The shelter-in-place orders declared in March 2020 turned most of the country on its head. Schools and businesses were suddenly closed and we all had to adapt. People began working from home, and home schooling became the norm in most households. Jennifer Bates is Assistant Superintendent at a county vocational technical institute and had to scramble just like everyone. Many of their courses require hands-on learning so home school isn't necessarily a good option. There are other groups her school serves who also need in-person teaching. The creative solutions will be eye-opening!
Transcript:
Diane Dayton 0:02
This is changing the rules, a podcast about designing the life you want to live, hosted by KC Dempster and Ray Loewe the luckiest guy in the world.
KC Dempster 0:13
Good morning, everybody. This is KC Dempster. Welcome to Changing the Rules. I'm with Ray Loewe. And I'm not going to say at this time, that luckiest guy, and, and we're in the wonderful Woodbury location of Wildfire Radio Studios, and we're always talking about lucky people and changing rules. And we've learned that we're all given rules from the day we're born. We have rules set for us, and it's our parents, it's teachers, it's the church, it's the community. There's all kinds of rules being set for us, and for the most part, they're well intended. They're intended to keep us safe and to provide a structure So that we can have a well functioning society. But as we get older, sometimes some of these rules can become more restrictive because they're not relevant to the way we are going forward in our lives. And I'm speaking in a positive way, I'm not speaking in a breaking of the law kind of way, because there's a difference between laws and rules, but we won't even talk about that. But the rules are meant to control us and and to guide us. But as we get older, we have to figure out which rules really work for us. They work for what we want to do and where we want to go and we have to let the ones that don't work drop off. Maybe Ric tweak them a little bit, change them. And when we get the the rule set that works for us, we're free to be ourselves.
Ray Loewe 1:48
You know, and sometimes we get rules thrown at us that we have to admit are pretty good rules. However, they knock us off of our path of whatever it is We're going to do and now we have to figure out, Okay, how do we make those rules work for us. And we have a guest in a few minutes that was faced with that kind of a rule. And she had responsibilities and she had things that she had to do when this rule wasn't being very nice to her. And she got in there and she took a hatchet and she chopped up the Rolo pieces and moved on. So you're gonna meet Jennifer a little bit. But also, I think, the luckiest people in the world, are a group of people that I've been following most of my adult life, and and the reason is, and I noticed that there's this group of people that I want to hang out with, they're always doing exciting things are always in a good mood. They're always happy. They're always making progress and, and you know, they work like dogs, and they manage to get enough vacation time to play too. And they have it all together. And I decided these are the kind of people I want to hang out with and more importantly, this was the kind of person I wanted to be and the way I wanted my life to be. So I started tracking them. And I found out that there are a bunch of mindsets that they have that distinguish themselves from everybody else. Now mindset by definition, and I lost my piece of paper to be able to tell the exact definition, but it's a way of thinking it, it's, it's the way you approach problems. It's a it's an attitude. Yeah, and it's a bunch of attitudes actually. And, and probably more important is it's really important because it your attitudes, build your self confidence and your self esteem. And these luckiest people in the world have that self esteem and they just do their thing. And, and and they're responsible and they take control of things. So we have young lady today, and we're going to talk about three of these mindsets in her particular situation. The first one is that she got hit by this virus. rule that we have of social distancing. And all of a sudden, it just changed her whole life. It changed how she dealt with kids, it changed how she dealt with her kids. And it changed how she's dealing with the education system that she's responsible for. The second thing is that we found that the luckiest people in the world, always, always, always come up with positive solutions. Now, they have to work at this, right. Okay. I mean, there's a whole lot of reasons to hide under the bed and not deal with things. But but they don't do that. They come up with positive solutions, and they're things that are going to make things work. And the third distinguishing factor is that they weave this into an action plan, right? And they take whatever it is that they've learned from this and they move it forward. And I think with this guest, you're going to see some absolutely phenomenal things that are moving forward over here. And so we're gonna take a quick break and we're gonna come back and interview Jennifer Bates.
Diane Dayton 5:06
You're listening to changing the rules with KC Dempster and Ray Loewe the Luckiest Guy in the World. We will be right back with more exciting information.
Ray Loewe 5:19
Okay, we are back, right?
KC Dempster 5:21
Yes, yes.
Ray Loewe 5:22
Okay, so so we're back and that was I love these quick breaks. And I love Diane's voice, she energizes me. So we're here with Jennifer Bates and Jennifer, your title is your assistant superintendent of Salem county vote tech school system because it's not just one right?
Jennifer Bates 5:41
Correct. So it is Salem County Vocational and Technical Schools, which obviously encompasses the Career and Technical High School at our main campus as well as our adult post secondary vocational programs. So we have a variety of entities in the Career and Technical world, but also we are the Salem County Special Services school district as well. And so we then oversee the special ed population for students who are placed in out of District placements. So it is typically going to be some of your more severely disabled individuals, or some type of alternative education program where the students need to be able to leave their resident district to be able to come and get education in a new environment for a variety of different circumstances. So we have a number of different programs, you know, serving students from early intervention, which is birth and all the way through adulthood, um, you know, to individuals that, you know, potentially could be 21 or are adults, you know, the sky is the limit when it comes to education.
Ray Loewe 6:49
Okay, so you have all this is you got to kind of deal with and, to all of a sudden, like everybody else, we were hit with this one day we have school right? Then the next day, guess what? We're not allowed to have school? Are we? So What went through your head when all of this stuff happened?
Jennifer Bates 7:08
So, of course, I feel like with everything when you know, this started, right around St. Patrick's Day, which you know, we will never forget St. Patrick's Day. 2020, right. Um, you know, all of a sudden, we had to have some really uncomfortable conversations as to what is what is this going to look like? How are we going to reach our students? How are we going to reach our parents? Wait a minute, how am I going to implement my do now on the boards? It's going to look very, very different. So, you know, immediately, you know, as a leader within a school system, I feel like the first thing you do is continue to tell everyone. It's going to be okay. We're going to figure this out because I don't have an answer, I don't have all the answers. But together, we're going to be able to figure out exactly What those answers need to be for our students. And in the districts that we work in our students, you know, we don't have the word traditional that's really attached to them.
Ray Loewe 8:09
Yeah. And it's not only going to be okay. I think what's going to happen is we're going to go into a new version of education, we're going to go into version 202, or whatever it is, at that version isn't going to be the new normal. It's going to be the better normal, I think. And you told me a couple of stories. You know, first of all, let me toss into one other thing that you mentioned to me when we were talking earlier. And that is you take charge of education for prisoners too and some of the county prisons.
Jennifer Bates 8:43
Yes, we do. So as part of our vocational school, we do our it's ultimately the adult literacy programs, and it's for both Salem and Cumberland County. So, you know, old term I feel that everybody tends to know is the GED. It's That alternative high school assessments, Well, it's all of those programs. So it's for individuals who have ultimately not earned a high school diploma through the traditional means. And they're seeking to get that education. So we provide those classes and those services within not only the Salem county Correctional Facility, but at the Cumberland County Correctional Facility. So individuals who are incarcerated for a period of time who do not have their high school diploma, ultimately, the goal is that they earn that diploma prior to leaving and serving their sentence so that they have more options as they move forward for rehabilitation.
Ray Loewe 9:41
Yeah. Now, how do you do that? Because you used to send an instructor there, right?
Jennifer Bates 9:46
Absolutely. So we have instructors full time within those facilities, they have their own classrooms, they run normal classes, schedules, you know, the, you know, students come and go, you know, on a regular basis. So what we needed to do is obviously rethink exactly how we're going to bring these individuals together. I'll be honest, the correctional facilities, they locked down initially. And they had to, I mean, you know, that's where the circumstances went. So what we ultimately needed to do was figure out a means that our teacher could still have that face to face interaction and that time with the students to be able to give them the skills and the guidance that they need to be able to move forward in the Salem Correctional Facility, you know, and I wish Warden Kazuki was sitting next to me because he would be, you know, actually really excited about it. We ended up reopening what we call the second floor. So in, you know, previous times, when visitors would come in to see an individual that was incarcerated, they would sit behind the glass, they would pick up the phone with those spiral cords and if there's anyone from a certain generation, they probably don't even Know what I'm referring to, um, we shot we watched the movie. So, you know, that arena that used to be there, it's not it was not used. That's not the process anymore within the facilities, however, it's still exists on the second floor. So we were able to be able to get access to reopen that area. So what we can now do is our teacher goes, you know, to the second floor, she goes to the particular pod or area that that student is going to be housed. And that student just has to go on the second floor and can go and attend class can get the one on one time with the teacher. There's no type of, you know, physical concern because they have the glass that's going to be between them, but they still have that face to face moment. Because in a correctional facility, they're not able to use technology. J in the same fashion that we do so if I want to, you know, pick up the phone and call my mother in law, I can FaceTime pretty easy. Yeah, doesn't work that way in the correctional facility.
Ray Loewe 12:11
So, you know, everybody needs to think about this. I you know, parents and grandparents are worried about what's going to happen to their kids and stuff like that with all this stuff. But there are people out there with really creative ideas that are doing some things. . And so I think you right with your statement that we're going to be all right, we're going to be okay. And I think we're going to be better than okay because the next example I'm going to bring up is absolutely floored me. Okay. Because one of the things that you do is you deliver vo tech education to people and and this is my understanding is extremely important. All kids don't need to go to college. But most jobs are created require some skills.
Jennifer Bates 12:55
Of course, absolutely.
Ray Loewe 12:56
And these skills are are often delivered In a shop type environment or something like that, so, so what's going on here in this part of your domain.
Jennifer Bates 13:07
So when we talk about career in technical education is especially in, you know, this day and age, it's a very high skill, high demand set of, you know, occupations that are out there that you need, you know, an extensive amount of training to be able to perform these skills and perform these tasks. So our goal is ultimately to provide our students with the opportunities that they need in order to be successful, whether they decide to go to college, to the workforce, or to some additional type of training school. Currently, most of our professions and most of the career pathways that we work with, absolutely need some additional training, you're not going to be able to walk out of high school and you know, just you know, start at a you know, at a company knowing exactly everything you need, you know, and I'll use welding as an example. You don't necessarily know Everything you need. But our goal is by the time they graduate high school, they have all those skills that they need to be a successful worker, as well as walk onto a job site with a knowledge base, and the employer and the company will train them the way that they need to in order for them to be successful in this specific avenue that they're going to be taking. So when we talk career and technical education, virtually being able to work with the students and get them to demonstrate the skills is wholeheartedly challenging. Our students don't necessarily have a welding booth at home, though, well, you would be surprised at actually how many do have the capability of doing some welding at home, but they don't have the same means to you know, access the you know, the skills. So as we look At that as to how are we going to deliver this content virtually? videos only get you so far?
Ray Loewe 15:06
Yeah, fire insurance would really go up
Jennifer Bates 15:11
I won't even talk about the homeowner policy.
Ray Loewe 15:14
So you used to teach this one online you had an Instagram why not one on one yet small classes, right? And and kids would come in meet with their instructor and they learn how to weld. Okay, so what what's going to happen now?
Jennifer Bates 15:27
So as we figure out exactly how are we going to be able to deliver this in a virtual setting? You know, we talked about this presenting opportunities for something new as it moves forward. And in welding specifically, and I've had this conversation with my instructor. You know, Mr. Nick Keefe, who is absolutely amazing. You know, we've looked at these, you know, he pieces of equipment, these computerized devices. It is this wonderful virtual welder. It's a very expensive piece of equipment well over $100,000 to be able to, you know, purchase this equipment. So we clearly never had the means because what school district right now has an extra hundred thousand dollars floating around, And when we look at this virtual welder all of a sudden we're literally in virtual education. So now we need to say, okay, we're going to figure out how are we going to find this money? And how are we going to get this in our students hands, because this is a opportunity that students have to be able to learn how to weld in a simulated fashion and be able to start to demonstrate those skills without needing to have the actual welding booth and the torch and all of the you know, physical equipment that they need to have.
Ray Loewe 16:52
So everybody is safer from that kid that only took welding because they like fire.
Jennifer Bates 16:58
Yeah, there's there's little least once every single year that that's the reason that they take our classes. So again, as as we kind of looked at all right, how are we going to deliver welding? And how are our students really going to be able to practice and hone in on all of these skills that they need to be able to master in order to move forward with their career? We started looking and saying, Okay, how is this going to work? So this piece of equipment is a simulation where the students can learn through the simulated machines, exactly what the particular weld is the the beating that kind of goes in with it. They then have the ability to pick up these handheld almost It looks like a remote control or one of those you know, virtual reality goggles, you know, type sets, where they then can utilize these remotes to then practice this skill, and start to figure out what it looks like. And what they are seeing through this virtual reality is exactly what they would see if they were using the actual torch and the actual fire.
Ray Loewe 18:13
Wow. So they're actually that expands what you can do, because I don't imagine you could take kids and put them up on bridges and weld. And now you can
Jennifer Bates 18:23
absolutely not, but that's one of the pieces that you know, and you mentioned the concept of going on a bridge. If you know how to weld. That's amazing. That's great skills. But welding when you're hanging off the side of the Ben Franklin bridge, that's a whole different skill set. And I'm going to be honest, I don't know how you teach that.
Ray Loewe 18:45
Why I don't want to learn it. Okay,
Jennifer Bates 18:49
so yeah, so now this gives a new opportunity for them to be able to be put in a in a specific type of activity where they can practice safely in order to master their skills without needing to be in class,
KC Dempster 19:07
but eventually they're going to have to be hanging off the bridge.
Jennifer Bates 19:10
But eventually they're going to be hanging off the bridge.
Ray Loewe 19:12
All right, I hate to say that, but we are over time. Okay, so we're going to have to take a quick break and then come back and close up. But yeah, I think you've opened our whole mind to what can be done and add now these kids are going to get a better education because of the fact that getting an education was almost impossible. So Taylor, our last break, please.
Diane Dayton 19:39
You're listening to changing the rules with KC Dempster and Ray Loewe the luckiest guy in the world. We will be right back with more exciting information.
KC Dempster 19:48
Welcome back, everybody. And this has been a really fascinating podcast that I wish I could have gone on twice as long. But but we are restricted By time, it is a rule. And right now we're not breaking or changing that rule. So I just wanted to remind everybody that the luckiest people in the world choose to be lucky. They continue to do things that change their mindsets or enhance their mindsets. And this is something that we encourage everybody to do.
Ray Loewe 20:21
Yeah. And we're gonna do another great show and another great guest in a week. And so everybody, stay tuned to Changing the Rules. And we'll see you again
KC Dempster 20:30
true, Ray and go to WWW.the luckiest people in the world.com to see our website, see everything that we do and give us some feedback. Have a great week, everyone.
Diane Dayton 20:44
Thank you for listening to Changing the Rules, a podcast designed to help you Live your life the way you want, and give you what you need to make it happen. Join us in two weeks for our next exciting topics on Changing the Rules with KC Dempster and Ray Loewe, The Luckiest Guy in the World