I am super excited to be here today as
an educator because as an educator I
often get asked the question what’s the
best way to fix education and my answer
is simple education isn’t broken it’s
simply evolving no longer can the top
three goals of education be reading
writing and arithmetic now I truly
believe that they need to be
relationships relationships
relationships and once we’ve established
those everything else will follow now if
you are not in education don’t zone out
on me yet because this talk isn’t just
about education it’s also about
something that you know and love
Starbucks right so Starbucks is known
for coffee and schools are known for
content but I think schools need to be a
little bit more like Starbucks the
senior executives of Starbucks make a
bold statement and they say it’s not
about the coffee they say that they are
a people company who just so happened to
serve cups of coffee having schools need
to be a people company that just so
happened to serve cups of content to
students every single day I’ve been in
the classroom for over a decade and in
that time I have realized that I don’t
want to work in a school where I teach
lessons but I do want to serve in a
school where I teach life and I think
that happens best when we are building
ridiculously strong relationships with
our students I firmly believe that we
have to understand the why before we
teach
the what so let’s talk about the what
for a second I was actually hired to
teach seventh grade science to hundreds
of middle school kids and I loved that
like I love science I get super geeked
out about things like parts of the cell
and punnett squares like I get amped
about that but it turns out that not all
middle school kids thoroughly enjoy
Gregor Mendel’s pea plants like I just
don’t get it it is fascinating so if I
start with the content first I’m gonna
lose so many kids right out the gate so
instead I don’t want to start with
content I want to create camaraderie I
don’t think that you can teach life
science until I have taught the kids the
science of life so I asked my students
at the very beginning this school year
one very simple but really important
question tell me something about
yourself
that is going to blow my mind I’m
talking like like jaw drops to the floor
that give me the statement and I think
no stinkin way is that true you are
lying to me
that’s the kind of stuff I want to know
about my students so I think that we can
ask students this question or I think we
can remix the question and have them
sing their responses so I use this a
pitch pipe now anybody who has seen
pitch perfect knows the magical
abilities within this tool right here
this to me is a camaraderie tool and so
instead of having students tell me their
mind-blowing facts I want them to sing
it but I firmly believe if we ask
students to do something that is outside
of the box we must first do it ourselves
so I might start the class period with
I was on a game show and I want $1200
rapping live with Wayne Brady
I know I’m not even kidding though I
really that really does happen and the
kids have this same response like you
did not see that coming when you stepped
in saw this chick on here with a blazer
and Chuck Taylors you had no idea that I
had been on a game show
dressed as a scientist with swagger I
might add and once I have told my
students this they are ready to share as
well and I think this works for two
reasons one it is very much outside of
the box too it is ridiculously engaging
and super fun and I really believe that
schools should be a place where kids are
having fun
students should want to sprint into
schools with fearlessness not sprint out
of them with frustration frustration
because they’re bored or frustration
because they’re not engaged or
frustration because of fractured
relationships and this happens all the
time
students have fractured relationships
with either their family or their
friends and so in order to figure out a
way to leave those fractured
relationships behind kids have to
communicate with their teachers but just
like not all students love communicating
with their teachers it turns out that
not all students wants to be super open
but we need that we need students to be
open with us and so one thing that I
have found is once we’ve created the
camaraderie with the pitch-pipe it’s
time to work on communication but if I
ask my students to just talk to me
sometimes those walls go up so instead I
asked them to talk to the magic
eight-ball now some of you in the
audience recognize this as a toy from
when you were a kid but I don’t see this
as a toy I see this is a tool if kids
won’t talk to me maybe they will talk to
the magic 8-ball and so I will ask them
tell me what’s
going on in your head tell me what’s
going on in your heart and the variety
of questions that I get is outstanding
sometimes students will raise their hand
and little say miss gee are we having
the good tater tots in the school
cafeteria today this is a very real life
question for a middle school student so
I will shake the magic 8-ball and it
will say ask again later oh my gosh now
they are on the edge of their seats they
are gonna have to wait until noon time
to find out
but what kids don’t realize is it’s not
about the questions that they ask it’s
about the questions that I ask
afterwards so I might ask the question
in return guys do you really feel like
the star shape of the good tater tots
actually enhances the potato flavor and
their answer is always yes magenta yes
it does sometimes students will raise
their hand and they’ll be like misty I’m
freaking out about the science test is
the science test going to be hard so I
will shake the magic 8-ball and it says
now again it’s about the questions that
I asked so I’ll ask well guys did you
study for the test do you feel like
you’ve made connections to the content
do you feel like I have equipped you for
this you know they they start feeling a
little bit better about it they start
wiping their sweat off their hands and
as a good teacher I want to make sure
that I’m really easing their testing
fears so I will let them know that I
took the test I got a 100% they’re gonna
be fine and every once in a while a
student will raise their hands and they
will say magenta what I need to know is
if my dad is coming home tonight
and in that moment I will set the magic
8-ball down these are the exact types of
questions that I was hoping for and not
because I want my students to be
struggling but this type of question is
proof that kids feel safe and loved and
trusted in my classroom and when they
openly communicate about that that is
when I can teach the content so we’ve
got camaraderie
we’ve got communication let’s talk about
compassion what I’ve realized is that I
love coffee but my favorite cups of
coffee happen when I am sitting around a
table with the people who I love most I
want to have compassionate conversations
with people and it turns out that
students feel the exact same way so I
need to create an opportunity for
students to move from those rows in the
classrooms to circles in the community
so I decided to create an opportunity
just for that that I would take my
entire first our advisory family out to
dinner on a really special field trip
and we would prepare for it for months
and I would teach them basic life skills
like please put your napkin in your lap
and how to calculate a proper tip and
it’s appropriate to a
the waiter or waitress by name and for
the love of God can we please not use
this silverware like it’s a saw as
you’re cutting through a steak these are
things that kids need to know about so
we prepare for an entire month and on
that magical night we all come together
and we do life over cheeseburgers and
chicken fingers in students dress in
their best and for some kids that is a
pair of sweatpants in a hoodie and for
other kids they put on a special shirt
with buttons as they call it and they
throw on a clip-on tie but it doesn’t
matter what they’re wearing what matters
is we are doing this as a family and you
better believe that differences exist at
this table there are students at that
table who are desperate to have a
relationship with a parents and there
are students at that table that have
such intense relationships with their
parents that they wish those adults
would give them the space to be the
amazing unique individuals that they are
there are students at that table who
don’t have two dollars to their name and
there are students at that table who
have so much money but they only want
the memories but like I said none of
that matters on that night we have moved
from rows into circles and it is a
beautiful thing and I could share with
you countless stories of things that
have happened at that table but just a
few weeks ago something really cool
happens interestingly I was out of
Starbucks working on a writing project
and a student from my very first year of
teaching walked through the door and I
got ridiculously excited about it and I
sprinted over to her and I gave her a
hug and she tarde started telling me
about all the things that she was doing
and she’s studying science yes right
check
and then we just chatted a little bit we
caught up and she turned around to leave
and she came back and she said miss gee
is it weird if we take a selfie I said
oh girl it is not weird like I got the
greatest selfie arm ever let’s do this
and then she said do you know my most
favorite thing that I’ve ever done with
a teacher I said no what is it and she
said well you probably you probably
don’t remember I said well tell me it’s
when we ate dinner together she
identified this dinner as the most
important thing that a teacher had ever
done for her and what’s cool is at this
table we start having meaningful life
lessons and then inspire students to
want to teach about life as well I often
have students come to me and say Miss G
can I teach a lesson and I’m like okay
sure that sounds great they’re like well
I’d like to use YouTube and when a
student comes to you and says they’d
like to use YouTube and a lesson you
predict one of two things that they want
to show some silly cat video or they
want to show you some video of dudes
slam dunking basketballs but every once
in a while you’ll get a student who
brings this type of video a student saw
this and it’s about a guy running
through the streets of New York giving
high-fives
here’s a sample clip
[Applause]
and after we watch this I said to the
kids I said hey what do you think the
main message of this is one student
raised their hand and said the people of
New Yorker and terrible moods you have
to laugh at that right another student
raised their hand and said we should
never judge homeless people I thought
that was great as well except I was very
confused I said where’s the homeless
person and they said we’ll miss gee the
guy given high fives is homeless and I
said oh honey he’s not homeless
he’s just hipster and then once didn’t
raised their hand and said miss chenza I
believe in the power and positivity when
we make personal connections right
that’s amazing so with that we decided
to create our own little viral movement
and students created positivity posters
and they made sketches and they drew
pictures and they used their talents to
basically create our own viral movement
where we stood outside of our school and
we held up these posters one morning and
people would drive by and they would
honk and they would wave and sometimes
people would pull over roll down the
window and say this is what school is
about this gave me the positive boost
that I needed to start my day and this
all came from students moving from the
classroom into the community and
building relationships and it was this
reminder that a school is just a
building until the people inside of it
decide that relationships their most
important thing and I think that we can
open up the door of possibility to
rethinking what’s most important in
education or I think we can kick that
now I know this is a little crazy and
it’s an outside-the-box but for me this
is seriously what I do to open my door I
really kick it open and it’s symbolic
because every time I kick that door open
it is proof that I’m building
relationships that are getting a little
bit deeper and a little bit deeper and a
little bit deeper and it’s also symbolic
that we are running this really cool
race together in a school and it’s the
race called life and when you’re running
a race called life in school with
students here’s what it feels like
so that’s what it feels like for me but
you better believe that my students are
learning how to celebrate education as
well this relationship building thing is
not just for me most importantly it’s
for the kids and when we are building
strong relationships with them here’s
what I see from my perspective be sure
to watch the kid in the orange at the
end
[Music]
this is proof that education is not
broken it’s simply evolving and remember
schools need to be more like Starbucks
yes
Starbucks is about coffee and schools
are about content putting the most
important thing in both of them
relationships thank you [Applause]
an educator because as an educator I
often get asked the question what’s the
best way to fix education and my answer
is simple education isn’t broken it’s
simply evolving no longer can the top
three goals of education be reading
writing and arithmetic now I truly
believe that they need to be
relationships relationships
relationships and once we’ve established
those everything else will follow now if
you are not in education don’t zone out
on me yet because this talk isn’t just
about education it’s also about
something that you know and love
Starbucks right so Starbucks is known
for coffee and schools are known for
content but I think schools need to be a
little bit more like Starbucks the
senior executives of Starbucks make a
bold statement and they say it’s not
about the coffee they say that they are
a people company who just so happened to
serve cups of coffee having schools need
to be a people company that just so
happened to serve cups of content to
students every single day I’ve been in
the classroom for over a decade and in
that time I have realized that I don’t
want to work in a school where I teach
lessons but I do want to serve in a
school where I teach life and I think
that happens best when we are building
ridiculously strong relationships with
our students I firmly believe that we
have to understand the why before we
teach
the what so let’s talk about the what
for a second I was actually hired to
teach seventh grade science to hundreds
of middle school kids and I loved that
like I love science I get super geeked
out about things like parts of the cell
and punnett squares like I get amped
about that but it turns out that not all
middle school kids thoroughly enjoy
Gregor Mendel’s pea plants like I just
don’t get it it is fascinating so if I
start with the content first I’m gonna
lose so many kids right out the gate so
instead I don’t want to start with
content I want to create camaraderie I
don’t think that you can teach life
science until I have taught the kids the
science of life so I asked my students
at the very beginning this school year
one very simple but really important
question tell me something about
yourself
that is going to blow my mind I’m
talking like like jaw drops to the floor
that give me the statement and I think
no stinkin way is that true you are
lying to me
that’s the kind of stuff I want to know
about my students so I think that we can
ask students this question or I think we
can remix the question and have them
sing their responses so I use this a
pitch pipe now anybody who has seen
pitch perfect knows the magical
abilities within this tool right here
this to me is a camaraderie tool and so
instead of having students tell me their
mind-blowing facts I want them to sing
it but I firmly believe if we ask
students to do something that is outside
of the box we must first do it ourselves
so I might start the class period with
I was on a game show and I want $1200
rapping live with Wayne Brady
I know I’m not even kidding though I
really that really does happen and the
kids have this same response like you
did not see that coming when you stepped
in saw this chick on here with a blazer
and Chuck Taylors you had no idea that I
had been on a game show
dressed as a scientist with swagger I
might add and once I have told my
students this they are ready to share as
well and I think this works for two
reasons one it is very much outside of
the box too it is ridiculously engaging
and super fun and I really believe that
schools should be a place where kids are
having fun
students should want to sprint into
schools with fearlessness not sprint out
of them with frustration frustration
because they’re bored or frustration
because they’re not engaged or
frustration because of fractured
relationships and this happens all the
time
students have fractured relationships
with either their family or their
friends and so in order to figure out a
way to leave those fractured
relationships behind kids have to
communicate with their teachers but just
like not all students love communicating
with their teachers it turns out that
not all students wants to be super open
but we need that we need students to be
open with us and so one thing that I
have found is once we’ve created the
camaraderie with the pitch-pipe it’s
time to work on communication but if I
ask my students to just talk to me
sometimes those walls go up so instead I
asked them to talk to the magic
eight-ball now some of you in the
audience recognize this as a toy from
when you were a kid but I don’t see this
as a toy I see this is a tool if kids
won’t talk to me maybe they will talk to
the magic 8-ball and so I will ask them
tell me what’s
going on in your head tell me what’s
going on in your heart and the variety
of questions that I get is outstanding
sometimes students will raise their hand
and little say miss gee are we having
the good tater tots in the school
cafeteria today this is a very real life
question for a middle school student so
I will shake the magic 8-ball and it
will say ask again later oh my gosh now
they are on the edge of their seats they
are gonna have to wait until noon time
to find out
but what kids don’t realize is it’s not
about the questions that they ask it’s
about the questions that I ask
afterwards so I might ask the question
in return guys do you really feel like
the star shape of the good tater tots
actually enhances the potato flavor and
their answer is always yes magenta yes
it does sometimes students will raise
their hand and they’ll be like misty I’m
freaking out about the science test is
the science test going to be hard so I
will shake the magic 8-ball and it says
now again it’s about the questions that
I asked so I’ll ask well guys did you
study for the test do you feel like
you’ve made connections to the content
do you feel like I have equipped you for
this you know they they start feeling a
little bit better about it they start
wiping their sweat off their hands and
as a good teacher I want to make sure
that I’m really easing their testing
fears so I will let them know that I
took the test I got a 100% they’re gonna
be fine and every once in a while a
student will raise their hands and they
will say magenta what I need to know is
if my dad is coming home tonight
and in that moment I will set the magic
8-ball down these are the exact types of
questions that I was hoping for and not
because I want my students to be
struggling but this type of question is
proof that kids feel safe and loved and
trusted in my classroom and when they
openly communicate about that that is
when I can teach the content so we’ve
got camaraderie
we’ve got communication let’s talk about
compassion what I’ve realized is that I
love coffee but my favorite cups of
coffee happen when I am sitting around a
table with the people who I love most I
want to have compassionate conversations
with people and it turns out that
students feel the exact same way so I
need to create an opportunity for
students to move from those rows in the
classrooms to circles in the community
so I decided to create an opportunity
just for that that I would take my
entire first our advisory family out to
dinner on a really special field trip
and we would prepare for it for months
and I would teach them basic life skills
like please put your napkin in your lap
and how to calculate a proper tip and
it’s appropriate to a
the waiter or waitress by name and for
the love of God can we please not use
this silverware like it’s a saw as
you’re cutting through a steak these are
things that kids need to know about so
we prepare for an entire month and on
that magical night we all come together
and we do life over cheeseburgers and
chicken fingers in students dress in
their best and for some kids that is a
pair of sweatpants in a hoodie and for
other kids they put on a special shirt
with buttons as they call it and they
throw on a clip-on tie but it doesn’t
matter what they’re wearing what matters
is we are doing this as a family and you
better believe that differences exist at
this table there are students at that
table who are desperate to have a
relationship with a parents and there
are students at that table that have
such intense relationships with their
parents that they wish those adults
would give them the space to be the
amazing unique individuals that they are
there are students at that table who
don’t have two dollars to their name and
there are students at that table who
have so much money but they only want
the memories but like I said none of
that matters on that night we have moved
from rows into circles and it is a
beautiful thing and I could share with
you countless stories of things that
have happened at that table but just a
few weeks ago something really cool
happens interestingly I was out of
Starbucks working on a writing project
and a student from my very first year of
teaching walked through the door and I
got ridiculously excited about it and I
sprinted over to her and I gave her a
hug and she tarde started telling me
about all the things that she was doing
and she’s studying science yes right
check
and then we just chatted a little bit we
caught up and she turned around to leave
and she came back and she said miss gee
is it weird if we take a selfie I said
oh girl it is not weird like I got the
greatest selfie arm ever let’s do this
and then she said do you know my most
favorite thing that I’ve ever done with
a teacher I said no what is it and she
said well you probably you probably
don’t remember I said well tell me it’s
when we ate dinner together she
identified this dinner as the most
important thing that a teacher had ever
done for her and what’s cool is at this
table we start having meaningful life
lessons and then inspire students to
want to teach about life as well I often
have students come to me and say Miss G
can I teach a lesson and I’m like okay
sure that sounds great they’re like well
I’d like to use YouTube and when a
student comes to you and says they’d
like to use YouTube and a lesson you
predict one of two things that they want
to show some silly cat video or they
want to show you some video of dudes
slam dunking basketballs but every once
in a while you’ll get a student who
brings this type of video a student saw
this and it’s about a guy running
through the streets of New York giving
high-fives
here’s a sample clip
[Applause]
and after we watch this I said to the
kids I said hey what do you think the
main message of this is one student
raised their hand and said the people of
New Yorker and terrible moods you have
to laugh at that right another student
raised their hand and said we should
never judge homeless people I thought
that was great as well except I was very
confused I said where’s the homeless
person and they said we’ll miss gee the
guy given high fives is homeless and I
said oh honey he’s not homeless
he’s just hipster and then once didn’t
raised their hand and said miss chenza I
believe in the power and positivity when
we make personal connections right
that’s amazing so with that we decided
to create our own little viral movement
and students created positivity posters
and they made sketches and they drew
pictures and they used their talents to
basically create our own viral movement
where we stood outside of our school and
we held up these posters one morning and
people would drive by and they would
honk and they would wave and sometimes
people would pull over roll down the
window and say this is what school is
about this gave me the positive boost
that I needed to start my day and this
all came from students moving from the
classroom into the community and
building relationships and it was this
reminder that a school is just a
building until the people inside of it
decide that relationships their most
important thing and I think that we can
open up the door of possibility to
rethinking what’s most important in
education or I think we can kick that
now I know this is a little crazy and
it’s an outside-the-box but for me this
is seriously what I do to open my door I
really kick it open and it’s symbolic
because every time I kick that door open
it is proof that I’m building
relationships that are getting a little
bit deeper and a little bit deeper and a
little bit deeper and it’s also symbolic
that we are running this really cool
race together in a school and it’s the
race called life and when you’re running
a race called life in school with
students here’s what it feels like
so that’s what it feels like for me but
you better believe that my students are
learning how to celebrate education as
well this relationship building thing is
not just for me most importantly it’s
for the kids and when we are building
strong relationships with them here’s
what I see from my perspective be sure
to watch the kid in the orange at the
end
[Music]
this is proof that education is not
broken it’s simply evolving and remember
schools need to be more like Starbucks
yes
Starbucks is about coffee and schools
are about content putting the most
important thing in both of them
relationships thank you [Applause]
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