17 Years of Real-Life Teaching Wisdom with Lucas Gaffey 

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

 

Spencer Payne [Podcast Host]: Right, here we are with some real stories in teaching with Lucas Gaffey. Lucas, can you shed a little light on where you teach, for how long, on what subject, what age groups, all that kind of stuff, so people have a feel for where you sit in that teaching profession?  

 

Lucas Gaffey [Podcast Guest]: Yeah, so I've been teaching now for 17 years. 

The entire time I've been within the Seattle Public Schools District, and also the entire time in high school. So grades 9th, 12th, my endorsements are in physics and math. So I've taught basically all math subjects. And physics along with physical science, which is like ninth grade science and a couple others here and there like astronomy. 

So I've kind of been all over the hard sciences and math.  

 

Spencer Payne: Okay, awesome. what drew you into teaching in the first place? How did you actually get your start in this profession and say, yes, this is what I'm going to go do.  

 

Lucas Gaffey: So my older brother, my half brother was nine years older than me. 

One of my most fun memories from high school was having him be my substitute teacher, and he's just hilarious, and everybody thought he was great, and, that happened a couple of times. 

So, you know, you always look up to your older brother, and you thought, well, if he can do it, that's a path for me at some point. My interests coming out of high school were math and physics, like that's what I was drawn to, that's what I enjoyed, I didn't like writing papers or doing a lot of stuff, but, working in a lab and solving problems, I always found to be fun and also, typically kind of came easily to me, so I appreciated that, so I just kind of went in that direction and thought, well, I'm just going to go in this direction and also I could always teach and I kind of liked the idea of stand up comedy as well as something, but I never quite had the guts to try. 

So I feel like you take that physics background, comedy background, you get science teacher.  

 

Spencer Payne: Awesome. And what's kept you in it for that amount of time, or maybe more. So you've got this older brother who you saw teach when you were in junior high, high school, you thought that might be fun. 

How did that bridge stay connected through like, yes, I'm going to now be a teacher. And then ultimately what's kept you doing it for 17 years? What keeps you coming back? 

 

Lucas Gaffey: Well, getting into it, it took me a while. I moved around a lot, after high school and ended up bouncing back to Seattle, where I am now, because my mom was ill and, I just had to cut college short where I was going into Eastern. I was really close to my physics degree. 

Originally, I was going in for physics, like a physics endorsement and a bachelor's in education. Chopped that short and came to Seattle and just got a physics, bachelor of physics. And then kind of want to be around my mom as she was near the end. And then with that, I was like, well, what can I do now? 

I was working at a Japanese restaurant where you could continue to work there and live in the city. But I was like, you know, I, the teaching ideas here, it's a short. The school I went to Seattle university, it was four quarters. 

It was kind of expensive, but it was only four quarters. You're out teaching or forget it. They help you find a job, that idea of you're trained to do a job. You know, you don't just graduate with some degree. And you're like, now what do I do? this is like, you're trained for something here. We'll help you get a job and boom. 

Once I was in, even though it's very nerve wracking the first couple of years, I sort of have a feel for it. And you see it in the profession. There are some people who just aren't really comfortable in front of. 25 to 35 kids talking. And even though I was a relatively shy younger person, when you're talking to younger people, at least for me, it's a lot easier, especially if you know what you're talking about. 

It came easy and the kids, you know, I really, I'm lucky to have a reasonable sense of humor. Kids enjoyed the classes and. That's another thing is I usually get a lot of positive feedback from students and everybody likes to hear nice things, you know, so that's another draw. Like, if you're hearing positive things, it's easy to come back. 

One of the highlights about teaching. That a lot of people mention is you get a fresh start every year. So if you have a bad year and you're like, Oh man, I'm not sure about this. You might be teaching a whole different subject, the final year. Like if you're a math teacher, for instance, you might go from teaching algebra one in ninth graders to pre calculus and seniors the next year. 

It's tough to just after one year be like that's it and be done when the next year has so many possibilities.  

 

Spencer Payne: Yeah, and I do want to come back to some of that maybe first couple years and advice for young teachers here in a second, but I also want to highlight this concept of when you hear good feedback,  

it tends to lead you to keep going where if you don't hear that feedback, maybe you're like, I don't know if I'm good. I don't know if people actually like this. So I do want to highlight that as just general advice out there for people listening is like when you see someone do a good job, just please tell them, like, just please give them that affirmation and that feedback that you appreciate what they're doing. 

And they're doing a good job because it typically does go a really long way.  

 

Lucas Gaffey: Yeah, it does. It sticks with you.  

 

Spencer Payne: Been doing this for 17 years, kind of hard sciences, math played all across different levels of high school, but still, even after that, is there anything in particular that's energizing you at work? Like, after you've been doing this for so long, what is there to still keep looking forward to or try or do differently, or what maybe is energizing you kind of looking forward in the next, say, 12 months, three months, pick your time frame. 

 

Lucas Gaffey: So as far as thinking about this is, oh, there's got to be some sort of repetitiveness over 17 years. Granted, each year is different, and part of that, you kind of like that way, it saves you some planning. You're like, okay, I know what's coming up next. However, you know, been in the game as long as I have, I'm seeing like the generational shift in just youth in general. 

So it's interesting to see how much things have changed. When I was first teaching, kids probably thought of me as that like fun young teacher, and I have now become this older guy who has no idea what they're talking about. They're like, Oh, did you see this on the flip plan? 

I'm like, I have no idea what you're talking about.  

 

Spencer Payne: So I guess is that what you're looking forward to? You want to download the flimflam app and be?  

 

Lucas Gaffey: See where things lead. Like, for instance, we got a brand new math curriculum that works. 

I'd like to see that be changed. I'd like to be an agent of that change and it has some good things and some, so so things. I'd like to see those sort of merge with our older stuff and, changes in the curriculum that I'd like to pursue and have happen. 

And not only that, it's fun to see what new teachers we get. There's actually a fair amount of turnover and working with new people is always good, but I guess just kind of seeing what happens with this next generation and how things change.  

 

Spencer Payne: Awesome. And as you look back on that 17 year career in this profession, I'm curious to uncover some stories, fun ones, wild ones, the proud ones,  

so I'm curious as you look back, you know, does anything stand out as a coolest most enjoyable or proudest moment or something that you know when you think about it you kind of still smile or light up because You know the outcome was just so good that maybe you or your team or one of your students did something that just made you feel So proud or made you light up does anything come to mind ? 

 

Lucas Gaffey: I think, a lot of people get into this for the relationship building idea, not only are you building relationships with kids, and I happen to live in this part of town, so it's kids in my community, and you feel like you're making a positive contribution to society here, so you get that kind of bonus from the job, a lot of teachers, when you ask them this question, it would be about hearing from students later on, even people I know who are elementary school teachers, like fifth grade teachers will tell me how a kid reached out to them when they were in high school  

But for me being in high school, it's students reaching out to me or running into them in public, you know, years later, when they're in their twenties or something like that, or some have a couple of the best ones were kids emailing me from college and telling me that they had chosen to become physics majors because of. 

You know, the excitement they had in my class and how fun they found it was like, Oh, that's really great. And one kid I had my first, he was actually one of my first students, my first year came back. And this is something I tell kids every year is it was in the ninth grade science class.  

This is like high school is like a dog park, but for kids, you just really need to grow up and learn how to communicate. And that's what this is about. And the kid actually took that to heart apparently. Cause he ended up becoming student body president. And then the last week of school, when he was a senior, he came in on the final day before, because the seniors leave a little early, came and found me. 

I was in the science lab doing this photography unit, came into the dark room and was just like, Gaffey, I got to tell you. You know, I remember what you said freshman year and I took it to heart and I've just been, and he became this very like outgoing public person and, stuff like that sticks with you, you know, I get running into kids or kids on graduation coming up and saying things to you, pretty cool. 

 

Spencer Payne: Awesome. How about anything look back of just wild, crazy, I can't believe that actually happened or that person said this, or does anything stand out as just like,  

 

Lucas Gaffey: I mean, kids say the darndest things So you get a lot of kooky stuff being said in the classroom, but, you know, as a science teacher, you'll automatically always have the, Oh yeah, I set off the fire alarm. So things of that nature, all kinds of labs gone wrong,  

We didn't know we were going to be on strike until the day before school, like the evening. So I'd already had a lab set up involving balloons. And one of the things is you take a lighter to a balloon full of air, pops immediately. But if you take a lighter to a balloon filled with water, like a water balloon, you got to hold it there for a little while. 

So you can kind of scare the kids and put it over a kid's head. However, when it's been sitting in a sink filled with water for a week, it's deteriorating out of the head. So I. Put this over a kid's head and it just burst all over him on day one of school. 

So this kid had to go through, you know, all the rest of his high school class, like covered in water. I was like, Oh, sorry, man. And then, like the old magnesium and dry ice setting on fire and then having the whole school up to clear out because the fire alarm went off. Yeah. Stuff like that. And then kids just have some, some wild ideas, which have with the advent of the internet, you know, and that being more prominent in kids lives, you'd think they would come to class already knowing stuff, but instead they come to class with wild misconceptions. Like I heard the earth was flat and stuff like that, that you have to listen to.  

 

Spencer Payne: Are there any particularly tough times or tough moments? And if so, like, how do you handle those and how do you bounce back? Cause right in every profession, like it's not always just great and the kids are awesome and I had such a great day and a great month and a great year. 

There's always these kind of tough times. Anything strike you and how'd you handle that or navigate that or bounce back?  

 

Lucas Gaffey: So for me, a lot of teachers, one of the things that's toughest to deal with are sometimes you'll get a struggling student slash difficult parent combination. 

And that can be tough. Like I've had some emails that were just like, you know, vitriol coming right at me just like, where is this coming from? And at those times, that's when you lean on your co workers, you can be like, Hey, can you come read this? And what are your thoughts? 

And then hopefully if you've built a community of people working together. 

So just got to lean on your colleagues and you hope like 90 percent of my career, I've had very supportive, helpful admin, like the guy that people evaluating me have been very helpful and I could go to them with questions. So in those times, just lean on. Your coworkers, and hopefully you've got some positive admin there that can help you with it. 

Other than a couple of years where things got a little, you know, there was a transition at the old school I was at and we got some new people in there. So I've actually had a great admin team 

 

Spencer Payne: Yeah. And to dig in maybe a little bit more on this, you know, a struggling student, angry email sent your way. Any advice for a younger teacher? 

Okay, great to go ask your other teachers. What do you think? Am I misinterpreting this? Are you seeing something similar with this particular student or how have you handled? But you just walk us through maybe an example, how do you turn that angry email into how do we get past this? 

Like are you going to get an angry email every week? How have you handled maybe one of those circumstances?  

 

Lucas Gaffey: So typically, and this has been pretty common, is I'm very accommodating. I'm not like, if you draw a line in the sand, and you're like, this is what, granted, it's good to have expectations, but, you know, students, all students are different, have different abilities, and we need to meet them where they are, try and get them through this. 

So, if you're just drawing a line, and like, everybody has to do this, you're probably going to lose that, you know, so you need to be pretty flexible. But you got to be able to say, okay, here, I'm going to help this kid. And at the end of the day, you're trying to help the kids. 

I just had a colleague a couple of weeks ago, get a pretty brutal email, like we are required as part of our contract every two weeks to email. All the kids, parents. Who have D's or E's, which is like failing grade in the class and let them know, it's like we need to show that we have been reaching out. 

And so a parent got fed up and was just like, yes, I know this kid has some struggles and then, well, maybe if you would teach this way and maybe if you did this and maybe you did this and maybe my student would be more engaged and care more. And it's just, you have to take a breath and maybe don't fire off that email immediately. 

You know, type something up, ask again, ask your colleague what's going on. But yeah, you, I, in every occasion, it ends up going forward. I've never had an instance where a student needed to be removed from my class or something like that due to me, maybe other students, but in the case of other colleagues who it's where they were just like, this is absolutely what this kid has to do. 

I will not accommodate anything. And you know, you can draw, you can make an argument for that teacher because there should be these rigid standards, but chances are. Especially with the parents, how things have changed the last 17 years, they're going to fight for everything for their kid. And, you know, I've had parents stick up for kids who have been caught cheating and then tell the admin, they're like, no, my kid, even though there's evidence, like clear evidence of this, and then be like, no, my kid, they need to be forward. 

And they need to be able to retake and get an A, you know, even though they cheated on stuff.  

 

Spencer Payne: Yeah, on that balance, then can you maybe give one. specific example, of what's something that you accommodated or bent on for a student? Obviously you're not accommodating like, yeah, I saw that person cheat, but you're right. 

They do deserve to get an A. You're not going to bend on something like that. What is a specific example where, as a result of one of these difficult conversations or emails, you're like, okay, we'll do this for your student? Any particular examples? 

 

Lucas Gaffey: It might be allowing for a note card, like on a test or something like that, even though there hasn't been a specific diagnosis of some kind of, need for this, like an issue with short term memory or some kind of cognition issue. But, you know, they've always had it before and this is what they're used to and. 

You know, without sounding, snarky here, it's not like allowing this is going to get some kid into Stanford ahead of someone else. At the end of the day, it's not, ruining some other kid's life because this kid got this accomplishment, So as they say, in a lot of things, you got to pick your battles. 

What are you going to, what do you choose to put all of your energy into when this job has a million other things you got to pick? So this is something you're going to, you know, spend days stressing about to deal with.  

 

Spencer Payne: On that note, is there anything that you have consistently done or maybe have not done, in your career over 17 years that maybe you see other people do or don't do that you're like, this seems to work for me. 

 

Lucas Gaffey: I'm surprised more people don't do this. Anything that just seems to work particularly well for you, As far as the attitude. That is one thing, but that's something that's hard to say like, Hey, be like me, but as far as the technical, things this started basically going into the pandemic 2020, you know, schools are shut down. And I had only taught math one year prior to that. 

I've been all science for like 10 years in a row and then I was in math again right before the pandemic. And so schools are shut down. And so I decided to make all the lessons. I made them in PowerPoints and I put in animations such that a kid could click through it and see like step by step by step, which is different than if I just wrote down some math, steps and then scanned it and put it up, this was like, click the space bar next, things would kind of go through and show you instead of just sort of looking at it. 

And so I made all these PowerPoints, it took a lot of time and uploaded them it worked out pretty well. But then I had those PowerPoints ready for next year and the next year. 

So that's what I still do whenever I have a subject, I take the time to make these very involved ones and then I upload them to our online. We have a website called Schoology where kids will go to get whatever like resources here's the notes for today. Here's what we did. Here's a PowerPoint. 

And so I actually have a lot of kids. Who really appreciate it, especially once you there's a lot of kids. I don't know if you've read about this profession, but chronic absences have been a huge things, especially this pandemic, like the percentage of students who are chronically absent, which I think means like more than, you know, 10 percent or 15%, something like that, whatever of the school year. 

It's just exploded. So kids are always gone. So they can just open up this PowerPoint and click through it. Some will come to class, pull out their computers and just go through it as I go through it and it helps them. And not only that. Once I do this, the front loading, if I teach the same subject next year, I just have to maybe do a couple little tweaks here and there. 

And then my day is planned out. So I don't, and I've shared these with people and they, and not only that, so with math, you're often taking like a clunky. You know, like big old whiteboard, not a whiteboard pen, like a marker, but they write like digitally on a board, you know, with like a smart pen on a board. 

And it looks like crap, unless you have amazing, like calligraphy, smooth handwriting, it, it doesn't look very good. And then they'll take a PDF of that, upload it. And I'm like, well, that's nice, but it's hard to read. And yeah, not only that you're up with the board doing this. For, you know, however many times a day you have that subject, whereas I spend the time and do this and then, and I'll even share it. 

I'm like, Hey, do you want this? No, I don't know. Okay. You know, and I still will write on the board, but I just don't have to do it as much. And it saves a ton of time. Yeah. And kids appreciate it.  

 

Spencer Payne: Yeah, awesome. I got a couple more just kind of quick hitter questions. So to wrap up as you look back, but kind of most of these are more around advice for folks who are younger teachers or maybe those thinking about getting into this profession. 

If you go back, what's the number one piece of advice you'd give to yourself, maybe in your first one or two or three years, teaching knowing what you know now. Or, you know, what advice would you give to somebody else? Who's thinking about getting in this profession or maybe they're in their first year. 

So what could you share in your 17 years of wisdom, looking back to, to share with others early in their career, or maybe thinking about entering this profession.  

 

Lucas Gaffey: So to a younger person. If I was talking to myself, this more has to do with my own personality is I'm a very laid back, go with the flow kind of person. 

Whereas I would watch other people who are a little more aggressive. Come in and be more demanding about what they wanted to teach. For instance, if I had my druthers, I'd be teaching AP physics, you know, and higher level, like with older kids, like I really liked the subject and I want to teach kids who frankly have the ability to comprehend and forward with that subject matter. 

But I also, you know, enjoy doing other things. So I spent 10 years in a row teaching ninth grade physical science, all periods, which was fine. And I enjoyed it. I enjoyed the people I worked with. One thing would be speak up, like if you because I watched a new guy come into the building and be like, I'm going to create this course and I want to teach these things and then got that, you know, so the advice for yourself is necessarily how you change in the classroom. 

 

Spencer Payne: Yeah. And make sure it's very well  

 

Lucas Gaffey: Okay. Yeah. Be prepared to, be flexible. You're not going to get necessarily everything you want going in, especially if you're a first year teacher,  

if you're new in the building, older teachers be like, okay, this guy gets the tough classes, you know, which are typically younger kids. Or, kids who struggle a lot. They figure younger people have more energy. They could deal with this kind of thing. 

So be prepared for a first, you know, hard couple of years. But also people will be supportive.  

You know, like one of the things that if you as if you do your grading quickly, whether you're a harsh grader or not, but if you grade quickly and upload the grades within a day or two, kids really appreciate it and parents appreciate it and administrators appreciate it. So be on top of your stuff. Even though grading is everyone's least favorite part. 

Teaching, typically do it and just get it done with someone who's like thinking of this. Maybe a second career. 'cause I've had a few student teachers over the year and one was. Middle aged woman, probably in her fifties, who had had two sons graduate high school. She was a scientist, like, worked for some, like, geological water survey place where she would go and test water around the Pacific Northwest. 

She was always telling me how her two sons were brilliant, and they were always bored in school, and she was going to come in and get these kids excited, and then she was just so shocked. To see that, Oh, I think my sons were full of it. Like they were, they were just not, they were just goofing off in class. 

It wasn't that they were bored. She was seeing how 90 percent of the students didn't pay attention to her. Very few were excited about the geologic sample that she would bring in the show. It was very high opening for her.  

To try and get a kid, because a lot of people will go in and be like, I want them to see physics or chemistry or whatever, social studies, humanities in the way that I see it and like be excited about it. And then it can be kind of devastating to see two out of 30 kids be interested in what you're saying into like a lesson that you put your heart into it, you really all about and 28 of them don't  

You gotta be able to take that and not be, you know, discouraged when you see that a lot of kids don't necessarily like the things you like, you know,  

 

Spencer Payne: Yeah. So maybe don't, set yourself up for failure by assuming that you're going to be so good that all 28 out of 28 are going to be hacked on every word that you say, you're not going to be awesome, but like, maybe couch, those expectations of if you can have a great impact on two or five or 10, or maybe in some years, it might be a tough year. 

That's one, like you can find your one person that year. And really make sure that that's the one who can, who can. More at your energy. What's a super common maybe trap that you see first or second or third or early teachers kind of fall into? And how, how do they avoid any, any maybe common traps that, that you see people fall into? 

 

Lucas Gaffey: So, and you'll hear this on the news, whenever there's a story about teaching, the word they use all the time is burnout. And it's, I feel like it's a lesson that every teacher needs to learn on their own. But I mean, the way I attacked grading when I was first teaching versus the way I do it now is completely different. 

So, and I think they kind of teach this now in school, but I would grade everything meticulously and give lots of feedback, you know, and it would take a long time and this is in science class. Yeah.  

My wife's uncle is actually paid at another school district to help grade. English papers. I'm sure it's hell for them such that they hire outside people to help. But regardless, I would do a lot of that include feedback just to see a kid take it, throw it in the garbage, and you never look at anything. 

So, learn where to shave off things that, you might feel like you're doing a disservice, but learn the places where you can save yourself time and energy. It is an exhausting career. You're on your feet, you're constantly talking. You can only go to the bathroom when you have your little nuggets of time. 

 

Spencer Payne: I never really thought about that.  

 

Lucas Gaffey: Yeah, so it's not like a regular job. We're like, I need to use the restroom. I'm going to go now. You have to wait until, you know, you might only have five minutes and you got to run down the hall. come back. 

 

Spencer Payne: What to you is the best thing about this profession?  

 

Lucas Gaffey: You know, everyone's going to say the relationships you build, the memories you make with kids, and that's nice. But frankly, the schedule is pretty great. Like the two things are you at the end of the day, you go into the office 185 days a year and you don't have to go in 180 days a year. 

So that's pretty sweet. And not only that, which I think I mentioned before, every year is a new year. Like it's like a one year contract. Maybe the next year isn't as good as the last, but oftentimes, they're about the same or better. If you had a bad year, you can look forward to maybe a new year, maybe you're teaching a different subject, it's a brand new year every year, and, that's another big benefit and mentioning that time off. 

It's not like the person, my wife. We go on vacation, a lot of it to travel. when we're off, everybody's off. So there's no buildup of work at the end of that.  

 

Spencer Payne: And on the other, end of that coin, what's the single worst thing about this profession? Like, what's the one thing you're like, I wish this could change.

 

Lucas Gaffey: I would say in 80 percent of the country, they would say the pay. You know, I feel like we're paid pretty reasonably here in Seattle or in the Puget Sound area. 

So maybe just the way education is looked at. And in some sense, it's sort of a, I don't know, underappreciate. Well, I know that you get the two sides. Like you have this group of society that is like, we stand for our teachers, educators, blah, blah, blah. 

They're great. And then you get the other half that was like, these are just babysitters. You get paid a ton and don't do anything. So you can't really change people's viewpoints, but it's just sort of the, I don't know, the way education has been looked at. And frankly, some of that is education's fault. 

There are some things going on that are not great. I would wager that the vast majority of teachers would say they pay the benefits, but  

 

Spencer Payne: It's interesting, though, that your guess would be that's what most people would say, but that's not what you would say.

 

Lucas Gaffey: I think I'm paid pretty well, frankly, I do, but also I might be a unique person and I don't have a lot of expenses to deal with. I'm in a particular place where I'm doing all right, cause yeah, you'll hear the arguments. Like I went to college and I had a bachelor's in something and a master's in this, and I'm getting paid X and then I'm happy about it. 

I'm like, well, you know, part of me would say, well, if that's. An issue, use that education to go get something that makes you more money, there's a reason that people are drawn to education. A lot of the kids, people like the relationships and such, but, and they're willing, then I would say, if that's why you like the profession, then you got to be willing to make that sacrifice and get what you feel is not that much money,  

 

Spencer Payne: And like you said, with time off, there's, an opportunity in some of that time off to do something with those 180 days, not in the office to actually go earn more if that's what you so choose. 

 

Lucas Gaffey: So what I did, and just before that, my brother, when he first started teaching, he would paint houses in the summer. So he made some extra money doing that. But I had a prior job at a Japanese restaurant and made a lot of friends. 

Occasionally, if they needed me on a Friday night, I would go work a Friday or Saturday night during the school year. And then in the summer, I would work, you know, three nights a week just to earn some extra cash. So there are opportunities out there. And almost, everybody has previous jobs or there are jobs out there if you want to go. 

And I did it. It wasn't even so much about the money, but just like seeing my old friends again and working at a great restaurant.  

 

Spencer Payne: Awesome. And knowing what you know now, like, would you still go down this teaching path? If you go back 17 years ago and have a conversation with your younger self, would you say, yep, teaching is going to be just fine for you. 

 

Lucas Gaffey: To myself, I would probably still do it, you know, I just, I can't imagine cause I, you know, I've thought about it over the years. You have a bad year and I'm like, man, I could just go back and be an engineer or whatever. 

And then I have friends who are engineers and like, oh, you know, so, and not only do they say, look, maybe they make. More money than me. They don't make enough more money than me for me to make that switch. When I'm sitting around for two months in the summer enjoying the Seattle sunshine and they're going into work just like yeah  

 

Spencer Payne: Yep. Awesome. And, last question. Anything else you think is valuable or fun or worth sharing, to folks who are early in their career or maybe thinking about becoming a teacher or anything else that maybe you said, but it's so important that maybe it's worth re-highlighting and saying it one more time. 

 

Lucas Gaffey: You need to, practice. Letting things go, like, prioritize things, what deserves all of your energy. Figure out where to put your focus and save your energy for that. et things go, especially with kids. 

Kids are going to say terrible things to you. You're going to hear some terrible stuff and you need to just let that go. same thing with parents, you need to be able to let stuff go. if you let things build and hold a grudge, figure it out early and get out when you can, but you need to let things go and be easy going about it. 

Otherwise it's going to just, you know, burn you out.

 

Spencer Payne:  And I do remember distinctly just having some of these kids where like the emotional rollercoaster of a day you'd see from one day to the next. 

And that was the first time, like, as an adult seeing the emotional rollercoaster that is of like, man, that kid is sad, angry, depressed, you know, not having a good day, like, did I do something like when they yelled at me, was that because of me, and then the next day they're happy, all of a sudden everything's fine. 

I internalized that way too much that it was about me, right? And that goes to your point of just kind of letting, letting things go because oftentimes, you know, it's hard to remember what it's like to be 15 when you're 25 or 30 or 40, 50, whatever it is. But yeah, oftentimes you just,  you were just in a funk and to walk the bridge the next day.  

 

Lucas Gaffey: As a teenager, did you like go home and think about what a teacher said or anything? My mind was not on teachers when I was in high school. It was more about other students.  

 

Spencer Payne: Well, Lucas or Mr. Gaffney, thanks so much for sharing 17 years of wisdom out there in Seattle, teaching math and science. Appreciate your real world stories and teaching. Thank you.