that like a different or like if they were to construct a model or um I'm almost thinking of like so much theory is often like a metaphor, right? For, for something else, does that feel like if they were to construct metaphors and think about how to make meaning of the data in a way that's like explain this in a brand new way that no one has ever explained or like that, not their traditional, just regurgitate the the textbook back to be kind of thing. Does that feel like that would be actually harder for them than, than just making meaning of the data straight up? Or does it sound like that would be a bridge to making meaning of the data? Does that make sense? Yes. Yeah, I'm following you and I I it's a really good question. 00:22:12 I'm trying to, I think if it's about something related to them in their personal life, I do feel like they are more natural at making a metaphor if it relates to them, if it relates to outside their shoes, you know, I think the extra empathetic piece of that might be a little extra hard for them to do. But if they relate it to them in their own joy, gratitude, wherever we might be headed with this, to help explain in a slightly different way what they're seeing. I think that unique and strange way might actually in some weird way, help them remember it better because what I where my brain is going here is I am wondering if a final project because I wanna keep the science here. I don't wanna, I don't wanna get too much into the the piece that we're trying to like add in a and I wanna make sure that that is also central in the sense of that criticality, piece of everyone feeling a sense of belonging, right? And that back to identity and like feeling that sense of safety, gratitude, appreciation, like all of those pieces, I'm wondering if part of that is being in community in school community. 00:23:19 And so like, what, how do we kind of facilitate that in whatever project we do or activities we do and then also having a better sense of the concepts. So like actually learning the material and feeling good and efficacious about that and also seeing themselves as like an expert in a new way often makes like that really helps with like the positive psychology. And I think the feeling of flourishing and like I am crushing this, I just explained this in a way my teacher didn't even ever think of or something, you know. Um So I'm wondering if kind of this act of creation itself is kind of the positive psychology being brought in where they're still really focused on explaining the concept. But we're expanding the possibilities for how they explain into maybe a variety of formats. This could be teaching a younger grade like the basic premise. Like you were saying, the um idea of like ice water to heating it up to liquid, to boiling like that may be something that you are exposed to in a younger grade perhaps, but you don't understand fully the big math behind it. 00:24:20 And so I'm wondering if that feels like an accessible option, not for maybe everyone, but maybe for some students who are like, I want to actually teach this to a younger grade set or something as like a project format. I'm wondering if this concept is something that if they were to teach that, for example, they go into an elementary school and they're like, here's this concept and then they use it, you know, those posters that they have like a lot of them in elementary schools where they're like, here's this stoplight chart or something or like things like this. And I wonder if they actually can kind of go to the next level once they've created the explanation or metaphor to help Children or high school peers use it as a way to identify what's going on for them in a given moment around like SCL and safety and gratitude and flourishing. Like they take the the explanatory model or whatever of what's happening with the science experiments and then they like use the same model or visual or whatever it is that they create as a means to describe and assess and identify what's going on for them in a given moment, emotionally or psychologically or whatever. 00:25:33 Hey, everyone, it Lindsay just popping in to tell you about today's Freebie Phil is sharing with us his three step happiness practice worksheet which you can grab at Lindsey bets dot com slash blog slash 122 back to the episode. How, how does that sound? I get, I first of all, I like that, I get what you're saying, they're gonna master the science of it. And then on top of it, I could give them the challenge of you're going to go into hypothetically a room full of third graders. I want want you to use this idea of the heating curve and endo an exothermic, the transfer of energy. But I want you to use that in a way that can help help describe them to be happier. Is that, is that like the twist we're going with like, like, so take what you've learned and then turn that science thing was so backwards of what we originally thought, turn the science rules into a metaphor for happiness or something like that. Is it? Did I understand that? Right. Yeah. Yeah. Like, and, and I think for me it was less about like happiness and more like um where, like, how to identify your emotions or like where you are. 00:26:43 So what I'm, I'm actually thinking of are some of the charts around like um poly vagal theory or something, you know, where, where you're like um in like a a dorsal state or you're in like a fight or flight state or you're in like a, a very like venture like calm and cool state like I and at a varied child like level, there's like that movie with like the all the different like characters are different colors and then different emotions. I can't remember inside out, I think. Yes. Yes. Yes. I know what you're talking about. Yeah. So like something like that where you're just able to be like, oh, I am, I am feeling this, we may be way far away. I like this. Jesus is out there. I like it. So I am wondering like just in terms of if we could like get concrete about what a driving question might be for this project, given all of the variety of places that we've gone and it could centralize like often I try to think about like what the actual project is gonna be and having the driving question be around that. 00:27:48 And then each lesson is like we're learning the skill or we're learning the concept and it's all lead up to this final project that we're doing. So the project could be very science and it could be that way or it could be that we ultimately are thinking about the flourishing and the positive psychology piece and then a supporting question underneath that or kind of like a stepping stone into that as you need to understand the science of this. So I don't know what your preference is for the frame framing question. Well, I'm, I'm kind of thinking, I'm kind of reminds me of like life is like a box of chocolates, blank, blank blank. So instead of life is like a box of chocolates, maybe it's your emotions are like a heating curve, blank, blank blank. And then they can think of a way to use their knowledge of the heating curve to explain the way they look at their emotions. And by doing so, maybe they're self reflecting on where they're at, but also trying to creatively and cleverly apply the knowledge that they do understand. 00:28:53 I mean, this is, this is definitely out there and I think I have some really, really in, I have a lot of really intelligent kids that'll be like they'll give me the look like, what are you doing? Here, like, you know, that this is an estate standard. What are you pushing here? You know? Uh So, uh it's super interesting but I don't know, that's when you were talking and I was thinking, is that kind of what we're like? It could be just a final question of their lab, their assessment to, here's the scenario, complete this, I don't know. Yeah, I, I like it and I, I think often of like, when the project is all done, like, where does it go, kind of thing? So it might go to the third grade class or it might go somewhere else. And I, I almost wonder if it's like, um, we are gonna have all the, the, you know, students, teachers in the high school, like, actually walk by our home away with all of your one sentence, things like all of your, your emotions are like, and they are going to vote and they are going to pick the best ones, you know, just like trying to think of like, what would get students like, oh, yeah, I'm gonna be creative or something. 00:29:58 Um, so I think that is really cool and I'm wondering, um, you know, I, I am also, I have in my mind like many things at once. One of the things I, I want to not lose sight of as well is that idea of criticality. So, like enabling everyone to belong, but also like to, to recognize like the pieces when, when you were talking about the heating curve. To me being a non thermal chem expert, I was thinking about the ways in which we have structural oppression and emotional labor taken on by some people more than others in society. And like, I'm wondering how much, because I know you're saying it's hard to fit everything in. So I'm wondering how much feels like we could draw parallels to each of those key concepts along the way in a way that also centered. Um kind of like the I, I don't know, like the structures in our society that are, are, are oppressive or not equity centered and like almost kind of think about the language of the and, and concepts as like a way to ultimately um correct or interrupt some of that oppression in our maybe just in our class community or in our school. 00:31:12 And so designing the project or maybe the, you know, if the driving question or the driving like sentence is kind of like fill in the blank here at the end of this metaphor, like being mindful of like, how does whatever they do better their community in a way that enables some student, for example, who never could quite identify how they were feeling in the moment. They kept getting into conflicts with peers and teachers and like, they're just not flourishing. Like how does whatever we come up with, whether it's a sentence, whether it's an explanatory lesson of this concept or whatever that like that is kind of the key that unlocks that like inequity or something. Does that, do you, does that make sense? Yeah, I'm following you. I'm Yeah, it's, it's uh you, you could go down such a rabbit hole, right? That and, and it's all super important. Uh I think that's too an overwhelming part of educators, right? Is that we are passionate and we want to do all of that and somehow make it all make sense. 00:32:13 But I love the criticality piece. I almost feel like uh like a quick like discussion on a board, you know, instead of like choosing one side or another this or that it's like, is this example from life more exothermic or endothermic? Meaning would that person lose energy? Is it depleting or is it more filling them with energy? For example, uh a student that is the only person from her original country uh and surrounded by people all from similar origin. Would that be exothermic or endothermic? Would that person probably would it be exhausting and losing energy? And she'd have to work harder to be energized. So, I mean, it could be as simple as just trying to make mental connections to what endo and exo is losing or gaining but do it in a way that maybe uh brings up some really important seeds to plant about, hey, by the way, you look just like everybody else. So it's probably not a big deal to be here. But if you didn't and you raising your hand, it might actually take more energy than for you to do it because you don't feel as similar to everybody. 00:33:22 I don't know. Is that too out there? That is it that I think that is literally with the last 30 minutes have been like striving to reach. I think, personally, I think that is brilliant. That's the driving question. I think so. And I'll tell you what I'm thinking about for like a project or what, what I'm thinking about in terms of drive question. I once saw a media critique unit where students brought the texts, all of the texts were the students other than like the foundational pieces where I was trying to get the concepts down. But then all of so what I typically call them and II, I have this typically set up as a unit arc where first we would like hook the students in maybe that's with the the initial experiment or something with like the melting and just kind of getting the inquiry questions or whatever. Then we're building the base of foundational scientific concepts. Then we do case studies of here's how that plays out in this scenario or in this scenario. And so that might be actually pulling in some, some of those specific scenarios might be like a case study or maybe just one day where you have a gallery walk of case studies or like you're saying, kind of move to this side of the room or that. And then ultimately, you're getting to the point where you're like, OK, so you know, this, this uh final project can be you taking a text of your choice or a current event of your choice or something of your choice. 00:34:34 So the students are in informing the direction and then they have to make the rationalization. So they're pitching it, however, they're pitching it, whether they're making a movie about it, whether they're doing a class presentation, whether they're teaching third graders. But I'm wondering if they, I mean, I, I guess I'm asking from a scientific standpoint if they were to take something a current event, for example, a, a news article and they were to answer that question. Is it more exo or endothermic? And here's how I know and they were to do a really good job of like fleshing out the, the rationale there. Would that meet the standards of the unit or is there a piece missing there? Yeah, I think that would not reach the standard of the unit. The standard would be very specific of, can they explain what and why endo and exo exist and how that impacts where I think what you were just describing would be more metaphorical. Yeah. So in terms of the OK, that makes sense in terms of like why it exists like the, the exothermic and the endothermic. 00:35:42 Can you run can you run through that again for me to, to understand? No, no worries, of course. So uh man, the conservation of energy, right? Energy has existed since the beginning of the universe, scientifically speaking, therefore, any energy that exists has to be transferred from one thing to another. So if it's exothermic, something is giving off that energy and pushing it somewhere else, which means something else is taking it in endothermic. So there's just tons of transfer constantly, it never disappears. It just simply goes from one thing to the next and you're either taking it in or losing it. Gotcha. So if students were to take that entire concepts of the transfer of energy and you're never losing energy and they were to develop out the metaphor, would it still hit the standard because they would be required within that metaphor to explain in, in the thermo chemistry stuff like in water. For example, this is how this works and this is why it works. So therefore, and then the next step would be them explaining the metaphor and the rationale for why energy transfer still applies in that situation. 00:36:46 Or you know what I, you know what I mean? I would say that in order to make the metaphor, you would have to fully understand the scientific concept of it. So therefore, yeah, I I could say as an educator, I think I would feel confident with that being some form of an assessment. Yes. So Yeah, like I'm almost seeing it as like um phase one of the assessment is like, you have to demonstrate that you understand the thermo chemistry behind it. And then like once you kind of check the box, you now enter into phase two, which is the rationale that requires as part of the rubric or whatever, like it requires that connection back to the scientific principle. So your metaphor can't just be surface level one sentence. It has to be like the depth of understanding of like and I don't know if you create like an example for them or something, but like the depth of the science behind the metaphor has to be there. Or else this is just like, you know, a fluff project, you know what I mean? Right. No, I agreed 100%. Yeah, I'm not quite sure how I would unveil that to them, but I think it could be something that would not only be creative and fun and you would see students who don't always shine in certain areas, I think really thrive in this sort of uh environment. 00:37:54 Cool. OK. Awesome. So I'm I'm wondering if that feels like for a driving question is this example from life? And then we would like this example would literally be something that students bring in. Do you feel comfortable with that? Or would you want them to choose from here? Are some things that I am presenting you with as examples and you create the metaphors from there. Well, I think if they chose and then we discussed and they, again, kind of debated back and forth. They could also see how complex social reality is versus science tends to be more this way or that way. But socially, things are more complex depending on perspective, which again, as long as they're arguing as to why or why not, it's endo or exo, I think would deepen their understanding because the metaphor they use would force them to understand what Endo and exo would be. Yeah, I like that. How, how are you feeling? Because I'm thinking, I, I think we don't probably need to go into like the different protocols of the unit. Are I am imagining this as very much like still a very science unit rolling out kind of kind of the same way, maybe a hook the same way, build the base the same way and maybe throwing in some case study examples of what the final project will be. 00:39:06 So students have some familiarity class wide of what does it mean to engage with this question and like what might a metaphor be in kind of class construct? And then they kind of do it on their own as the project. The phase two of the project, phase one could be what it initially would be. Maybe a test or something. No, I think that this is a great like skeleton that I could use in all my units to like Sprinkle in these little criticality pieces that will become part of the routine. Almost that yes, we learn the science, but we also make some metaphors for reality to help us better understand the topics. And then, you know, take it to like you said that phase two, that next level level would it be? I, I don't know, life is like are my emotions are like a heating curve dot dot dot Finish it, debate it and then let's get creative with it. Make it a quick 32nd video with your lab partners if you want or a quick sign or something like that. I I think that could be fun. It could be different and also impactful. 00:40:10 Yeah. And on the impact I'm thinking if you were to have a student, for example, the the thing you gave about, you know, a student is the only person of their identity in a room or something, right? It is taking so much more energy to do the thing, whatever the thing is like. So they're engaging with that. Is this more exo or endothermic question? They are explaining it. And then from there, I love the concept of like taking it to an action level, like an action civics project or something where it's like it doesn't have to be huge, but it could literally be, oh, we just talked about this example that's literally happening to one of my peers in my class. What can we do to make that different? And then the project like phase three or part two A or whatever is like, OK, here's a suggested either practice or policy change that either my class or my school at large could implement to better support uh this group of students who's currently being underserved or something. Does that feel like a doable kind of thing to just kind of present to students and invite students to grapple with? 00:41:12 For even just a day of class, I'd say that for a day of class. Absolutely. For more than that, I think I would get a lot, you know, in all transparency. I think I get a lot of pushback from students because they would start to see this getting further away from science and then they'd start to question, you know, its validity to the specific subject. So, yeah, that makes sense in a perfect world. I'd love to tell you, I think a lot of students would jump on this. But I think in the end, if I pushed it too far, I think a lot would shut down and say you're just giving me extra work that's not related to what I'm here to do. Gotcha. Yeah. Yeah. Totally fair to say. And it makes me think of like, I mean, we went in one direction here. I feel like there are different directions that we, we could have gone. But it, it almost makes me think too about other potential directions for thermal chemistry and shifting energy around. When do we like, when would we use or when would this concept feel valuable to us in life? And in what ways are those um factors like present in larger systems of injustice or do you know what I mean? 00:42:22 Like, I I I'm not sure because of my limited knowledge here in this topic, but I'm just thinking of like pollution, for example, is like some sort of transfer of energy or something, right? And, and pollution happens predominantly in black and Brown communities more than in white communities. So like there is kind of this like scientific process happening and then who feels the impacts of those processes more or what? Why would it be beneficial for us to change how that energy shifts or can it, you know what I mean? I'm not sure what the the side science would be, but I almost wonder if that's like another direction for a different unit or for a um you know, another day to kind of think about rooted in the science, especially within that context of I have students who would kind of push back on something that wasn't super science related. Like what is the science itself that by using the science, we do this thing or suggest this policy proposal or something that advances justice. Does that feel relevant for like maybe another, another unit? If you, I think you're stirring up a lot of great ideas for side projects, segways, things that can support what they're learning. 00:43:27 And honestly, I think just this conversation in general has really made me realize like you, you could fit these in as if you were intentional uh in a way that you can still meet all the science requirements. But also take it a step further while we're trying to better humans. I do think though, talking to you, you're always inspiring to bring up ideas that I'm incredibly ignorant on. You know, as it's my privilege that I don't have to worry about a lot of things due to where I was born and who I was born to. So I'm probably pretty unaware of a lot of inequities that if I was more aware I could bring up and fit in. So that's definitely something from this conversation that I've taken away. Like maybe I need to broaden my horizons too on to even be aware of these inequities so that I could highlight them in a way so there can be social change. That's super, that's super insightful to be able to share because I, I think that for so many people like that probably is a really good kind of next step. 00:44:29 If I, I'm just thinking about, for example, math teachers who are like, I don't know how math relates to social justice. Like that's it, it might take a lot of kind of like research and kind of connecting even just having a conversation, right? With people who are in that space um of justice and environmental justice or something and, and just being like, OK, brainstorm here are the things just kind of like what we did today, right? Um And, and rooting it more in the science than our, than our metaphor maybe. But I think that would really inspire and spark some ideas where that expert in the content area is like, oh, I just needed that spark of knowing the thing that is happening in the world to then bring it in and then design all around this thing. And it wasn't that big of a leap. I just needed to know the thing, right? Like, like you're like, and I think that could be just a really quick conversation sometimes um with people who, who are willing to have the conversation and, and are in those spaces. So I, I think that's so valuable for listeners to hear. Thank you. I appreciate it. I think, you know, you probably, you may even take it for granted that you know, so much about social justice. 00:45:31 It's common knowledge to you, right? But then when you bring up these very matter of fact, I think, oh, sheesh. Yeah, the pollution thing. I never even thought about that. Right? I would, I, I didn't even think about it to know or to even look into it. So, yeah, I mean, that is a huge eye opener for me something, I definitely should do more work in. And like you said, I think now that we've gone through this and see like, oh, we could Sprinkle it in, build it in to then eventually lead it to some type of action or at the end of metaphor even, or to put the science behind solving a problem. If I know that problem, I, I think it would be even more natural for me to fit in. So maybe I need to start searching out more of the problems so that I can connect them to my actual science. I love that idea, I think and, and just, I want to say overall, thank you for engaging in this because we went like way in a non scientific direction. It was super fun. It was, oh my gosh, it was such a fun conversation. And I think there's obviously so much more that like we could kind of think through and, and for the sake of the podcast, we will wind down here. 00:46:39 But I, I really just enjoy so much of kind of those moments of, I'm not sure if this is making sense and, you know, are we going do we gotta read it back again? And like, you know, I think so much of that is messy and so much of the curriculum design process is messy. And unfortunately, for many of us, for me, at least I was not taught how to do this. Well, in school like grad school did not prepare me for. Right. So I think it's helpful to just kind of, you know, pull back the curtain and see like what does this process look like for people? And I'm just so willing or so so grateful for your willingness to be able to, to do that. So I super grateful for you in the in light of all the gratitude conversation that we've been having today. And I think people are going to want to just follow not only how does this unit go in your class, but follow all the things you do and you do so many great things. Do you mind just sharing for folks like a little bit of how they could follow the work that you do even beyond the classroom? Oh, yeah, absolutely. Thank you for the opportunity. And uh likewise, I think you just modeling this with me is something I've never done before. 00:47:40 And I think this would be a great model for me with my PLC group to just tackle, we've got this unit coming up. How can we put something more meaningful into it or? You know? So thank you for that. I think this is a really cool first step for me as far is uh connecting with me in that I'm obnoxiously all over social media, but uh my name is Phil Janaki. So I'm on linkedin and then also um my teacher slash human social media account. Is just at Phil Janis. I'm on Witter and Instagram. And then I'm also a, a professional public speaker with my best bud. We're called M and P presentations and we go across the nation just helping people develop further their self confidence to open up new doors of opportunity for them. So we're at MP presentations on all social media handles as well. But I would love to connect. I love driven people that are positive looking to grow. That's what I feed off of, which is why Lindsay uh the first time you ever did a professional development for my school, I was like, I need to connect with this human. 00:48:41 This is a person that I want to uh be around to learn from. So, thank you. Thank you and listeners. Oh my gosh, reach out to Phil for speaking engagements because I don't know if you could tell on this episode and I know you're just listening and not watching, but there is so much energy that he exudes and it is just like contagious. I am feeling it. Would that be fair to say that I'm giving exothermic energy off them. Yes, you just lost three podcast followers because of that joke. Sorry. Oh, I love it. Well, Phil, thank you so so much for being on the show today and listeners. Absolutely. Please reach out to Phil. Thank you. It's been a pleasure. If you're leaving this episode wanting more, you're going to love my life coaching intensive curriculum, boot camp. I help one department or grade team create feminist anti racist curricula that challenges affirms and inspires all students. We, we current events into course content and amplify student voices which skyrockets engagement and academic achievement. It energizes educators feeling burns out and it's just two days. Plus you can reuse the same process any time you create a new unit which saves time and money. 00:49:52 If you can't wait to bring this to your staff, I'm inviting you to sign up for a 20 minute call with me. Grab a spot on my calendar at www dot Lindsay beth lions dot com slash contact. Until next time. Leaders continue to think. Big act brave and be your best self. This podcast is a proud member of the Teach Better Podcast Network, better today, better tomorrow and the podcast to get you there, explore more podcasts at teach better dot com slash podcasts and we'll see you at the next episode.
If you enjoyed this episode, check out my YouTube channel where I explain turbulence theory and the student voice pyramid:
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AuthorLindsay Lyons (she/her) is an educational justice coach who works with teachers and school leaders to inspire educational innovation for racial and gender justice, design curricula grounded in student voice, and build capacity for shared leadership. Lindsay taught in NYC public schools, holds a PhD in Leadership and Change, and is the founder of the educational blog and podcast, Time for Teachership. Archives
March 2025
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