Brothers Who Teach

For our season finale, we’ve got Mom on the pod! Lydia Brenneman was a school psychologist in St. Marys, Ohio for 19 years. She talks to us first about the (8!) different colleges she went to and how she shifted from an interest in medicine to psychology (2:20). Then she shares about how, after serving for two years in Palestine, she began her work as a school psychologist: what it was like, how it changed over her career, and how it compares to private school (8:32). We also talk about the ways counseling and school psychology overlap and how teachers should handle students with learning differences, before getting to mom’s career move to go to seminary and eventually become a chaplain (16:35). Mom tells us not a funny story but one of the many jokes she would use for comic relief in the hospital, and then Jameel has one last crack at the trivia question (25:00).

For Mother's Day, we got to talk to two sisters who are also mothers who also taught with Joseph. The Michalski Sisters (Bethany Tribbett and Deborah Rife) share their experiences as teachers and mothers: how they got started (2:50), what it was like teaching while pregnant (15:00), their decisions not to return to full-time teaching (23:15), and whether or not they might return (31:35). Then Deborah and Bethany share stories about a funny dress-up day and an inappropriate comment (35:55) before Joe tries to answer a Geography question.

The students are back! This time, Joseph brought on two students from his Algebra II class: Trix Franks and Xavier Rivera. We ask them all about life as a student: what time of the year is most busy for them (4:00), how they stay organized (8:45), how they spend their time at home (14:00), college plans (18:45), what they see students struggling with (21:35), and more. Then Xavier and Trix both share funny stories related to their involvement in the school play (39:10), and Joe tries to answer an astronomy trivia question. Trix and Xavier are both outstanding students, and we feel grateful to have had them on the show!

We aren't going to give too many details about this episode, because it's a pop quiz episode! Meaning Jameel and Joseph have come up with questions for each other, but neither knows what the other is going to ask. So we aren't going to tell you, either. You'll just have to listen to find out... Don't worry; we will still have a funny story and trivia at the end (30:50).

Our guest this week is Dan Hawthorne, history teacher at Rensselaer High School. Dan was a mentor to Joseph during his first year of teaching, and we brought him on the show to talk to us about engaging with young teachers. After telling us about how he got to Rensselaer, Dan talks about the high rate of turnover at his school and how it can be combated at schools in general (6:00). Along that line, we talk about what responsibilities veteran teachers have in regard to helping their younger counterparts (17:09). Finally, Dan also tells us about his own mentor (24:45), how he keeps up with new trends, asks us a BBQ question(!) and then gives us a funny story about dealing with students who talk too much during discussions (35:57). We finish as always with trivia, in this case Joseph trying to answer a question about Greek mythology.

We might not want our bosses to listen to this one. This episode is all about the benjamins. We begin with the big question: are teachers underpaid? (2:40) Obviously, every teaching situation is different, but we get into the general areas where teachers are well-compensated (hint: summer) and areas where they are under-compensated (14:54). We don't get too far into the weeds, but Joseph does some math work to give us some dollar-per-hour estimates (17:30) and we discuss the complications of how to pay coaches who teach vs. coaches from outside the school (20:30). Then we shift to talking about side hustles: what jobs we've done or considered for a little extra cash to supplement that hefty (?) teacher's salary (26:06). Joe tells a story where he unknowingly played reverse matchmaker, and Jameel tries to answer an art trivia question.

In this episode, we talk about the dreaded interview process. We begin by looking back at our own interview experiences and if we would change anything if we could go back (2:50). Then we look forward to talk about what kinds of things teachers should think about when considering a school (11:15). After that, we get into the interview itself: what to do and what not to do, and why teaching demonstrations are vital (19:10). Finally, Jameel vents about being misled by his tennis players this week, and Joseph once again tries to answer a trivia question correctly (28:34).

Our second installment of Career Day features Jameel’s barber who is also named Joe: Joseph Rollice and his wife Ashley run Clipper & Comb, quite possibly the best barbershop in Western North Carolina. Joe the Barber talks to Jameel about his high school experience and barber school (7:40), starting his own business with Ashley (28:00), and his curiosity about teaching (33:25). Joe’s funny story is about a mistake he made in his early days as a barber (43:00), then Brother Joe comes on to share his thoughts on the interview and to offer Jameel a trivia question (45:55). Follow Joe the Barber on Instagram @clipperandcombbarbershop

Brothers Who Teach does not shy away from the hot topics! Some people have said the new AP African-American Studies course is indoctrinating. For this episode, we brought in someone who has actually read through the curriculum: James Uhler is assistant academic dean at Christ School, has worked with The College Board in helping design the curriculum for AP US History, and has taught his own semester-long African-American History course. We talk with him about Ron DeSantis' claims about AP African-American Studies: first, if Black history should be a standalone subject (4:40), then if the specific parts of the course that DeSantis criticized are problematic or not (9:18), and what if anything in the latest curriculum update could be used to provoke the culture war (19:45). We then take a step back from this specific course and talk about why courses like this, that focus on one identity or time period, are important (29:30), and why there is paranoia around school curricula in general (35:00). Then James tells us a story about students in his African-American History class learning a lesson from the real world (48:45), and Joe tries to change his luck and actually answer a trivia question correctly for a change (52:20).

Our previous State of the Arts episodes revolved around our former band teachers. This time, we're interviewing a former classmate: Marissa Lewis! Marissa teaches choir at Wapakoneta City Schools in Ohio. She begins by telling us how she got to her current position. Then we ask how her experience as a teacher has been similar and different to when we were students (9:05). Hint: Covid made things a lot different. Marissa also shares about a time when her job and a lot of the arts programs in St. Marys were under threat (16:00), before giving us her version of the ideal music program (18:35). We wrap up with a funny story where Marissa wanted to impart wisdom, but instead put her foot in her mouth (26:15), and Joe asks Jameel a ChatGPT-generated trivia question.

We are giving into the bitterness from all the LaCroix and taking this episode to vent. We get into the pet peeves we have as teachers, and the frustrations go beyond just the students. We go back and forth with our various peeves and weigh in about if the peeve is irrational or if we are totally in agreement. Joesph has a funny story about chess in math class, and then tries to answer a trivia question generated by ChatGPT.

Teachers usually have some, hopefully not many, students who struggle. They might struggle for all kinds of reasons: fatigue, apathy, learning issues. What do we do in these situations? How much time do we spend trying to help? We attempt to answer these questions, first for students who fall asleep (6:45), then for students who don't seem to care (17:00), and finally for students who do care but are not succeeding (24:15). Then Jameel tells a funny story from Arabic class and tries to answer the trivia question to give Joseph yet another LaCroix.

In this episode, Jameel gets to catch up on what he missed last week, and to pay homage to Mr. Newlove and Mrs. Anderson (who taught him the trombone in the first place). We exchange stories from our time in high school, including high points and regrets, and talk about how the schools we've been to since don't compare, band-wise. Joe provides a funny story from the week and tries to finally get the trivia question right.

This episode features some of our most anticipated guests: Mr. Dane Newlove and Mrs. Rebecca Anderson, our band directors in high school! These two provided over 60 years of music teaching not just at St. Marys Memorial High School, but for grades 5-8 as well. Jameel was not able to join for the interview, so Joseph handled this one on his own, beginning with their background in music and how they arrived as band directors, how they handled their huge teaching loads (6:55), what allowed SMABB, St. Marys All-Brass Marching Band, to thrive where other marching bands don't (10:25), and the non-marching band aspects of their teaching (16:50). We also ask how they see and are involved in music programs today (27:45). The Great Dane and Mrs. A also provide some funny stories from their legendary tenures (36:00). We will have a follow-up episode with Jameel so he can weigh in on this interview, as well as go over the trivia question for this week.

We brought in reinforcements for our battle with the bots: Jack Lynch, science teacher at Christ School, joins us to continue our conversation about ChatGPT. Jack begins by explaining what exactly sets ChatGPT apart from other iterations of artificial intelligence (6:20), and then talks about why he is optimistic about it, both in the classroom and for society in general (11:55). It turns out some of our fears regarding ChatGPT *might* have been overstated. As Jack explains, this technology may eliminate paperwork and drudgery and let people spend more time doing meaningful, enjoyable work (26:00). Jack wraps up our conversation by re-stating a point  we hit on in the first episode: this is forcing teachers to re-evaluate how they evaluate their students (31:30). We get a funny story from Jack getting called out by a student using ChatGPT, and then Joe gives Jameel an animal trivia question.

You may be thinking "What is ChatGPT?" That's because 1) it's new, and 2) no one totally knows yet! But in a nutshell, it is a website where you can type in any kind of question, and it will answer with remarkable accuracy and eloquence for a machine. We spend this episode test driving it, with questions and requests like: - conjugate "to go" in Arabic (5:50) - what are the answers to exercise 1 in my Arabic textbook? (9:00) - what is the equation of the tangent line for a circle with a center at (3,5) and a radius of 5 at the point (7,8)? (10:30) - write a poem in Arabic (14:00) - explain ch. 1 of Pride and Prejudice (15:36) - write three paragraphs about the competition between Thomas Edison and Nikola Tesla (18:25) - write me a love song (30:00) - give me an idea for a startup company (31:45) And along the way we discuss some of the implications of all this. ChatGPT provided jokes for our funny moments section, and Joe attempts to answer a Star Trek trivia question. Try ChatGPT out for yourself: https://chat.openai.com/auth/login *Sorry for some sections of poor audio. We hope that this was a one-time issue.

It’s our first installment of Career Day! The field is nursing, and our guest is Saji Kuttab, our cousin from California. We talked to Saji about his schooling and how he got interested in science and medicine (7:00), his experience with nursing school and standardized testing (17:30), and how nurses are educated “on the job” (29:00). We also asked what he would do if given the chance to design his own nursing school curriculum (32:30). Then Saji has a funny story from his time as an EMT, and he provides the week’s trivia question, related to nurse demographics (38:00).

On this episode, we get into our strategies when it comes to planning. First, we talk about how far in advance we plan our classes. What happens if you get ahead of or behind those plans? (6:03). Then we discuss what our daily plans look like (11:50). Do we plan every minute out, or leave some room for flexibility? How much variety do we include within one class period? (17:45) And how much do we tinker from year to year, as opposed to having a class be a carbon copy of what was done the previous year? We finish by broadening out the topic: how can these lesson-planning strategies work for people outside of education? (27:25) Then, Joseph has a funny story about Slope Dude, and Jameel takes his first shot at the Question of the Day. Slope Dude: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZcSrJPiQvHQ&ab_channel=MathGivesYouPower Planbook lesson planning software: www.planbook.com

We're back with Season Two of Brothers Who Teach! For the first episode of the season, we want to catch you up on what the Brothers have been up to, including: 1) A Brothers Who Teach BBQ Crossover Episode from the summer: https://brennemanbbqtour.wordpress.com/2022/06/26/awards-show-2022/ 2) An article about the podcast in the Christ School Galax Magazine: https://bit.ly/3YbfBz5 3) Our focus for this season, which is to interview anyone with a non-teaching job. We want to talk about how they were trained (or train others) to do what they do. Let us know if you want to be on! We then talk about changes we have experienced from last school year to this one. Some changes are relatively small, like teaching different courses, and some are big, like moving to the East Coast! We start with Jameel's three biggest changes (7:00), and then Joe's (18:35), before getting to a funny story (37:00), and ending with the Question of the Day, which will be replacing the Numbers Game (38:25).  

We have just finished the #brennemanbbqtour in Texas, and we wanted to talk about our trip, so we're using our other project, this podcast, for our discussion. We start with an overview of the trip, getting into stuff that didn't show up on the blog and answering some Q&A. Then our Awards Show begins at the 34:00 minute mark. Awards include best brisket, ribs, sausage, pulled pork, sides, and dessert. Then, we each rank our Top 5 Restaurants from the tour. All the results are at brennemanbbq.wordpress.com. Learn 'em good and smoke 'em if you got 'em!