Traditional Teaching, Homeschooling, and Thriving on TPT with Lauren  

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

 

Spencer Payne [Podcast Host] (00:01): Okay, and here we are today with another episode of front of the class real stories from real educators. Here today with Lauren as you may notice. We do not have a video for Lauren. Lauren wants to maintain some semblance of privacy imaginable in these times and just know that if this episode, if we're still going with this, it's that good that we can overcome a lack of video because there's such a great story that Lauren has. So Lauren, would you mind just introducing yourself of kind of what are you doing in the teaching world right now and how did you get there? What's been your path to where you are today? 

 

Lauren [Podcast Guest] (00:39): Yeah, awesome. Yes, my name is Lauren. Thank you so much for having me on. I'm so excited to get to share my story. I mean, this goes, my story starts way back as early as I can remember. have always wanted to be, I've always wanted to be a teacher. I'm sure some in your audience can relate to that. I remember a specific Christmas when I got an overhead projector. Do you remember these Spencer?

 

Spencer Payne (01:07): I do. Yep

 

Lauren (01:09): Right? Like the teacher, I mean, she would like, can you feel her licking her finger and wiping away the vis-a-vis? So good. I wanted to do that in my own home. have a little sister who I credit her college degree with the schooling that I gave her in our upstairs playroom. So my mom was a teacher. I just kind of grew up swimming in the water. was like a teacher's kid after school, would hang out and babysat. One of my summer jobs in college was camp. So I just have always been drawn towards kids. I never questioned. 

I applied to my number one college and I knew it was going to be an elementary education. And so I pursued that and had a really good experience. I would say it was more of a college experience than it was necessarily like an on-ramp that prepared me fully for the classroom. But I was ready enough and then actually graduated a semester early from school. I thought I wanted to do a middle education program, although my undergrad was elementary. 

But ended up not. So I actually got a long-term sub position in a local district, which was an awesome experience to have that under my belt before I started my first year. Then started first year teacher as a second grade teacher.

 

Spencer Payne (02:17): You said second grade, is that right? Yep. 

 

Lauren (02:18): And then that was actually when second grade, they're so precious, yes. And then that was actually, this is where my story kind of diverges a little bit, maybe from your traditional path. There were some teachers in our school. This was, let's see, this was, age me, September 2012 was when I started teaching. That was my first year. And around that same time, if you're familiar with the TPT story, Teachers Pay Teachers is what I mean by TPT. That's what they call it in that world. Deanna Jump was the first teacher. That September she made a million dollars, which was kind of wild. It made headlines. that's actually a really great question. So a million dollars on TPT. And I don't think, I actually don't know the date of when TPT started, but it wasn't that old. It was over a course of several years and her stuff just kind of blew up. And she had a great brand. 

 

Spencer Payne (02:53): In a month, in a year, like was there a timeline? Lifetime? 

 

Lauren (03:11): and just like a whole shadow blog and all of that. And this was also, I would say a few years earlier when blogs really took off. So was like the blog combined with Teachers Pay Teachers coming about. yeah. 

  

Spencer Payne (03:21): And sorry, real quick, just for those who maybe are not familiar, could you describe for the short version of what Teachers Pay Teachers is? 

  

Lauren (03:28): Yeah, yeah, that's a great question. So TBT is essentially a, I think of it like Etsy, but for teachers. So it's like just an online marketplace. Anyone can set up an account. I do think there's a fee now, but it used to be free. So you can just start an account and you could either be just a consumer or you could be a creator and a consumer. 

So I actually started an account, I went back and looked when I was student, or not student teaching, when I started my long-term sub position because it's so valuable to have, you know, if you've spent any time in the classroom, there is a big difference between the textbooks that are printed by these kind of far off companies versus something made by another human who has her feet on the ground or his feet on the ground in the classroom. So that's really, in my opinion, why TBT became such a powerful force for teachers. 

  

Spencer Payne (04:15): And think of it as more what, lesson plans or specific examples that other teachers have seen work in their classrooms that they're now selling for other teachers to potentially go and use. Is that fair? 

  

Lauren (04:24): Yes, yes and as it has grown it sells the marketplace has I mean everything from like slide decks or powerpoints to teaching videos to clip art to lessons units everything so it's kind of all it's all out there. 

  

Spencer Payne (04:39): from the vis-a-vis marker slide projectors. 

  

Lauren (04:41): Man, I know I did love those days, but yes, for sure. 

  

Spencer Payne (04:45): So now we're at like so you started your teaching career, you know call it 10 to 15 years ago ballpark ish and teachers pay teachers was kind of a new thing as you were starting and there's this woman Deanna jump who Had made a million dollars in some capacity selling some of these things on teachers pay teachers So that's kind of where we are call it 10 to 15 years ago What happened next? 

    

Lauren (05:09): Yes, so teachers around the world are like, $1 million. We never thought that was possible. So it was both cool to think, OK, here's this. Here, we're being given a voice because we can create things and share them with others from all over the world, really. And then also, well, maybe I have an opportunity to make extra income. And I don't have to get a side job here, there, selling some middle level marketing, something. I can take what I already feel passionate about, what I already feel educated on, and I can share that with others and make a profit. 

I had a girl at my school I remember. Her name was also Lauren and she was selling clip art and it was so cute and she was really artistic. She was a kindergarten teacher and one of my teammates on the second grade team, I remember her saying, you you should put some of your stuff out there. I was a very classic first year teacher, didn't have any kids, newly married. I was way overachieving and spending too much time. So my stuff was like very, very well developed, more probably than my second graders really needed, but I enjoyed it. And she was like, you should just throw your stuff out there and see what happened.

So I did and I back and looked and we made I think $200 that August just by taking a small I think the first sale we had talked about this the other day. The first sale I made was a little set of guided reading cards that you could just hang up in your room and your kids could look up at them and know where to go at what time during the morning. I think it may have cost three dollars and it had a really cheesy safari theme which was my classroom theme all my years I taught and and yeah somehow we made $200 with that and maybe a few other small resources. 

  

Spencer Payne (06:49): And so you're still not a full-time teacher at this point. Is that right? You're still kind of in this long-term sub position? 

  

Lauren (06:54): So the long-term sub position, I graduated in December of 2011, and then I started the long-term sub position in spring of 2012. then usually it was like a maternity leave. So usually these long-term subs are about two or so months. So I just finished out the school year for this teacher.

And then my husband and I actually, I got married and then we moved and that I started at a new school. It was a rural school. taught in second grade. It was a team setting. And that was probably one of the greatest gifts also. I mean, obviously the one teacher who's spoken to me, I still remember her name and her face and her encouraging me, but having that team to work with was like a survival line. I had enjoyed my college experience, but like I said before, it was more of a college experience than it was kind of like everything in one place that I needed to actually teach. I felt more prepared by the people around me who were kind of showing me the way. 

  

Spencer Payne (07:49): Okay, perfect, so now you're in your first kind of true teaching year, great people around you, you see this Deanna jump, you create your own things, and all of a sudden you've got your first, within the first month or so, you're teaching and that's going well, and you've got this random $200 in your first month of sales that I'm sure, I'm gonna go ahead and guess, feels like, whoa, what else can I do? 

  

Lauren (08:13): So much money. Yes, for sure. It was very encouraging. so, and I loved playing around with graphics. did yearbook in high school and worked in the newspaper in our local town. Like I've always loved that creative writing and designing piece also. So it felt like kind of like this really beautiful blend of, I love this. And who knows how much my second graders are appreciating, you know, the effort I'm putting in, but other teachers are like the aesthetic too.

So I just kept creating things. And also I think an important part, of the story I kind of mentioned before. I was newlywed, we didn't have kids, and my husband was in grad school and he was studying for the CPA exam. So it just kind of aligned that I'd work really hard during the day and then at night I genuinely enjoyed coming home and just like, you know, plotting away and creating resources with the extra time because I did have a lot of extra time in the early years. 

  

Spencer Payne (09:05): Got it, and now flash forward to today. What are you teaching now and to whom? 

  

Lauren (09:12): Yeah, yep, so I ended up leaving the classroom and working full time for TBT. It was kind of a big decision, but it's by the time after after three years of being on TBT, it had surpassed far surpassed my teaching income. And I I didn't leave for that reason, but it just so happened that as it surpassed my teachers salary that I was getting paid by the public school district that I was working for, my husband had a job opportunity in another city, but it wasn't a permanent relocation. 

  

Spencer Payne (09:33): Incredible. 

  

Lauren (09:47): It was a temporary one. So the choice was, do we live separately or do I go with him? So my principal was so kind. He let me leave all of my safari themed things in the room. And he was like, I will hold this room for you, go with him for a year and then come back. And I ended up, we ended up getting pregnant. so, so fast forward a few years and I had known I wanted to stay home with my own kids, at least when they were little, my mom had done that and I really appreciated it. My husband's mom had done that. So, 

So as I'm kind of like, you know, spending a lot more time just completely at home surrounded by babies, I would kind of, you know, work on TPT a little bit here and there, but it definitely slowed down as far as like the output, but it was still making like a significant passive income at that point for us in our like young years of parenting.

And then as I got further in, I feel like we just kind of started considering what we wanted to do from an education standpoint. Prior to having kids, I had never considered anything other than public school. I did not have a bad experience as a teacher in the classroom. I did not have a bad experience as a product of the public school system. My mom was a teacher. My husband's sister's an administrator in our school district. We love the public school system, but I also really loved my kids and I wanted to spend as much time with them. And even sending them off to preschool felt like a kind of a fissure that I didn't want. And I wanted to, I wanted to be with them and experience all that they were experiencing firsthand.

So that also, I would say my oldest was, I think it was the year before her kindergarten year when COVID hit. And so she had done a little Mother's Morning Out, but that year nobody was doing anything around us. So she stayed home with me and I, it kind of forced me to see I could do it. I didn't need a part-time outlet. I actually really loved being with her and at that point I had two youngers as well.

So I had a four or two and newborn that year. And so I thought I had a few people that had just kind of popped up around me who homeschooled and that kind of planted the seed like, well maybe there is this whole little micro community that I honestly had some preconceived notions about from my own childhood experience and homeschooling was such a different realm and so much more quiet I think back then than it is now. 

And so as I kind of started digging in a little bit, I realized there was this huge community of people right where we lived that were homeschooling. And I remember talking to my husband about it and he's willing to take risks. He was the one who told me with the TBT, he's like, yeah, give it a shot. Spend your time doing that. Let's invest a little bit in it. Let's just see. And it turned out really beautifully. And he said the same of homeschooling. He's like, what's the worst that can happen with kindergarten year? Let's just see. 

Yeah, so that's where I am now. That was four years ago. We're four years into homeschooling and I have a third grader and a first grader and a cutie pie little four year old. 

  

Spencer Payne (12:47): Okay, so you've been homeschooling for four years now with three kids since kind of the height of COVID. And it sounds like you found like, can you help like... 

  

Lauren (12:53): Yes. 

  

Spencer Payne (12:57): So again, we're going from long-term sub teacher, teacher and TPT to homeschooling your own children. I'd love to dive into the homeschooling just a little bit long, like a little bit more. Can you help describe to folks who maybe you're unfamiliar with or have the same maybe stereotype that you had of homeschooling when you were growing up versus what you see now? What does that look like today with the group of people that you homeschool with? Are there field trips? Do... 

  

Lauren (12:59): Yes. Yep. Yeah. 

  

Spencer Payne (13:24): Some parents take one day, another takes another day. Like how do they get socialization, sports, all those, like what are the main things that you're seeing that keep you doing this and have kept you doing it for four plus years? 

 

Lauren (13:36): Yeah. I think the biggest piece goes back to my first year of teaching in a public school. It's the people that you're around. I think that's probably true of most things that all of us are part of, whether it's your workout gym or your fill in the blank. It's the people who are around you. And so I think the people that are around me with with homeschooling, we're not all identical for sure. We are like minded and the things that we value and the things that we want to instill in our kids. And so I think that's kind of the tie that binds us. There are different pedagogies for homeschooling that we don't necessarily need to dive in here today, but that can help determine the path that you go.

We anchor our week on, we have a co-op that meets on Wednesdays. I actually get to teach at the co-op, which is super fun. I taught my youngest last year in kindergarten. And man, I have so much, I taught second grade and I thought I knew and I really didn't know. Kindergarten is an actual different animal, but so much fun in such a different way than like fifth grade, where I last taught in the public school. 

So I in this year I'm teaching my third grade daughter at the co-op and it's a full day co-op and We essentially teach everything other than you like the core reading and math So we do kind of history. We'll do like a picture artist study composer that kind of thing So that's kind of a big day of our week is that and we'll do some at-home things to kind of come around it and then one of the cool things about homeschooling is it provides a lot of flexibility and so my girls are involved in sports and they do ballet and they take piano lessons and I'm sure there's a few other things. Knitting, one of my daughters does knitting.

They'll do a variety of different things. so because of the day and age that we live in now, there are so many opportunities. we've done it, we did a cooking class all year last year. There are art classes. So we can kind of put together, follow their interests and kind of piece together. And a lot of times we'll align it with friends. So I sat sidelines with some of my dearest friends yesterday and then our kids played basketball and my husband got to coach. It was just this whole sweet little community moment. 

And yeah, so and that's just our experience, but we have other friends who, you know, don't want to co-op at all or those who have two day co-ops and that and I live in a small town in a suburb of a, you know, relatively large city, but not a major city like a New York or anything. And there are still a lot of opportunities and options to choose from. 

  

Spencer Payne (16:02): So just to kind of summarize where we are, right, we've got...you've been in the public teaching world for, if my math is correct, five-ish years or so? Three? Okay. Three, you knew you always wanted to be a teacher. 

  

Lauren (16:14): Actually just three. Three years. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. 

  

Spencer Payne (16:20): Go become a teacher three years while you're also selling additional products and services on this Teachers Pay Teachers platform, which over a three-year window outgrows your salary as a teacher. Then with moving a short-term relocation for a year or two plus kids homeschooling, you now have not been in the classroom for, I don't know, eight, nine-ish years or so, but. 

  

Lauren (16:28): Yep, yep, that's exactly right. 

  

Spencer Payne (16:45): But all this incredible journey of where you've gone from in the classroom to side business teachers, pay teachers to now homeschooling your three kids with this pod and these great people that you're with. Like any of that possible without those first three years in the classroom first to help guide you on what actually worked. 

  

Lauren (16:57): Yes, 100 % not possible to do Teachers Pay Teachers to the level that I did performed at without those years in the classroom. And actually part of why I stepped, I've pulled back is because I felt like I have less to offer for the public school realm as I have stepped away from the classroom. There is, I think, a growing homeschool presence there. I'm seeing more resources and materials. And so I am thinking through what it might look like to enter into that as I feel capacity.

But yes, absolutely. I would say that my experience working in the school, feet on the ground, was invaluable. And I think too, I didn't mention too, I had two opportunities this summer after I worked that, like little professional development opportunities that my district provided. One was they were, the first year I worked, provided, the school district provided a curriculum, like writing opportunity for teachers who wanted to work over the summer and help create some curriculum for the district that they would use the upcoming year for certain grade level and so I interviewed and I applied and interviewed and was selected and got to participate and that grew me a lot.

That was kind of obviously a passion area for me I mentioned before just the creative side of teaching and coming up with plans but I didn't really feel like I had a whole lot of instruction around that when I was in college and I went to what I would still highly recommend. I mean if we were sitting over coffee I would I would say 10 out of 10 you should go to this school it's awesome. I had a great experience and wouldn't change it but I didn't feel like I came out of there super prepared for what real life in the classroom was like. The most invaluable experiences were the the educators that I worked with and like the teaching experience that I actually got to set foot in the classroom. 

  

Spencer Payne (18:49): On that note, I'd love to now hone in a little bit on those maybe three years in the classroom, as well as how that's helped homeschool for the last four years.

And you just mentioned even coming out of a great school that you'd highly recommend still feeling like that first year of teaching, like you still just didn't really feel prepared for what you were getting yourself into. Knowing what you know now, if you could go back to the very beginning of that first year and give yourself a top one or two pieces of advice or something that, again, knowing what you know now, you wish you knew then, that would help you or potentially help others who are listening who might be about up in the same situation they're about to go start their first year they don't know what they they don't know yet what advice might you give to them or to to you if you could go back and give yourself advice before that first year 

  

Lauren (19:36): Yes, so kind of pulling on the thread that I kind of brought up earlier, it's just leaning in on the community. You may not be as fortunate as I was to have a really, there were six of us my first year. It was a beautiful mix of cultural diversity, age diversity, teaching experience diversity. And so was really cool that we were all able to come together. And I didn't always experience that in the teams that I taught in later. It wasn't always like that, but I was able to find, because I was on the lookout for the people who were  like-minded and really not in the same that we had to have everything in common but ultimately that we cared about the kids.

And I think that everyone would say whoever gets into teaching that's probably true of you but I think there's different ways of going about it. And so really like I don't know if humanizing them is the right way to say it but I think it can get be easy to focus especially in this day and age to focus on kind of the output before like the person, kind of just what a key role you have in developing these little tiny humans that like are interested to you by your administrators. so finding people who care deeply about that, about the names of each of the individual kids who are willing to kind of sit and talk through problems with you and kind of troubleshoot, how can we try this with this kid who just won't attempt this or who can't handle this or who doesn't know what to do with this and kind of having just like a group of people. 

I think you used the word pod earlier. It could be one person, it could be a few people, but that's still true of where I am now in homeschooling. I am regularly reaching out to the people around me who are wiser, who are further along and saying, help, can you help think through this with me? And even those who are new with me also, who have kids my age or when I was a first year teacher, like that's also another level of connectedness that you can find. And so just kind of leaning on that web of people, not trying to do it on your own. 

  

Spencer Payne (21:23): Yep. Yep, yeah, what I'm hearing, correct me if I'm wrong here, is some sense of, you're definitely, you're obviously not gonna know it all, so don't pretend like you do. And when you feel lost, when you feel I'm not sure how to handle this situation, it's okay to want help. And there's tons of people around you who have probably dealt with that exact same thing you're dealing with.

And, and, might I add, some of them might, not necessarily give the best advice or not give advice that aligns with how you think about things. And so find someone who kind of is your tribe, say to speak, so to speak, or someone who aligns with maybe the values that you have or you admire as a teacher and seek out more specifically those types of people and enlist their help. just instead of blindly asking for help from anybody, maybe specifically target some people that you seem to admire or seem to have the great attention of the class and seek out the help of those folks. Is that a fair summary? 

  

Lauren (22:21): Yes, yes, absolutely. And I think what's cool about that is that could apply to probably any any role that you're working with, right? Is that connectedness and not going at it alone? And I just think that's so I think that's so huge. And then I think that's on like the higher level for you as a professional. And then I think if you take it down one level, like finding that connectedness with your students also. And so, again, that fits in the public school realm and that also fits in homeschooling. I have three girls and they all are so different. And so when I'm approaching something, to consider them and kind of how I can enter in. It's like a creative, almost like they call it, I've heard it in parenting books called like backdoor parenting, right? So they don't realize that it's happening, but you're kind of entering in through the back door.

And so I think the same is true for know, kind of whatever grade you're teaching at, at least for elementary where my experience is, is knowing your kids well and investing the time in the same way that you would invest in your coworkers, investing in knowing them as people. And as that relationship builds, again, just that thread of relationships, they're gonna be more invested in you and they're gonna care more about what you're trying to impart to them. 

  

Spencer Payne (23:27): Yeah, no doubt. And a couple more questions. On your kind of time maybe, maybe mostly in the classroom, but I maybe there's something that still applies to homeschooling especially because it's not only your own kids, but you mentioned you know there's others in the community who you're kind of teaching as well. As you look back any kind of coolest, most enjoyable or proudest moments of your career or something that you look back on and you're like that still makes me smile because I can't believe that we did that or that kid did that after I talked to him this way or just something that just makes you look back and just makes you light up and smile because of what happened. 

  

Lauren (23:59): Yeah. So one of the things I didn't mention was when my husband and I moved back to, or we moved for his job when I was still in the middle of teaching, the school that I went to work at was actually the school where my mom was working also. She was a media specialist, so she would get to teach the kids that were in my classroom, which was a really, really sweet thing. And so after I left the classroom and ended up getting pregnant and we started our family, she was still there. She had a few more years before she retired. Actually a lot of years left.

And one of my kids, our town is pretty small and so when the high schoolers are getting ready to graduate they get to go, they have the opportunity to go walk back through the halls at their elementary school and this one kid went out of his way to essentially track my mom down because she was still you know anchored in the school and was like can you please go find Ms. Owens and please let her know I want to see her on my senior walk I want to pass down the hall and see her there even though she's not here anymore and the same student was tracking me down to send me an email. And I have a few who still send me Christmas cards. like you said earlier, I've been out of the classroom for almost a decade. But I think that is very meaningful, just because as I said before, relationship is really what it's all about. And I feel so grateful that those kids would still think of me. 

Yeah, so yes, that's probably been my favorite. And I mean, there were a ton I loved. I kept a really open line of communication with the kids. I love the second graders. They're really sweet. But fifth grade was probably my favorite because they were, second grade is just really adorable and precious. And fifth grade, they were like, you know, we're on the edge of middle school here. We're having some deep feelings and deep thoughts. And so I would have this group of some kids that would write me letters and they would tell me about things that they were feeling and experiencing. they trusted me and it had nothing to do with what was happening in the classroom. It was things at home or sometimes things in the classroom.

And I still remember getting those letters. I kept a mailbox on my desk all my years I taught. And kids could always put their little artwork and letters and things in. And so that's not one specific instance. But when I look back, that was one of the things I'm most grateful that I did. Someone advised me in beginning of before I taught, they're like, the way that you arrange your room shows what you value. So I had a classroom library that took up like a third of the classroom and then a mailbox that sat front and center on my desk. 

  

Spencer Payne (26:30): And on other notes of, know, mostly extremely memorable moments that you still recall from, you know, ideally at this point by a decade ago, right? Are there any wild, crazy, I still can't believe that actually happened moments in the classroom, whether that means funny, like crazy, wild, like anything that just like, I can't believe this actually happened and I'll remember that till I'm 80. 

 

Lauren (26:56): Yes, yes. had most of my first year of teaching and I had a student and she was absolutely precious. She was just like your dream little adorable student had these big doe eyes and she just soaked up everything I said and her mom was our room mom and she did so much for all of our kids. And then one day I got I got a call from my administrator that this little girl had been playing at her grandma's house and had fallen out of a tree and she had brain damage and they had rushed her two hours away to a children's hospital.

So one of the other teachers who was close with her family, he'd been her kindergarten teacher, he and I drove up and went to go see her in the hospital. And again, I keep coming back to her relationship because that's really what it's all about. But I will never forget going to go visit her and seeing her and feeling so grateful that she was okay. Also, I think it hit me how much I felt connected to them already. And I don't even think it was that far into the school year. But it helped me see how much I really, how much I cared and how grateful I was to get to kind of do life with these kids for a year, so to speak. And I ended up getting to do her, the district paid for some tutoring to help catch her up. She ended up miraculously recovering. And we ended up naming our second daughter. We kind of like used a sort of a combination of this girl's name. She had a double name.

And a couple, I would say it was probably two years ago, we were, so that was like 10 years ago and no longer than that. We were, was in the dentist's office with all my girls and we start chatting. My girls were getting their teeth cleaned and come to find out the dental hygienist that was cleaning my middle daughter's teeth was the grandma of this student who had fallen out of the tree. And cause she recognized the name because I, the mom had, the mom of the student had known that we ended up using one of her double part of her double name. Anyways, it was just the smallest world. It's every time you go in our dentist's office, we see this grandma who's the little girl had been playing at and falling out of the tree. And it just, again, brings back this like sweet, it's such a small world, it's a beautiful community. The grandma will, you know, show me pictures of her daughter who's now in college and she'll be like, look at this dress she wore. My girls are like, it's so pretty. You know, just, they're like, I can't believe mommy taught her. So it's really fun for them to get to see that side of my life too, because my own kids have never seen that part of me. Yeah. 

  

Spencer Payne (29:23): Awesome, especially with recovery after something that didn't sound like it was going to be. 

  

Lauren (29:28): Yeah, no, was beautiful recovery. 

  

Spencer Payne (29:30): And then on just again, always curious to dig into some of these big moments, right? Like are there any tougher times in that couple years that you were in the classroom that, know, at the time it just seemed like, gosh, how am gonna get through this? Or what am I supposed to do about that? Just things that just felt really tough and how, at all, did you handle and kind of bounce back or get out of the situation? Yeah, anything coming to mind there that was just a particularly tough moment. 

  

Lauren (29:58): Yeah, I would say the parent interactions were probably some of the harder things. You know, you have so many parents who care so much and then you have other parents who care, but maybe can't invest as much.

I remember one situation my last year where there was a student and her mom was a teacher at the school and her dad worked in the district office. And then there was a boy in class who she felt like was bullying her and picking on her. And so it felt like this really, really hard spot of navigating what I didn't necessarily, I didn't necessarily see all that this girl was describing happening. And even as she kind of shared, I would be watching for it and not seeing it. So it felt like she was kind of swaying the story a little bit. But she had some power and some kind of I don't know, in her pocket behind her, just her parents being who they were. And this other kid did not have that. He had, you know, parents who were working both full time and other siblings and a lot less ability to kind of advocate and kind of be all in on the situation and have eyes on it and the way that the other parents maybe were kind of woven into the story.

So I remember that being, that being really challenging. I think the way that we ended up wading through it was I had a really great administrator and I had a great relationship with him and so I called him in on it and he was just kind of like a third party really to come in and say just kind of hear their sides and it wasn't on me and so again just recognizing that this was a little bit kind of just an instance where it wasn't something that I should handle within my own classroom just because of who was involved. And so bringing him in just kind of helped. And he had a really diplomatic way of alleviating some of the pressures that the girls' parents were putting on and kind of helping take a fair look at things. And it didn't feel like it was putting me as the teacher in the middle of them both. He was kind of more of an outsider, I guess. 

  

Spencer Payne (32:02): Yeah, yeah, understood. And I realized from your situation or his, that can be a very rough and common situation teachers face where two students just for whatever reason, just maybe just don't like each other. And they're both telling their side of a story. And unless you see it happen, you don't know if it's true or not. And so how do how do you suss out what the real story is if you haven't seen necessarily what these two kids are potentially saying that the other one did, not exactly the easiest situation to be in the middle of, because then you have parents who are both saying like, why didn't you do anything? like, well, I didn't see anything happen. And unless I see something happen, it's very hard for me to react to, you know, these accusations that are being thrown out there. I imagine that'd be a very tough spot to be in, because how can you go, how can you or the administrator go do something about it if you haven't seen maybe potentially the thing happen that the child is accusing another child of? It's a tough spot. 

 

Lauren (32:57): Absolutely, yeah, and I think it helped. Again, it goes back to, again, I'm kind of a broken record at this point, but the relationship, and I had a good one with my admin, and with even the girl whose mom taught at the school, of course I knew her from teaching together. And so even though I didn't necessarily agree with everything and the way that it was being handled, I tried really hard to keep an open line of communication with all sides involved and let them know my intentions were to help and that sort of thing. And yeah, it is a hard and a common scenario. For sure, unfortunately. 

  

Spencer Payne (33:30): Just more rapid fire kind of quick hitter questions as we as we wrap up here. Going back to kind of first year or maybe second year kind of teaching newer teachers, are there any common traps where you see first or second year teachers just it's just a very common trap that they fall into when they're when they're new and they're trying to figure things out? 

And what advice might you recommend to not get trapped in the first place that are these just common barriers or common places where people fall? Like what might one be and how can people not get trapped in the first place? 

  

Lauren (34:05): Yeah. I think one thing that I found to be really common is that I think leads to lot of burnout is going way over above and beyond. And I for sure was guilty of that. And my scenario set me up to have a lot of time to be able to do that. But I think setting really good personal, I don't know, boundaries feels firm. Like you need to protect yourself from something. And I don't think it's a job you need to protect yourself from, but I think it's true of any role. You can kind of get sucked in. 

And again, some of that is natural in any field. You're excited about it. You've been training for this in school. And so just maybe thinking to yourself and being aware of before you go into your first year, like what are the things that I know help me stay balanced as a human? What are the things that help me feeling connected to? I mean, for me, it's like fiction or exercising, those kinds of things. And so just kind of having, whether it's your, know, spouse as an accountability or a friend or a parent or whomever, just helping hold you accountable to, of trying to stay, keep the balance and I think that's true that was true of my first year homeschooling that was true of my tbt business that was true of my first year of public school.

I have a tendency to just want to go all in and and wear myself out and my husband's always reminding me you know he's like this is this is a long game. When I first started teaching I wasn't planning on not teaching for a long time I was planning on going back after kids but and same with TBT all these different realms but I can you know easily burn myself out so find you know, help have someone, you don't know them for yourselves, have someone help identify like what are the things that you have levity after you've done them or you feel more energized and make sure that those are woven into starting your career. So that's kind of more of like a personal outside of the classroom, but I think it's just as relevant because that's who's gonna be having their feet on the ground in the room is the person who is either exhausted or ready to take it on. 

  

Spencer Payne (36:02): Yeah, 100%. Something that rejuvenates and recharges you has got to be there. And I'll share an example of just different professional realm in teaching, but the same concept is like when you're kind of like running ragged and you're just like kind of at wit's end is like, do you reenergize? How do you bounce back? I'll just share a quick story for less than a minute. 

I was working in an office job and my boss and I would leave this really particularly tough client that we were on. We'd leave a particularly tough meeting. We'd close the door to our office and a couple magical things like, you know, good relationship, music, and physical activity. We would turn on CeeLo Green's song, Forget You, although it was not the PC version that we would turn on. And we would just go back and for like for one minute, like I would just do as many pushups as I could until I couldn't do anymore. And then he would do the same thing. And then we both stand up and it was just like, all right, I'm back. Like I feel so much better right now.

So again, that thing that brings you back or brings you re-energy could be as simple as I'm gonna go to the teacher's office, I'm gonna bust out pushups for a minute and then I'm gonna come back or it could be something on the weekend like maintain your Saturday to do something that it is just for you that re-energizes you with that concept of, you you can't give all your energy away and not have any for yourself, right? You gotta do something to recharge. 

 

Lauren (37:23): Yes, yes, that's amazing and so true. 

  

Spencer Payne (37:27): Yes. And what in your profession is the single number one best thing about this profession teaching? What do you love about it? What drew you to it in the first place? And ultimately, you're not doing it in a public teacher capacity, but you're still doing it for your own kids in pods. You're still teaching, right? So what keeps you coming back to this? What's the number one best thing about this profession or just being a teacher in general? 

  

Lauren (37:51): Yeah, I think it's kind of obvious, but or at least it is to me. 

It's meaningful. It's impactful. You know, as you're talking about doing pushups and kind of dancing and turning on fun music, that I think that is necessary when it's paired with work that is weighty and heavy. And sometimes teaching is silly. mean, kids say the actual darndest things and they will keep you laughing just because kids are awesome. But also it can be really heavy.

There were some heavy situations and I worked in a Title I area for a while in college and that was really hard and had some hard stories. or like the parent interaction where you just feel like you're kind of up against a wall and it doesn't feel like you can win. Those kinds of things are absolutely part of any job and I think when it's not just like I'll pick on my husband, he's an accountant and so spreadsheets, I'm not saying they're not important but also they don't have you know a soul and a heartbeat and so when you're working with things with souls and heartbeats that just matter most, it can weigh on you and for sure my personality is bent towards is caring deeply for that and so I think that's probably the thing I feel most grateful for about the profession too is that I never ever, I know sometimes my husband looks at the ceiling and he's like, what am I doing? You know, and I never have that moment in all the different realms that I've, whether it was teachers pay teachers, I knew I was, I had teachers writing me from across the world telling me what an impact I was making in their classroom, you know, and I've got my kids from public school years tracking me down to send Christmas cards or my own children and I don't say that to toot my own horn.

I don't think I'm necessarily exceptional. I just think when a human being steps aside and says, yes, I want to invest in another human being. That matters. And it doesn't matter what age you are. You can feel that. And it changes your life when you're invested in by someone that you know cares genuinely and authentically. And so that is what I am most grateful for about the profession and what I feel like is the coolest part about it is that you really never question the impact that you're having and that it is a meaningful, meaningful work that you are setting out to do. 

  

Spencer Payne (40:05): And on the flip side, what's the single worst thing about this profession? Just being honest with somebody who's thinking about getting into it or early in it. What in your perspective is just the single, there's one thing, magic wand, and you could just change one thing about the profession. What would you point that magic wand at? 

  

Lauren (40:19): Hmm. Hmm. That is a good question. feel a little torn between two, so I'm gonna pave my own way and say two. I would say it is the parents and it is also the classroom management. I'm teaching in a co-op setting now, so it's like two teachers to 10 kids. All of the parents are involved. They're either teachers or serving in some of their capacity. So it's a little bit of an idyllic setting, I guess is what I'm trying to describe.

And so I can see when the kind of parent conflict with these are all like-minded parents when they're all kind of working towards the same thing, that conflict, like the situation I was describing earlier, isn't really there as much. And so I come home from co-op appropriately tired, after a long day of teaching different things, but it's such a good tired. And it's different from the emotional exhaustion of navigating parents kind of assuming the worst or coming at you or angry about this or angry about that.

I remember there was one mom my first year of teaching who really wanted her son to be better at math than he was and he just really wasn't. And so she was kind of taking that towards me. But anyway, yeah, I think it's the parents and kind of just navigating all of that, which can feel really messy sometimes, and then the classroom management. And those are things that, again, they touched on in undergrad, but they, I mean, you could probably do an entire graduate degree on those areas in general. Just managing people and also, yeah, whether it's parents or children because that is a huge significant part of it and it is so different from the actual craft of teaching, if that makes sense, but it can't be separated from it, especially in the public realm. 

  

Spencer Payne (42:00): And two more real quick ones, knowing what you know now, especially from your path from elementary school teacher to teachers pay teachers side business and then taking over kind of your income stream to be bigger than teaching to homeschooling, knowing what you know now given that path, like would you still go down this teaching path and recommend it for others? 

  

Lauren (42:22): Yes, absolutely. Absolutely. think it goes back to the question you asked a few minutes ago about the significance. I mean, the only other profession I would have considered would be nursing, but I can't do blood. I just love, I love people and I think deep in my soul, impactful work has always been what I've wanted to do. And I think you can't find much more impactful work than being in the classroom. So a hundred percent I would. I would recommend it if one of my daughters wants to pursue education, will cheer for her along that avenue. 

  

Spencer Payne (42:54): And anything else that you'd like to share with the audience that you think is fun valuable just worth sharing or Potentially something that you already said that maybe is like like I don't want to lose this I want to make sure this is Rehighlighted because it's so important so anything new to share or anything that you'd like to restate or re highlight because you just feel it's so impactful 

 

Lauren (43:14): Yeah, I don't know if there's this quote, you've probably heard it. I feel like it's one of those like quotes that you see in middle school on the walls and they, you know, hit the back of your classroom and computer or something. But it's like they, Maya Angelou is the one that said it.

And she said, I've learned that people will forget what you said and they'll forget what you did, but they'll never forget how you made them feel. 

And so obviously teaching is much more than just feelings, but I do hope that teachers pick up on that thread of relationship and how that has been woven all throughout. We didn't even dive deep into kind of the track record of my TPT store and kind of how it grew. But a lot of how it grew was because I had a few specific teachers that I developed relationships with and they encouraged me along the way and helped me see how these specific resources were helpful. so I created more and it became, you know, a whole product line served so many more classrooms because of relationships.

So all along the way, think the thread of relationships, the people I've worked with, the students I've taught, even their parents that we've connected with, or grandparents, those are the things that matter. Those are the things that I hold onto when I step away from, you know, 10 years, 15 years removed, that's what I remember. And if I had to guess, I would say that's what the kids remember too. And so just carrying that with you when you're trying to figure out what matters, what to spend your time on, what to spend your energy on, and what you want to bring into the classroom. It's just remembering those things, kind of like majoring in the majors and letting the little things that you can't sweat over, just kind of letting them lay on the back burner. 

  

Spencer Payne (44:53): Great quote from Maya Angelou that yes, I definitely remember that one from probably middle school and yes, I could probably be reminded of that one much more frequently than I am because it's very very true. 

  

Lauren (44:57): Yeah. 

  

Spencer Payne (45:05): Lauren, thank you so much for joining us. Very interesting and different path than the typical teacher going from teaching elementary school to standing up as teachers pay teachers store to then homeschooling your own kids. None of which is possible unless you're in the classroom, right? Seeing what really works hands on with your folks in the classroom when you were in that world. So thank you so much for sharing your very interesting and different story of a real educator in the real world. So thank you so much, Lauren. 

  

Lauren (45:31): Yeah, thanks for having me.