Is Anyone Thinking Critically? Homeschool and AI

Gerry: [00:00:00] I wanna go on the record as saying, if someone's listening to this and you do that, you suck. Like, we, we, we hate you. Like, you should, you should go do a new profession. Don't do that. Yeah. 

Andrea: That's- Don't be, don't be the villain.

Theme: How to Survive the Classroom. 

Andrea: Hey, teacher besties. I am so excited to share with you that my book, They Never Taught Us That, is available right now. It is everything an experienced or first-year teacher needs to manage the chaos of a modern classroom, including some anecdotes to make you feel a little bit better, because if there is a way that you can screw up, I've probably done it.

It also has advice on how to build trust with families, how to manage grading and lesson plans and IEPs and everything else that they never went over in your teacher prep program. They Never Taught Us That is available everywhere right now. Hey, teacher besties. Welcome to How to [00:01:00] Survive the Classroom.

I'm Andrea Forkham. 

Gerry: I'm Gerry Patoca. 

Andrea: And listen. Listen, listen, listen. I am all kinds of heated today because I've been pissing off the internet a lot lately. This time it was with, uh, homeschool families, and I-- we're gonna get to that when I get to the, the hill we're gonna die on. Um, and, but the-- Okay. I, I have a game I want us to do today, Gerry.

Are you ready for this game? Okay. Okay. I'm 

Gerry: ready. 

Andrea: Um, I wanna know-- I'm, I'm gonna list off some things that, let's say it's like day one of the new school year. You have a new teacher person in your hallway. I wanna know if you think these are red flags or green flags for someone that would be in your hallway with you as a teacher, okay?

So let's say you're at profess- like, professional development day one. You're sitting next to this new person. The administrator comes and says, "Hey, guys, just wanted to let you know [00:02:00] we're gonna have new curriculum this year." The person next to you is really excited about it. Is that a red flag- Red flag

or green flag? But they're a lifelong learner, Gerry. You don't want them to learn? No. 

Gerry: No. I don't believe in this lifelong learner thing. Like, I've been done for a while. Um, I called it quits some time ago. No. If they come in, they're like, "Ooh, I have to redo everything I've been doing," no, you're a crazy person.

Like- 

Andrea: Yeah ... 

Gerry: like, you wanna do better, sweetie? I got some PowerPoints from one of my coworkers when I started teaching this class about office productivity. I didn't even change her Bitmoji. It don't look- Yeah ... nothing like me. And I'm just like, "Yeah, I didn't do it," like I- I think that le- ... this is hand-me-down.

Andrea: That's actually a great next thing, is if somebody shows you their slides for the first day, like their first welcome slides, and they have a Bitmoji classroom, green flag or red flag? 

Gerry: I think, so a [00:03:00] classroom or just one, like a Bitmoji of themselves? 

Andrea: So let's go with like, do you remember during the pandemic, like people had full on digital Bitmoji classrooms where it was like themed and there were backgrounds and all of that on the slides?

Were you not a teacher 

Gerry: yet? No, I, I, I was in college during the pandemic. 

Andrea: Oh my gosh. So people who are listening, they remember, and they're, they're trauma- traumatized just like I am. Yeah, I had like a full Bitmoji classroom with embedded links where you could go on there and people... There was like a reading section where I had all the links to all of these, um, trademark infringed books that we were using for my class, and like- You can 

Theme: do 

Andrea: it too much

there was like a music corner and an agenda. Well, that was the thing is we were only with our students that, at that point like three hours a day. And we were home, so we also didn't have commute time. And so we had a lot of time, and we were just trying to do everything we could to like actually get kids excited about logging on to Zoom at 8:00 [00:04:00] o'clock in the morning.

And so yeah, there was like a whole Bitmoji classroom. So I guess if you, if you're not familiar with the full Bitmoji classroom, it's, it's pretty intense. I, to me, I think it would be kind of a beige flag because everyone had one of those during the pandemic. If they're still using it and it's not a brand new one, it to me means that they're just like, they're rolling with what worked for them.

So to me, it would, it would be fine. Like it would be like a, I'm not- What 

Gerry: color is beige? 

Andrea: That means like if it's not like an actual, like it's not a problem. I'm not concerned that it's going to be- Beige 

Gerry: is like khaki, right? 

Andrea: Yes. You don't know what color... We're beige. Okay. My guy, our skin color is beige.

Gerry: Oh. Mm. No. My bad. 

Andrea: Um, yeah, like be- it, it means like it wouldn't be a red flag to me unless I saw them building a brand new Bitmoji classroom or even honestly building a Bitmoji for themselves [00:05:00] would probably be a bit of a red flag to me. See, 

Gerry: I think the Bitmoji's like the bare minimum. Like, I think like if you have one and it's just doing the wave and it's like, yeah, that's, that's acceptable.

Okay. But like, I don't even put like, like borders on my canvas half the time anymore. Like the banners- 

Andrea: Yeah. Yeah ... 

Gerry: mine's just that navy blue stock color. I, I don't know. I- I kind of gave up ... 

Andrea: I, so I, at the beginning of the school year, I always had the cutest slides, and then by the end of the year, it was like mismatched fonts and whatever could get pulled.

Like it was the most basic. If I had slides, a lot of times it would just roll into like me writing the agenda on the board. But at the beginning of the year, everything was always like really aesthetic and really cute. So I think it would be, I don't know, I'd be keeping an eye on them if they were out there like building a Bitmoji, 'cause what are we doing?

Here in, in 2026 still with the Bitmojis 

Gerry: See, I'd [00:06:00] be like, "Nah, y'all gotta stay down there. Like, don't come to my end of the hallway with that Bitmoji classroom" 

Andrea: Okay, question. Are you one of the people who- I don't even have 

Gerry: my shoes on. Like 

Andrea: I'm not surprised by that actually. Um, okay. But are you one of the people that when Facebook or Instagram rolls out like a digital version of where you can like AI, like graphic design yourself, do you use that ever?

Gerry: Sometimes. 

Andrea: I never do. I don't know why. Like, it... And I, I remember when those first came out everyone was like, "Well, those are, you know, pe- like, that's like these companies stealing your face for fill in the blank, whatever." I'm like, "They got my face. Like, guys, I- they got it." Like, there, there is so much content out there with my face now, if they don't have it yet, they're never going to get it.

Like, it's, it's done did. So I never had an issue with that, but I think that some AI [00:07:00] versions of people, it kind of gives uncanny valley. Do you know what that is? 

Gerry: Nah. 

Andrea: So, like, that, what was the- 

Gerry: Uncanny Valley? 

Andrea: You've never heard that before? 

Gerry: I heard of Stardew Valley, like, on the Nintendo Switch. 

Andrea: It's not the same thing.

Um, no, uncanny valley is where something is, like, a graphic, but it's just close enough to looking like a real human that our brain, it, like, makes our brains uncomfortable. So a good example of that is Polar Express, where, like, it's Tom Hanks. 

Gerry: Oh. 

Andrea: And, like, you know it's Tom Hanks, and it looks like Tom Hanks, but your brain just, like, doesn't like the way it looks for some reason.

That's the uncanny valley. It looked like Tom 

Gerry: Hanks? 

Andrea: In Polar Express? 

Gerry: I don't think that guy looked like Tom Hanks. 

Andrea: The train conductor? 

Gerry: I thought he was just a dude. 

Andrea: It's Tom Hanks. It's definitely Tom Hanks. But also just, like, the way that, like, their faces are just, like, a little bit [00:08:00] uncanny valley. It's...

I don't love it. And that's why I don't like AI renderings of stuff a lot of times, 'cause it does the same thing to my brain, where I'm just like, "Stop it. Stop it right now." So yeah. All right. Are you ready? I think it's 

Gerry: funny. 

Andrea: You think that what is funny? 

Gerry: I think, I just think, like, the little AI faces is funny.

Andrea: Yeah, that's 

Gerry: how they- Like, I got, I used to get them. They would make me look like, like a Viking. I was like, "This is tough." 

Andrea: Do you remember around- But I remember 

Gerry: that I was thick ... 

Andrea: around Christmas time, like, I feel like everyone's mom did the Christmas pajama one, but it made all- Yes ... everyone just look crazy hot.

Like, a weird hot version of themselves. That also is that, like, makes me uncomfortable is that people are like, "Look at..." And, and people who don't realize it's an AI rendering who will then be commenting and be like, "Girl, you look so good. What is your secret?" And they're like, "Oh my gosh, I drink a lot of water" That's crazy.

That's lying. It's lying to the internet when you do that kind of stuff. Yeah. Um, okay. [00:09:00] The, the next one. If you were, like, hanging out in teacher's lounge with people and they were like, "Do you need a coffee?" And the person was like, this new individual was like, "Oh, I don't drink caffeine," green flag or red flag?

Gerry: That one's tricky 'cause I don't care. Like- Yeah ... it's not a green flag or a red flag to me. Some people just be out here, like, like raw. They just be out here raw. 

Andrea: Like, raw dogging life like that, to me that's a huge red flag. They is out here. Mm-mm. That's 

Gerry: weird. They is out here. I, I don't have caffeine all the time.

I don't n- always think about drinking stuff. Like, if I have a Coke or Pepsi or something, I know there's caffeine in it, but I don't think I want this for the caffeine. I want it 'cause it tastes good. But then, like, if I'm drinking, like, coffee, yeah, I want, like, like, uh, black coffee, I want the caffeine.

Yeah. I'm not drinking that for, 

Andrea: for- For the 

Gerry: taste ... for, like, funsies. Like, if I get iced coffee though, it's something different. It's like I, I don't even care about the caffeine, I just wanted the... And sometimes I'll, I'll be like, "Yeah, this caffeine's nice," [00:10:00] but I, I don't think about it like that. Now lately I've been needing some caffeine 'cause I've been on fumes, but- 

Andrea: Yeah.

Yeah ... like, 

Gerry: if they're like, "I don't drink caffeine," I'm like, "All right. Whatever." You know? No, I 

Andrea: would have- Keep on I would- Keep 

Gerry: it on, I guess. 

Andrea: Mm. Like, mm-mm. So it's a red flag for you? I couldn't do 

Gerry: it. 

Andrea: It would, yeah, it is. And here's the funny thing. A friend of the podcast, friend of ours- Sounds insecure ... it, it probably.

Gaspar Randazzo does not drink caffeine at all. He does not drink coffee. Oh. He does not... All- he also doesn't drink alcohol. Like, he just is out here raw dogging life. And if you've ever, guys, if you've ever been to a show or seen Gaspar's stuff online, you know that that guy can, he can yap. He does not sleep very much, and it is actually kind of crazy that he doesn't drink caffeine because you would think for sure that he's just mainlining Red Bulls.

But no. And it's, it's still a red flag and I'm just, I'm side-eyeing Gaspar at all times 'cause I don't, I don't trust somebody who doesn't... Oh my gosh, and our [00:11:00] producer Rob also has not had caffeine in a decade. 

Gerry: Really? I'm 

Andrea: surrounded by... I, uh, unfortunately I apparently am a terrible judge of character because one of my red flags, I've surrounded myself with people.

Okay, this is the, this is the last one. Um- Okay ... if you came across a teacher that was wearing very obviously uncomfortably high heels for a lady or, like, very fancy dress shoes for a male teacher, is that gonna be, like, a red or a green flag to you? 

Gerry: Closer to red flag. It's another one of those, I think, I think for me it's more so the, like- Uh, the high heels.

Mm-hmm. 'Cause I, and maybe I just haven't worn shoes that are that uncomfortable for a male, but I've worn dress shoes before, just being like, "Yeah, I'm gonna dress up today." Yeah. "I wanna look good," whatever. But the heels, in my brain, registers being so much more uncomfortable, and then you're at fall risk all [00:12:00] day.

I'm like, "Yo, I think you're doing too much." But like, like, I wore Crocs yesterday. Like, I- 

Andrea: Yeah ... 

Gerry: so, like, when I see somebody who's, like, doing too much, like, I, I get maybe a little button-down or a polo, but if I see somebody wearing a tie, I'm like, "You doing the most, brother." Like, you, you- They're like, "You need to calm 

Andrea: down"

Gerry: yeah, yeah. I wore sweatpants today. Like, That's 

Andrea: why. You wore sweatpants? 

Gerry: They, they, they were, like, black sweatpants. Like, and they had, like, a athletic material. 

Andrea: Okay. 

Gerry: I haven't worn a belt in probably two or three years. 

Andrea: Wow. Yeah. Yeah, no. I mean, I, there, there definitely were times that I had... Uh, did I wear leggings?

I can't remember if I wore leggings at my last job, but I don't anymore. Now that I'm a university professor, that feels like maybe a bridge too far. But I, I will say, now that I'm a professor, heels would not register to me as a red flag. But when I taught high school, like, I've wo- I worked with some folks before that wore, like, [00:13:00] very spiky, uncomfortable high heels.

And it wasn't the discomfort of the shoes, it was just, I don't know, like, that, like... I don't know if I'm just a hater, but I was like, "What are you do- Like, what are we doing?" Like, what, what for what? Like, who are you 

Gerry: impressing? 

Andrea: Ri- kind of, yeah. It was kind of my, my thing. And some people just like to dress like that, and that's fine, but I just probably won't- Yeah

be super psyched about eating lunch with you- Nah ... if that. And, like, I'll wear- No ... some kind of heels, but, like, wedge heels, like, comfortable ones. I'm not clickety-clacking down the hallway, unless it's, like, maybe first week of school, I'd wear, like, some s- small heels, but that's too much. Nah, like- It's just a little 

Gerry: fussy

like, what are you trying to do? Get these eighth-graders to think your fit's eating? Like, what are you doing? 

Andrea: Yeah. Like- It's- ... 

Gerry: that's weird. 

Andrea: Yeah. I think that's what it is, is, like, to me, it's just, like, a weird choice that that's where you're devoting your time. But, I mean, I know some people, like, [00:14:00] they just ha- they spend a lot of money on their shoes.

But then I'm like, "Why would I wear those to a school, to work, where all of the- Yeah ... all of the youths are?" No, thank you. That's a hard, hard pass for me. So yeah, that That was also red flag for me. All right, um, we are going to take a very quick break and we will be right back. Have you ever wondered what I would say if my mother and my administrators weren't watching every single thing I do on social media?

Well, that's exactly what my stand-up show is, and I'm gonna be coming to a town near you super soon. You can get tickets at educatorandrea.com/tickets.

Welcome back, teacher besties. Okay, so we got some fan questions, and one of the fan questions is something that I have done too many times, which is, um, what do you do if you find out after you've handed out or graded a test that you screwed up? Not that you would ever screw up, of course, [00:15:00] Gerry, but- 

Gerry: Yeah, 

Andrea: I'll make mistakes

if that were to happen, obviously, yeah, we don't make mistakes up in here. They get 

Gerry: credit. 

Andrea: You, so do you, like- They get the 

Gerry: points ... 

Andrea: so do you, like, if there's 20 questions, and let's say you messed up on two of the questions, do you automatically give them the credit so it's still out of 20, or do you make it worth 18?

Do you know what I'm saying? I, I- Because then each, like- 

Gerry: Yeah, no, I get what you're saying, and I j- it just cl- it just, like, clocked with me that I'm like, "I, I think I've been doing it wrong." 

Andrea: I mean, I, 

Gerry: I've done it- I give them the points for whatever those two questions were worth and add it on. 

Andrea: Okay. '

Gerry: Cause I'm just like- 'Cause I've done it-

yeah, I don't kn- I don't know how to fix it. Like, I don't, like, I don't know how to adjust this. I don't wanna have to go through each one. Just, whoop, your lucky day. Take these extra- Yeah ... points. My mistake, my bad. 'Cause that's, I, I had teachers who did that when I was in school, so I just thought that was the right thing to do is I'll just give you the points.

Andrea: Yeah, I, I- Congrats ... don't think there's necessarily a wrong way of doing it. I mean, I've done it both ways. I guess if you're [00:16:00] taking the amount of points they could get down, then each of the questions is worth a little more. So if they did get something else wrong, then obviously their grade could be substantially lower if you lowered the overall, like, number, if you're doing it out of 18 instead of out of 20.

But yeah, I 

Gerry: j- What if I said something like, "I, I remake the test and make them take it again," or something like that? Can you 

Andrea: imagine? Like, you know that someone's out there. 

Gerry: I wanna go on the record as saying if someone's listening to this and you do that, you suck. Like, we, we, we hate you. Like, you, you should, you should go to a new profession.

Like- Don't do that. 

Andrea: Yeah That's- Don't be, don't be the villain. 

Gerry: You're a terrible human, and I, and I hope your, your, your third husband's okay, like, 'cause, 'cause you're, you're a- That's 

Andrea: crazy ... proper person. Um, yeah. Yeah. Brutal. Um, this does ... Okay. This, this does make me think a little bit. So I have been using Magic School AI.

Have you used Magic [00:17:00] School before? 

Gerry: I have before. 

Andrea: Okay I've used it a few times, and I will-- I'm gonna disclose now, like I am doing a brand deal with them on my social media, but this is not a sponsored discussion at all. It was just something that, like, I was messing with their tools, and one of the things I came across now that they have is a writing feedback generator.

And so within Magic School, you can upload your prompt, upload your rubric, and then upload your student submissions, and then it will automatically analyze what the students turned in, fill out the rubric, fill out what they call glows, grows, and then, like, individual feedback for the things. How do we feel about that?

Because I, I can tell you one of the hardest parts of being an English teacher was grading essays. And so on that level, it's like, okay, that's great. Um, and I mean, [00:18:00] if you wanted to, you could upload every single one of the essays and then hit like four buttons and just return all of the feedback to all of the students.

It'll be very clear that Magic School graded it. Um, but how do we feel about AI grading essays? Because obviously we've been doing Scantrons for grading papers or grading tests for the longest time. 

Gerry: I don't like it grading. When I use AI for anything, I still am, like, using it as a guideline. Like, hey, I, I may would run it through to point some stuff out to me, and then I'm like, "Let me go look at that," and, and like use, use as like a, like...

a guide is the best- Yeah ... way I can think to put it, to help me grade it and to-- I can work faster and not have to, like, be super in-depth and thinking about it real hard. Yeah. Like, let me r- uh, run it through, read it, think about what it said, what's the point? I m- move on. I don't think it like grading and telling you what [00:19:00] it did, 'cause AI be wrong.

Andrea: Yeah. 

Gerry: Well- I've had ChatGPT tell me something that was like that, it was wrong. And I said- Yeah ... "Hey, that's..." I told ChatGPT, I was like, "Hey, that's wrong." And they was like, "You, you right. You're actually- Yeah. ... right about that." 

Andrea: They're like, "Our 

Gerry: bad." And like, you agree with me that fast. Like, they're that human-- hu-- ChatGPT is just a people pleaser.

They're- Mm-hmm ... if you tell them they're wrong, they're gonna be like, "Yeah." 

Andrea: Yeah. "

Gerry: You was right. I-" 

Andrea: Exactly. "Like whatever you say." Like if I was like- Like don't- ... "You know what? My husband pissed me off. I think I'm gonna light his car on fire," and they'd be like, "Whoa. Hey girl, we love that empowerment. If you're gonna light his car on fire, here are the three steps you should do, so not only does it catch fire, but you don't get caught.

More power to you." Like... 

Theme: Yeah. 

Andrea: But okay, so I, I used the Magic School AI essay grader on a recent assignment with some, some college students, okay? And I-- 'cause number one, I wanted to see how effective it was, how like accurate it was gonna be. And there was a couple of things I noticed. Number one, it still is generating a few years behind.

[00:20:00] So my students cited some work from 2026, and it said, "You have future-dated references." So it- ChatGPT still thinks it's like 2024, 2025. I have the paid version for, for ChatGPT. Um, but it still- I know some 

Gerry: teachers like that too. 

Andrea: You're right. That's the truth. Like, and it, and it said like, "Hey, you've got these future-dated."

And so they took points away because the references were unreliable because they were future-dated, right? On the other hand, it did catch some things that I didn't catch. Um, it also is gonna be entirely unbiased. It's not going to grade differently based on how I feel about a student. Um, and I thought that was

I always tried to look at who, like ignore whose paper it was when I was grading it, 'cause I didn't want any, like unconscious bias of like, oh, I really like this kid. I'm gonna ... You know, oh, it's not as, you know, thorough as I would've liked it, but I'm gonna give them full credit. I don't intentionally do that, but I know that like probably on some level we- grading is [00:21:00] subjective with essays especially.

And so I like that it does that, where it very specifically goes through and does not care who it is. It's just an analysis of machine basically. 

Gerry: Yeah. 

Andrea: Um, and so I, I populated everything, and then I read over it, and then I read over the student's work, and, and y- mostly I, I boosted everyone's scores by a little bit at least, 'cause it either would have like something I didn't love or something I felt like it wouldn't, I wouldn't take away credit for that.

Um, but I think that the big fear for a lot of people is that, you know, our AI, if we're using AI to grade and students are using AI to write, like no one's actually using their brains. Um, which I understand the argument with a lot of people that are like, "Don't use AI with grading." Um, but we know, like if we're grading, we know what we want, we know what we're looking for, all of that kind of stuff, and we're being responsible with the use of AI.

I think it could be really [00:22:00] helpful and beneficial for teachers, especially in school districts like where I was, where I had 200 students a day. So if I'm gonna be trying to give feedback to these students and do it quickly, especially in those initial drafting stages, I feel like that could be really, really helpful for students to know whether or not they're on the right track.

Um, and it's not the same as a student using AI when we are literally trying to help them form the, the pathways in their brain to think critically. So I used it, but I, I wanted to kind of put it out there, not only just to get feedback from people on how they're feeling about AI usage with writing feedback, but also if you are an English teacher and you have used it or you have, um, you know, or you have very strong feelings, I do wanna hear about it because I, I think this is kind of where we are leaning towards heading a little bit.

And It, I did it for this assignment, but it made me uncomfortable. And so I'm trying to explore what it is that made me uncomfortable that [00:23:00] I didn't feel uncomfortable when I had, like, saved responses that I would plug in if students had similar issues each time, and I would copy and paste over the same response.

That part- Mm-hmm ... that never bothered me, but using AI in this way does a little bit, and so I'm trying to figure out exactly what it is about that that makes me a little bit uncomfortable. 

Gerry: Yeah, I don't hate the kids using AI. Um, I do in the sense of if you're copying and pasting what it says- Yeah ... and using it to think for you.

Um, and I would, I, I hope, and I don't think we're, just my opinion with absolutely nothing to base it off of, I think we're, at some point in the next five or 10 years, we're gonna have classes in schools that center around how to use AI. We have one- 100% ... I teach about how to use Google Drive- Yeah ... which is Google Docs, Google Slides, Google Sheets- Mm-hmm

all that. And, um, that, those things have only been around for what, 10, 20 years maybe? Yeah. 

Andrea: [00:24:00] Yeah, if 

Gerry: that. And it's like, no, it's not gonna be long before we are at, like, time's moving faster in the sense of how quick we're willing to accept and use something. Yeah. And I think, um, 'cause right now AI is getting pushback for the data usage centers and things all that, and I'm, I'm not here to speak on that.

Whatever people think about it, think about it. I don't really care. Um, I do think it's a tool. Yeah. And it's one I, um, have said, "Look, this is a tool. If you're using it as such, I'm not gonna be mad about it." It'd be weird if I was mad at you for using Google on something when I'm letting you. 

Andrea: Yeah. 

Gerry: Like, I-- you can use ChatGPT as a search eng- engine because it is unbiased.

It, um, it communicates... No, narrative isn't the right word. It communicates like AB as opposed to let me type something and get a bunch of links and have to look for what I need. It helps us kind of paint the picture of here [00:25:00] is, um, um, a direct answer to your question. Here's the sources to back it up, as instead of here's the sources, go find it.

Yeah. And I think that's all, that can enhance critical thinking because you have to think about what to ask ChatGPT. You have to think about what to put in there to get what you need, and then that's gonna allow you to kind of have a dialogue with it as opposed to, "Hey, here's this thing you're looking for.

Have fun." 

Andrea: Hmm. That's- 

Gerry: Uh, so I do think there's a tool aspect to it, and it's just having to learn how to use it. 

Andrea: Yeah, I think that the, the danger is, that I hear from a lot of people is, like, if you did Google something, right, like, um, what is going on in, you know, fill in the blank location in the world, and you have, like, 10 different links.

You at least at that point have, like, 10 different points of view. Um, when you ask a question of ChatGPT, like you're right, it's a dialogue, and you should be using critical thinking to ask about different [00:26:00] topics and stuff. But the danger I think, is that it's going to take internet consensus. And so internet consensus is not always, and especially because I think about all of these big, big corporations that have all this money, that they are like, "Okay, if we can get the chatbots to align with us, either recommend us as a product, recommend us as a resource," right?

Like all of that, then that could, you know, drive revenue and all of that. I can tell you, so I sell merch on my site, educatorandrea.com, guys. Um, one of the things that it lets you do now is I can put in prompts on my website on... You just-- This is just Squarespace, right? So I am not a coder, nothing like this, but I can, on Squarespace, put in prompts that I want my website to be recommended for.

So that means if somebody looks up Educator Andrea merch shirts on, you know, ChatGPT, then my stuff should [00:27:00] hopefully come up. And I think about how basic that is. But then I'm like, "Okay, but there are other companies with way more money, with way more vested interest in the attention of people." And that's, I think, the thing that scares me with the AI use is that we all think we're getting full stories, but actually, just like when we Google something, the sponsored posts take up almost the first two pages.

And so I think that's the, the real danger. And I, I was recently-- Um, I did a video recently that was talking about this and was talking about how like, hey, you know, the technology in schools, like we need it. We need to be able to have kids learn about it and learn how to use it, but the over-reliance is a problem.

And somebody commented as like, and basically said like, "Oh yeah, because you're afraid that kids are gonna, you know, have access to all these other things and free their minds." And I'm like, "Bro, you are on an algorithm-based platform that is feeding you whatever big companies want you to see." Like, that's truly what [00:28:00] we, we see on- Yeah

online is like what we engage with, what companies are paying for, and all of that. And so I think it, it does scare me a little bit because I've also seen all these articles saying that like this generation is the first generation to be dumber than the previous, like in a recorded history. Um, and that scares me a little bit because if you do have critical thinking, then you can think some of that stuff out.

But if you don't, it's like we're in trouble. We are gonna be in some trouble. It kind of scares me a little bit. But yeah. So I, I-- like I said, guys, I have a lot of different feelings about AI and its use because obviously I'm not against it, but also I feel very conflicted about how we're using it. Um- Which actually leads me in to the hill I'm going to die on today.

Did you have a hill before I go into, to mine, Gerry? No. 

Gerry: No, I didn't. 

Andrea: You're just vibing over there. No hills. No hills to [00:29:00] die on. I'm chilling. All right. So the hill I'm going to die on is that if you are a homeschooler parent, and you have chosen to take your kids out of public school and to homeschool them, you of all people should be one of the biggest voices for better public education because you recognize where there are problems, so much so that you are taking steps, profoundly expensive steps, to bring your child into your own home and pay the time, the resources, all of that, to homeschool them, ideally, right?

Um, I have a lot of family friends who homeschool their kids, homeschool a few of their kids, and a few of their kids go to public school. Um, but something I've noticed online is that if I post something, and a lot of my content is like, "Ha ha, so funny," but really trying to point out an actual issue within the education system, is people will say like, "Well, this is why I homeschool my kid."

And I'm like, [00:30:00] "Okay, but it's also why I'm doing what I'm doing." And it's if you feel so strongly about the challenges in the public school system, you should also recognize that you are sitting in a, a position of privilege to be able to homeschool your child, and you should recognize that other people's kids, who will be your kids' neighbors, lawyers, doctors, teachers, like they also should have a good education.

Yeah. And I think that that's a huge problem is that people get lost in the, "Well, I homeschool my kid. Oh, I do private school. Oh, I do pub-" Like, whether or not your ... Like, and I went to a private school all K through 12. Like, that's how I got my education, and I'm a huge proponent for public school because whether or not, you know, people can afford to send their kids to, like, a fancy private school or be homeschooled or whatever, like we need good public education because a vast majority of people cannot afford a fancy [00:31:00] private school education or to be homeschooled.

Yeah. And that to ... Like, that, like ... There is, by the way, nothing more patriotic and American than supporting public schools. Like, that is s- like, foundational to the United States. It's foundational to a strong democracy, is a well-educated populace. And it just really pisses me off when people are like, "The most patriotic thing I can do is not care about public schools."

I'm like, "Grow up. The most patriotic thing you can do- Yeah ... is to support public schools." So that's, that's the hill I'm gonna die on today. That's how I pissed off some homeschool families, 'cause I basically, like I did a lip sync thing, and it wasn't a super nuanced thing, 'cause you know, it's soc- social media.

And so I had a lot of people be like, "Well, actually, I homeschool my kids, and here's why." And I'm like, look, I, like, I, I actually... If you wanna homeschool your kids, you're doing it well, you're doing it responsibly, great. I know there are definitely situations where it's not being done responsibly, and that's really, really [00:32:00] unfortunate, and you are really doing a disservice to your child.

But that's not really what I was trying to address. What I was trying to address was the fact that, like, we all should be interested in supporting a strong public education, because it's literally who's gonna run our country next. Like, that's who we're handing it over to, guys. We need to ... We gotta get it together.

And, um, that is in particular important because I'm hearing that the, um, enrollment numbers are shrinking. Are you seeing this in your schools, Gerry? 

Gerry: Oh, yeah. 

Andrea: Yeah. Is it, uh, like is the upcoming class smaller than the previous ones? 

Gerry: I think we're getting where the kids who are coming now are, uh, we're getting like the s- our sixth grade group was bigger than our eighth grade group or something like that.

Okay. But it was dwindling, and the numbers have gone down every year. I think we're going to the first school year where it's going up, and that's 'cause I, I, there might be some redistricting ha- happening. [00:33:00] 

Andrea: Okay. 

Gerry: But there's some ... Yeah. It's like, it's going back up, but it's like we're still one of the smallest schools- 

Andrea: Yeah

Gerry: in, in the county. 

Andrea: So something I'd like in relation to the fact that enrollment numbers tend to be shrinking across the country, a lot of my friends in California, because California's a very hard place to afford the cost of living. And so some of my class, or my, um, former coworkers are now sitting there going like, "Oh, like we have way fewer students."

Um, one of the ways, whether you are a homeschool parent or a parent of a public school kid or just a voting member of your community, something you can do to support teachers is that when enrollment sizes go down, encourage your districts to keep class sizes small. Because the immediate temptation is, oh, we had 40 kids in a class, and now we have way fewer students this semester, so we're gonna be down to 25 students in a class.

[00:34:00] So we don't need as many teachers, and then the class sizes are gonna shoot back up. Keep the same amount of teachers- Yeah ... as class sizes shrink, because that is a way that we, like you can actively contribute to the health and wellbeing of the students and the teachers in your community is if you advocate for ca- small class sizes.

And this is a very, like, this is, this is a good way of doing that, where it's like, "Hey, we're already paying- Yeah ... these teachers. Like let, if somebody retires, replace them, um, and keep class sizes small." So I gave, I gave everyone homework today on the podcast. Sorry about that, guys 

Gerry: And like your students, you're probably not gonna do it 

Andrea: I dare you.

I dare you to do it. I dare you to contact your local school district and superintendent and, uh, just be like, "Hey, class sizes should not be bigger than 25 for high school, and it should be smaller than that for elementary." I've had a class size that small maybe, like, I don't know, two out of my nine years of teaching high school.

So yeah, there you go. Now we've all got homework. Um, do you have [00:35:00] anything else coming up? Any shows, anything like that for p- for the peoples? 

Gerry: I'm gonna be headlining in Southern Pines, North Carolina on June 12th. 

Andrea: Awesome. That's exciting. 

Gerry: So come see me at The Rec Room in Southern Pines June 12th at 9:00 PM.

Andrea: Awesome. Good. I'm gonna be, uh, performing in Batavia on June 6th. I've got a comedy show. And then July 16th, I have the Teacher Talk Sycamore Summit, which is a conference I'm putting on with Indiana State and some other really incredible humans. I'm really excited about it. We're starting the day with mimosas.

Like, you're, you're gonna get there, you're gonna get a mimosa or a bloody Mary to start your day, and then we're gonna have some really fun speakers. I've got Gaspar Randazzo is going to be my morning keynote. Um, and we're gonna be talking about AI, we're gonna be talking about, um, teacher resiliency and all of that.

So we're just... I'm very, very excited about it. Um, you can find information [00:36:00] on that at teachertalksummit.com, so check that out. Um, all right, I think that's all we have for you today. Um, and if you have thoughts about what we talked about today, I got real spicy. So you can contact me, andrea@human-content- uh, andrea@human-content.com, or at Educator Andrea, or you can contact the whole Human Content Podcast family on Instagram and TikTok at humancontentpods.

Um, and if you have not yet left a review for us, please do, not only, uh, for this podcast, but also for my book. It's on Amazon. Those reviews matter. Um, so if you've read my book and you loved it, go ahead and leave a review for me. And you can catch the full video episodes. They are up every week on YouTube at Educator Andrea.

Thank you so much for listening. I'm your host, Andrea Forkham. 

Gerry: I'm Gerry Patoka. 

Andrea: And our executive producers are Andrea Forkham, Aron Korney, Rob Goldman, and Shahnti Brooke. Our editor is Andrew Sims. Our engineer is Jason Portizo. Our music is by Omer Ben-Zvi. To learn more about How to Survive the [00:37:00] Classroom's program, disclaimer, and ethics policy, and submission, verification, and licensing terms, you can go to podcasterandrea.com.

How to Survive the Classroom is a Human Content production. How to Survive 

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Andrea: Thank you so much for watching. Want more of How to Survive the Classroom? You can watch more episodes right now. Just click on that little box over there. You see it? And if you haven't yet, please subscribe. Okay, bye.

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