On the road training schools in Trust-Based Observations trainings, we periodically see absolute teaching brilliance during our 20-minute observations. It dawned on us that we have an obligation to share this brilliance with all teachers so they can learn and grow from one another. Each episode is an interview with one of these teachers where we explore their strengths as they share their tips and tricks. Tips and tricks that definitely lead to improved teaching and learning.
Emily Welu
===
[00:00:00] Intro: Welcome to 20 minutes of teaching brilliance on the road with Trust Based Observations. Every week while training school leaders, Craig Randall, the developer of Trust Based Observations, witnesses brilliant teaching during their 20 minute observations. Wanting to share that teaching brilliance with others, we talk shop with those teachers, learning what they do that is so impactful. We hope you enjoy.
[00:00:26] Craig Randall: Hello and welcome to another edition of 20 minutes of teaching brilliance on the road with trust based observations This week I have with me emily Well you I think I got that right. I practiced it a couple of times and butchered it a couple of times, too I have been the last couple of weeks. I was in rural minnesota the most rural diocese in the entire country i'm told and training a bunch of Catholic school principals in nine principals over two weeks at nine different schools in the diocese in Southwest Minnesota.
[00:01:02] Craig Randall: And I was able to spend a couple of days at Holy Redeemer School in Marshall, Minnesota. And so, Emily. I got to watch Emily teach and it was so, so, so much fun for me. Her pacing and her building thinking classrooms and mathematics, which anybody that knows me knows I absolutely love. And just the brilliance of all that was just so, so fun for me.
[00:01:25] Craig Randall: So, Emily, would you please do me a favor and introduce yourself to the audience? Tell us about you, your background, how you ended up here, whatever you want to tell us.
[00:01:36] Emily Welu: right. Sure. Yeah. So I've been working at Holy Redeemer school for seven years. I actually attended that school kindergarten through eighth grade, so it's really fun to come back and work with some of my old teachers. I attended SMSU in Marshall as well. I got my master's degree from SMSU just a few years ago, so I've been,
[00:01:58] Craig Randall: University for those that might not know.
[00:02:00] Emily Welu: yeah.
[00:02:01] Emily Welu: I've been in Marshall this whole time. So I went to Holy, stayed in Marshall for Southwest Minnesota State University, I got two degrees from there, and then now I just work back at Holy. So I've never been able to leave the town, so I've been there for a long time. And my time at Holy, I've taught science math, and STEM, and then currently I'm just teaching math to 5th and 6th grade, along with our religion curriculum.
[00:02:25] Craig Randall: Okay. Okay. So your ballpark, so I, because I learned while I was there that Trey Lance went to school there. Did you, were you in the same era as him roughly?
[00:02:38] Emily Welu: So, him and I would have gone to Holy Redeemer at the same time, but then I graduated high school when he was coming in as a freshman, so we never got to go to high school at the
[00:02:46] Craig Randall: All right. All right.
[00:02:47] Emily Welu: but yeah, he would have been downstairs in the elementary when I was upstairs in the middle school.
[00:02:53] Craig Randall: I love it. I love it. So let's get into it. I think maybe the first thing that that struck me is just the pacing of what goes on in your classroom. I mean, it is boom. And there is a relentlessness to it. High expectations are present. I just, and I think, Look, I mean, there's a million different ways to be successful, but like in that classroom, watching you with that, like the kids just feed off of that in such a powerful way that like they're just moving and thinking and inquiring and doing.
[00:03:25] Craig Randall: So just want to talk to you about that and just whatever you want to share about that. Cause it really stood out to me.
[00:03:31] Emily Welu: Yeah, absolutely. So, I feel like a lot of us Those who are currently teachers for middle schoolers understand that they can only stay focused for so long before you have to move to something. I always relate it to, they go home and they play video games and they constantly have stimulants hitting them and they're not bored.
[00:03:48] Emily Welu: So I feel almost as a teacher, I kind of have to teach in the same manner that I need to give them those stimulants frequently so then they don't go bored with what I'm teaching. So I like to keep things high pace. Keep moving. Don't give them a time to get bored or get down or stop, start thinking about other random things, what they're having for lunch.
[00:04:07] Emily Welu: So, keeping my math class going from one activity to the next really keeps them engaged and focused on what they're learning.
[00:04:15] Craig Randall: So that doesn't just happen by itself though. How do you make that happen?
[00:04:20] Emily Welu: Through a lot of practice, I've definitely grown as a teacher over the last seven years. I would say I definitely didn't commit, come in with that boom. I think it's more like a learned behavior of watching and observing the students and how they react in those moments that it's not boom.
[00:04:36] Emily Welu: And then watching them in those moments where I can keep them going and then just. Seeing the complete difference and the aha moments and the interactivity that they have with me in those times, I can just keep them going from one activity to the next.
[00:04:51] Craig Randall: There's so much in that there's, I mean, I'm hearing like learning from mistakes, right? As we were like, Oh my God, that was a, if you didn't directly say it, but like, Oh, they were not there. How do I get that? So part of that then it is really, it's having a keen eye every moment in the moment to see, are they with me?
[00:05:13] Craig Randall: Not necessarily me, but are they with whatever they're doing or working on learning? I'm hearing that. Am I hearing those two things? And
[00:05:23] Emily Welu: a huge part of that is also having a relationship with the kids. So if I'm able to have a relationship with them, they stick with me and they move from activity to activity with me more fluidly because they trust. And what I'm doing and they trust that I'm going to get them to where they need to go.
[00:05:40] Emily Welu: So I think that's another huge part is I love to have a great relationship with my kids. I go watch their hockey games. I go watch their baseball games, go watch them do dance because I want them to trust me in the classroom when it comes time for them to do that.
[00:05:56] Craig Randall: that's so above and beyond, right? I mean, it's, and it's not a requirement. I mean, everybody can say you have to do that as a teacher, but when they know you care enough about them, that you're attending their events their outside events, which aren't even necessarily school baseball teams or whatever they're at.
[00:06:12] Craig Randall: You're just going to their Little League game that night or Minnesota, maybe we should say hockey. And it just, it means so much to them that they know you're there. You can't even put a price on what that means. And then the div, what I'm hearing you say is that it just pays enormous dividends in the classroom.
[00:06:29] Emily Welu: Oh, absolutely. Yeah, they, when they're at their hockey games, I just went to some over this last weekend. And yes, like you said, Minnesota, that's hockey. And I got to see 15 of my students play in three hours and they're almost all on different teams. So it was really cool to get them back to back and you could see them like looking up in the stands.
[00:06:50] Emily Welu: They were smiling at me. And then like when I get back to school. It's just like almost like you can see that respect just automatically given because they knew that I cared enough to watch them, that they'll care enough to listen to what I have to say.
[00:07:05] Craig Randall: I didn't even think about it like that that it's almost not in a manipulative way, but it becomes a, an appreciative reciprocal respect relationship. So, so definitely I think that's super important and. What you do is so super engaging. And so you've talked about a whole bunch of things that factor into, to the pacing of it.
[00:07:31] Craig Randall: You know, the one thing that I haven't heard you say that I know is a big factor in it is planning.
[00:07:38] Emily Welu: Sure. Yeah, so when I do my planning, I really think about kind of like when you think about reading a book or like creating a story that there has to be like a beginning. Or like something that intrigues them to want to listen to what you have to say. Giving them a reason to care about what you're going to say next.
[00:07:58] Emily Welu: And then kind of, you know, going through the climax of this is what I have to say, and then slowly bringing the lesson back down to a resolution of making sure they understand. what you just taught them. So one thing that I think you and all the people that were in my room noticed was my wall of careers that you could be in the future.
[00:08:18] Emily Welu: And that's one of the things that I've really found encourages the kids to care because I hate the age old question for math. Like when am I ever going to use this? I really hate that question. So in order to divert from that question, I give them a reason on my wall. I said, this is the job that you can have with this.
[00:08:39] Emily Welu: This is the job that you can have with this. And so every lesson that I teach, we'll go on Google and we'll Google up a couple careers that will require that job. And then we'll put it on the wall and talk about it just to give them a why should I listen to you type of thing?
[00:08:55] Craig Randall: So, I want to say two things. I want to come back to story arc, so just remember that in case I forget, okay? But I actually, in my note, I'd forgotten about that piece, and that was one of my absolute favorite pieces. And I'll tell you, as a, somebody that was really strong in the, through the division, like all those things, I was really just naturally super strong, and I really liked math, and then I got to algebra and geometry.
[00:09:17] Craig Randall: Not once did anybody ever tell me why it had value. And I'm very happy with where I'm at in my life now, and that I'm not an engineer or a scientist or a mathematician. But I for sure, my interest level and my grades dropped off and all that, because I saw no value in it. And so I have never, In my life seeing that on the wall before, and now even hearing you more talk about it, that knowing that you very purposefully build in making real world connections, and you know, well, I've only gone through it one time, but on the form, on the learning target, One of the things is making real world connections, right?
[00:09:55] Craig Randall: And we asked that question. How was this to have value outside in the real world? And the kids were able to answer that super clear. Where did you get that idea from? Because I honestly, I've never seen it before. And I love it. Love it. Love it. Love it. So, so much. I'm so glad we're getting to share this with the people listening.
[00:10:11] Emily Welu: I, like I said, it stemmed from kids years ago when I very first started teaching math. They got frustrated because they couldn't get it, what you were saying. they go, Mrs. Walu, why do I even have to learn this? And that drove me crazy. So I went home and I stood on it and I stood on it and I said, how can I make this worth their time?
[00:10:33] Emily Welu: Like, how can I convince them that what I'm saying is worth it? And so honestly, I just said, why don't I just put it on the wall? Why don't I just show them on the wall straight out? That's what it is. So every other year I do it because I have the same kids back to back. And so like this year's sixth graders, they'll be their first time seeing it.
[00:10:52] Emily Welu: And the fifth graders will see it this year. So they won't want to see it next year type of thing. So every other year I make a little wall and I tell them this is why even kids that say like, I'm not ever going to do that job. It doesn't matter. I make sure that I put on the wall. Grocery shopping, buying clothes, going out to eat, you know, like just basic human needs.
[00:11:12] Emily Welu: So they cannot even tell me at that point I still don't need it because I'm proving like your basic human needs are needing to be fulfilled.
[00:11:18] Craig Randall: Measuring things, whatever it is.
[00:11:21] Emily Welu: Yeah. Baking.
[00:11:22] Craig Randall: Yeah, exactly. I think that was one of the answers, actually, that the kids gave during that it's I am so excited for people to be able to email you afterwards and ask about that and learn from your from you on that wall on that because it's, man, I would love that if I saw that in every math classroom across the world.
[00:11:41] Craig Randall: Well, not just for math for all subjects, but I think we also particularly sometimes think math. Okay, so I want to come back to you. That's so, so good. I'm so glad you brought that up because I'd forgotten about the word wall with that, with careers. I'd never heard anybody describe lesson planning as a story arc before.
[00:12:02] Craig Randall: I just find that fascinating. Where in the heck did that come from?
[00:12:09] Emily Welu: So back at SMSU, I had a teacher we did like a little program that's called teaching like a pirate and that had a bunch of ideas in it about like, Yes, exactly. Yep. About how to start your lesson and like engage them and that kind of care piece like I was talking about. So I kind of think about it through a story arc as in I start usually with a question from yesterday.
[00:12:37] Emily Welu: And we go over and just kind of review that a little bit to get us rethinking about what we just talked about yesterday. And then I build up kind of the suspense to that climax of like. This is how we are going to add and subtract fractions with unlike denominators. And then I'm going to bring it back down and have them do partner activities, do large group activities, and then make that final resolution, that five questions that they need to answer, to prove that they have gone through that story arc with me, and grabbed the information that I was trying to give to them.
[00:13:11] Craig Randall: Burgess, they understand it. And I think even when you're talking, I mean, we could look at that as like a hook, accessing prior information, using other more academic terms but it's, even when you say asking a question, I, we weren't there in the beginning of your class, but I know you're not. You could ask a question and not have it be a hook, right?
[00:13:30] Craig Randall: Not have them drop in there. There must be ways that you're doing that. That's like. Because you're keenly aware, it's clear to me, of knowing what a middle schooler's like. But, frankly, a kid. But like, how do I draw them in, right? That's so, so key. Maybe just talk a little bit about that beginning part, if you don't mind.
[00:13:48] Craig Randall: Just because I'd like to learn a little bit more about that.
[00:13:52] Emily Welu: One of my favorite things that I just most recently did we were reviewing for sixth grade, we were reviewing for our test, and I decided to do a football game review with them. So I didn't tell them anything about it, but I, like, had my normal school clothes on, I don't see the sixth graders until after lunch.
[00:14:11] Emily Welu: So they left to lunch. Before they came back up, I threw on my old Adam Thielen jersey. I have some custom Viking converse that I put
[00:14:21] Craig Randall: Viking Receiver, for those that might not be aware, that are in the listening audience. Okay, go ahead.
[00:14:27] Emily Welu: and two school. And I put on like the Fox Network music in the background
[00:14:34] Craig Randall: the football playing?
[00:14:36] Emily Welu: yep, I put on Sunday Night Football. It was just like a whole track of football music up on the TV I had a big football Field on there. I had all the teams on cards spread throughout the room and then I just And so then the kids started to come up and they were like, looking at me funny.
[00:14:54] Emily Welu: And they go, Mrs. Well, you, when did you change? And I like looked down, I'm like, what are you talking about? You know, just acted like I had no idea what they were looking at. And I walked into my room and it was just really cool because they were just instantly immersed in the entire environment, but then the entire time they had no idea.
[00:15:13] Emily Welu: That they were learning math the entire time. They were just trying to beat out the other football team the entire time. They were just flipping the card to see if they got a 20 yard pass. If their quarterback got sacked, that's all that it was about to them was those football plays. But like, to me, every single time.
[00:15:31] Emily Welu: They're answering a math question to, you know, get what they wanted. So it was really cool just to see them completely leave their bodies in terms of, I'm in math class, solving math problems, and enter into the, we're playing a football game, and my teacher's currently wearing a jersey, and there's music in the background.
[00:15:49] Emily Welu: Let's go.
[00:15:51] Craig Randall: So, I mean, that's obviously making real connections in a really fun way. I think this is an interesting tie in to what you're saying. That takes a lot of effort. That takes a lot of planning. It takes a lot of creativity. It takes a lot of you're willing to be vulnerable yourself and throw yourself out there.
[00:16:07] Craig Randall: Like we talked before, you've got a one and a half and a five year old. And I think, Some younger teachers, look, I love the Gen Z. I have two Gen Z's. I'm not sure where you're at in that, maybe you're right on the edge. But and that they appreciate and value and demand work life balance. And like, I grew up as an Xer.
[00:16:34] Craig Randall: That like, it was like workaholic. And I never bought that. But sometimes with newer Gen Z's, and I hate to throw out these stereotypes, but they're they, there's some rea validity to them that they want that so much that they're like, well, my day's over. So I don't have to have all that.
[00:16:56] Craig Randall: But I also think that yet if we don't put in that time, the class will be more of a struggle.
[00:17:04] Emily Welu: sure.
[00:17:05] Craig Randall: and then I'm causing myself more stress, and so you have two little ones. How do you make, like what you just said, took a lot of time and effort to plan that lesson. How do you make all that work?
[00:17:20] Emily Welu: I make it work because it matters to me. Because of kind of what you said, I, the reward that I reap from that is so great that it's definitely worth my time and effort. Just to see the kids walk in and like I said, just enter that world. And then I took them out of math, but then they're still doing math.
[00:17:43] Emily Welu: That's just something I can't ever ask for. You know, like, that's just something that naturally happened because of what I did. And seeing that. Every single time I want that to happen, right? Like that's my goal is for those kids to feel those feelings coming into my room, to want to come to math, to want to learn because then they know that they can insert any word on my career wall.
[00:18:09] Emily Welu: That's what kind of gives me that motivation to stay extra hours after school. If I need to, just so that I can provide those opportunities for those kids that Didn't necessarily enjoy math before and I told him at open house the first day I asked him how do you what do you think about math and you know, some of them?
[00:18:27] Emily Welu: Yes, no, and I said my goal is for you to walk out of my classroom and it's not with an A It's for you to say I enjoy math. I enjoy where I'm at I like being in this room, even if I'm walking out with a B. I liked Math this year. I understood something this year. So I guess that's kind of what makes me motivated to spend my extra time doing those things is just to get those kids to enjoy math.
[00:19:00] Craig Randall: Like that driver is the end goal. And maybe if I'm hearing you a little bit. Knowing that every once in a while I'm going to get those peak moments. When I see that, like that football day where like, when you know the kids are like that and you're like, I did that.
[00:19:16] Emily Welu: Yeah,
[00:19:17] Craig Randall: Right? I mean, because look, we don't get a lot of those in our life and those are, they're special.
[00:19:22] Craig Randall: Like, so why not hold on to them, embrace them and know that you did that. Right?
[00:19:25] Emily Welu: Sure. Yeah, exactly.
[00:19:27] Craig Randall: All right. So. I know a big piece of what you do is the building thinking classrooms and mathematics work, and I've been I've seen it three times now in my years on the road and every time I see it, I just think it's just far and away the best way to do math ever.
[00:19:44] Craig Randall: I just, so I'm not going to talk too much about it. I want you to talk about it and your practice with that because I just want, I always want people to hear it because I want to spread the word on that.
[00:19:56] Emily Welu: So when I went back to get my master's that's kind of the book that I, the Liljedahl, or however you say his last name.
[00:20:04] Craig Randall: I'm the worst at saying it. Whatever it
[00:20:06] Emily Welu: That's what I did. chose to do my research project on. So I got the opportunity to write about a hundred and fifty page paper on my implication of like that in my classroom. I had to read the book a couple of times because there's just like a lot of information and just a lot of steps and I think that's the great part about it is that you don't have to do All of the steps to make it successful.
[00:20:32] Emily Welu: And every single year you can add a new part to make it even better and better. As you saw in my room, I have those seven boards around the room. My favorite part of the building of thinking classrooms is I, at the very beginning of the year, I would give kids what he calls thinking tasks. So it's something not curriculum related because we haven't started the lessons yet.
[00:20:56] Emily Welu: But it was like a math riddle that they could solve and it was just something that they had. They were forced to think outside of the box. I think that's my favorite part is that a lot of the times people think that math is so boxed in. It's right or it's wrong, you know, which is true to an extent, you know, but to get kids to think outside of the box and say, Hey, there's three different ways to get to this answer.
[00:21:26] Emily Welu: And person A, B, and C have all these different ways, but then realizing that they're all three right, they're just thinking differently. And like putting them up at the boards, having one kid solve a problem, and then hearing from their group mates how they would have solved it differently, or were they maybe
[00:21:45] Craig Randall: you maybe just for our listeners that might not be familiar with building thinking classrooms, will you explain that like the whiteboards around the room and the groupings a little bit? Because I think it's key to understanding what you're saying right now.
[00:21:59] Emily Welu: So, around my room I have seven whiteboards that the kids write at. So, they are put in random groups, which is a huge part of what the book says. I use this program called Flippity, and it generates random groups for the kids. So they're not grouped based off of their abilities they're not grouped based off of if they're friends with the people, they just get put in groups of two or three based off the class size.
[00:22:23] Emily Welu: They each
[00:22:24] Craig Randall: it could be heterogeneous. Sometimes it could be homogenous. Sometimes it could be friend. Sometimes it could be enemy. And you'll have all of that over the course of the year because that's just what the randomization is going to do. Okay,
[00:22:35] Emily Welu: Yep. And that's awesome because then the kids ask, can I switch groups with blank? And I'm like, no. I said, in the future, I said, there's going to be people in your future job that you're not going to necessarily want to work with, but you have to learn to do that. So that's another huge part of building
[00:22:51] Craig Randall: Now it's a social emotional like learning to work with people I graduate.
[00:22:56] Emily Welu: getting along with other people, agreeing with other people's ideas, thinking how they think instead of just forcing your ideas upon other people. It absolutely is a collaborative activity for sure.
[00:23:08] Craig Randall: So you're in these groups of three, right?
[00:23:12] Emily Welu: Two to three, yep.
[00:23:12] Craig Randall: two to three and there's roles, right? And they're rotating roles. Do you want to maybe just unpack a little bit more for people too?
[00:23:19] Emily Welu: So, one kid is usually in charge of the marker. I've done it before where the marker kid Is the only one talking, they do the entire problem, step back, and then the two, one to two kids that were not on the marker get to add their input after they've finished. I've done it before where the marker kid is the one that, his only job is to write down the other people's ideas.
[00:23:44] Emily Welu: So even if the marker kid has his own ideas about how he wants to solve it, the only thing he can write down is the ideas of the others. So that's really interesting too. And then they collaboratively talk about the answer and then we they can like raise their hand and I can go over there.
[00:24:00] Emily Welu: Obviously if they're incorrect I would circle like the part, like if it's an order of operations one, for example, I would circle the part kind of where it started to go wrong. I wouldn't tell them. What to do, but I would circle it and I would say, Hey, let's focus on this part again. Try it out. Or if they got it right, what I've done before is I've gone over to a board that has it right, and I just kind of put a box around a piece of their work that I want to point out, and then I just walk away and they know that a box means to not erase it.
[00:24:30] Emily Welu: And then once everybody's done, we kind of collaboratively talk and I say, Hey, everybody, come on over to board five here for a moment. So everybody will walk over to board five where I've boxed out a piece that I want to put on show. And we just talk about, do you see here how they did this and this, and over here on board three, they did this differently and they both arrived at the same answer.
[00:24:51] Emily Welu: So you can see that there's different possibilities to get to the same answer and just kind of using the kids work to put on an art showcase, if you will, to kind of walk around and point out good things that they've done and how different problems can be solved in different ways.
[00:25:10] Craig Randall: I think one of the things with it too that I like is that they can't even move on to the next problem until they make sure that everyone in the group understands it, right? You have to be teaching others is so purposefully built into it. And we know that's the highest retention of learning is when you're teaching others.
[00:25:28] Emily Welu: did that. Sometimes I would have a student say, but Mrs. Walu, I don't get it. And I said, well, then that's an opportunity for your group members to explain that to you. And that was a highlight for me. It's seeing another student and sometimes the coolest part was when it was a usual you're struggling student who actually understood it and somebody else didn't.
[00:25:50] Emily Welu: And so I get that struggling student and I would say, Hey, you really understand this? Can you head on over there and explain that to this person? And they're like, Oh my gosh, like me? You want me? And I'm like, yeah, you know? So it's a really big confidence boost to those kids to be able to explain what their thinking is to somebody else.
[00:26:08] Craig Randall: And I'll tell you every single one of the it's only been three but everyone that's had they've all said that same thing that there's that kid that you wouldn't think is or the one and they'll come up with it and then just what a boost that is for them and then also impresses the whole class to write because everybody kind of knows on some level. Let's talk about, let's just talk about observations a little bit. You've done all seven years at the same school. You've had two principals in that time, I know from our talk before and now you've experienced trust based observation. So I'm just wondering if you'd be willing to talk just a little bit about what you're, whatever you want to say about that, what your experience has been, what you contrast, just so teachers can hear.
[00:26:53] Emily Welu: Absolutely. So when I went into my little post interview, it was a big list of things to go through, but I think the most eyeopening thing
[00:27:04] Craig Randall: The trust based observations.
[00:27:06] Emily Welu: on the trust based observation form is that part where it says questioning and higher order thinking, that upside little, down little triangle thing, Bloom's Taxonomy.
[00:27:17] Emily Welu: Seeing where I fell on that. And like looking at the little pyramid and asking like, where can I go next? How can I, what can I do in my next lesson to hit this part? And like we talked about, I understand that you can't hit every part every single time, but it was just really eye opening to see that opportunity sitting there for me that I didn't think about.
[00:27:42] Emily Welu: Another one that was really cool was that Power Trio the Retention of Learning Power Trio. And I think I mentioned to you in that post interview that reading and math typically don't go together very frequently. But seeing that's part of that active learning just really made me go, well, maybe I can incorporate this more in math and I would have never thought about it before, you know, during my normal observations, it's never something that's been brought up.
[00:28:11] Emily Welu: But seeing this on the form, I was like, dang, like that is an opportunity for me. I can use that in my. Active learning seeing the different receptive versus active learning as well made me really aware of what I was doing and the different ways that I was using to teach the kids. So my favorite part of this whole form was obviously, yes, I enjoyed seeing what went well, but just giving me a personal goal to reach. So even if it wasn't my principal's goal for me at that time, that I can give myself a personal goal of next time I'm observed, I want to hit this target. Next time I'm observed, I want to fill this blank because I did it, type of thing.
[00:28:56] Craig Randall: And even more than observed, I would just say that I want to add this to my practice is probably more
[00:29:00] Emily Welu: Yeah, absolutely, on a
[00:29:02] Craig Randall: to the observation
[00:29:03] Emily Welu: practice, yeah.
[00:29:04] Craig Randall: So what I'm hearing you say is that our form, which is, even though there's only nine areas on it it's highly detailed
[00:29:10] Emily Welu: Oh, for sure.
[00:29:11] Craig Randall: and even though we say the, you know, the absence of something not filled in is not a negative and really all we're doing is share what we're sharing the strengths of what we saw, which was really fun and, but you're saying, Despite all that, which of course it feels nice to have those things shared with you it's causing you on your, not because we told you, hey, to work on this or that, any of those areas, just by going over it, hopefully because we created an environment where you feel safe, you're just already processing how to grow your own practice.
[00:29:41] Emily Welu: Yeah. And like you said, it's extremely detailed and it gave me way more opportunities than what I felt like I had before. And that toolbox of possibilities too, that kind of part of that, like
[00:29:54] Craig Randall: just for the people that are listening. Let me just say that we hyperlink each of the nine areas of pedagogy so you can dig into like actionable articles that you could read right away. So anyway, go ahead.
[00:30:05] Emily Welu: yeah. And it just has a bunch of resources for me to use. So if I ever feel like I'm, My lesson plan isn't complete because I need blank. That little toolbox gives me all of those opportunities to use different resources to make sure that I'm hitting those points that I'm wanting to, those goals that I'm wanting to meet.
[00:30:25] Emily Welu: So I thought that was really cool that had that hyperlinked in there too. It just gave us a lot of good ideas to use in our classrooms.
[00:30:32] Craig Randall: It's a lot easier to get better at it when it's at your fingertips instead of having to
[00:30:36] Emily Welu: Oh yeah, for sure.
[00:30:37] Craig Randall: Yeah, super. I appreciate that. Emily, this has been amazing. I'm so grateful for your time. What I would love is if you would please be willing to share your email address, so anybody that might want to learn about any of your teaching, whether that's developing classrooms and mathematics, the amazing career word wall, so they have relevance to what they're learning.
[00:30:59] Craig Randall: Could you share that with our listeners, please?
[00:31:03] Emily Welu: So it's E WELL U, which is W E L U. POLY.
[00:31:15] Craig Randall: Beautiful. Thank you so, so much. Emily, it was a absolute joy watching you teach. It was so fun chatting with you afterwards and knowing that you were doing the building thinking classrooms work and then hearing today about all the things that the football thing and everything else. It's just been a joy and I hope our listeners are getting as much out of it as I am.
[00:31:35] Craig Randall: So thanks so much and have a great day.
[00:31:38] Emily Welu: Thank you, Craig. It's been awesome.
[00:31:42] Intro: Thank you for listening to 20 Minutes of Teaching Brilliance. If the show resonated with you, you can help other teachers by liking, sharing, and subscribing. More importantly, if you don't like the way you're being evaluated, don't like being nitpicked and scored, then check out Trust Based Observations at TrustBased.com, where we know the path to growth is through safe spaces for risk taking. Tell your principal about it, and change your school's observations to a model of trust and support, and join the thousands of teachers who now experience the joy of observations the way they're meant to be done.