Host = Kristy Duggan
Guest =
Todd Roberts
Russell Swanson
Host - The Teachers College at Emporia State University presents How We Teach This a podcast where we talk with experts and educators. This podcast is for informational purposes only. The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the individuals involved and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of Emporia State University or the Teacher's College Any mention of products, individuals or organizations within this podcast does not constitute an endorsement. Listeners are encouraged to conduct their own research and consult with appropriate professionals before making any decisions based on information provided in this podcast. Welcome. Yeah, we teach this. In this episode, we're going to dove into some ways that the Kansas State Board of Education and Emporia State University are working to eliminate some of the barriers to becoming a teacher. We recognize that there's been a bit of a teacher shortage and there's a concern about this in the field. So I have a couple of experts with us today that are going to talk about this from what things are happening at Emporia State. Our guests are Dr. Russell Swanson, Assistant Professor, and Todd Roberts, an instructor both with the teacher's college and importance to university and both program leads there as well. And then Todd is also the director of the Kansas Future Teacher Academy, and we're hoping to touch base with him on a different episode. We'll talk more about what the Academy is doing at another time. If you would, take a moment to introduce yourself. Tell us a little bit about your journey in education and what is inspired you to work teaching future teachers.
Swanson - Yeah. I guess I can go and get started with this. So I'm a Dr. Russell Swanson. My background is kind of unique in the fact that I graduated from Emporia State University in 2014. I spent about six years in education in the Emporia Public Schools, mostly teaching sixth grade science. While I was at Emporia Middle School, I actually had the opportunity to work with pre-service teachers who are going through the similar program that I went through. So, you know, I graduated from Emporia State going through block one, block two and block three and then found a job and then started hosting some of these PDS interns in my class. And so as I was working with these interns, with BLOCK three students in my class, working with them on teaching strategy, working with them on instructional design, working with them on classroom management. I really was intrigued at how receptive they were to feedback and I actually coached football and coaching was something that is really a passion of mine, something that I really miss from working in the public schools. But I found this kind of alternative pathway to coaching, and it was coaching these new teachers on, you know, using best practices in our classroom. And so that's kind of what inspired me to work with pre-service teachers. And after, you know, working with them for a few years, I just decided I had completed my master's degree, you know, at that point as well. But then I realized that I kind of wanted to teach college students how to teach. And so I started to work at Emporia State as an adjunct instructor teaching intro to teaching courses. And then the opportunity opened up where I could apply for a position. And my background is in elementary science, so my Ph.D. is in elementary science. There was a science method's position that it opened up at Emporia State, and so I applied to that position, and that was for almost five years ago. Now here we are looking back at that. It's been an awesome ride. It's been a lot of fun to teach these pre-service teachers about best practices in science. And now I have this alternate role of leading this program, the MSL led program, and the restricted license program, which are graduate level programs at Emporia State, preparing teachers who are transitioning from other professions into the profession of education. So that's a little bit about me, a little bit about my background and kind of what got me interested in education.
Host - Thank you. And Todd.
Roberts - I also went through Emporia State's program. And so I graduated from Emporia, State with my bachelor's in 2008. And I actually stayed on at Emporia State and I was a graduate assistant for elementary advising. So I was already kind of getting into that role and starting to learn about the recruitment side and the program and a little bit more of the background for some of that type of stuff. So I got my my first Masters degree through every state in elementary subject matter, which is now curriculum and instruction. And then I actually after that I taught sixth grade language arts in Emporia and then down to Derby and taught third grade and open classroom down in Derby And I always kind of wanted to give back. I always liked working with students and Dr. Seymour's, who was our former chair, he was also my science teacher when I was going through the program. And so I hadn't done conversations with him about this, maybe something I'd be interested in doing if a spot ever came up. And what I'm doing now is actually full time advising and recruiting. I joke that I actually get paid for it now compared to when I was a graduate student, because as a graduate student, it helps pay for some of your college credit, but you don't make a whole lot of a living off of it. So now I'm back to Emporia State recruiting and advising and working with our pre-service students down in the Wichita area.
Host - Awesome thank you for taking the time to be a part of our podcast. And we know that there is a teacher shortage and people are concerned about how many are leaving the field. What have you observed from districts that are trying to hire teachers? Do you have any case studies or situations you could share with us? What about trying to hire parents or even other education related positions?
Roberts - Yeah. So I think one thing we know that there's a teacher shortage and really since, you know, education is continuing to evolve and a lot more things are being put on the plate of teachers. And so that stress the secondary trauma trauma on teachers. Teachers are not staying in the field of education as long anymore. And so oftentimes they may come they do education for 2 to 5 years and then they're moving on to their next profession type of thing. Especially in western Kansas, we are seeing a lot of openings with some of the positions. School districts that I recently visited with a couple weeks ago has over 80 long term subs in the old district. Oh yeah. And so school districts are having to start thinking outside the box a little bit of how are they going to fill these things? We'll visit about a little bit of those, some here in a little bit. But, you know, along terms of starting to grow your own, doing some of those type of things are really what this is getting towards and, you know, creating a new opportunity for students and maybe nontraditional students a little bit as well. It's not just the traditional student that school districts are starting to target, but how can we aid other students that nontraditional populations?
Swanson - Personally, I think you can liken the teacher shortage, especially, you know, with educator preparation programs like ours, whether it's Emporia State or any other institution to go to the NFL draft. So recently, actually just this week, we had a career fair on campus and over, I think over 80 districts or something along those lines were represented from a number of different states across the United States. Oh, wow. Well, kind of the transition because of this shortage, it kind of places a demand on these districts that didn't previously exist. Well, you know, whenever I had graduated, I graduated in 2014, students who wanted to go teach in the Blue Valley School District or the mayor's school district or or one of those school districts. That's like in a suburban area, they would be one of 200 applicants to a position. And like historically, that was just what the situation as it was. But what we're seeing now kind of post COVID, I think, and Todd can can chime in here, too, but what we're seeing now is the demand for teachers to fill positions has kind of flipped. So instead of instead of teachers trying to set themselves apart in order to fill positions, what I see is I see districts setting themselves apart, trying to encourage, you know, applicants to positions, which is, you know, it's just a different paradigm. It's not a bad position to be in if you're a teacher. That's cool. Yeah, that'd be one kind of observation that I've seen is just the transition from a very, like high supply market to a low supply market. And the districts are responding in really beneficial ways. And I think we see this, like Todd was mentioning, too, with alternative licensed routes towards teaching. So I'm the director or the program lead for the restricted licensure program here in a border state. And over the past couple of years, we've seen some steady increases of applicants to our program who have to cooperate with with public school districts. They're filling positions. And then the restricted license program prepares them to teach while they're in the field. And the same goes for our MSL ed programs as well. A lot of people who are in other careers are recognizing that there's this this need and demand for teachers, not just from a financial perspective, but also from a passion perspective. And then they're stepping in and just knowing how much teachers mean to society. They're stepping in and changing careers and filling positions in local schools. So that's one thing that I noticed.
Host - I know I returned to the classroom after COVID because I felt very passionate in the need to be in the classroom and to help during that rough time. What are some of the barriers that people are finding that when they realize I, I want to be a teacher? What are the barriers that they're coming across?
Roberts - So I think there's a lot of different barriers depending on what angle we're working with. So I primarily work with our undergraduate students. One big thing is everybody only hears the negative things going into education, just understanding. And I am not here to say that teaching is an easy profession, but it can be a very rewarding profession. And nobody ever talks about that side of things with especially the younger generation. And they don't see that in the news. They don't see any of that. So that's a barrier. Just even get them to consider going into education. Another thing is. College by all means. And the cost of attending it is definitely went up and. People are a little bit more focused on the financial side of it. And so they're looking at how much it's going to cost to go to college. And then also what is the output of the teaching profession. So I think that's another thing that's oftentimes a barrier. Part of the reason that I even am so passionate about working with students. I was a first generation college student, being the first one in my family to go. We also have a lot of times is that students don't know what the next steps are. They don't know how that pathway actually works. Part of my job is to help them break down those barriers, help them understand how to apply for some of these scholarships and how do we walk through some of this? They don't even have to be a full time student. We can go part time for a lot of this program, but they don't understand that process. And so there's a lot of different things that now that I've been through it, I don't necessarily think about it until some of that is brought to my attention. You know, just the negative things happening, I think the financial side of things and just not knowing what it is and how we go about doing some of those different things.
Swanson - I completely agree with Todd. Misery breeds company. And so I think that we we see that on social media. You know, it's not the people who are spreading the kind and positive messages every single day who get the who get the spotlight. It's the people who commiserate with others. And and basically, as they're exiting the profession, just do everything that they can to burn burn the profession down. That would be one thing that I see. I think from a graduate perspective with the programs that I lead, barriers are very similar to what Todd had mentioned. For undergraduate students, cost is always a barrier. And for our population of students in particular, and I know Todd Todd works at some of our distant sites as well, and he sees this as well. But for some of our nontraditional students in our program, all of these students are nontraditional students, graduate students. What we see is there is this balance that has to be struck between already existing careers, already existing jobs, family responsibilities, financial responsibilities, economic downturns, the COVID pandemic. All of these different things or factors that are candidates have to juggle as they're trying to complete coursework that prepares them to be effective teachers. I think what we see is just there is for those people who are wanting to transition in education, there's that passion that helps keep them engaged in the classwork that they're doing in the coursework. But at the end of the day, there are a lot of factors that inhibit their ability to do end up finishing a program And cost is one of those time is another and then just those other responsibilities. So definitely some similarities with that undergraduate population. But there are it's just a different category of student pretty much.
Host - Thank you for sharing. You're talking about a lot of people don't hear about the benefits and how rewarding teaching is. I just moved back to Wichita where I taught for 20 years and I've been here a month and I've actually had three different past students say something to me when they saw me out in public and I wasn't expecting that. It is very rewarding to get that feedback of, Wow, you actually remember me and we had a positive interaction. So I think we do need to spread that more and hopefully this podcast helps us do that. So let's talk first about the traditional path. Are there any new developments for the traditional path for teacher licensure that we should know about at the state level or at Emporia State?
Roberts - Yeah. So there's definitely some exciting things happening in the state of Kansas starting in fall of 2020 for the Board of Regents, which oversees the state schools. So the public schools in the state of Kansas, they actually came out and said, Hey, we need to make this easier for students. That way if they were transferring from one school to another, especially the community college to a four year school, that they are able to have that smooth and seamless transition, which is something that we've always strived to have with our students. And so they've actually created a pathway for elementary education students. And they said, if you take these specific courses at a community college and then you transfer to any of the public four year kabore schools, then we have to guarantee that we're going to be able to get you out in two years. We have to maintain 120 credit hours as a maximum, so 15 hours per semester every semester for four years. It's a really good option for students. So I think that'll be very beneficial to them because every university we have different requirements. What would happen is somebody would start down one track and they're like, Oh, I think this is where I want to go. But then they're like, Well, actually I want to go here. Every university having their own thing, it could set them back a full semester. Now, having these 60 credits that are going to transfer to anywhere, and that's a really positive thing for our students. Hopefully it'll help students be able to complete their degree in a timely manner as well and not have to go back and retake additional courses and stuff like that.
Host - that's great. So connection between the community colleges and the four year state colleges. Cool. Oh, awesome.
Roberts - Also on the elementary education side, we have some really exciting things happening at Emporia State starting on fall of 2024. We will have a completely online program. Our traditional routes of being on campus. A student can certainly still do that. And then we also have two different sites, one in Kansas City, one in the Wichita area. They can do everything face to face, and that's part of that community college pipeline that we already have established.
Host - I understand there's a high demand for special education teachers. Are there any programs dedicated to helping fill that need?
Roberts - We're creating an online program. One of the other things with that online program is we have an elementary education unified program. With students, can they complete the unified program? And part of that is, if they do that, they would do eight weeks in a regular education classroom, eight weeks in the special education classroom. Those eight weeks that they're with the special education teacher, they're writing IEPs or attending IEPs. If a para is gone, they have to figure out how how's that student going to get their minutes met? But the really cool thing is when they graduate, their state license through KSC is going to be K-6. Regular education. K-6 special education. High incidence. They're really nice thing for the school district is if they get a candidate that has a unified, they don't have to complete a waiver through the state of Kansas for that student. The Graduate also does not have to start on their master's degree right away. They are actually able to step in and be the teacher record right away. And they've already had eight weeks in that classroom or in the special education setting. Already. So it's a truly exciting opportunity. We have about 15 students that really just kind of we kind of started talking to students about it over winter break. And we've got 15 students that are going to start partaking in this in the summer because there are some summer classes that they would need to take.
Host - Nice.
Roberts - We have about 15 students are already popping in and ready to go with it.
Host - That's cool. And you said that program is also available fully online. And how does the student teaching portion of that online program work?
Roberts - They are student teaching and they would stay in their local area. So we're not going to force them to come to one of our current pods or our professional development schools on our current model So they would be able to stay in their local area and we would work with them to make sure that they have a quality placement, a mentor teacher that has at least three years of teaching experience recommended by the principal. And so we would work with the intern and also the school district and also the local school, elementary school to make sure that everything is set up for that student to have a successful placement that semester.
Host - Well, what are some new options available for school districts that want to encourage their community to become teachers? I understand there might be some pathways for someone who maybe who's working in a school district as a para and they want to maybe benefit from that increased salary of becoming the teacher instead. What programs are there for the districts that want to do this kind of in their own community?
Roberts - Another exciting opportunity that, say states creating is a pair of pathway. There are traditional program. We spend a full year on the elementary classroom and so we are creating a pathway for parents. They would be able to stay out there in the elementary classroom, could be the general education classroom. It could be special education, it could be intervention grouping. So that's one thing that they could do and they would be able to stay in their local school. Another thing that the state of Kansas is doing is they've created the teacher apprenticeship. This is an opportunity for anybody, really. They have to be accepted by the school district. They have to go through this application process or not. Just everybody gets to do it. But essentially a student or person could be a long term student teacher. And the premise behind it is when they initially start so they don't have any college credits, they would be taking college credits either in the evening time or online. But when they start with the school district, they're going to be doing more role of the para where they're working with individuals and small groups. As they progress towards graduation, they're going to be picking up more assumption of duties type thing, where they're going to be preparing more lesson plans. They're going to be carrying those lesson plans out. They're going to be taking over control of the classroom. It's really a continuum. As they get closer. They're going to be in on more of that role. It's a really exciting opportunity. Some school districts are going to take advantage of it. They don't have to, but some will. They can decide what areas they're going to do the apprenticeship in. So some of them are going to do it in elementary education. Some school districts that I visited with elementary education for them isn't really hard to fill, but that special education piece is. So they would be more interested in doing a unified piece. And so that's another option. There's a few that could do it at the high school level as well, but not as many schools have hopped in and join that piece yet. It's more elementary education that are doing that. It's an exciting opportunity. This is just getting rolled out. There will be kinks to work through, but that would definitely be an option for folks that are interested.
Host - If there's a district who wants to learn more about that opportunity. Where would they go to get some information?
Roberts - that would be all through XD. So Shane Carter and Joe Gillespie would be the two contacts that they would be reaching out to. And I know they've set up lots of meetings and they've talked to school districts and they do some of that, but they go out on the road and they are talking to people, they're talking to community college students. They're really trying to get out there and promote this great opportunity for districts.
Host - Russell I know we kind of feel like we've left you out here for a while. We had a lot of questions for Todd. I wanted you to tell me a little bit about What are some of the options for someone who already has a bachelors degree, doesn't necessarily have any teaching background, but wants to change careers to go into teaching.
Swanson - So Todd was mentioning some of those. The previous question was talking about, you know, how do we how do we grow our own, how do we keep people in our communities and establish them in a career in education? Because we know they're quality individuals. We know that they have a passion for teaching. And so you have those undergraduate pathways, but ultimately that doesn't fit everyone. Right now, not everyone wants to go back and give 90 to 120 credit hours of undergraduate work and change careers that way for those people who have a bachelor's degree. Emporia State has since I think 2015 had a program called The Master of Science in Elementary Education, which was designed specifically for career changers in mind. What this program does and I'm the program lead for it now, but what this program does is it allows students who want to change careers to take the classes that are necessary in order to qualify them for licensure and prepare them with the pedagogical skills that they need and the classroom management skills and the content knowledge that they need in order to be a licensed teacher and then to prepare them for the classroom and ultimately send them there. That's another program that you can add on top of those pair of pathways and things like that. There's also, you know, the other pathway that would be for elementary education, but for those people who are interested in a restricted license, students are eligible to pursue that program if they have a background in a particular content area. If a person has a background in mathematics, they have a Bachelor of Arts in mathematics. Traditionally, they wouldn't be qualified to teach a math class because they haven't been through those pedagogical classes. They haven't done that. And so what the state of Kansas has done is created this program called the Restricted License Program, that allows them to take courses from a program like ours while they're teaching in the classroom to be paid as the teacher of record, while they're learning how to teach and then transition into a career in education. Ultimately, you know, we have a pathway for people who are interested in elementary education and we have a pathway for secondary. I would say to you know, ultimately, if someone doesn't have that background content knowledge, there are a myriad of ways that you can get licensed to teach a particular content area, especially in the state of Kansas. I was talking with someone the other day who is interested in teaching middle school science or middle school mathematics. They're interested in those two categories, but they didn't have a background, so they didn't qualify for the restricted license because that is one characteristic of the restricted license that you have to have in order to be able to pursue that program. And so we had a conversation and I said, ultimately, what you can do is you can go through our Masters of Science in Elementary Education Program, pass the licensure for your elementary license, and then tack on an additional Praxis exam. And then you'll be licensed, highly qualified in the state of Kansas to teach a science or a middle school science or a middle school mathematics class. And so ultimately what I'm trying to get it around to is that whatever you're interested in and if you're interested in art education, if you're interested in P.E, there is a pathway for you, whether that's the restricted license or the MSL ed program. What those programs exist to do is to keep people in these high need areas, to prepare them to fill those positions and then have them seamlessly transition into those positions.
Host - So I'm just curious if they are teaching at the same time that they're doing the education to get their degree? I assume you're offering these courses in the evening. You've got some flexibility for their schedule. Seems like these are very busy people.
Swanson - So all of the coursework for both MSL Ed and or the restricted license are completely asynchronous online. So that's one of the benefits, I think. But it's also it's glass half full, glass half empty kind of thing too. Some people really prefer to have in-person conversations. And I think one one thing that sets our institution apart is that even though these are asynchronous online courses, I'm not shuffling 75 students through a cohort trying to teach them everything that they need to know and then having a limited time to interact with students. We have not a massive program, and so the students that I have in my courses and the students that our instructors have in their courses, they have explicit, individualized time for those students. And so we're not unreachable. That's one of the benefits of coming to an institution like Emporia State as opposed to, you know, a larger institution is because we have the time to devote to the students that we have in our classes. That's one of the main benefits. But yes, all of the coursework is asynchronous online. I'll get emails from students 11 p.m., you know, so I'll be sitting in bed preparing to go to sleep and then I'll get, you know, emails from folks at the end of the day, whether I answer the email at 11:00 or whether answer, you know, 7:00 in the morning, they get what they need in order to be successful in the program. So all of them are asynchronous online.
Host - I've heard about the Kansas State Service Scholarship. I wondered if you could tell me about that.
Roberts - So in the state of Kansas, they have identified five hard to fill areas. So elementary education, English language arts. So at the middle school, high school level, mathematics, science and special education, those are all actually hard to fill areas. So we have more openings and people going into those areas. There's a scholarship for anybody that's going into those areas that are going to stay in the state of Kansas. There's a scholarship out there and it is worth a 60 $500 per year to a renewable scholarship so they can get it for two years, essentially. So $13,000 worth of scholarships. And what they are agreeing to do is for each year that they get in, they have to stay in the state of Kansas to teach that subject area that they're going into. So a hard to fill area now in the state of Kansas. We also know that there were some hard to fill areas. And so there's three school districts. So Kansas City, Kansas Public Schools, the Piqua Public Schools and Wichita Public Schools. But then when we look at a state school board map, districts, five, seven and nine are also considered hard to fill. So if you you're willing and interested in teaching in any of those three school districts or in the state school board area, you can also get that scholarship. It's a great way to potentially come out of school debt free. And it doesn't have to be a title one school necessarily. It could be a title one school. But this is truly trying to make sure that we're keeping some of our teachers in the state of Kansas and giving them incentive to stay here.
Host - Good to know about. So is there anything else that you wanted to share that we haven't talked about?
Swanson - Yeah, I'd like to jump in here. I had forgotten to mention this earlier whenever I was answering the question about the master of science in elementary education. And one of the really cool things that the state of Kansas is doing in order to fill some of these high need areas that Todd was talking about. Right. The Kansas State Teachers Service Scholarship is to help fill those high need areas. One way that they're doing, they're working with us and cooperating school districts is through what's called the LERP license. Oh, yeah. Those people who are pursuing a master of science in elementary education and meet certain qualifications given to us by the state, they can actually, after the first semester of them and being in the program, they can actually transition to their own classroom. So previously I talked about the restricted license where students are actually teaching while they're working towards their degree or towards their the coursework that are that's required for the restricted license. And so what the state has done is they've done that same type of program, but for the elementary level as well people who are interested in changing careers, they no longer have to wait two years or wait three years to finish their degree. They can actually finish the first semester as long as it's six credit hours, and then they can transition into a high needs area, a position that there's always been a gap or there's there's been a need in a particular school district. So that's one of the one of the benefits, too. And so at that point, you're getting paid not only for your bachelor's degree, but also for every, you know, all of the coursework that you're completing towards your master's as well. So then you enter the pay scale not necessarily at a base pay scale, but then a, B plus 15 or so on. It's a really cool opportunity. And I just forgot to mention it. So thanks for letting me butt in here.
Host - Oh, no, that's good. So are there any resources to help someone interested in getting more information about these possibilities?
Swanson - Yeah. If people are interested. We have information listed about all these programs on the website. I can share that link as well for the misled program and the restricted license program. Some of the website information with all of these legislative changes that have happened and Board of Education changes that have happened need to be updated. They'll be able to find that information in the links that I give you. Or if they honestly just want to send me an email, I'm happy to answer any inquiries. Part of I think what Todd and I understand this and most people at Emporia State understand this, is that what sets us apart is like you're talking to the people who are teaching the classes, we're doing the program lead stuff, we're doing all of this stuff and we have information for you. And it's not like we're unattainable. We're not in some office, you know, off campus or some office, big office in the middle of campus. But we're actually we're talking with people. I'm explaining the differences to the in the programs because every single person's like needs is different. And so I really take that like that understanding of the programs and understanding of people's situations in order to give them information that they need. So
Roberts - yeah, I would say definitely one of the big things that makes Emporia say different is they get that one on one advising piece. And so I only work with undergraduate students, but if I hear somebody that's interested in a master's program, there are certain people that are working with those. And so we all work together making sure that we are staying in contact. And of course we want them all to go through Emporia State. But also our job is to help out the state of Kansas. They have to find the right fit. And so if we're not the right fit, they need to find that for them. There's other programs out there that are doing things differently. Maybe how we have a set up, maybe they can, you know, do something face to face. So there is an online option. Or if they're wanting to do something face to face, but they're not in the Emporia or one of our distant sites, then we can certainly aid them to get somewhere that they can go be successful. So
Host - I can appreciate that. Thanks. So what are your hopes for the future for education?
Roberts - I would say one of my things is kind of how I started is turning around the narrative of what education is and truly being open and honest with prospective students and saying education's not always going to be the easiest. But how can we all work together? That means all the institutions as well. But how can we all work together? Because I have two girls. All my daughter's teachers are not Emporia State graduates. And so I need everybody pulling in the same way. The same thing with Russell. He has a few kiddos, and so they're not all going to be important. Eight graduates. So how can we homebuyer the future teachers and how can we just knowing that they're going to have a major impact on all of their students? Really, that's what I want, is being able to see that helping students out, encouraging them no matter where they're from, because teachers make a difference. And that's really what it comes down to. And how can I help them understand that and inspire them to be teachers?
Host - That's awesome.
Roberts - I think if I'm going to add to that as well, I think that at least what I have noticed post COVID pandemic is that as we've seen kind of baby boomer retirement as well as a lot of people my age, you know, millennials and Gen Xers leaving the profession, I think that we've seen just how impactful teachers have been, and that impact wasn't felt until the absences started to happen. And it's unfortunate that it's that way. But I think that, you know, the glass half full or half empty kind of thing, like it's helpful because school districts are now realizing that their most important asset is the person who's teaching the class. And I think that what's happened over the last two or three or four years, they started to put their money where their mouth is, in a sense. Not not to say that, you know, teachers get into it for the money, but if the money wasn't there, we wouldn't be doing the job. And so people feel valued when they're paid a proper salary. And I think we're starting to see those incremental, you know, steps toward people valuing the profession the way that they ought to. And that's, unfortunately, because we've had so many people leave the profession. But I think glass half full side of things, it's given an opportunity to people who maybe are, you know, interested in changing careers to transition to a career that is extremely satisfying, that has a lot of benefits. You know, teaching has a lot of benefits that get overlooked oftentimes. Do we spend money on school supplies? Absolutely. Do we spend Sunday afternoons grading? Absolutely. But we also have a lot of benefits as teachers. And I think that those things are reasons to transition into education. And then on top of it is the fact that they're starting to value the profession more by showing the dollar signs like they should. So I think we see that in the Wichita area. We see that in the Kansas City area, even in our area. And so I think that in the coming years, we're only going to see that increase, which is is helpful.
Host - That's exciting and very helpful. Gives me hope for the future. Thank you so much for being with us for the podcast
Swanson - Thank you.
Roberts - Thanks, Kristy Thanks for all your work.
Host - We hope you enjoyed this episode. Be sure to like and subscribe. This podcast is sponsored by the Teachers College at Emporia State University. Featuring talks with experts and educators, we released new episodes every other Wednesday. Our guests provide more information on our website. www.emporia.edu/hwtt follow us and share on x with @hwtt_ESU Facebook and Instagram. Search for how we teach this. If you would like to be a guest on our show or want to provide feedback, please send us an email at hwtt@emporia.edu I'm Kristy Duggan. Your host and executive producer. You've been listening to how we teach this. Thank you.