Host = Kristy Duggan
Guest = Kristi Becker Yulich
Host - The Teachers College at Emporia State University presents how we teach this. Welcome to how we teach this. Today's guest, Kristi Becker, is joining us to discuss authentic learning and community involvement. Thank you for being here. Would you please introduce yourself and explain a little bit of your background how you got into teaching what you teach?
Becker Yulich - Yeah. My name is Kristi Becker Yulich. And I teach fourth grade at Logan Elementary, which is in Topeka, Kansas. I am married and I have a one year old son and my husband actually is a fifth grade teacher at a different district. And this is my 10th year teaching same classroom, same school, same grade. I teach in a low socio economic environment with higher needs and poverty. A little bit about my background is I grew up with divorced parents, mostly with my mom, and I really struggled in school. I had lots of amazing educators who helped me through challenges as I went through my own education. And then I graduated from Shawnee High School and then went on to Emporia State University for my undergraduate and my master's degree.
Host - Awesome Well welcome and thank you for being here. I heard that you had received the Oscars of the teachers. What is the Milken Award? How did you find out?
Becker Yulich - The day of the award, the entire school went into the gym for an assembly. We knew that we were getting an award, but we didn't know what it was. And then during the assembly, there were cameras and the Board of Education, lots of important people there. They revealed that it was for the Milken Educator Award. The Milken Educator Award is also considered the Oscars of teaching in a prestigious award. No one knows how they're chosen for it. It's very confidential. It was created by the Milken family in 1987. And so they go around and surprise educators with the $25,000 money prize. But also you get to go to a two day conference in L.A. and you get connected with other Milken educators that have been chosen anonymously for this secret award that we got.
Host - That is so exciting. So tell us a little bit about what your typical day looks like in your classroom.
Becker Yulich - In my classroom. I think it is so important to make those connections and build positive relationships with the student. I will write each student a note every month. Sometimes they'll feel shamrocks or hearts or different pieces of paper that they can get excited about. I try to go to their sporting events or their plays or different things that they're involved in outside of the school. I support them in and out of the classroom. I think it's important to teach them life skills, to show that empathy, to help them handle challenges, to teach them about growth mindset and how to handle strong emotions. In our classroom, we start every day with a class meeting and we teach those skills along with having deep conversation. And we work together. We're a class family. We create a strong bond. Behaviors happen. It's it's expected. It's going to happen in any classroom. So with my students, I expect for them to make mistakes. And I tell them that just like I show them that I make mistakes. So when a behavior rise, I have conversations with the students and we plan together how we can fix whatever it is that might be the problem. Many times, just having those conversations with the kids, I learn about their lives or I learn why they might be struggling and helping them to ask for help if they need it Helping them to work with me and figure out a plan so that their behavior doesn't cause trouble with their learning or lead to them not being successful. So many times. I always remind myself that those tough behaviors are just the kids asking for help and kids asking for love, even if it seems like they're acting in the most loving way. It's probably because you're there safe place and having that strong bond where they feel comfortable to talk with me is so important. I think it's important to just be real with students and hear them out. Sometimes just being someone they can talk to and someone that listening to them makes all the difference. And it's also what I hope for in being an adult. I'm having a rough day and I need to talk it out and to work with someone. I just hope somebody is there to listen. So I expect the same thing with my student. I will be there to listen for them. And if I expect them to fix their mistake, that's the same for me. And I'm not too big to ever say I'm sorry or to just show them empathy or things like that. I always follow through with what I say, and I just want my students to know that I'm here to listen, their being heard, their love, and they're included in our class, family, building strong relationships and making a family environment. A place of understanding and acceptance is key to authentic learning.
Host - So what are some examples of how you incorporate authentic learning in your classroom?
Becker Yulich - Being willing to step out of your comfort zone is probably a big part of authentic learning, and I challenge my students to step out of their comfort zone every day. So I also challenge myself to do that. I am an introvert, so a lot of the things that I'll probably share with you don't sound like what an introvert would probably do. But I dress up as different characters and I act things out, so I step out of my comfort zone all of the time. I dress up as Professor Baker, and Professor Baker teaches science, so I step out and do science experiments. And the kids love when I dress up. I've dressed up as pioneer patty for our Oregon Trail simulation, which that simulation is one that began when we were staying home during COVID. So during COVID, I thought, Well, the way that we're teaching kids is all online. There's not much engagement. So I decided to make a digital simulation where I took videos of myself dressed as pioneer Patti and the students would complete assignments, but they completed them as they traveled the trail. So once they got back to school, I then transformed their desks into wagons and they would learn about the different stops on the trail. They would read about the stops, and they would do math with deciding what supplies to buy. There was also a game that they would play where they would roll the dice and different things would happen to them. With one group, they kept getting stuck in a thunderstorm, a home, so they had to sit under their desks and work, which they thought was so much fun. And then there was another year where the electricity went out in the building. That was during our Oregon Trail simulation, which actually turned out perfect. The kids were like, There's no electricity. And I told them, Well, there wasn't electricity on the trail, so we're going to keep going. And then this last year, we actually had a snowstorm and we had to stay home for a couple of days during our Oregon Trail trip. So when we came back, we talked about, well, sometimes you get stuck in a snowstorm. Lots of fun things that have happened on that Oregon Trail simulation.
Host - And we do pictures of the classroom if they want to take a look on see how you did that in decorating their desks. It's very cool.
Becker Yulich - Yes. It was lots of fun. I think it's also important to just have fun with the kids, too. If you're having fun, they're having fun and it's more engaging other ways that I think appropriate authentic learning is my camp out day. The whole classroom turns into forest. We have tents, a fake firepits I put the smell of cedar trees in the air as sound of nature. You can hear the crickets chirping or sounds of the rain and the thunder. The students get to take flashlights. And I have stars on the ceiling with different words. And they take the flashlights and search for nouns or adjectives. They get to go in the canoes, which are plastic tubs and fish for figurative language with little magnetic fishing pole. They work on their writing skills at the picnic tables, and we call it s'more writing, so they get to actually eat s'mores while they're writing. There was one year where I had some students around the campfire and the sounds of rains came over the speaker and they took their blankets and they covered themselves up as they were reading. And I walked over and said, Well, what are you guys doing? And they said, Well, it's raining. We have to take cover. So they were having fun with it, too. I also dressed up for that part as a forest ranger, and I'm Ranger Bekker. One of the fun things is when the kids ask to go to the restroom, I might say, All right, campers, get ready for a long hike. Watch out for deer. Watch out for snakes. So even when they asked to go to the bathroom, I still stay in character and play the part.
Host - Oh, nice.
Becker Yulich - I've also cut government and changed the classroom into a courtroom and I become the judge. And the students actually play different roles. We do a reader's theater and the students will become the jury, the bailiff, the lawyers and everything within the Reader's Theater. And then they get to act it out. One of my favorite parts about this one is that they get summoned for jury duty the day before, and so they don't know what's going to happen the next day at school. So the looks on their faces, they're so confused, they're not quite sure. They'll ask me what's jury duty? But I will tell you that every single student seems to be at school the next day because they're so excited to learn about what's going to happen.
Host - That's awesome. That anticipation of giving kids, yes, the desire to want to be there is huge.
Becker Yulich - Yes, the hook are so much fun to do, just hooking them in enough that they're excited but they don't quite know what's going to happen. Another one of my favorite ones is Crime Scene Day. I created this. It took about a month to create, but I changed the classroom into what looked like to be a crime scene. So we have black lights glowing, spraying caution tape. There's footprints or fingerprint places around the room. And every student becomes a detective. And some of them, they get different names. So some of them might be Dustin Prince or Candice. So and then they each have their own detective agency within their table groups, and they have different cases to solve. And the cases are spread around the room. There's clues about the suspect. There's a newspaper report about the crime. And all of the questions have to do with math and reading. And then there's different crime scenes that they will go over to around the room to find the answer to their math or reading question. And that answer then gives them a clue to help them solve the case. So along with math and reading, they really focus on inferencing and those inferencing skills with this one. It takes a lot of setup, but it is worth it 100%. I actually had a student who really struggled with coming to school, wasn't super engaged, really didn't enjoy it. And when I would do this, he would tell me, I love this, I love these days, I want more of them. So it really does impact students.
Host - That's great. It's always nice to get that positive feedback. Too little information on how you're doing.
Becker Yulich - Oh, yeah, for sure. As well as it helps with the behavior problems or students who are struggling to be motivated. When I do transformation, students are focused. They're engaged, they're excited. Sometimes they can take a break. If there's a student who feels a little overwhelmed, they can always take a break. But difficult behaviors are very rare on the days that I do transformations or authentic learning.
Host - Well, if they're misbehaving, they're more likely to be sent out of the classroom. And they wouldn't want that, would they?
Becker Yulich - Right. Just today, I actually did a early settlers simulation. The students were broken up into different colony, and they had to find a place in the rooms and set up their quality. Some students realized that they set up their colonies in good places like around a pond. And then other students realized they set up their colonies in maybe not the best place because it was away from all the food sources, but they're given supplies and then there's cards around the room and they can trade and they can also go searching for food, supplies, tool, things that they need. They have a game board and that's where they store all their supplies. But sometimes challenges happen. So there might be a drought and they lose their water cards. Or maybe they have someone who steals their food, so they end up losing their food card. And then by the end of the day, which is really only 5 minutes, they have to have all their cards in order for their colonies to survive. And so they learned about how difficult life would be coming over and setting up a colony. And they actually learned about the Roanoke colony that we still today are not sure what happened to them. So the students love this. And today when I did that with them, they kept asking, Can we do it again? So we're going to be doing it again on Friday.
Host - Awesome. So tell me a little bit about the walls. I understand you had a problem where the students kept touching the walls and wouldn't keep their hands to themselves.
Becker Yulich - Oh, yes. I would say this is probably the best example of authentic teaching. So I had a class that really struggled when we would go to lunch, they would always want to put their hands on the wall. So I kept telling them, Please stop touching the wall like most teachers would. But then one day I decided, You know what? This isn't working. I tell them every day. We ended up swabbing the wall by the lunchroom and testing the bacteria that was on the wall compared to other places around the building, like the toilet. We actually tested it for, I believe, about a week, and the bacteria growth on the lunchroom wall was actually more than the toilet, which is so gross. No doubt that way. But I tell you what, they never touched the wall again. It was just so much easier to have them learn about it and experience it than just trying to tell them, Hey, don't touch the wall.
Host - Awesome. Where did you get these ideas? How did you learn to do this with your students?
Becker Yulich - One of the things that kind of sparked my interest in this was I went to a professional development and I got to see the speaker, Dave Burgeon, and he wrote the book Teach Like a Pirate. Some people probably read this, but one of the quotes he mentions in his book is, Here is the secret. We are not passionate about everything we teach. It's okay. Let the freedom wash over you. Now that the secrets out in the open, let's talk about it. Remembering that it's okay that we don't always enjoy what we're teaching. Maybe the topic for us isn't the easiest to teach, or maybe it's not as fun as we'd like it. If that's the case, then we have to pick out those things and make them more exciting. Sometimes it is going to be boring, but we can make our own excitement from that topic. Another quote from his book that was really inspiring for me was Light Yourself on Fire with passion and don't worry if it's not a controlled burn. Just taking that topic that you're maybe not as interested in and just lighting it on fire, making it more exciting and let it go, let your imagination go, which is so much more fun as a teacher when you can do that.
Host - That's true.
Becker Yulich- It is for some examples. If you teach the middle aged and maybe you find it kind of boring, you could get creative, set it on fire and take it. Make it with your class, get to eat with your class and talk about the Middle Ages or transform your room and role. Play what it might be to be a queen or a knight or different roles in the Middle Ages. And as a teacher, I could dress up. Or you could dress up as a knight or a queen. Yes, it's uncomfortable at first. But remember, that's how your kids feel. It's okay if you feel that sometimes, too. If you're reading about the Titanic or working on point of view, you can have the students research about a person on the Titanic and then take that a whole nother level. Give them a boarding pass. Tell them the classroom is now the Titanic and have them walk around interviewing other passengers on the Titanic and have them talk about what it was like for them when they were on the Titanic, which is connecting with point of view. They're speaking and listening to each other and they're also experiencing it. So it makes them feel like they're more engaged in the learning. And for the teacher, it's way more fun to do that than to just sit and have them read the book or you discuss the topic at a table with a student.
Host - Definitely. How have you found successful ways to get the community involved?
Becker Yulich - I started the stem fair in my building, with the stem fair. I reached out to a bunch of different community members like the Topeka Zoo, Evergy city of Topeka. We had University Animal Hospital, and I know that that's only a few of them, but they would come and present as a stem there and they showed how real careers in our community use STEM. The students also would present at the STEM fair and they would show their projects that they were interested in. Really, it's pretty easy to involve community members. The main thing is just email them or call them. Just taking that step to ask them for them to come in or to speak to a class. We actually when we did our government unit, we contacted a senator and they came in and spoke to our class. Reaching out to them is probably the easiest place to start with getting your community involved and also connecting with family. A lot of your family can actually help do things, help come in the classroom and present things they have knowledge too. Having families in the community involved in the classroom is so important and it just build that connection with them. There's more than just what's happening in our classroom. It also is connecting it to the real world and careers that they might have someday.
Host - That's great. I love that you're able to do that and make those connections. So I understand you are a National Geographic certified educator. What's the best part of doing that?
Becker Yulich - Yes. National Geographic certification was probably one of my favorite professional development that I have done. I got it in 2020 right before COVID hit, but I ended up spending about 30 hours completing that certification. It was totally worth it. National Geographic has tons of resources, courses, all kinds of things for educators. The certification actually has three phases. So phase one, you learn about their framework, their resources, their content, and then phase two, you use all of that material to create a lesson plan and then to teach that lesson to your students. And then there's a mentor that can help you and guide you. It's all online, so it shows you questions that you can answer and they will help guide you through. And then at the very end, phase three is the Capstone project, and this is a video that you can create that explains how you use the framework and the resources and how that grows your lesson and your instruction. And I submitted it to National Geographic and then I became nationally graphic certified along with Connected within that community that they have with educators and lots of resources that they gave me as well that I can use with my class. They also have a program that once you complete the National Geographic certification, it gives you the ability to move on and apply for their educator expedition, which they actually have expeditions where you travel to different parts of the world.
Host - Wow.
Becker Yulich - Yes. It's so exciting. You do field based research and professional development, so you and a group of other educators go on the expedition and you actually research for National Geographic while you are learning along with them. There's places that they take you to would be like the Galapagos Islands, Alaska, Costa Rica and Greenland. I have not actually done that part of the fellowship program, but it is an amazing opportunity. And I also know that there is a lady at the Topeka Zoo who did go on one of those expeditions, and she said it was just phenomenal.
Host - I can only imagine. And that sounds like really cool.
Becker Yulich - Yes.
Host - I love the idea of getting to learn about the resources that National Geographic has. That's awesome. We're about out of time. Do you have any other advice you'd like to share with the teachers?
Becker Yulich - I know that especially with COVID and coming out of it, it's been hard for a lot of educators and a lot of teachers are feeling stuck or drains. And so I just have the advice to find a way to light your fire again, to ignite that passion that you have for what you do in the classroom. There's always going to be a load on our plate. There's always going to be things out of our control. But we can control the things that are happening in our classroom and the passion we have for this amazing career. If you find something that you just maybe find boring, light your fire again, ignite your passion, do something exciting with it, and engage your kids because that's something you can control. And I think once you do that, your kids do that. You won't feel things or a step in the place that you're at.
Host - Well sounds like great advice. I know I'm inspired to take a chance and try something new. So we will put, because you gave us a couple of videos showing your classroom and how you have it set up for some of these things we've talked about and some photos of that as well. So our listeners can check out our website. W w w dot emporia dot edu backslash. H w t t. Help you look at our resources in and trusting Kristi will come back for another interview after you go to the Milken Award Conference and tell us what you learned that
Becker Yulich - I would love to and thank you so much for having me today.
Host - Awesome. Thank you so much. And you have a good night. We hope that you've enjoyed this episode and will subscribe on your favorite podcast platform. This podcast has been brought to you by the Teachers College at Emporia State University, featuring talks with experts and educators, addressing topics that can help you as an educator, a parent and a person. We release new episodes every other Wednesday. You can get more information provided by our guests on our website. W. W. W dot emporia dot. Edu slash. H. W. T. T. We would appreciate it if you could help us spread the word about the podcast. You can follow us and share on Twitter with an h w t t underscore esu. You can find us on Facebook. Just search for how we teach this. If you would like to be a guest on our show or are willing to give us some feedback, please send us an email at h w t t at Emporia dot edu. I'm Kristy Duggan the executive producer. You've been listening to how we teach this. Thank you.