Searching for Teeth on the Playground with Neely Trull  

Please note, this transcript is generated by AI and may include some errors. 

Spencer Payne: All right, well, here we are with front of the class, real stories from real educators with Neely Trull. And what is it that you say your job is to other educators in the profession when they ask? How do you introduce yourself?

Neely Trull: Well, first of all, I want to say thank you, Spencer, for inviting me on the podcast. I am so excited to share part of my story and hopes that it inspires somebody else out in the world to jump into this awesome profession that I'm in. And I hope that this is maybe that push for them as well. So I wanted to thank you for that opportunity as well. I'm looking forward to talking with you. I am a first grade teacher at a public school in South Carolina. I'm in my third year of teaching and I have loved every single second of it. And I'm excited to share more about that story.

Spencer Payne: Awesome. so three years, how did you get into teaching in the first place? What drew you to this profession?

Neely Trull: So you would probably find me as that like stereotypical six-year-old that would line all of my stuffed animals in a row when I was in my room when I was younger. Everybody had a name no matter if they were a bear or a frog or a baby doll, no matter who they were, they all had a name. And I had my clipboard and I would go through the roster every single day and I would teach reading and math. And my parents would come into whatever room I was in and they would just find me sitting there teaching. Just, I was just the...

star of the show doing my thing. And that's where I kind of like everything took off from me. My grandmother was an educator for 28 years in my hometown actually. And I remember growing up like we would go to restaurants or we would go to church or we would go somewhere and we'd be sitting down and all of a sudden you would just have somebody come up to us and they might be somebody who's 25. They might be somebody who's 45 who has their kids with them. And they would just say, hey, Miss Trull, like, it's so great to see you. And I would just be sitting there watching like, who is this person? And then they would always walk away and ask my grandmother like, who was that? And they were like, and she said, well, I taught them several years ago, or in my fifth or sixth year teaching.

And I remember in those moments just watching her and the relationship that she had formed where years later her students remember what she looks like, remember the way that she made them feel. And I remember at her funeral, I was 13 and I remember being there looking across the room in her funeral and the people that had come up to us, it was countless, just the amount of people that had come up to us and say, your grandmother was my teacher in fifth grade. And I remember in those moments feeling the impact of what education truly is. And it's not the curriculum that we teach. It's not all of those things that we do on the daily basis. It's that moment 20 years from now where you have students at your funeral or you have students at the restaurant table talking to you. And to this day still, I'll have people come up to me and say, hey, your grandmother was Miss Moon, right? Like she was one of my favorite teachers in the entire world.

And I remember those were the moments that got me into education. was one of those always no brainers for me where I just knew growing up of the teachers would always say, all right, what do you want to be when you grow up? And it was always teacher for me. Like it was never one of those things where I had to battle back and forth between two professions. Like I might occasionally say like, what if I want to do this? But it always brought me back to teaching. And it always brought me back to those moments for her of just remembering all that impact growing up.

Spencer Payne: So yeah, you saw that impact and what it meant to all these people who came up to her. Almost like she's a local celebrity, it sounds like. So she must have been a darn good teacher. If I may ask, what if anything from how she taught, how she approached the profession, maybe did she teach you or what did you learn from some of those folks that what they appreciated about how she taught them that you're applying in your teaching career?

Neely Trull: Yeah.

I think it's one of those things where at the end of the day, she made them feel who they were. She made them know that when they walked out of her classroom or when they left her grade level or her school that year, that she found her most value and where their heart was and who they are on the inside. and it wasn't that value of how they performed in the classroom or their behavior, regardless of who they were, she cared about their souls.

And I think when we talk about teaching all the time, there's so many things that go into it. We've got curriculums, we've got testing, we've got data, we've got interventions. Like there's so many things that go into it, but when you think about it, like the root and the heart of it is the souls that we impact. mean, these are children. Like these are children that are gifts to their parents that are gifts from God. They are so many gifts to so many people. And that is the way she treated them. She treated them like the gifts that they were. And that's what they remembered. I remember them growing up to me or going up to me in public and them always saying like, I remember the way that she made me feel on my birthday. I remember the way that she made me feel when I got into an argument with a friend. I remember the way that she made me feel when I was facing a challenge and she empowered me in that moment.

And I think those are the moments that stick with me as an educator now of The way that yes, at the end of the day, we do have a job to do of teaching, but also our bigger job is to do is to touch a soul. And that's the biggest thing that she left with me there.

Spencer Payne: Thank you for sharing that. And how, if at all, do you do that today? Like, how do you try to take some of the magic of what she did, but with your own personality, and try to touch those first grade souls? Like, any examples you could share, or how do you approach that? How do you think about the ability to do that in your own way today?

Neely Trull: I think one of the biggest ways that I even approach parents at the beginning of the year, I share that, you know, these are 180 days that I am spending with your child. In retrospect, it doesn't feel like a long time and they're one out of 18 years in public schools. But at the same time, in those 180 days, I'm spending seven hours a day with them where you're maybe only taking three. And so I think that's one of the biggest things that I come across to parents too is saying, I am more invested in your child's wellbeing as a human rather than just their academics.

And yes, academics are so important. I always say like in parent teacher conferences or things like that of like, I want to talk about who your child is as them. And that is what I love to celebrate. And I think going back to my grandmother and going back to the relationships that she had with people, it was how she celebrated them. It was how she made them feel. was how, like I said, she empowered them to feel like they have a purpose. And that was the biggest thing for me. And the way that I share that in my classroom now,

I have a saying on my wall that says together we can change the world. And so like I'm a first grade teacher and so my students are on the younger side. They're in that primary age, six and seven years old. But even though at that young age, I want them to still feel that who they are is what's going to make a difference out in the world for them everything that every the smarts that they have or maybe whatever that may look like for them. I want them to know that their attitude, their personality, how they treat people, that's the way they can change the world. I mean, we're doing things constantly in our classroom that are talking about celebrating ourselves, talking about solving our accomplishments, celebrating things that were hard for us and the way we overcame through that too.

That's the biggest thing to me is I want a child to walk away and I hope that that's the way I'm reflecting my grandmother's teaching philosophy too, is I want them to walk away feeling empowered when they walk out of my classroom.

Spencer Payne: And we're recording this now in mid May. That means we're coming up on summer. Some of these kids are going to be walking out of your classroom fairly soon. What does this time of the year mean to you? What do you hope maybe they walk out of your classroom in a couple of weeks and carry with them into the summer and into next year?

Neely Trull: I mean, first of all, it's crazy that we're already at that point of the year where we're just kind of reflecting on all the things that are ending. We had a conversation in my classroom yesterday just about how the end of things just bring about so many different feelings. Like we've got feelings of nerves heading into a new grade level. We've got feelings of excitement going into summer. We've also got feelings of sadness, like leaving a school year behind all of that too. And we talk about feelings constantly in our classroom and just the way that the way we feel.

Also is the way that we approach things and how important it is to share those feelings too. I think for me like this class this year and every year has just been so special in the way we're able to form a family in our classroom, the way we're able to make the connections in our classroom. And that's the biggest thing is I want my second graders next year, my first graders now to look back on this year, maybe even when they're in fifth grade, in 12th grade, in college.

And maybe even our age, I want them to look back on this year and remember the way they felt in this classroom. And I always tell them all the time, I'm like, boys and girls, in 20 years, nobody's gonna ask you what your test score was. Nobody's gonna ask you how you did on this assignment. What they are gonna ask you is, what do you feel like you are doing to show kindness in the world? What do you feel like you are doing to treat people and care for people? And I hope those are the lessons that they've walked away with from our classroom. It's more about who you are.

Spencer Payne: Yep. And again, we're almost at the wrap up of this school year. What are you looking forward to? Anything in particular over the next month, three months, maybe six months, anything in particular, maybe that you hope this particular class wraps up well, things you're looking forward to in summer, or maybe things that you want to try or test out for your next school year. When that comes up, I'm sure sooner than we all expect it will hit soon. Anything you're looking forward to.

Neely Trull: I think as educators specifically, know, as humans, we're always growing and changing and evolving. And the importance of that is so crucial that we always see the importance of getting better. And especially as educators, our profession is one of those professions where things are never going to stop. Like new research is always coming out, new things are always coming out to try and to implement.

I've already got my to-do lists if you want to call it for next year of all the things that I want to do differently, just kind of jotting them down throughout the year of, I think next year I might do this activity differently or something like that. So speaking of my own professional ways, that's kind of where I'm seeing myself right now is just taking the things that went well this year, continuing them, things that might not have gone so well, a dumpster fire, if you will, and changing those into things that might go even better next year. in my own professional development, like I was saying, we're always changing.

I think it's so great as educators that we always have a step in front of us. I'm a very, like, begin with the end in mind in person. And I think that's one of the biggest things as educators we can be. And so I'm maybe looking into starting my master's this upcoming summer or in the upcoming school year too, and just furthering those advancements of learning.

Spencer Payne: Yep, awesome. And you mentioned you want to maybe continue doing something that worked really well this year, next year, or maybe that dumpster fire of a day. I'm going to tweak a little bit. Any specific examples of something that, you know, a particular day, a particular lesson, a particular response to a common problem that a first year old has anything that, that you can share in more detail of something that went really well that you kind of were like, I want to bottle that up. I want to do that again. Or anything on the other side of like, handle that well. Here's maybe how I wish I would have handled that for next year. Any specific examples that you could share?

Neely Trull: And just thinking off the top of my head and going back to that professional development, one thing I think that is so great that as teachers, we are often offered so many opportunities for growing and changing. A lot of research has come out recently, just specific to math instruction that I've been doing. There is a new method of teaching that's recently come out called building thinking classrooms. So would suggest for any upcoming teacher or any current teacher right now to kind of take a look at that if they're doing their math instruction.

It's kind of transformed math instruction from putting a lot of emphasis on the teacher directly teaching things and kind of shifting the narrative a little bit. So instead of the teacher directly teaching something, the teacher will pose a question and then the teacher, excuse me, the students will solve the task or the students will solve the method of the way they want to learn. And I always say in something that I said in my school very frequently is the person that is doing the work is the person that's doing the learning.

And that's kind of something I've shifted into my classroom this year with that math instruction of going back into and changing just the way I teach. And so it's kind of changed a lot of the different ways I do things too and other aspects or other subjects is just making sure that my students are the ones doing the heavy lifting, that they're the ones that see the power of their learning.

Spencer Payne: Awesome. And I love to talk stories, proudest moments, tough days, tough, how do you bounce back? So we'll start with the funnest of those. Are there any coolest, most enjoyable, proudest moments in the classroom? Again, it's only been three years, but still I'd imagine there might be a couple moments that surface, things that maybe you still look back on and you're just like, that was such a good experience or such a good day. So any proudest moments, coolest experiences? Things like that in your career that you are able or willing to share.

Neely Trull: So like you said, like three years, like doesn't seem that a lot of time, like when you think about like seasoned teachers that have been in this profession forever. But like you said, every day has an adventure in itself too. Somebody actually told me this right before I started my first year of keeping a notebook of just writing down all of the things that were said to you that may have been just funny or the main things that have happened where you're just like, man, I just cannot believe that happened to me. Just kind of moments like that.

And I have that on my own notebook of that. It's actually sitting behind my desk right now just as a good thing to go back through and flip through for reminders of when those hard days do come, because they do come, going back through and reading those. In privacy for my students, I will not share like student-specific stories, but just overall for like funny stories and memorable stories, I know that you could probably go in my school's video system and find a video of me on all fours doing an army crawl, looking for a tooth on the playground. So that was a fun story to tell.

I had a student where we had been like wiggling that tooth for like days. It felt like that tooth just could not come out. I mean, I was emailing the parents of just like we're trying our hardest, the students at home trying it. And one day we're out on the playground and then I just see like five students like barreling over to me like they lost the tooth and we don't know where it is. And it's somewhere on the playground and kids are playing soccer. So like you could probably pull up the video camera and see me like marching over to the soccer field. had to halt the entire soccer game. Be like, all right, guys, we got to stop. Everybody's on the ground looking for this tooth.

And you would just see like me and like my full figure frame, just like army crawling across the playground looking tooth which so we were so thankful that we found it like it came to be we found that tooth I remember like taking a picture of it in that moment and like emailing the mom instantly just like celebrating in that moment but that's one of my greatest stories to sell of just like that is that is what teaching is that is the real life of like when you show up here like you think you're just teaching math science and things but you're actually looking for teeth on the playground especially when they're younger but that's one of my favorite stories to tell I'm just like the funny times

Spencer Payne: Found it.

Neely Trull: I also think like just getting to the serious like the meat behind what we do. Like I said before, I have that together we can change the world sign in my classroom. And I started that last year actually. And I remember this year I had a student where all year long we've been working through just like writing and seeing the power of that getting them to express themselves. And I remember sitting on the carpet teaching a writing lesson and we were talking about persuasion and what that means to try to get others to believe what you believe. And I remember that student just sitting there and all of a sudden you just hear this big gasp. And I just looked down and I was like, what, what is it? And he goes, my goodness, this is how I'm going to change the world. And I remember sitting in that moment and I was like, tell me more, what do you mean?

And he was like, well, not everybody's going to get to hear me, but everybody could read my story that I wrote. And that is how I could get somebody to change the world. And I truly remember sitting there and there were tears falling from my eyes in that moment. Like I said before, I would know that I'm doing my right job if my students are learning. But that is the fulfillment of what I've been called to do is just knowing in that moment of in the hardest of days in the craziest of struggles and the triumphs and all of those moments that that student right there felt what it meant that they at six years old have the power to change the world.

Spencer Payne: Yeah. One thing you said there at the beginning was that I do want to highlight is that concept of taking notes and kind of remembering some of those positive moments. I'll never forget that a baseball coach of mine in high school shared a quote that I still quote to people I never forget, which is something along the lines of the shortest pencil is worth more than the longest memory. Because if you write something down, you're going to remember it versus if you just hope that you remember it, it's fleeting. It's amazing how many things you think you'll remember.

You read a book or you watched a movie and you're like, oh yeah. Well, I did watch that. What was that about again? I don't remember So writing things down the shortest pencil is worth more than a longest memory You're gonna you're gonna want to remember some of those moments and I'll even share. Yeah, go ahead. No, go ahead

Neely Trull: I think that's so special. Oops, sorry, I interrupt you. No, I'm so sorry. But I think that's so special to like you had that moment with a coach. And I think that's one of those things of on when we're on this earth and there's just.

We have people all around us and our moments with people are what shape us and who we are. Like we have experiences and we have things like that where we go through a trial or something unfortunate happens or we have a victory, whatever that may look like. And you're gonna look back and like maybe those moments seem fuzzy, but you remember what people say to you. And I think like going back to your story, like you just said, you're always gonna remember how somebody made you feel.

And so I think like that relates so well to that story, like you just said of whatever it may have said to you, might've made you feel on top of the world. It might've made you feel on the contrary, but you're always gonna remember what people say to you and how they make you feel. And I think that's such a valuable testament of our relationship to people as humans and how much power we have in that relationship too.

Spencer Payne: could not have said that any better myself. that point that you're making of people don't necessarily remember, I remember that specific language, but people might not remember the language. They remember how you made them feel. They might not remember what the topic was even about, but they'll remember how you made them feel. Like that is a very powerful.

That is one of those things that you might learn when you're eight and 10 and 12 and 14 and 16, but you forget and you have to just keep relearning some of these timeless principles. And that is one of them. That seems like you got to see from all those examples of your grandma, of all the people who showed her how she made them feel. And that's carried with you, which is a really powerful thing to continue to hold onto, because it's a really important thing to remember.

On another side, any tough moments, any really down days, any tough days where you're like, you know, you're going home and you're, you know, maybe you can't sleep that night. Anything that caused that again, not necessarily share students names. That's not the point of it, but is there any really tough days or tough moments in your career so far? And then, and then ultimately, how do you, how do you bounce back? How do you get back to your, your normal self again? Any, any advice to share with others on that?

Neely Trull: I think that in the education world, there's so many things that are talked about with teachers, just like the way that an impact can be made, the way that you can learn something new, the way you can have the conversations. I do feel like something that is not talked about enough is just those hard times. And I think as educators, we are in a profession where that darkness can start to creep in very easily.

I think for myself, just speaking, I'm in my first three years and there is a lot of, guess stigma would be the word, there is a lot of stigma of what goes on in the first few years of teaching. Research shows that within the first years of teaching, that's when the most burnout happens. And I think for myself, just in reflecting on my own experiences, it would be unfair for me to just talk about the constant high, high highs of teaching without making it known that teaching is hard some days. And I think people need to understand that and see that and feel that. I think that one of the things that kind of opened the door to that was the COVID pandemic, where people were at home with their students or they were becoming the teachers through the screens or things like that, or whether that may look like, and that kind of opened the eyes of many people of the reality of education sometimes, but I don't think that's never talked enough.

I think that we should always be having the conversations that teacher burnout is real, regardless if you are in your first year, your third year like myself or year 17. I think that, and speaking of my own, that first year most definitely is gonna be one of your hardest years teaching because you feel like you are drowning. Honestly, it's one of those things where like the to-do list is going on forever, you're trying to get your feet in the ground of what this is supposed to look like. You're managing so many things at one time or also having a personal life outside of it too and you've got to walk away sometimes.

So that is the moment for me that I would say of just like, there were a lot of days within that first year of teaching where I think just overall morale can get low of just like, I don't know if I feel like I can continue just kind of like dredging through all of these days moving forward. So in speaking of my own personal experiences, that's what I would say. I think everybody goes through different highs and lows, valleys and mountains in their life where personal experiences are also going to lead into that hard moments of teaching too. But just overall for me, going back to your question, the hardest moment of teaching, I think for myself is just like in those moments of that first year of just like feeling like I was just constantly just trying to stay above water.

And that's what I would always say. I always say that now to teachers who are entering the career or who are in the undergraduate or the graduate course study of becoming a teacher is making sure that you are advocating for yourself within that first year of just taking care of when you feel like you're drowning, you need to go find somebody else. Or when you feel like you can't do it anymore at school, you need to walk away for the day because it will be there tomorrow too.

And that's the biggest advice I always tell people. And honestly, I'm still learning that myself. And so I think that's one of those things where sometimes I can be preaching to the choir, if you want to call it that way. That's the biggest thing I would say is like just one of those hard moments of that morale and that stigma of just like, it's going to get hard some days, we need to talk about that, we need to talk about the resources that teachers have to mentally pull out of that. And I think that mental health side of it is so important too

Spencer Payne: And how, how do you get yourself back on track after one of those hard days or who do you draw strength from? Who, who, who's your inner circle? Um, who, helps get you back on track? Like how, how, when you're feeling those, those tough days and, gosh, you need a break or maybe you're wondering, I, I, I don't know if I can go in tomorrow. Like, how do you draw strength? Who's your inner circle? Like where, where do you go to tap back into maybe your

I don't know, your core energy to get back on track and get back to being yourself and the great teacher that you are again.

Neely Trull: I think it's just remembering there's often just like that, remember your why behind it. And I think that's one of those things that teachers hear a lot is remember your why, but we need to talk about what that means for people. I think that means different things. For some people, it might mean you need to make sure that you're working to live. You need to make sure that you're working to support a family, like whatever that may look like.

I think for myself and just the bounce back because it is talked about so differently for people, I think I always remember that when I walk into the classroom the next day, that there's still going to be 18, 19, 20 faces who are gonna think that I'm just the coolest person in the entire world. And that's the best part about me is just like, I know that I can walk into a space where no matter how...

how tough I'm feeling no matter how hard on myself I am of just like I still have children around me who are so pure in their souls, who are so genuine in their souls that still love you regardless. So that is the thing for me that keeps that bounce back going. But like I said, it's different for other people. And I think for other people, that goes back to taking care of who you are. So making sure that you're still finding time for your values outside of work. One of the biggest things that I've learned in my career of these three years is finding your people. I think that's one of those things. Like there's a song right now called, Your People Out. And I can't remember who it's by, but I listen to it constantly because it's one of those things where outside of education, we can take it.

But inside of education, that's one of the biggest things is you got to find your people. I remember like walking into my school. I luckily did my student teaching at my school that I teach at right now. So I had a lot of good relationships prior to but just making yourself able to help it out with extracurricular activities, like getting involved in clubs, like meeting other people that way too. Just making sure that you're finding your people who you can go talk to, not about things in the classroom, who you can go talk to about how you're feeling, or you can just sit there and talk about what you did this weekend to kind of like bring yourself back into check, or kind of like you said, bringing back into your inner circle, making sure that you're still grounded and making sure you're still able to give your best effort because you're mentally taken care of.

And so that's the biggest thing for me is just finding people in your school that you have, of course, keeping your people outside of your school too that you can talk to, but just knowing that the little people who are there too are the people who see you shine the most.

Spencer Payne: Yep. And, one thing you mentioned a little bit earlier that I'm going to bring back up again is your, your slogan or your kind of theme for your class that you just added last year. things like that. there any consistent things that you do in the classroom that just seemed to work really well for you? Like, like your togetherness slogan that you can change the world, that you're surprised maybe more people don't do again, you're only three years in. So maybe you're still experimenting with things, but that one as an example of kind of having that slogan or that that theme of your classroom, anything else like that that you've tried or that you do that just seems to work really well for you that that you're maybe surprised other people don't do more of things like that.

Neely Trull: I will say like as coming into beginning teachers, I know that's one of the biggest things that we've talked about through this podcast is making sure that as a beginning teacher, you are putting yourself out there to go look into other classrooms and to go see what other teachers are doing that you may maybe could modify or implement or change into your classroom. So that's one of the biggest things for me. I feel like I was able to do in my first two years was going into as many classrooms as I could.

And so I, like you said, in three years and there's going to be a lot of things that I don't even know yet that teachers do. So there's going to be things that I do. And then somebody else is going to be like, Oh, I've been doing that for a year. So it's going to be a different approach that goes into that. also think like, as teachers were never meant to be on Island, like we're constantly bouncing ideas off each other, whether that be with your grade level team, learning community that you're in at your school.

So I would never feel like I have done so much that nobody's ever done before. There's always ways that we can be getting better in that way. I think one of the biggest things for me that I do hope that other teachers are able to do and hope that other teachers are able to implement in their classrooms. One of the biggest things that's talked about in education right now is behavior and how a lot of behaviors from students, from parents, whatever that may be alike can sometimes kind of contribute to just that stigma of just teacher retention and teacher burnout and things like that. One of the biggest things for me, what I've kind of trying to been do in my own classroom in the last few years is figuring out the precedence behind behavior. I think that's one of the biggest things right now that I'm learning and working through because like I said, my whole...

My whole mantra behind what I'm doing is that well-being of the child. And that's the biggest thing that I hope that other teachers are doing as well. So I'm not sure if I'm doing it and they're not. I'm not really sure this could be something that I'm doing that other teachers have been doing for a while. And I'm just kind of new to the game in that sense. But a lot of times when I am, whether that be dealing with a behavior or maybe if I'm at home at eight o'clock at night, like trying to figure out why something may have happened at school today, I'm always trying to go back and find that precedent of what may have stimulated that behavior, what may have caused that reaction, what may have led to that moment.

And that's one of those things for me is where I tried to meet them where they're at and try to have those conversations of building meaningful connections behind the precedence of anything that could happen in the classroom. A lot of who we are as people, comes from where we've come from in our past. So whether that may be a trauma response, maybe that'd be a sensitivity, whatever that may look like. And so right now, one of the biggest things that I'm trying to implement, like I said, I don't know if other people do, is just figuring out the why behind certain things that happen for people. Just maybe why is somebody responding to situations that way? What can I do to help that person or that student learn how to compromise better from maybe a situation that has happened in the past to them?

Spencer Payne: And one thing you said there that I want to highlight also is this concept of just going in and observing and watching other people and the way that they conduct their classroom. It doesn't necessarily mean that you're going to teach math the same way that they do. It might be about how you open the first 30 seconds of the classroom to get everyone's attention. There might be someone who's really great at that that you can learn from. And there's a fun thing you can do when you just watch five, 10, 15, 20 other people do something. Take a little bit of this. When I want to take a little bit of that and you can kind of sprinkle your own cake mix or your omelet or your cocktail or whatever it is, and just go take a couple ingredients from a couple people of what you like and kind of make it your own.

And you'll never do that unless you observe and watch what other people are doing and learn to appreciate, I want to do more of that. I don't want to do it that way, but I do want to do more of it that way. That feels like me. It's a great advice for people who are early in their teaching experience. Just go watch other people and see how good ones are doing it and steal the best parts of what you like that they're doing really well.

Neely Trull: Mm-hmm.

Yeah, absolutely. And that's one of those things too, I think, where like you said, is there something that you do that maybe you're surprised other teachers don't do? I think it's one of those things where you're able to take things that you, like you said, take things that you really like and maybe put your own kind of style and flair on them. And that's one of the biggest things that I feel like maybe might be a little bit different in my classroom is just taking a little bit of a different spin on things. Maybe taking a little bit of different spin on the way that we approach behavior or the way that we approach problem solving in our classroom too. Like you said, it's being able to go around like we've talked about before, education's always constantly evolving. So you wanna be around teachers and you wanna be watching teachers who are evolving too and who are also moving themselves forward professionally. And so you're able to take that and implement that into your own classroom as well.

Spencer Payne: 100 % and a couple more rapid fire, maybe quicker, quicker hitter type questions as we wrap up. You alluded to something a little earlier, but I want to highlight this. What, what is the number one piece of advice that you would give to a new teacher or someone who maybe again, it's may maybe their first year teaching is going to be coming up in August. So maybe first year or about to have their first year. What's the number one piece of advice you might give to a new teacher who's in that situation?

Neely Trull: Mm-hmm.

I think kind of tying in something else to this is going back to like the hard parts about teaching. One of the biggest things that I would give advice to future teachers also goes into something that has kind of been harder for me in the past that I'm kind of working through now is just the concept of not letting the outside noise come in. I think that in education, it's very hard for the darkness to creep in, in the sense of the never ending to do list, in the sense of all of the things that you have to accomplish in a day's work. And so going into that darkness is not letting it creep in when it's trying to, it's just letting yourself continue to shine through. And I think that's also what I tell or what I would tell any beginning or future teachers is being vulnerable.

I think it's one of those things that is the biggest part for me is allowing yourself to talk about when that darkness is coming in. So whether that be in your mental health side or whether that be of you don't know what in the world you're doing and you say to have a conversation with somebody about it. That's the biggest thing for me is the vulnerability because so often I feel like the beginning teacher, you kind of feel like you have to have it all going on. You kind of have to feel like, all right, I've got to be ready every single part of the day. I've got to have this copy made. I've got to have this thing printed. I've got to have this slideshow ready.

And so I think it can be really hard in those moments to be vulnerable and to say like, need help or to go to your principal and say, I'm not really sure what to do with this type of behavior or this type of conference I need to have and being vulnerable. I think so often like people always say like if you're a first year teacher, like don't stay so late or say leave your work or leave your work at school or whatever that may be. But I think that overall just encompasses that piece of vulnerability and being able to admit like, all right, I've got to take a step back here and I've got to recognize that me who I am is going to come first and I've got to take care of who I am and in the professional side of things if I do need help I need to find the people that can help me and if I do need to be vulnerable in those moments and raise my hand and say I have no idea what you guys are talking about in a staff meeting I can do that and so I think that's the biggest thing I would say to any beginning teacher is just recognize that vulnerability is a good thing that means that you have more things to learn.

Spencer Payne: And I'll add a quote, I recall your point of, how can you build others if you haven't built yourself first? That's something I remember. I can't remember who said that to me 25 plus years ago. But it was like, oh, yeah, that's right. Like if I'm coming from a place where I'm frustrated or I don't know that thing, how can I help anybody else? So you've got to build yourself first and be kind of at good strength before you can help build this classroom of 20 kids that are in your room.

And that concept of being vulnerable, I wanna highlight potentially a way to do that is it's one thing to go to another teacher, principal, whatever it may be. Like, I'm so frustrated, I don't know what to do. You might feel that way, but the other person doesn't necessarily know how to help you in that moment. And it's another thing to potentially go in. And I heard another teacher share this earlier, something along the lines of like, this is a bit of a funny story, but it was like.

I'm writing this classroom, but I desperately have to go to the bathroom. Can you just give me a five minute break so I can go do that? I'll be right back. but, but that's a, that's a funny example of this. But the point being is you're, you're asking for a very specific short-term help from somebody. and that's, that's easier for the listener or the person you're being vulnerable to, to come back and be able to say, sure, I got you. Or maybe I recommend you go do this. that was a funny example.

You could go deeper of Hey, I'm having this behavior. This child continues to be hitting me. I've said this, this and this, and they still hit me three times a day. What have you seen that that can stop this? Because I'm at my wits end. That way you're again, you're bringing an issue saying here's what I've done asking for genuine help that can sometimes warrant a much better response than just I'm so frustrated with student X. What do I do? The other person, the person you're asking advice might be like, I don't even I don't know what's the issue. Like, what is the issue first?

So it helps to define the issue sometimes and then go ask for very specific help. And oftentimes you'll be amazed at the help that you get back when you're able to do that part first.

Neely Trull: And I think that's so important just to talk with people. And I think that's one of those lessons as just humans, we can learn of the importance of vulnerability of you don't have to have it together all the time. Like if you need to go to the bathroom, that's okay. Like in just even those simplest moments like that, you don't have to have everything, all of your ducks in a row constantly because it's gonna get done. It always will.

And at the end of the day, if you are loving kids and they walk away from your classroom knowing that you care about them, that's what matters. And that's the biggest thing I would tell anybody coming in is it's okay to have those moments of I need help or I can't do this. And you're still a great teacher. Like no matter what kind of help you need or what kind of help you're gonna ask for or what about the things that you don't know about that you're supposed to teach tomorrow, that's okay. You're still a great teacher.

Spencer Payne: Yep, thank you for sharing that. And you mentioned earlier that maybe this coming year, you might be pursuing your masters. Can you share a little bit about, you know, why? What do you hope to gain out of that? And what potentially does that unlock for you after you've completed it?

Neely Trull: Well, you know, one of those biggest things that we kind of really haven't talked about that, you know, that pay scale that comes to be from teachers is definitely from that side of it, just putting that little funny hint into it as well. But I think just overall, like I said, we're always learning and growing as teachers. We always want to get better. I am one of those people I can never sit still. And so I always want to make sure that I am growing and advancing in my career.

The career path that I'm kind of leaning towards and hoping to get to is interventions. That's kind of my next goal. And so the masters that I'm hoping to pursue will kind of help me lead towards that next part of education that I want to get into. I love the value and I love the power of growth. And I think that's something that we definitely need to celebrate more as educators. We always often can maybe go back to like the one test score or the one thing at the end of the year, but we want to celebrate the growth too just overall with our students.

So I think in that world of intervention, you see so much growth and you see so many moments of a student looking at you and that light bulb popping on in their head of like, yes, I've got this. And so that's the biggest thing I'm looking forward to going back to your question of just kind of like pushing through that masters of learning more about the career and learning more about the specific side that I want to go into it. I think just continuing down along the road, I love the aspect of just maybe exploring curriculum and instruction and the way that things can be helping other teachers to learn and grow and evolve. And so I feel like this first step of the masters might push me there.

Spencer Payne: And what to you is the single one best thing about this profession?

Neely Trull: Oh, you know what I'm going to say is those kids. It's just those kids every single day. It's just like I said, like I said, in one of our first moments of talking with just the souls, the souls that you constantly get to talk to every single day. I always say like one of my favorite things in the entire world is seeing a student outside of school in their element.

And so whether that be going to a baseball game, whether that be going to a ballet recital, or even going to a birthday party of a student, seeing them who they are outside of school and seeing them in that element is one of my favorite parts about what I do. And seeing who they are and who they come to be in the grade level that I'm in. And so the way that they can walk into a classroom feeling a little bit more maybe timid or reserved, and then maybe at the end of day 180, they walk out feeling like they're on top of the world.

That's what makes everything so meaningful and worthwhile to me is just those souls and the way that you're able to touch somebody beyond curriculum, the way that you're able to leave an impact beyond just the work that you would do every single day. I love seeing now. I didn't get to see this obviously my first year.

But now I have students who are in second and third grade who are leaving notes and putting them in my classroom or their parents are reaching out and emailing it to me saying, Miss Troll, you have no idea how much like we care about you, how much that you may have like left an impact or the way you may have cared about so and so student. And so those are the moments where I know that what I'm doing is so worthwhile. It's just those souls that you're able to be a part of for 180 days and beyond.

Spencer Payne: And on the other side, what is the single worst or hardest thing about this profession? Or if there was one, if you had a magic wand and you could point it at one thing and change it overnight, where would you point that magic wand?

Neely Trull: I think going back to that hard part of just letting the darkness creep in, I think that's one of the biggest things I feel like in my own teaching career, I wish that I could just remove constantly is just that darkness. One of my favorite things that I say to my students and just around the world too is don't yuck, someone else is yum.

And I think like for me, that means like if somebody's feeling so incredible about what they do and who they are, it's not your job to yuck that for them. And so I think that's for me is when the darkness can sometimes creep in of the negativity behind education or whatever that may look like for people out in the world or things like that, just not letting that creep into my soul. And I think that's one of the things that is one of the hardest parts for me about what we do is sometimes allowing that darkness to creep in too much. And so right now, I think one of the biggest lessons I'm learning to push out of that is finding the light. So finding the moment of victory for that day or finding a way to reach out to a coworker and check in on them about their personal life. And so just finding ways to yum someone else's yuck on the contrary too.

And so I think that's one of my favorite parts about like trying push through the hardest part of education right now is being able to find the positives out of it. But I would definitely say like that's one of the hardest parts for me about the job that we do is just all that noise that can creep in so easily. And then sometimes feeling like you're surrounded by that noise and you want to make sure that you're pushing your way out.

Spencer Payne: 100%. And last question, any final new words of wisdom, anything that you haven't shared or we haven't talked about yet that you would like to share to teachers, new teachers, prospective teachers out there, or anything that you've already said so far that you feel like is just so important that you just want to say it one more time.

Neely Trull: I think just going back to if you are a future teacher or if you are somebody who's getting into the profession is just knowing and resting the fact of you're gonna do a great job. I think that's the biggest thing for me is comparison can come in so easily whether you're comparing yourself to another teacher across the hall or another teacher in the school or whatever that may look like. And as a first or a second year teacher, that can be extremely hard is that aspect of comparison of just like, what if I'm not doing good enough? What if my kids aren't learning enough? What if I'm not teaching things the right way of you're going to do a great job no matter what? That's the biggest thing is I would tell somebody. And like I said before, you are empowering students. You are empowering, more importantly, kids to have the skills and the knowledge, but most importantly, the personality and the life skills to be successful in the future.

And no matter the way you deliver that instruction or how you ever may handle that situation, you're doing a great job and you need to rest in that fact. So that's the biggest thing I would say, kind of like wrapping up everything I've said, plus kind of beyond of any future teacher of no matter what kind of comparison or doubt or worry may creep in, if you are putting forth your best effort and the fact that you're worrying that you're good enough is telltale sign enough that you're doing a great job.

Spencer Payne: Perfect, well Neely, thanks so much for sharing your story, certainly real stories from real educators with Neely Trull. Thanks so much for sharing with us.

Neely Trull: Thank you so much for having me, Spencer.