Lifelong Learning with Gregg Pait 

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

Spencer Payne: Okay, here we are with another episode of Front of the Class, Real Stories from Real Educators. And our real educator today is Gregg Pait. Gregg, can you introduce yourself? Give us a little bit of the lay of the land to other educators. How do you tell your story? What do you teach? Where do you teach? How long you've been doing it? What lights you up? All that good stuff. Can you help us understand a little bit more about you?

Gregg Pait: Yeah, Spencer, thanks for having me this morning. So I am a 23 year veteran educator here in Guilford County, North Carolina. I currently teach at the STEM Early College on the campus of North Carolina A &T State University as part of the Guilford County school system. I previously taught at Middle College, a couple of traditional big box high schools. I've taught in three different counties across North Carolina and demographics everywhere from sort of inner city kids to kind of really rural. It's sort of everything in between. I taught social studies for 20 years and for the last three years I've been teaching project management, a CTE business course as kind of a new track at this point in my career. So I'm excited with everything that I've done and what I'm doing now.

Spencer Payne: Well, to those who maybe are earlier in their career hearing like, whoa, inner city, rural, STEM, all kinds of these different experiences, social studies, project management. Can you help us understand a little bit more of like, how have you navigated some of these changes? Are some of them coming from school districts like, hey, we need somebody over here who's willing to do it. And you kind of say yes. Are some of them being more self-directed that you want to go seek out certain specific opportunities?

Can you give us a little understanding or maybe a couple specific examples, when you've made changes from one school to another, or one district to another, or one subject to another, how did that happen? Are you being asked? Are you proactively raising your hand? Help us understand how you've managed to change so many areas in your career so far.

Gregg Pait: Mm-hmm. It's a combination of a little bit of everything. The very first position I ever had was an interim position teaching horticulture and agriscience. And I ended up in that spot because the college that I went to had a work program that included people who worked out in the forestry and on a farm. And I grew up on a farm. anyway, the school needed an interim horticulture and agriscience teacher. And they called my college, my college professor called me and said, hey, do you want this? I would have stayed and done that, but that really wasn't an option. They were kind of transitioning out of that program. So then I had to find a job. you know, when you're looking for position as a teacher, especially social studies, social studies was always a little bit difficult because with social studies, there was always a lot of competition from people who had like history or political science degrees. They were applying for the same jobs as somebody who was like a licensed educator might apply for.

But I was looking all over the state of North Carolina and I found a small rural county, Stanley County, North Carolina that I visited when I was a kid and I enjoyed it. So I was like, let me check that out. And so that's how I started working at that first high school, which was a very small high school. I think the total enrollment there was maybe 550 students, kind of school where kids would like drive tractors a couple of times a year to have fun. Then when I met my wife and she was living in Guilford County here. I transitioned, you I needed a job closer to where we were going to live. So I moved up here and that's where I ended up in a school that had more of an inner city population. But it was actually not too big of a stretch from the demographic of students that I was teaching in Stanley County. So I kind of transitioned into that one a little bit pretty well.

From there, it had always been a dream of mine to work at a middle college, early college. So when I saw a spot, it opened up here in Moining Guilford County, the Greensboro College Middle College. I jumped at that opportunity. And then when the principal who hired me there moved to the STEM Early College, by sheer coincidence, they happened to have this current position for teaching project management. And I felt that it sort of aligned with what I was enjoying kind of outside of school, sort of STEM projects with my own children. And so I called up my principal who had just been named the new principal of STEM and said, hey, do you think I could  fill that position and she agreed that I had the abilities and the skills to basically make that transition. So I moved over to the STEM Early College and I've been there, this will be my fourth year.

Spencer Payne: And I'd love to dig in on this last one, STEM project management, about to be your fourth year. And I'd love to hear your perspective on this, just because there might be teachers out there who are thinking like, man, I don't want to teach the same thing every year for 30 years. Your career doesn't sound like it's been that way at all. also, can you help us understand a little bit then of this transition into something new, STEM school project management? What experience and training did you have in project management before that?

What did you do to get yourself ready to go teach that at the early college level? How did you prepare? Did you go get project management certified? Like, is there opportunities as a teacher to go keep adding skills along the way? How did you prepare yourself and how did the school help prepare you to be able to be in a position to go teach that class and teach it well?

Gregg Pait: Yeah, so I mean, the first thing I would say to kind of backing up to people who are like, I don't want to teach the same thing. Even when I was teaching social studies, there was always variety, you know, so my very first year I taught civics in US history and then later on I taught world history. I taught world humanities, American humanities, sociology, psychology, AP government, AP psych. So there's always opportunities to you know, teach different things in any given subject matter. And they always need teachers for different subjects in a category. I would say that the one cool thing about being a teacher is that you never lack for an opportunity to learn something new and try teaching something new. You don't have to make as drastic a change as I did in switching like complete departments.

But when I knew that this project management spot was going to be available,  I didn't really know very much about it. I mean, I knew sort of like what project management was, but I didn't really understand how that was sort of taught at a high school level. So, you know, I think I should also point out kind of the obvious is that I did have a benefit in that I knew the principal of the Sten Murley College really well ahead of time. So it was very easy for me to approach her and say, you know, you know me and I know you and what do you think about my abilities and what would be available to me. And so that was sort of a benefit. I think that honestly, any school that wants to recruit someone to teach a particular topic, if it's not something that they're really comfortable with, we'll step up and help them out. So don't think that anybody would be left to hang out and dry. But what I said to my principal was, I'd really be interested in this. What can I do to find out more about it? She said, here's the email address of the guy who's currently teaching it. Get in touch.

So I sent the current teacher an email and just said, hey, here's who I am. Here's what I'm thinking. Would you like to talk to me? And he sent me a syllabus. He sent me some state curriculum. And then we made some time to sit down and talk on the phone for a little bit. After all of that reading through it, I felt like this was something that I really could do. So I made an appointment to come over to the school towards the of the school year and actually see in person, him, go through the lay of the land, talk about what he did on a daily basis, what his schedule was like, look at his resources. He was able to give me a textbook and a big binder full of some materials that he had curated over the several years that he'd been teaching it. And so, you know, at this point I pretty much decided and told my principal, yes, you know, I feel like I feel comfortable doing this.

And I told her, said, here's my plan. So my plan was, because I was fortunate enough to find out about this at the end of a school year, before I, you know, I wasn't doing it like right at the start of one. So I'd spend the summer getting ready. I had all summer. Yeah. So the first thing I did was I read the textbook, which was the most boring textbook in the world. I mean, it was like, if you need, if you had insomnia, I tell my kids in class all the time, I'm like, if you have trouble sleeping, you take this textbook home, you will not like it is just dry. And that's kind of a joke because it's really, wasn't a textbook that was meant for high school kids. It was actually a textbook that was meant for

Spencer Payne: Yes, you had all summer to prepare.

Gregg Pait: professionals who wanted to become project managers to prepare them for that official licensing exam. But the state of North Carolina wanted to use that book. And so I took it. I read through that book. That was a big help. I did a lot of online reading, people who were project managers and were helping other people get prepared for the exam. And then I just read through the curriculum that the state provided. I did a lot of vocabulary research to make sure I understood the terms they were using.

And then the last thing that I did is the state required me to get a different license. So I had a license to teach social studies, but that wouldn't qualify me for project management CTE. So I basically met with my county HR rep who said, here's the license that you need. It's basically an instructional technology license. I went out and did what every good student does. I bought a test prep book, a couple of them, and did a whole bunch of online quizzes  and then sat down and took my Praxis II exam for instructional technology and passed that. And so then I'm licensed to sit down and teach the class. Then it became a matter of just simply kind of learning on the job. You can do all the prep that you want to. And even as someone who had completed a licensure program while I was in college and had like a teaching license, like going into my first job, you learn so much on the job.

I always tell, you know, I've worked with lot of student teachers, new teachers as mentor, and I always tell the same thing. It's going to take you at least three years to really feel comfortable in whatever subject you're teaching. It doesn't matter if you have a degree and a license. It's still going to take you about three years to fully kind of grasp like the best way to teach stuff and to get the information you want across to the students so that they can, you know, pull it back out when they need it. So yeah, it's taking you about three years, but after about three years now, I feel really comfortable teaching this course and look forward to it, you know, the start of a new year every year.

Spencer Payne: Thanks for sharing all the background that went into that, right? Of actually sitting in on the classes of the person who taught before you, getting his materials, notes, reading the most boring textbook in the world, I think is the quote, getting certified, right? Like there's a lot of stuff that you did there. So kudos to you for also taking that seriously. If you're going to teach something, you better know it yourself. And also I just want to highlight this, right? If like, again, like  for teachers out there, like, I've been teaching the same thing, I got past my three years, now I might be doing it for seven years, like, this is kinda getting stale, like, there's always something else out there that you can go learn, improve, et cetera. And actually, for this STEM school, because you've been teaching there now, going into your fourth year, can you just paint us a picture for those who maybe still haven't seen a STEM school, or don't know what it's like, or they don't have one locally?

Like, when you walk into your classrooms on the first day, on that first school day, like, what do you see? How is STEM different from other high school classes that you've taught? Like, what's different? What's the same? Like, what would you call out to a teacher who's maybe like, I've heard about STEM, I'm not really sure if I'm qualified or how to get into it. Like, what would you share to them of what the class looks like? What's different? What's the same? All that kind of good stuff.

Gregg Pait: Well, there's a second kind of part to my particular school, which is that we're an early college. And so that does make things look a little bit different. But just in terms of STEM schools in general, the way ours works is the classes have a STEM focus. So we have a lot of science and a lot of math classes that our kids take. But what really makes our school a STEM school is because of that early college component when our students finish their first two years, the second two years of their high school career, they're actually college students on North Carolina A&T's campus taking college courses in tracks of engineering, healthcare management, biology, or environmental science.

And so there's really kind of that big STEM push the last two years. In the first two years when I see them, my course is very STEM related in the sense that even though it's technically a business course, we teach it very much like a engineering class and we use a lot of engineering and design principles. so if you walk into our school, any classroom you walk into, you're going to see these identical posters on the wall that outline the engineering design process. And engineering design process, you know, basically like walks the students on how to like problem solve and iterate and, you know, reach their full potential in any project.

So even if it's like an English class project or a social studies project, we expect them to kind of apply the engineering and design process to do that. So that's one thing that sort of makes it different. Each individual teacher is sort of allowed to make it STEM related in kind of their own way. So for example, an English teacher could have the kids read and write in a more technical manner for some of their assignments, then they might in like a traditional high school class. A social studies teacher could focus on  innovation and invention throughout a time period, you know, in a history course. And then, of course, the math and science teachers at STEM built right in. Of course, STEM is also a lot of technology. So at our school, have an we have a position called a technology facilitator, an instructional technology facilitator. And their job is to help teachers who want to use different types of technology in their classrooms.

So if there's a teacher who wants to, you know, use a  gamification system of buzzers and they don't know how to do it, this person would step in. Or if there's someone who wants to start using AI to help students do projects, there's someone who can step in and help with that. So that kind of like rounds out the whole sort STEM component to our school. we tell kids when they apply, like, if you want to be a part of this, make sure you really like STEM, because if you don't, it's going to be a pretty rough couple of years, because pretty much everything we do is focused on helping you get ready for like a STEM pathway in college and a future career.

Spencer Payne: And those engineering and design principles, just curious, could you expand on that for maybe just one minute of how is, what's different about by virtue of infusing those principles in your project management class or English or whatever it is, like what are some of those principles that come through in the class that maybe you haven't seen come through in previous non-STEM related schools? So like, are some of those principles and how do they come to life?

Gregg Pait: So I think the biggest thing with the engineering design process is that you ask the kids to basically define a problem, come up with a solution for that problem, then they need to test that solution and then based on how that solution works, iterate to make it better. And when you teach something like social studies, you generally give the kids an assignment, say just do it. You don't really ask them to like,

Spencer Payne: Yeah.

Gregg Pait: come up with a solution for that and then see how well it answers the problem and do it again. You sort of feel like maybe there's been more of a time crunch, but by saying to kids like, for example, in an English class, and English classes actually works really well because a lot of times in English class, you would have kids write multiple drafts of something. So they would come up with a draft of the paper. They would have a peer or a teacher look at it, grade it, give it back to them and let them work on it again you know, in math classes, I think there's an opportunity for that. If you're giving students an opportunity to solve a really complex problem, there might be multiple ways to solve it. Let them have a chance to figure out how they're going to solve it. And then based on how they did show them how they could do it better. So I think that's one really kind of like key component is this idea that you're going to give kids a chance to redo their work. And after it's been kind of like, you know, critiqued to give them an opportunity to make it better and reach their full potential.

And I think that's you know, so important when you're trying to educate anybody. You want them not only to just do it, you want them to figure out how to do it really well. And sometimes that takes a couple tries. And classic education environments don't always allow the opportunity for students to kind of do and redo things.

Spencer Payne: Yeah, that, and that iteration process is also much more indicative maybe of how the working world works. Like there's never been a time where, know, Hey, here's my work. Okay. B move on to the next. Like, no, it's like, keep iterating. Like you just keep iterating. How can we make, how can we improve how we make this better? Um, I'm curious, um, how do you approach that first day or that first week of a new class? Um, and how do you set the tone on expectations of, uh, you know, what the students should expect?

Gregg Pait: Yeah, exactly.

Spencer Payne: in that class, how they should, like how you expect the classroom to be run, what they expect of you, and how do you also set that expectation with parents? So on that first day, week, maybe two weeks, whatever approach you use, how do you set that expectation of what students and teachers should expect out of you in your class in those first, those early days of a new school year?

Gregg Pait: So, and it's gonna be, I think, a little bit different for obviously every individual and every school and kind of every classroom because some of the things that I've used at one school don't necessarily always translate into the next one, but kind of a boilerplate like this would work kind of anywhere is, you know, the first day we spend a lot of time talking about, you know, what the class is gonna look like, what...

I expect the students what they should expect of me, but also kind of how we're going to do things and how it's going to be different than maybe other classrooms. There is, gosh, this is a classic old book now. It's called The First Days of School, and it was written by a guy, I think his name was Harry Wong. And there was a video series that used to go along with it. And I think I found out about it maybe like the first school I taught at. But in the book, he basically tries to outline like, here's what you should do in the first days of school to have like a successful school year. And one of like the things that I've always kind of stuck with is he pointed out very early that there's a big difference between rules and procedures. And so one of the things that I spend a lot of time the first couple of days in the first week of class doing is making sure students understand procedures, just how we're going to do things. In my current classroom, particularly, we have a lot of like tools in the room.

Like there's like very expensive 3D printers. There's laser engravers and cutters. There's actual physical like saws and drills and tools and a lot of supplies. And so we also have a room that has a lot of like outlets in the floor. And so one of the things I have to do in the first day or two is explain to the kids like, you can take the covers off the floors and plug your stuff in, but you have to like leave them covered because we can't have people tripping like it's a safety thing. But then also it's like when we go to turn in papers, here's how we're gonna turn in papers. You're gonna pass them to the table in front of the table in front, and I'll just come across the front row, and we're passing things out. I'm gonna pass them to you, and you're gonna pass them back. And we just lay out simple procedures like that, and we work on that kind of stuff the first week to make sure that we're using our time efficiently, that everybody knows what to do when it's time to do it. Everybody feels comfortable, everybody feels safe, everybody feels like they can operate in that environment. And even when I wasn't in a classroom like that.

The classroom before the one I had now was incredibly tiny. Like it was a shoebox sized classroom. I think like you could like comfortably fit about 16 people in it and like that was it. Like it was so small. And so in that particular classroom, my procedures were more like, hey, if you need to go to the restroom, here's how we do it to try to like minimize disruption of the whole room. And if we do need to pass stuff out or we are going to get up and move to work with a partner, like here's the procedures we're going to do.

And it was completely different because I had to explain to the kids how to operate in this really tiny space. And now it's kind of a different set of things that we want the kids to be aware of. But just simply laying out those procedures as opposed to the rules and making sure the kids understand like this is just how we're going to do things. And then also send that information home to parents so that parents know kind of like what you expect of the kids, what you expect of the parents, what the parents should expect of you.

Like for example, parents always want to know, like, you're going to contact me if things aren't going well in class. And so in my syllabus, it says very clearly, like, this is what would trigger me contacting you. And if you haven't heard from me, you can rest assured that that hasn't happened. And so, you know, that's kind of a way for them to feel comfortable knowing that if, you know, if they haven't heard from me, it's all good.

Spencer Payne: Yep. And then like that was, that was early in the school year. How about at the end of the school year? How, do you look back at the end of a school year and kind of determine, did I have a great year this year? Was I just okay this year? you know, there's test scores, there's maybe thank yous, there's just your general feeling. There's some sense of progress you could see in students, but I'm always curious to explore with, with other folks. Cause it's sometimes this is a hard thing to figure out as a teacher of like, how did I do this year? Did I have a good year? Did I have a great year? Maybe my test scores were great, but it didn't feel like we actually nailed X, Y, or Z that I really wanted to. So I'm curious, how do you explore that question for yourself? Not with anybody else's input, but how do you explore that question for yourself at the end of a school year?

Gregg Pait: Well, think that, you know, sometimes to outside observers, I think there might be a push to like look at your scores and say, but I think that the more you teach, the more you realize that, you know, the scores aren't always going to be the, I mean, it's just one test, you know. So, you know, I'll look at kind of overall, how did the classes do overall? Like, what was the average? Did, on average, did everybody, you know, meet the expectations that I set out for them. And if they did, then I think that's kind of a win. If things, you know, didn't sort of meet those expectations, if I look back and say, you know, not everything went the way that I had planned it and imagined it would go. I then have to look and say, was that on them? Was that on me?

Was that on some sort of confounding variable that nobody could have, you know, accounted for? In the current class that I teach, we do a lot of hands-on projects. And one of the things that I kind of sort of always look for is engagement. Like, are the kids engaged? Are they enjoying working on it? Did they produce something that was quality? Did it take, like, the time or effort, you requirements that I thought it might?

And sometimes I look back and I say, gosh, you know, that that project was fun, but, know, it really didn't like teach them the things that I wanted them to learn. So, you know, next year I'll go back and I'll rewrite that project and I'll change it so that I feel that it better covers the material and gets the results from the kids that I want them to get, not just in test scores, but in like learning, you know, what it is I want them to learn to being able to apply the concepts that I want them to apply. And I think you could do that kind of with with any class or, you know, you look in see how the students are responding to questions. Can they apply the knowledge in conversation, not necessarily on a piece of paper, but just in talking to you of what you've been trying to teach them. And if they can't apply that, then I think there's some work to be done. My own kids, I have two boys, they're twins, they're 14 now. And I love it when we're watching TV or a movie or...

you know, we read something in a book or we're out and about and they go, that's like when we learned about in so-and-so's class and they talked about it and I'm just like, man, they're learning something. Like it doesn't matter what the test scores they brought home said, like they got something in there and they're like remembering it and they're comparing what we're seeing in a TV or movie show or a book to what they learned in class. And like that's sort what I look for my own students.

Spencer Payne: Yeah. On that note, uh, I was talking to a teacher recently and he said, of the students, parents shared that they overheard him playing, you know, Xbox or video games. They were playing something, right. And as they were talking, like the kids were talking about how this aspect of the game related to the bill of rights. And maybe it was number four, right. Or the fourth amendment or something. And, you know, I don't remember all the details, but we just like hearing that from a parent of like, my kid was playing video games, talking about the things that he learned in your class. was like, that's like, like, there's no way you're going to bat 30 out of 30 or 16 out of 16 with that happening. But when you hear stories like that, it's like, Oh, I know, I know I'm getting there because they're having fun with this. They're seeing the application of this in their own lives. Um, and actually it might be interesting of, you know,

Gregg Pait: Mm-hmm.

Spencer Payne: I've never thought about this out loud until now, but like, hey, with engaging with the parents in that first week, first month of a new school year of like, by the way, one of my favorite things is when the kids are applying things from class into their personal life or they're bringing things up. If there's ever a tie back to my class, please let me know. Like I thrive on that. Like I never know if it's being thought about outside of classroom or talked about, but if it ever is like bring it back to me, like I want that feedback. That might be something that the teachers could potentially go do if parents are hearing their students ever talk about things in class. your boy is talking about another person class and what they're learning. Like that's powerful stuff. Yeah. And congratulations. You were awarded a Teacher of the Year award in your district a couple of years ago. Might I ask, how did that feel? Like, did you do anything differently that year? Like when you get an award like that,

Gregg Pait: Yeah, it really is.

Spencer Payne: you know, how does that make you feel when you maybe get the recognition for something that maybe you think you're doing well and then you get the external accolades? Like, how did you feel when you received that?

Gregg Pait: I mean, it was a surprise. You know, the way it generally works is that the staff vote on, you know, whoever they think should be their school's Teacher of the Year. And it's always nice, you know, to know that your colleagues that you work with and you see every day, they see what you're doing, they recognize it, they want to applaud you, you know, publicly for it. So that always feels nice. You know, after,

After the school level, I filled out a little application, wrote some essays, sent it all in, sort of forgot about it. And then they sent me little email. It was like, hey, congratulations, you're on the next level. Come interview with us. And so I went and did that and was absolutely nervous. It was like I was a fresh teacher again going to interview for a job. I was like, I don't know what to say. What do do with my hands?

But it was fun. sat and interviewed with this nice group of professionals from our district and talked with them and left feeling like I told them what I wanted to tell them. But honestly, whatever happened was OK. It was just nice to have somebody listen to me for a little bit and hear my thoughts on it. I went back and started the school year like normal. I was doing my normal thing. I can't remember why. I had to go off campus for some reason during the middle of the day.

I was coming back on campus and my principal was like at the door, know, and like I opened the door and she's like, oh my gosh, like, you know, you're like in the final round. And I was like, what? You know, she's like, yeah, like you're going to the big ceremony and they're gonna, you and so, you know, I was named the high school teacher of the year. And then we also do an elementary and a middle school teacher of the year. From those three, they pick the overall teacher of the year. So I was named the high school teacher of the year. And it was just, it was really nice. Like, you know, my colleagues came to support me. My family came out you know, they put my face on the website and people recognized it that was kind of funny. But it is just kind of a nice feeling to have somebody say, hey, we see what you're doing. We realize you're working hard. We recognize that. And congratulations on doing a good job and keep it up. you know, in terms of like what I did during the school year, I can't say that I really did a whole lot that was really different. I, you know, I tell people all the time.

And I think this is kind of funny. As new teachers, I know a lot of times new teachers, they'll turn to like social media groups, like Facebook groups, to maybe try to find some help with whatever they're doing in class. And I always kind of chuckle to myself when I see people on social media groups and they'll say things like, and I'll let you back up and say like, I see great value in those groups. I've used those groups and I think they're awesome. They're a great place to share resources and get help and I've asked for help and I've provided help, you know, so I see no problem with them. What kind of makes me chuckle though is when you'll see teachers who will hop on them and they'll say, I'm being observed tomorrow and I need a really great lesson to do while the principal's in class. And what always goes through my head is, shouldn't you be doing a great lesson every day, regardless of whether the principal's in there?

You know, so I always tell my students and my principals heard me say this,  I do my best every day. whenever my principal wants to come and observe my class, she can walk in any day she wants and observe me because I'm going to be doing the best I can do every day, not just on that one day that she's coming in. And when I tell my students this, because we talk about it and like it's kind of like a way to them understand some concepts of project management and like managing workers and they always chuckle because they know those teachers that they're like, yeah, that teacher totally broke out the games and did the songs and dance. And then when the principal left, it was back to business as usual. it's like that you should be doing your best every day. And if you do, I find that the job is so much more enjoyable because if you're kind of bored in class, there's an opportunity to make class more exciting.

But that kind of falls on the teacher to make it more exciting. Students don't know the material. They don't know how to make it more entertaining. I try to keep myself entertained by making the class fun for me too.

Spencer Payne: Yeah, I think there's a, I'm going to butcher this slightly, but there was like an old bill Belichick quote, you know, for those who don't know who that is one, I don't know, eight super bowls or something like that. One of the most successful football NFL coaches of all time. And there was some quote around like, you know, maybe they, they won a big game and they're asking him like, what are you going to do to celebrate? Um, and he just said, you know, I just really like to go out and have a really good practice tomorrow. It was just that like, he just kept coming back to like the process. I just want to make sure like I'm great tomorrow. We're great tomorrow. We're great the next day, there wasn't this like, how do I impress everybody tomorrow? was just like, let's just go out and do great work again tomorrow. Similar mentality, like hard not to respect that.

Curious, anything over the course of these over 20 years in the classroom of like anything that you consistently do or have done in your teaching career that just, it seems to work really well for you. And maybe when new teachers, hey, Greg, what do you recommend?

Gregg Pait: Mm-hmm. Absolutely.

Spencer Payne: you might say, I recommend this thing, works really well for me. So anything that you consistently do or have done over the years, it just seems to work really well for you that you'd recommend for others.

Gregg Pait: Well, I think that a key is sort of setting those early expectations and sticking to them, you know, making sure that you outline clearly what it is you want everybody to do and what the rules are and kind of like stick into those rules and kind of, you know, running it the way that you want it to be ran because when you have a well-run classroom, kids will feel comfortable, they'll feel like engaging. So I think that kind of like helps sort of set that tone for learning.

And then the next key thing is finding a way to connect to the students. And it could be through video games, running clubs, coaching sports, simply attending sporting events, attending plays when the school's holding plays, being a part of that community. There is something to be said for those teachers because the kids recognize it and then when they come back into your classroom, they understand like you're not there just to like make them learn social studies, vocabulary or project management concepts. You're there to see them kind of develop as an overall kind of human being and citizen and they appreciate it. And so kind of sharing your life with them, letting them know who you are outside of school.

Sometimes students get the idea that like, at the end of an evening, a teacher rolls out a cot in the front of the classroom and lays down and it's like, you're just going to stay there until tomorrow morning. like some of the funniest interactions I've ever had with students is when they see me at the grocery store or Walmart and they're always like, what are you doing here? And I'm like, I'm shopping. Like, what are you doing here? You know, and it's like, they, they imagine that I'll just live in that classroom and it's like, no. So, you know, early on I try to explain to the kids like, no, like I've got a wife and kids and like, you'll see them here at school and they come to school events with me.

And, you'll hear me talk a lot about what I did over the weekend and the things that I enjoy. And I want to hear what you guys did and what you enjoy. And, you know, any sort of like thing that you can do like that to kind of connect with those students is going to help them feel more comfortable with you, take you more seriously, listen to you. You end up working together instead of sort of against each other, which is somehow, you know, sometimes can be how students sort of view the teacher-student relationship as adversarial instead of cooperative. And so anything you can do to make them feel like, this is us working together to get this job done, and I'm here to help, the better off you're going to be. So I always look for ways to do things like that. And like I said, just be involved with as much that's going on around the school as you possibly can, because the kids like that. They like to know that you're there not just as a teacher, but as like a human being who does normal things like they do. So I would say that.

Spencer Payne: Yeah. And, authentically too, right? Like if you're, if you're a teacher and you don't play video games, don't try to talk about video games, right? But like connect on something, something where there's an authentic connection going back and forth. any proudest moments you've over this 20 plus years in education, any proudest moments that you look back on and think, that was a really good student experience, a really good year, a really good project. Anything that you look back on, maybe it still makes you light up or smile. Cause it was just such a great, great moment.

Gregg Pait: No.

Um, yeah, man, so the first like the first school that I was at in Stanley County, I was there for about 10 years and kind of going back and we were just talking about, you know, the the ability there to connect with that community. Um, you know, I really felt like I was, you know, a part of that whole community  and, and it was, you know, I mean, it was one of those kinds of places where it was a small town. So like you went to the grocery store and you literally like saw the parents from your, of your students, like there as well. And, and, you know, I, I just, I was really proud of the way that, you know, I was able to kind of connect with that, with that student group, with those parents, with that community. I enjoyed that. the, when I first started teaching AP psychology, I really grew that program at the school that I was at. I started teaching there, they offered one section of AP and one section of just honors psychology.

By the time I left, were up to two sections of standard psychology, AP psychology, and honors sociology. So kind of growing that program, and that was another one of those situations where I wanted to teach some different stuff.

I really enjoyed teaching that and I worked with the school to kind of expand that program and build it and was able to make connections again with universities and different groups to kind of bring assets and resources into the school. So I was really proud of my ability to sort of grow that program and again that kind of goes back to sort of connecting with the community. And then the school that I'm at now, it's just a fantastic opportunity to work on the campus of North Carolina A &T State University and connect with them and connect with the broader community and show students that, you know, just going out and talking to people and making connections in real life can often bring, you know, great opportunities for you, meaning like for them at the school and outside of school when they're done. So I'm really proud of the work that we've done at this particular school over the past couple of years to kind of establish some community connections and take our school kind of into the bigger community, the wider community, not just kind of on our campus. you know, those are things that kind of that I think I kind of look back on and smile and think, you know, that was a pretty good job. I'm glad I was able to be a part of that.

Spencer Payne: and I'll go through a couple more, just kind of more rapid fire, kind of quick hitter style questions here as we get closer to wrapping up. But we're recording here in the summertime. So we're about to get into a new school year. And anything in particular that you're looking forward to in this new school year, a lesson you're tweaking, something you're changing, anything that you're energized by this year that you're like, I'm gonna try that, or I'm gonna tweak this, anything that you're looking forward to in this particular upcoming school year.

Gregg Pait: I really need to rework a couple of my projects for project management that I feel could be deeper. So like we have kids do things like build chairs out of cardboard. over the years, what's interesting is that the students over different years, like the freshmen, sophomore, junior, senior, have started to share with the freshmen, like, here's what we did. And so they're coming into it way more prepared than they were that first year. Exactly. Yeah. Yeah, it is. And they're coming in like so much better like ideas of what they're going to do. So I need to expand that project and make it kind of a bigger project, a better project to get them to kind of dig a little bit deeper into it and make some kind of like different tweaks to it. So I'm looking forward to kind of reworking that one. And then I've got a couple of teachers who have already reached out to me this year who want to do some cross-curricular collaboration.

Spencer Payne: There's the original AI. Yeah, there's the original AI right there. Like, hey, let me just go talk to somebody who did this already.

Gregg Pait: where we'll come up with a project together. Their kids will work on it in my class time and their classes, and then they'll eventually take it back and present it to their classes. And so that way they get a chance to talk about another subject in project management and get used project management in other class. So it shows them kind of like how they're going to be able to mesh these things together. So I'm looking forward to that collaboration this year.

Spencer Payne: And did you get your masters in education? And if so, when did you pursue that kind of in your career and what did that unlock for you?

Gregg Pait: So I have not done that. And I've gone back and forth over it for a long time. Very early in my career, I was encouraged to do it. But right about the time that I decided I was going to do it, the state that I'm in decided they would no longer offer any sort of a salary bump for having your masters. And that sort of took a little bit of the kind of like motivation at the time out of it. I've thought about doing it again since then.

But kind of life sort of just sort of keeps buttoning and getting in the way. And I know it always will if I let it. So it's still on my potential to-do list. There's always that possibility of getting a master's for administration or a curriculum or whatever it might be. So it's still a possibility for me. I just think I need to find the right time and the right topic to motivate me to jump in and do it.

Spencer Payne: And what to you is the single best thing about this profession, education? What's kept you in it for these 20 plus years?

Gregg Pait: Well, there's two things that I always come back to. And one is that, you know, I think a great teacher is going to be a lifelong learner. And education sort of gives you that opportunity to continually learn, because if you're going to have a great classroom, you know, you need to be on top of whatever the newest and latest and greatest stuff is. And being able to connect with your students is about, you know, doing things in a new way. learning the new technologies, learning the new topics, finding out what the new stuff is. I think that's kind of important. So, you know, being a lifelong learner.

It makes me really enjoy it. The other thing is I worked with a guy. He was really probably one of my biggest mentors. His name was Jim Tuzenu and he was an EC teacher. again, he's the one who taught me about connecting with students and he was great. But he really believed that teaching was a way to impact the future because the students that we have today become the citizens tomorrow and they'll be the ones who are  they'll be the doctors that I need to go see when I get older and they'll be the people managing the banks. And so he really felt strongly that we weren't just educating kids to get them through high school. We were teaching the skills and abilities necessary to develop a great future. And so those two things kind of always come back to me, the ability to always get to learn something new and to be able to impact the future in a positive way. think that's...

things that keep me coming back each year saying, how can I make a difference this year? What can I learn that's going to be new and exciting?

Spencer Payne: And what's the single toughest part about this profession or the hardest or the thing that if you had a magic wand and you could change it, what's the one thing that you might change?

Gregg Pait: You know, I think that over the years, there's been this idea that maybe a way to put it would be that schools and education might be run sort of like a business. And people look for kind of like the same kind of business data to kind of judge and measure how work goes on at a school. And those things don't always mesh. you know, it's kind of killed some creativity in the classroom because teachers feel so much pressure to kind of meet the standards that are being set them like a business might set for a sales employee that now it's kind of like, let me find the most efficient way to get these kids to hit these numbers. And what you lose is use that ability to let students kind of learn on their own, to go after the topics that interest them, to be creative in the classroom.

And I think that's one the things I love about project management is that it does allow for some creativity and problem solving that maybe I didn't have the ability to do in a kind of a traditional social studies classroom. So I really appreciate that. kind of letting kids have a little bit more autonomy to focus on things that interest them and not being so data driven. I'm not saying that data is not important. that would have helped.

Spencer Payne: So two more really quick ones. One, you mentioned Jim Tuzenu. Any other teachers, educators throughout your career, maybe people you work with now that you just want to shout out?

Who's doing a great job? Like, let's just share the love, share the positivity. Like, anybody you want to call out. You mentioned Juan. Like, anybody else out there who just deserves a shout out because they're just doing great work.

Gregg Pait: Yeah.

I mean, honestly, like the entire staff that I teach with now, it's a small school, we only have nine teachers, but literally every one of them is at a school where they know that they have to their best every day. Our social studies teachers Tarn Offhouse and Natasha Miller, our science teachers, Travis Wall and Ashley King Bennett, the English teachers Alexis Gaines Hoyes and Elizabeth McCandless.

The math teachers, we just have a new one. So I'm not sure what the new person's name is, but Eric Dillard is our other math teacher. You know, the entire office staff, my principal, Sherry Kiehl's, they're great. You know, the previous school that I taught at, we had one of the best departments of social studies I've ever seen in my life. Julian Hollinsworth, who's now in Alamance County, Grace Keener-Jones, who's down, I'm not sure exactly what county she's in. She's near Mecklenburg County, near Charlotte.

You know, there's just like, so many great, great professionals out there. People that I've learned from over the years, people that, you know, I know that if I need help, I can go to and say to them, hey, how would you do this? Do you have any ideas about that? It's funny, one of the social studies teachers that I teach with now, Tornna Offhouse, she actually taught with me at our previous school when I was teaching social studies at Eastern Guilford. And I mean, she was a rock. Like anything I needed, you know, she was there to help me out with and kind of get me going in those first couple years when I was at that school. And she was also instrumental in sort of helping me transition. She let me know that actually this position was open at my current school. So she's always been a great teacher for helping out lots of others. And she's kind of a great one in the community as well.

Spencer Payne: and any last words of wisdom, maybe that we didn't have a chance to discuss that you still wanna get out for educator listeners out there or anything that you did share that's just so important, you wanna say it one more time. So any new or repeated final words of wisdom.

Gregg Pait: I would just remind everybody that's going into teaching that it's not always a career that, as everybody understands, it's not going be necessarily financially rewarding, but it's going to be one that if you love learning and you love working with kids, there's really nothing better to do. It's a great opportunity to help students through critical periods in their life and to impact your community in a big way.

To continue to learn, to continue to make yourself a better person. especially if you're a new teacher, it's gonna take time to develop your style and develop your classroom. But once you get it, you'll have it and you'll be able to just make it better and better every year. And that makes the job even more more fun every year. So just stick with it and don't give up on it too soon, because it's a great career and a great profession.

Spencer Payne: Greg, thank you so much. Real story from a real educator spanning over 20 years in the classroom. Most recently STEM, figuring out that project management, fourth year in, so now feeling good about it. And already talking cross collaborations and you've got your students through the years already sharing information of how to construct the perfect cardboard chair where maybe you're gonna have to make it a couch this year. We're gonna find out.

Gregg Pait: I'm so, oh, it's a great idea. Oh, I love seed, I like that.

Spencer Payne: Perfect. Greg, thanks so much for joining us. Appreciate your sharing story.

Gregg Pait: Yeah. You're welcome. Thank you.