Divorce, Retirement, and Rediscovering Happiness with Dr. Jessica Hawk

Jordan: This podcast has content that may be distressing to some listeners. Be sure to check the description below for content warnings. And now, to Lauran Woolley. 

Lauran: Welcome, listener. Here's the deal. We cover topics both raw and real. From heartfelt truths to challenging themes, proceed with care through our streams.

If certain topics stir or jar, know your limits, near or far. Take what helps, leave what stings. This space is yours to choose what 

Jessica: rings. If teaching is so easy and lucrative, please tell me, I noticed in your profile you have three children, please tell me you are encouraging all three of your children to become teachers because why wouldn't you want them to have an easy, lucrative job?

Radio silence.

Lauran: You want to bring us in today? 

Jordan: I'm bringing us in. I thought we were already here. 

Lauran: I guess we're here. 

Jordan: We're here. 

Lauran: We're here. We're 

Jordan: live. 

Lauran: We're, we're live. We're 

Jordan: doing it live. 

Lauran: Yeah. 

Jordan: Okay. Well, hello. Welcome to We Are Fine. Hi, 

Lauran: everybody. How are you? 

Jordan: Anywho. 

Lauran: Hey, that's my line. 

Jordan: Then go ahead. Take it away. 

Lauran: Okay, well, welcome to We Are Fine.

If you're new here, hi, I'm Lauren. 

Jordan: Are you okay? Yeah, I'm fine. I'm fine. We're doing good. 

Lauran: I think, guys, I think something is wrong with Jordan today. I don't know. Are you good? 

Jordan: I'm good. Are you sure? I'm making it through today. 

Lauran: I'm sorry, like, guys, this has been just a chuckle fest for the past, like, ten minutes of just trying to, because I hope you know, like, when we film these episodes, We film our, our, like, talking parts with our guests first, and then we go back and film like the outro and intro, just to give you a little bit of movie magic on how podcasts work.

Oh, wow. 

Jordan: That's how it works? 

Lauran: Yeah. So, we're doing this part last, which is why we're like burnt out at the start. It's great. It's great. We're fine. We're 

Jordan: good. We're making it through. You 

Lauran: know what? You know, that's how, that's how life goes. We're 

Jordan: living the message of this podcast. We 

Lauran: are. We are. We are. So, if you're new here, welcome, um, to The Trainwreck, and we hope you'll hop on board.

Jordan: The dumpster fire. 

Lauran: Yeah! Welcome to our little dumpster fire. We have, um, this is our little mascot. Uh, his name is Trash Bandicoot, and I 

Jordan: forgot we named him that. 

Lauran: Yeah! Trash Bandicoot. If you're, if you're listening to us in your ear holes, it's a little glow in the dark dumpster figurine that we have on the table, um, but Jordan named him Trash Bandicoot a while back.

Yeah, I did. When we first bought him. So, welcome to the dumpster fire that is our podcast. We're super excited that you're here, uh, and even more so excited for the person we have on the show today, which is Dr. Jessica Hawk. 

Jordan: Yeah, and since you, since you broke the fourth wall and everything, Lauren did not refer to her as a doctor.

So everyone, boo! Boo! I'm 

Lauran: sorry, I really am. She deserves a lot of love. All the doctors every single time because getting a doctorate is hard. So I, yeah, I, I wish I would have said it when we were talking to her, but I'm going to make up for it by saying it a ton now and a ton later. 

Jordan: So right now you have 10 seconds to get in as many doctors as you can.

Ready? Go. 

Lauran: Doctor, doctor, doctor, Dr. Jessica Hawk, Dr. Jessica Hawk, doctor, doctor, doctor, doctor, Dr. Jessica Hawk, doctor, doctor, doctor, doctor. All right, that's good 

Jordan: enough. 

Lauran: Okay. 

Jordan: That wasn't 10 seconds. I got tired of that bit real quick. 

Lauran: Yeah, I was like, 10 seconds is a long 

Jordan: time. 

Lauran: I'm excited for today's guest and it's, I think we should just jump right into it because we've got a jam packed conversation with Dr.

Jessica Haack, also known as my teacher face on social media. She's hilarious. She's your senior angler, angler? She's your senior English teacher. She's 

Jordan: not an English teacher. She's a, she's your senior angler. So she's our senior fisherman. Yes. Is that what you're saying? 

Lauran: She is your senior angler. Senior English teacher, and she is going to talk all about her career as a teacher and how she's enjoying and thriving in retirement, which I'm jealous.

I was 

Jordan: going to say, I am jealous of that. 

Lauran: So you just, you just buckle up because we're going to hear all about how You know, if you're in our stage of life, where we're still working full time and all that, uh, we're gonna learn all about how people in retirement are just living their best lives, and I, I'm so happy for them.

I wish that I was you, and I will be someday, and then I'll say the same thing to people younger than me. You get to retire? Maybe, I don't know. In this economy? In this economy? Okay, we'll be right back with Jessica.

Alright guys, I'm so excited because we have such an amazing guest for you guys today, Jessica Haack. I was just telling her like two seconds ago how I, I just in my head believe that we have been friends for five years because I have seen her on social media for five years and I just watch all her content and so I'm like, You know, this isn't the first time we've ever spoken face to face, we're friends.

And it's kind of surprising 

Jessica: that this is the first time because I know even during COVID when we were doing the Zooms and everything else, it was never just the two of us. So no, there were like so many people, 

Lauran: right? I'm just so excited. By the way, this is my husband. I've been watching you as 

Jessica: well. 

Jordan: Oh man, that, that usually does not mean good things for me and it's only embarrassing things I've done.

The first time you popped in 

Jessica: I was 

Lauran: like, 

Jessica: there 

Theme: he is! 

Lauran: Oh my gosh. I drag him into so many things and he so gracefully agrees to be a part of the chaos. So 

Jordan: it's because I get to ham it up just so much whenever you hear the thing, 

Lauran: though, when I post videos with Jordan in them, people love him like more than me.

And I'm like, Hey, but he's no, he's you're really funny. I don't think you realize how funny you are in content and a very good cinematographer. 

Theme: Oh, thank you. I'm 

Lauran: not gonna lie. I'm really lucky because I. I don't know if I would have good content if he wasn't, like, you know, mentoring me when I first started, you know, five years ago.

Crazy. But I have to ask, because you just retired from teaching, correct? I did. I did. I retired in June after 32 

Jessica: years. Thank you. 

Lauran: Oh my gosh. Congratulations. That's so exciting. It seems surreal. Yeah. 

Jessica: Does it? How's it going? Well, to say 32 years. Um, I, you know, before I retired, I was making a lot of videos about the end is coming and, you know, all of the last of that year.

Lauran: Yeah. 

Jessica: Because I love my school, I love my students, my colleagues, um, my administrators, believe it or not, were wonderful. It was bittersweet. And so I said, I don't know who I am if I'm not a teacher, because for over three decades, that's how I've identified. And so actually two years ago, when I knew I was approaching 55, I went into therapy and I said, how do I make this transition out of the career that I've known my entire life to Regular quote unquote life.

And that helped a lot. And one of the things that I could say is that it's surprisingly great. 

Lauran: Coming from a workaholic, like, I, I know retirement is going to be great. Like, I'm so excited to not wake up to an alarm or like, Have some free time, but I also feel like I like to stay busy and I would probably be bored here and there.

Jordan: I'm gonna stop you there for a second though. When do you wake up to an alarm? Because 90 percent of the time, it is me shoving you out of the bed being like, Hey, it's 7. 30, you have 30 minutes to get ready. And that was the 

Jessica: 8th snooze. 

Jordan: Yes. 

Lauran: If we're being honest, like, I'm being 1000 percent real with you right now.

I'm This morning, I legit rolled out of bed at 740. I didn't mean to. Like, I set my alarm for 650. 

Jordan: I don't know what happened. 

Lauran: It didn't, did it go off? 

Jordan: I remember hearing my 730 alarm go off, and 

Lauran: And you were like, Lauren's still here. 

Jordan: I don't know what happened if it was just one of those like, oh, because like, we're, we're, it's November, we're winter, there has been a couple times like when in our area, we've had snow days this early, and I don't know why in my mind, I was like, oh, there must have been a freak snowstorm, and she has a snow day.

At the beginning of November. I know, it was, I was also awake for like a half a second at that point, so. 

Lauran: I honestly, though, I'm proud of myself, because. I am notoriously bad with time. Like, I just cannot get anywhere on time or early. If I'm on time, it's a miracle. Today, I jumped out of bed. I looked at my phone, saw it said 740, and I kid you not, I flew out of that bed.

Hyperspeed. Right, I was hyperspeed. I walked in the bathroom. Looked in the mirror and I was like, thank God. I don't have to do anything to my hair today Like it just kind of held the curl. Right. It held curl from yesterday. So I was like, oh the Lord is shining on me But that's one thing in retirement I will not miss is getting up to any kind of alarm I know we make up we that's 

Jessica: one of the best parts because I teaching high school I got up at 530 every day 

Lauran: Uh, couldn't be me.

Jessica: And I'm a sleeper. So now I go to bed at 1am and I set my alarm for 8am, which is such a, like a human way to go through life. Yeah. Instead of 5. 30 to, you know, wake up at 5. 30. I always tried to be asleep by 10. 30 at the latest. And now just the freedom, you're like, I could pull an all nighter if I want. I have dinner at nine o'clock.

I start a movie at 11. It's, it's wonderful. And another thing. I think people don't realize when they've been in teaching for a long time is how you are always in not a panic mode. But you're always in a bundle of nerves, even if you don't realize it. And people say, well, didn't you relax over the summer?

Well, my school got out the third week in June, and then we went back for, I know, third week in June. And then I started, I know I started setting up my room mid August, but even during the whole summer, we're still getting Emails. We're still getting, here's the new schedule. Here's the new change. So I never truly disconnected.

And so this summer when I ended school, I said, Oh, I don't, I don't have to worry about my schedule for next year. I don't have to beg to not have bathroom duty. I don't have to wonder who I'm going to bribe to get into the school early to set up my classroom, which I always did with the custodians.

There's 

Lauran: always someone. I mean, if you're, listen, if I could give one tip to like new teachers or even, you know, veteran teachers. Get in good with the custodian staff. Like, the maintenance personnel at your building will be your best friend if you are nice to them and you appreciate them. And if you bring them a little bottle of Crown Royale.

You will have so many favors. That 

Jordan: too! I think that's the key to anyone's heart. Any 

Lauran: time we have like class parties, we'll give them all of our like, are cupcakes and cookies. Like we'll have extra. So I'm always like, here custodians, like here's some cupcakes. But they will, they will give you so many favors if you're nice 

Jessica: to them.

They're 

Lauran: wonderful secretaries, administrative assistants, custodial staff, 

Jessica: cafeteria staff. There's so many people that go into making a school day run the way that it runs and you don't realize how seamless it is because they're all just in the background. They're in the background doing all the work.

So. 

Lauran: Absolutely. I, like, okay, so I feel like I, I don't want to say I understand what that feeling is like, but I remember feeling somewhat like that when I first graduated college, because I, I don't know why when I was younger, I had myself on like a timeline of like, I had to have XYZ events happen at this point in my life.

And I wanted to be, you know, at certain points at certain ages. And so when I first decided to go into teaching, like I wanted to speed through the program. So I didn't stop. Like I took classes all through summer and everything. And I was able to graduate in four years. And then like leading up to Like, the next school year, I had graduated, and then I was like, okay, now what?

Like, because you don't just get handed jobs right away, you have to go on, like, a bajillion interviews and hope that a school needs you. So I wasn't getting any jobs and it was like July and I remember having like a quarter life crisis of like, what do I do now? I'm not going back to college next semester.

I don't have a job. What do I do? And I was panicking and I feel like I can't wait to have like free time to do my, like the hobbies and things that I love to do and have more time for those things, but I also feel like I'm gonna go through another little crisis like that when I have to retire because I I like to stay busy and I'm constantly working on something.

So when I have too much free time, it makes me think too much and my brain goes crazy. So like, I love that you started up therapy and we are both in therapy as well. And I can't say enough good things about how helpful it is with those things. I completely 

Jessica: agree. Completely agree. And it was something where I was only with her for a year, but as she talked to me and I said, well, who am I if I'm not A teacher.

And she goes, why isn't Jess enough? And I was like, Oh, um, she said, the people who love you, your family, your friends, your boyfriend, are they looking at you as a teacher or Jess? And so why isn't just enough? And I was like, Oh, okay. Yeah, that's really good. And I think for people like us, because I'm always busy as well.

I always had my full time job. And up until recently I had two part time jobs and I'm always making content and keeping up with everything. And, you know, as a content creator, you want to go through and you want to engage with your audience, which takes. Easily one to two hours a day. Yeah, I'm busier than I thought I would be.

So I get up around eight and then I answer, um, comments and respond to dms for about an hour, an hour and a half. And then I prepare my content for the day, and then I take a break. I go visit my mom, who's 81. She's like one town over. I get to hang out with her, which is fantastic. How lucky am I? That's awesome.

Yes. Yeah, that my mother is alive and healthy and funny. And she's going to be in some content coming up because she is a wife. I love it. Oh, she's just a comedy show in and of herself. And then in the afternoon I come home and I'll record so I can prep it for the next day. So you'll be busier than you think.

I was worried about free time as well because I can put a dent in a couch like nobody else. I really am very good. When COVID hit and they said, you have to stay in your apartment, I was like, done. You're like, oh no, thank you so much for that direct and nobody can visit me. Amazing. So 

Jordan: there's, there's a word in the English language that means like you laze around in bed too long.

Herkeldurkel. 

Lauran: Herkeldurkel. Yes. There's actually a word for that. Like, so we'll do that on Sundays. We'll every now and then we'll say that word, but like, yeah, when you like laze around and just kind of like hang out and you're like, you know, just, you know, be chilling. It's called herkeldurkeling. 

Jessica: Wow. So I'm a herkeldurkeler.

Lauran: Yeah, we're all hercule derclers at heart. I mean, everyone likes to have a good hercule dercle every now and then. Yeah. I mean, and it's needed. And if 

Jordan: anyone says they're not, they're liars. Like, 

Jessica: I 

Lauran: know, for 

Jessica: real. I have to tell myself that though sometimes. I don't think I've ever met one in the wild who wasn't.

So, you know, they could say that, but I haven't actually seen it in action. 

Lauran: So, one of the things I love About your content that you create is not only just like the teacher side of things, but also the stuff that you share just about your personal life and just like how you're thriving in the stage of life that you're in right now.

I find that so inspiring because, uh, I mean, it makes me think of like people in my life that I know are You know, it might be struggling with, you know, those kinds of scenarios, like, you know, people who are either newly divorced or people who are just not in a relationship and are looking for, you know, something to bring joy to their life.

And I love that you celebrate yourself being your, like, point of joy where you're, you're spending time with friends and family and you, you tell so much about that on your, your social media. What inspired you to start sharing that part of your life? Well, I 

Jessica: have to tell you, I, I stayed away from personal stuff for the first three and a half years because it's a, it's the wild, wild west out there.

And you never know how it's going to be perceived. You never know if you invite people into your life, then they feel as if they have a knowledge of you, um, and are able to comment on. Things that are a little more personal than what you let out there and they draw their own conclusions, but 

Theme: I 

Jessica: thought it was really important to show people that You know, I've always wanted to be child free and that's just my choice and out of my friend group, there are maybe 30 percent of us in each friend group who are child free and the people who are parents, we love to be with their kids.

And so that's an aspect that I wanted people to see. And then the idea of being divorced and being afraid of being divorced is normal. I think it is a very scary time. So I just wanted to share with people. How I navigated that. And I have more videos ready to go. Um, but it's definitely something where you say, Oh my God, I didn't expect to be here.

Where do I go from here? And how do I deal with the fallout? And one of the things that I realized very early on was that you wouldn't care what people thought about you if you realized how infrequently they did it. So, you know, a lot of times people are like, well, what will the neighbors say? What will my church say?

What will my family say? How will the person's family perceive me? You can have the what ifs for decades and then where's your life? So I just kind of want to show people that there is life on the other side. It can be fantastic. Um, I have a wonderful boyfriend who has been with me for five and a half years and we live 10 minutes apart from each other.

We have no intentions of moving in together. We have no intent. I 

Lauran: need my free space. I need my personal space. 

Jessica: But here's the thing. I know that about myself. I know that I like, I like my apartment exactly the way that it is. And I like very muted colors and I like things not to be moved. I'm very neat and very tidy and fastidious.

And that's not a good person to live with. Let's be honest, I'm saving him a headache. But the other day I said to him. How about if you buy a duplex and I rent out half of it? I'll live on 

Lauran: one side, you live on the other, we can be near each other a lot of the time, each of us have our own space. 

Jessica: That is a genius idea.

Amazing, I was gonna say. Is it? I know! And so I said, you know, he loves the idea too. Why don't more people think like that? Well, a lot of couples my age who have been married for years, they haven't slept in the same room for years because they need their sleep. They need their quiet. They need their personal space and time.

And it's nice that they don't have partners who get offended by that. And so one of the things I love about my boyfriend is that he has so many. Groups of friends, and he has interests, and fantasy football, and pickleball, and all that, and I think that's the key to being able to have your separate time, is that you each have interests outside of the relationship, and then when we do see each other, you're very excited to see each other.

And, you know, I did the whole live with somebody, pay the bills, cook the meals, do all of that. I get it. I did it. I'm good.

Lauran: You're like, okay, I'm done with the trial run. I'll take, I'll take my subscription and go. I love that. Like, cause I mean, my parents, my parents were married for over 20, 25 years and then, um, just got divorced. You know, we've been married six years now. Yeah. And they, they, yeah, I know, it's crazy. But they, they got divorced, um, right when we got engaged.

So, like, I was in my 20s and it was, it was like a whole new concept to me because it, you know, my parents were always married and, you know, So, I know for them it was like a transition going from being married to each other and living in the same house to now living separately and, you know, no longer being together.

So I love that you share that and that there, you know, there is life after divorce and it's not something to be ashamed of and it's not, you know, sometimes things, you know, are not going to work out and that's okay because your happiness is the most important thing. Yeah. And we're still friends 

Jessica: and it's, it's not, nothing was dramatic or scandalous or, you know, there was nothing.

It's just sometimes people, and I say this to younger people all the time. I said, sometimes your lives go very parallel. Sometimes you go out and come back in, but sometimes. You veer off and you don't know in your twenties who you're going to be in your thirties, your forties, your fifties. You don't know.

And sometimes you grow together and you have a person who's supportive of you and, and that's wonderful, but that's doesn't happen for everybody. And for the couples I know where that's happened, it's magical. It's wonderful. I'm so happy for them. But there's a reason why the divorce rate is over 50 percent because people morph and change and grow throughout their lives.

And if you don't grow together and have the same goals, then it's kind of difficult. You know, and I said, I just won't live a life of quiet desperation. I'm not going to sit here saying, I wish I could, I should have. I said, no, I'm a person of action. 

Jordan: Now, I just love that. Like you said, there's a million and one different reasons for people to, like, experience divorce and all that stuff, and instead of viewing it as, like, the finite end to something in life and everything, viewing it almost as, like, it's one door closing, now here's an opening in my life with a million other experiences I can have, and I can move on from this experience to do so many other beautiful and awesome things, so, I, I think that's just, that's just, Awesome.

Jessica: I love that. And when people DM me and ask me questions, cause I have a lot of women, some in their twenties, but I usually have women in their forties and fifties who will say, I, it's, and I said, I cannot tell you if it's right, if it's the time for you, only you can determine that. But I said, don't let the fear of the process or what's on the other side, stop you from living your best life.

If this one is no longer fulfilling for you. 

Lauran: Right. I mean, I think that's so important because I mean, just being someone that grew up, I grew up Roman Catholic and like divorce was a no, no. Like it's, it's a huge no, no. You know, I don't know if it still is, because I'm no longer Catholic, but like, it, it just Neither am I.

Yeah. Funny. Funny how that happens. Interesting, isn't it? It is. It's quite. Um, but that, but that's, that's exactly it. It's, you know, I, I like that you said, you know, I forget exactly the words you used, but saying, you know, I wouldn't be worried so much about what people think of me if I You know, realized how little they do and how infrequently they did it, yeah.

Right. And I think for me, I have had to do that a lot in my life and, you know, tell myself, you know, I wouldn't take criticism from somebody I wouldn't ask advice for, or from. Absolutely. So, it's, it's kind of that when you're in your, your 20s and your early 30s even, You kind of are still in that mindset of what like worrying about what everybody thinks about you because everyone's gonna have an opinion of you Everybody is going to have some kind of something to say About every little thing you do and like you saying you about you sharing your personal life I know I've seen some nasty stuff people have to say and I mean I've been on the end of that too for different things But like it's your life And you have to make the decision that is going to be best for you and your mental health and your happiness.

And, you know, it's not everybody else's opinion that matters. Like it really doesn't. And you only get one 

Jessica: shot. And so, you know, I just want everybody to really kind of, you know, evaluate their life. And, and if they're reaching out to me, chances are things are not good. No good marriage ends in divorce.

You're not really questioning that, yeah. 

Lauran: You're not really questioning it if you're in a happy marriage. Right, 

Jessica: right. And so when they're coming to me, this is something that's obviously been on their mind for a while. And um, I would never tell somebody what to do. But I sometimes will guide them how to figure it out for themselves.

Lauran: Just let 

Jessica: them know you'll be okay. You really will be okay. 

Lauran: I love that. I'm so glad that you share that because I think that's such a valuable perspective for people to have. I'm trying. I appreciate that. I mean, okay, so switching gears a little bit back to, um, the classroom. So you, you taught high school, correct?

Jessica: Yes. 

Lauran: Yes. I taught eighth grade for one year. Okay. But you taught mostly like seniors or was that like one of your classes? I 

Jessica: So, I taught 8th grade for one year, by November I was like, hard pass, I finished the year, and so after that I got in. Middle school's rough. Listen, you know how you said it's tough to find a job?

I should have known when I went to University of Maryland, I went to a job fair and I got offered a job on the spot. That should have been my first clue. Yeah. That something wasn't quite right. And I had one of those too. Yeah. And, you know, and so I was like, Oh my God, they're, I'm such a great candidate.

They want me to teach at their school. And I have my little green suit on my little eighties junkie. And I look like a grandmother. And, um, as I got the job, I went into the school and I realized it was the first school over the Washington, DC, Maryland line. So the kids who got expelled from DC schools, Beyond the Foundation students.

Shout out to Justin Timberlake. I'm actually a certified physician. I do a lot of research. I do a lot of whatever they do in the field. Oh! Yeah, 

Lauran: that's hilarious. I actually had the same situation. So like, when I first started teaching, I taught second grade and it was a similar situation. I just had a rough go of it.

And, you know, My, my administrators at that school, I had like a couple really good ones and then I had, like, my direct administrator was just not supportive at all and that can literally make or break your experience when you're teaching. 100%. And I just remember going to my new school and a couple of the teachers were like, Oh, this is the worst class to ever come through here.

And I was like preparing myself. And then, here comes like the first few months of school and I'm like, well, no one's hit me or thrown any of my things today, so I'm good. 

Jessica: Like, 

Lauran: I'm okay. 

Jessica: Isn't it great that we started with the toughest experiences first? And then it makes you really 

Lauran: appreciate 

Jessica: where you're 

Lauran: at.

Jessica: Everything else has been easy. 50 kids to a class, and the classes were 2 hours long, and the room just went on forever. I remember just seeing rows and rows. It was like, you know, Fantasia, and I'm looking at all these kids. And I had kids who literally would not look at me, would not put their name on the paper.

And I was like, yeah, whatever. You're not hitting me. You're not chasing me. You're not cursing me out. You know, so fine, fail summer school, you know, like what can I do? And then I got to the school where I worked for the past 30 years and I was very, very lucky to be in a district where I felt valued and supported.

By my administration, almost my entire 30 years, there were a couple who came in and out here and there. You know, that's, that's par for the course, but overall, I, I had a lot of strong women leaders in my district, which was wonderful. They, um, just didn't take anything from anybody. Somebody would come in and say, I'm going to do this and that, and they'd be like, okay.

My superintendent one time had a parent come in and she was going off and say, I'm going to call my lawyer. My superintendent looked at her and says, Oh, use my landline. It's better reception. I'll use my cell phone to call my lawyer. Go ahead, right there. Dial nine. You do that once or twice and the message gets out.

And you know, they really, they didn't blindly support teachers if somebody wasn't doing a good job or if something had gone wrong. But for those of us who were doing what we needed to do, they really. 

Lauran: They respected us, 

Jessica: they respected our time, they didn't grind us. We just had a new assistant superintendent come in a couple years ago, and the state of New Jersey has these things that happen in education, of course, and it was called the student growth objectives and the professional learning objectives.

And he said, listen, none of this affects your teaching. I did it for the whole district. Sign it. He goes, that time you would have spent doing that. I want you to come up with new lessons for your students on your own time, but you don't have to do these things. Open it, sign it. You're done for the year.

Lauran: Amazing. 

Jessica: I love that. And he was saying the truth because these things, if it were smaller and monitored on a small scale, it could have helped us, but you know who helped us more? Our direct supervisors, our vice principals, our colleagues. So to put all of these reports into the state. Really wasn't the best use of our time and he recognized that and he gave us our time back and it's those little things.

I wish more administrators understood, but I think in order to be that type of administrator, you have to be confident. You have to be somebody who is, you know, experienced, confident, and you're willing to listen. And I find that when new administrators would come in or younger administrators, they were always trying to As new teachers sometimes do, they were always trying to stamp their foot and be like, I'm in charge.

And I'm like, are you though? Are you? I was 30 when you were born, so pipe down. 

Lauran: I love that. So I'm actually, I'm getting my master's in ed leadership right now. And I have, I'm in the first half of my internship and then I have Just like one more semester of the internship and I'm done and that is something that like I love hearing other people's perspectives on like good administrators that they've had and because I, I feel that same way like I, my administrator right now, unless you're doing something you shouldn't be doing or you're not doing something you should be doing, she's gonna leave you alone and let you do your job.

Like, 

Theme: I 

Lauran: love it. It's great. She doesn't micromanage. Like, if you need her help, she's there. She understands that life happens, and sometimes you're gonna have to, you know, make some, be flexible with your teachers about it. You know, letting them maybe leave a few minutes early to get to an appointment, or, you know, if it's an emergency situation, helping them get coverage quickly so they can go, like, go to that.

Go to see their child's recital in kindergarten, 

Jessica: or the winter program in third grade. 

Lauran: Yes. Yes. It's important. All of that. It's, it's important. And I think that's something that goes along with being a teacher, and this misconception that, you know, yeah, do we have You know, time when we are not working during the summer, sure, but life doesn't only happen in the summer.

Like, there are so many other things that occur during the school year and we You know, we don't have just a whole bunch of PTO to take off, so having an administrator that just understands that and is supportive in that aspect, like, your, your teachers are going to work that much harder for you if you show them that you value them as a human being.

100%. 

Jessica: 100%. 

Lauran: And I think that goes for any boss. 

Jordan: Yeah, I was, I, I've never gotten the micromanager, like, style of leadership, just because, I, well, I've indirectly had to deal with that, and even indirectly, it was just a, a pain, because it's just, I never got it because like if I was like, I don't want to micromanage somebody.

Yeah, it's just annoying to do that. And then to do that with no cause is just insane to me. And then like the other thing too is like we had indirectly I had to deal with at one time in my like professional career and it was to the point where like something happened in this boss was just like, Oh, I want like, I want asses in seats from, 830 to 5 every day.

And like the problem with it was like something came up in her life where she had to start missing and everything and then like the staff was kind of like getting mad with her because like, hey, you want us here from here to here, but you're never here. So what's the deal? And it's just like, I think when you, when you get on that train of like micromanagement and that really authoritarian, like leadership style, the hypocrisy just flows.

And because like life happens and like, when it, when it affects you, you're real, like people like that are really like, Oh, like it's like my mother's sick or something. So I have to go take care of it. And it's like, Hey, you're like the people you're leading are dealing with the same thing. Life never stops for any of us.

And that's the 

Jessica: bizarre part about teaching is that being absent. It's way more work than going into work, and so I think teachers plow through it so often and miss the recital and miss the doctor's appointment with a relative and miss all of this because doing the lesson plans For a day out, and then the work you need to review when you get back, because let's face it, if you don't give a lot of work, or any work, the kids probably, you know, are not going to be good for the sub, or there could be some issues, especially in the lower grades, you do need to keep them occupied.

We just kind of plow through everything just because it's easier. 

Lauran: Yeah, it is. And that's a weird way to 

Jessica: live. 

Lauran: It is. And I, like, I have tried to be better about that over, you know, the last few years of my career. Just, just that mindset of, like, your job would not hesitate to find someone to replace you if you died tomorrow.

So, like, if you have something you have to deal with, take the sick day. Yes. And deal with, like, deal with your mental health, deal with your physical health. Right. If you just need a rest day. Right. Like, it's okay. Like, I get that, it is stressful though because the world doesn't stop turning when you take off work as a teacher.

And I know other jobs are also like that, but there's just something, like, about having to plan out. The entire day, like when you're, you wake up sick and you're throwing up in the morning and you have to sit there on your computer and write subplans at 5am. Yeah. Like 

Jessica: it's miserable. It's miserable. I've done them when I've woken up at two, three o'clock in the morning with a sore throat and I, you know, and I, I sit there bleary eyed typing out detailed plans of what has to be done.

And, you know, I made a video not too long ago where, um, I took my mom to, Uh, Wake Forest, North Carolina to visit my stepsister, her daughter, and granddaughter. And while we were there, I was walking around and it was a random Monday. And I said, if I were a teacher, I probably would have said no to this vacation because I would have been leaving on a Sunday night.

I would have missed Monday and Tuesday. I would have come back on a Wednesday with frenetic energy, trying to catch up with everything and trying to put out the fires that might've started. And I said, And I made a TikTok about it as I was casually walking around a gorgeous neighborhood on a Monday in October.

And I said, one of the things that I didn't realize about teaching until I fully stepped away was the amount of energy that just happens when you have 2, 000 human bodies in a building. There's always movement. There's always questions you're, you're on as a teacher, you're on all the time. And people say, well, what about your prep period?

I was like, have you heard of coverages? You know, have you heard of meetings? Have you heard of trying to copy something and go to the bathroom? Kids staying late. Can I talk to you for a second about, I don't understand this. Oh, okay. Sure. . Yeah. You know, so it's, it's just that constant contact. A 

Lauran: thousand percent.

It's like you're just, I, I don't know how fast like our brains have to be firing to make as many quick thinking choices that we do throughout a day. Mm-Hmm. Of teaching. And I know there's going to be somebody that's going to say, well, other jobs do that. Have you tried being like a doctor or a surgeon? I, I can only speak from the perspective with which I have.

And I, that's being a teacher. I know there are other jobs out there where this is probably a similar, um, mindset or, you know, you can relate to it. If that's the case, let me know down below, because I, I mean, We can support each other, but it's, it's rough. Like, I mean, we're talking about thousands 

Jessica: of bodies and that's different.

So if you're in an office, like my boyfriend's a lawyer, he has an office. He has a secretary who sits right outside. He picks up and goes to lunch out at a restaurant. And I'm like, what do you mean? You go sit down at a restaurant and have lunch with, and he's like, Yeah. When do you eat lunch? And I was like, um, at my desk, I shove a protein bar in my mouth in five minutes, you know, like people don't understand what that is.

And so one time I had a troll come on and say, teaching's so easy and you guys have summer off and you get paid, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And it was just going on and on about how easy and lucrative teaching is. So I said to him, if teaching is so easy and lucrative, please tell me, I noticed in your profile you have three children.

Please tell me. You are encouraging all three of your children to become teachers because why wouldn't you want them to have an easy, lucrative job? Radio silence, nothing. So if you're not telling your kids to be teachers, there's probably a reason why. 

Lauran: Right. I, I'm going to clear this up for everybody who might not know this, okay, because I hear this all the time.

Whenever anyone hears a teacher even remotely complaining or saying something like venting about their job, the immediate argument is, well, you get all this time off and your job is so easy. For one thing, okay, if we're talking about the summertime, teachers are off during the summertime. Because they're not getting paid 

Jessica: for those days 

Lauran: that they're off.

Yeah. We might be getting a paycheck during the summer, but that's because we're getting paid for the 180 days that we taught during the school year and they're spreading it out over 12 months. So we have a paycheck. Some school districts I know don't do that. They just, we don't get paychecks in the summer.

Oh, 

Jessica: okay. Yeah. Like our school district, we do. Our last paycheck is June 30th. And then our first paycheck is September 15th. Okay. 

Lauran: Cause my district pays year round, but it's my pay stretched over however many pays that is 20 something pays. 

Jessica: We all take money out of our pay. As we get older, younger teachers can't do this because they're paying for student loans and everything else.

So they just get a part time job during the school year and then a full time job in the summer. I don't know too many teachers who don't work in the summer, especially if within the first 15 years of their job. As I got pay raises, I started to put more into my tax shelter and in my summer pay because I knew eventually I didn't want to work in the summer.

And I think it was around year 15 to 20 where I could do that. You were able to not do that? Yeah. So I just took money out of each paycheck, put it in a credit union, and then I paid myself. But, no, June 30th is the last one, September 15th is the first one. 

Lauran: Yeah, so the next time somebody says, teachers get paid to be off in the summer, no we don't.

I just, I'm not trying to argue with you, I just want that to be clear, we do not get paid to sit at home. Although that would be lovely. No. And I do a lot 

Jessica: of free work in the summer. A lot of teachers do free work where they're revamping lesson plans and they're planning for the new year. And those of us who go in and do our copies and set up our room in August, we don't get paid for any of those dates.

We're doing it because we want the room to be ready for the kids and to make the kids have a great experience. But that is all unpaid time. Everything we do at home, Unpaid overtime. 

Lauran: I, I want to, you know what I'm going to do this summer? 

Theme: What's that? 

Lauran: I'm going to keep track of how many hours I put in to preparing for the next school year.

I just, just for myself, I just want to see how many that is because I'm sure I'm going to be disgusted. You're not 

Jordan: going to like the answer to that one. It's going to 

Lauran: add up for sure. Um, But yeah, I, I, I thank you so much for your insight. I think this is so awesome to hear from like a teacher who has, you know, been in the career for 32 years and is enjoying retirement and, you know, just owning your identity after teaching.

I love that so much for you. Thank you. 

Jordan: I am jealous of your boyfriend by the fact that he can go out to a restaurant for lunch. I work a corporate job and I eat a power bar at my desk, hoping and praying that I can get like five minutes to go to a bathroom. 

Jessica: Oh, I know. I will also tell you to make it worse that sometimes he goes to the tennis drills at the club.

Oh my gosh. And then showers and comes back. We need his job. I was going to say. Yeah. He's in a small law firm, but there, um, it's, it's really something where you're like, People live like that. Yeah. 

Jordan: Oh my gosh. That's insane. 

Lauran: Alright, well, we are going to be right back with a fun game to, uh, end with Jess.

Alright, everybody, we are back with Jessica and we are going to play a super fun game Mad Libs, lesson plan game, because you know, 

Jordan: if you 

Lauran: ask a teacher's favorite thing, it's lesson planning. 

Jordan: I thought you were going to say it was Mad Libs. 

Lauran: No, we all know it's lesson planning. I loved writing 25 page lesson plans my first year teaching.

It was great. So, in this game, uh, ChatGPT wrote us a lesson plan, and we're going to take turns choosing a word to go in the Mad Libs spot. Okay. Um, so, okay, first thing we need is an adjective, Jordan. 

Jordan: Adjective? Fast. 

Lauran: Fast? 

Jordan: Yeah, fast. Okay, fast. 

Lauran: Wait, you 

Jordan: questioned me and I was like, wait, is that not an adjective?

No, it's 

Lauran: just because I'm wearing headphones and it was hard to hear you. Okay, Jess, we need a noun. Um, spatula. 

Jordan: I like that one. That's a good one. 

Lauran: Okay. And then we need a topic. 

Jessica: Transcendentalism. I love it. 

Lauran: Yes. Yes. That one. That's it. Transcendentalism. 

Jordan: I wonder how spatulas are going to help with transcendentalism.

Yeah. 

Lauran: Okay. And the grade level? First grade. Oh, no.

For our learning objective, we need an action verb, Jordan. 

Jordan: Rites. 

Lauran: What is it? 

Jordan: Rites. 

Lauran: Oh, rites. Like, okay. W R I 

Jordan: T E. Listen, 

Lauran: I'm moving at a slower pace today. I don't know why. It's like taking me a second to hear what you're saying. 

Jordan: It was that waking up at 7 40. It just threw off the whole day. Whole day's gone.

Lauran: Okay. Jessica, a skill or knowledge? A skill or knowledge backflip. Ooh, I like that one. Okay, another verb, I'm going to go with hops.

Jordan: Very demure, very mindful. 

Lauran: Yes. Okay, we need a test. A teaching method or a tool. 

Jordan: Okay. Um. Like a 

Lauran: teaching method or a teaching tool, I'm thinking. Direct instruction. 

Jessica: Okay. That goes great with first graders. 

Lauran: And hopping. I was going to say 

Jordan: PowerPoint. 

Lauran: Okay. And then Jordan, activity or assessment? 

Jordan: PowerPoint making.

Lauran: Okay. PowerPoint making. All right. First 

Jordan: graders can totally do that. 

Lauran: Yeah, for sure. Okay. A school supply. Okay. I'm gonna say, uh, scissors. 

Jordan: First graders and scissors go well. 

Lauran: Yes. Title of a book. 

Jordan: Um, let's see here. We're gonna pick one at random. Okay. Um, the couple at number nine. Okay. 

Lauran: You know, that first grade murder mystery classic.

Jessica, a number. Eleven. And a classroom item. Um, stapler. Ooh, okay. Alright, Jordan, type of activity. 

Jessica: Don't say powerpoint. 

Lauran: He's like, what other teaching activities are there? 

Jordan: Thumb wrestling. 

Lauran: Thumb wrestling! Okay, uh,

Jessica, related concept to transcendentalism. Guided meditation. 

Theme: Ooh, 

Lauran: okay. So we're going to thumb wrestle and have some guided meditation. Okay. I 

Jordan: do that all the time. What are you talking about? I have, I have a yoga studio session on that after this. 

Lauran: Very Zen. Yeah, 

Jordan: very Zen. 

Lauran: Okay. Oh, speak. Okay. Noun, uh, Zen garden.

Jordan: Oh, good one. 

Lauran: There you go. Okay. Jordan, a number. 

Jordan: Number 42. 

Lauran: Jessica, a noun, task. A noun, 

Jessica: task? A noun, task. Like 

Lauran: a thing? Sure! Let's go with that. A run. A run. Okay, Jordan, a school material. 

Jordan: Chart paper. 

Lauran: Oh, good one. Okay. Coming out of nowhere with the chart paper. I was gonna say, I pay 

Jordan: attention sometimes. You know he's 

Lauran: married to a teacher.

Okay, Jessica, any time transcendentalism comes up, I'm throwing it back at you. An aspect of transcendentalism. 

Jessica: A peaceful connection to nature. 

Lauran: Oh, there you go. Peaceful connection to nature. Can you tell I taught it for 27 years? I love it. I love it. Is that, is that like, uh, what is that? Walt Whitman? Close.

Emerson and Thoreau. Emerson and Thoreau. I had Thoreau in my head. Yeah. Oh, I was thinking of, I was thinking of Whitman, but I had Thoreau in my head. Okay. Um, wait, what was the, um, the really famous Thoreau? Was it when we went to like a lake house? Walden. Walden. Yeah. Yes. It's been a minute since I've been in high school.

No, that's a great memory. My goodness, I'm impressed. I loved English in school. I was in all the honors Englishes. 

Jordan: I did love Walden though, I enjoyed that one, yeah. 

Lauran: I liked, see, I was more, I liked more like the crucible, scarlet letter, sinners at the hands of an angry god. Those were all my favorites. 

Jessica: Those are all the things I taught.

I love them all. 

Lauran: Yes, I loved that. That was my junior English class was one of my favorites. 

Jordan: That was my favorite. That's one of my favorite teachers too was my junior English teacher. Mrs. Carselli. 

Lauran: Yes. Oh, okay. Okay, an amount of time, seven hours. 

Jordan: Seven hours? 

Lauran: Yep. Okay, Jordan, a skill. 

Jordan: A skill, um, playing poker.

Jessica: Jessica, a verb. Let me think, why use spatulas? I don't want to use cooking. Um, I would put yelling. 

Lauran: Yelling. 

Jessica: Because that'll contradict the meditation. 

Lauran: Uh, another related concept to 

Jessica: transcendentalism. Oh, okay. Um, writing. Oh, did we say writing before? I think 

Lauran: it's fine. 

Jessica: Yeah. 

Lauran: Okay, Jordan, a classroom tool or resource?

Jordan: Oh, what are those blocks? The cubes that you stick together? 

Lauran: OmniFix cubes? 

Jordan: OmniFix cubes. 

Lauran: That's a mouthful. That I used to teach volume. Um, okay, a verb. I'm gonna go with puke. 

Jordan: Oh, 

Lauran: I'm gonna make this take a turn. Wow. It's gonna take a turn. Okay, classroom activity, Jessica. 

Jessica: Um, oh god, I hate it, but I'm gonna say it.

Think Pear Share. 

Lauran: Oh, it's the worst. Oh my gosh, or like for us, Turn and Talks. Turn and talk. Think, pair, share. The, the actual activity of like talking with a partner I don't mind. Just saying turn and talk over and over again or think, pair, share over and over again. Okay, uh, a presentation method. I'm going to go with tri fold board.

Oh, 

Jordan: PowerPoint. No. Kicking it old school. 

Lauran: Yeah, we're gonna kick it old school. Okay, Jordan, a verb. 

Jordan: A verb. Um, tap dancing. 

Lauran: Nice. And, Jessica, last one, a type of exit activity.

Jessica: I don't know why I thought of this. I heard you say exit cartwheels. Yes! 

Lauran: Yeah, we're going to be cartwheeling out of this lesson. I 

Jordan: believe that is the correct 

Jessica: answer. 

Lauran: I can't wait. Oh my lord. Okay. Are we ready for this? Oh, I think we are ready. 

Jordan: I am absolutely ready for this Transcendentalism, uh, lesson plan.

Lauran: Okay. Here it is. 

Jordan: Okay. 

Lauran: Fast spatula learning about Transcendentalism. Grade level, first grade. By the end of this lesson, students will be able to write, Backflips. They will learn how to hop using direct instruction and demonstrate their understanding by PowerPoint making. That actually worked well. It kind of did.

Materials needed. Scissors. The couple at number 9 and 11 staplers. Not the book, the actual couple. 

Theme: Yeah, 

Lauran: the actual couple at number 9. And we need two people that live at number 9, whatever street that is. I'm 

Jordan: worried about them because we need 11 staplers and a pair of scissors. That is not good. They should be afraid.

They should. 

Lauran: Okay, introduction. Start by introducing the topic with a brief thumb wrestle. 

Jordan: You know, my dad, whenever he wanted to teach me something new in life, would always start it with a good thumb wrestle. 

Jessica: That's Midwestern, isn't it? Yeah, it is. It's an Ohio thing. That is true Ohio. Yeah. Not in casseroles.

Yeah. Yes. 

Lauran: Yes. Yes. Engage students by asking them to think about guided meditation and to share any zen gardens they might, may have about the topic. That's metaphorical, it's zen gardens in quotation marks. Yes, yes, it's a metaphorical zen garden. Activity, oh activity one, divide the students into 42 groups and decide, each group, how Assign each group a run, so not only do we have an insane amount of children in this class with staplers, but now they're all running.

Yes, 

Jordan: running with scissors, 

Lauran: but now they're all going for a run. Everyone's doing a lap while they ponder their life. I 

Jordan: think that, you know, I think that works out. I think I have never thought more clear in my life when I did distance running. 

Lauran: There you go. 

Jordan: So, I think we're on to something here. Okay, cross country 

Lauran: running, transcendentalism.

I love that leap 

Jordan: you 

Jessica: just took. 

Jordan: Yes! To connect this. Yeah! I think we have something we can package and sell. 

Lauran: The fast spatula backflip gymnastics you just did, to get to that point. That was a terrible joke. Okay. Each group will use chart paper to explore a peaceful connection of nature. Aw. Aw. I like that.

That worked. Low key love. That works. After seven hours, have each group present their findings on playing poker.

Jessica: See, that was the other chapter of Walden that most people didn't read. It was the poker chapter. Oh, okay. 

Lauran: Oh, is that where those like dogs playing poker came from? That's the companion piece 

Jordan: to Walden. Oh, 

Lauran: okay. That was like the multimedia piece. I got you. Okay. So, but you guys, you got to make sure that it's a, it's a solid seven hours.

Of course. Charting. And it needs to be 

Jordan: on the dot too, like a millisecond over, it's ruined. It is. 

Lauran: Transcendentalism isn't transcendentalizing at that point. Um, okay. Activity two. Introduce the main hands on activity where students will yell to demonstrate their understanding of writing. 

Jordan: You know, there is nothing more peaceful than a good yell.

Lauran: I like to yell when I write also. Writing. Yes. Yeah. You know, spoken word, written word. They go hand in hand. Guide them, step by step, through using OmniFix cubes to complete the task. What, do they have to write with the cubes? Yes. They just spell everything by cube? 

Jordan: Spell it with your cubes. 

Lauran: Spell it with your cubes.

Spell it with your cubes. That's 

Jordan: the reference! 

Lauran: Yes, I know what it is, PCA! Yes, I love that 

Jordan: movie so much. 

Lauran: Walk around the room to provide support and answer questions as students puke individually.

Not the puking. That is my honest to god worst nightmare is it's let alone one student puking in my class like that's unavoidable kids get sick, but Every single student puking individually is my worst nightmare. I 

Jordan: think, do they have to close off the school the next day for that? No, that's a biohazard.

42 kids puking. 42 

Lauran: children. No, that was 42 groups. 42 groups. 

Jordan: Oh, I thought We're talking about a pop in 

Lauran: 20. Yeah, 

Jordan: there's a lot of kids. Oh my gosh. 

Lauran: Okay, assessment. For assessment, have students complete a think pair share. Alternatively, each student can present their work to the class by trifold board. So they're gonna make a powerpoint and then scrap the powerpoint and put it all on a trifold and then yell and then do the trifold.

Yeah, and then maybe talk to their neighbor about it at some point. Reflection and wrap up. Bring the class together for a quick discussion to tap dancing. So wait, to tap dancing? So you're going to play like tap dancing on the computer or something and you're going to discuss over the tap dancing sounds?

Yes. That sounds awful too. 

Jordan: I've never been more in focus than listening to like the river dance go on in the background. Helps me really narrow in. 

Jessica: Okay, but that's, that's so long runs and river dance. Yes! 

Lauran: This is, we're, this is cross curricular. We're combining English language arts with phys ed. Yes.

There you go. And, um, music, education from the yelling and the tapping. Great. I love it. It's essentially like Yodeling. This is 

Jessica: workable. 

Lauran: It is. It is. Ask each student to share one thing they learned or found interesting about Transcendentalism. Conclude with a cartwheel to check for understanding and gather feedback.

If you can cartwheel, you pass the lesson. I just want to know the feedback 

Jordan: you get 

Lauran: from the 

Jordan: cartwheel, though. This first 

Lauran: grade lesson on transcendentalism is something, man. 

Jordan: Oh, I think it's perfect. I think it's ready to go. No notes. No, 

Jessica: that's a winner. 

Theme: Yeah, 

Lauran: 100 Uh, yeah, I agree. And honestly, though, for this being a chat GPT lesson plan, it, it, I mean, it was pretty good in the structure of things.

It follows the format. It has the whole prescribed thing. It just, you know, the only thing it doesn't have is some good scaffolding. Oh my gosh. 

Jessica: Don't even get me started on those words. 

Lauran: Oh, we love the teacher, you know, buzzwords. Yeah, because it's a paradigm shift. It is. This was so fun. I love the Mad Libs.

This is the first time we've done the Mad Libs. That was so fun. Oh, get out. That's great. Yeah. We set a high 

Jessica: bar. Um, I want everybody coming after. I don't know if they're going to be able to like reach the heights. That we have reached. And I feel I need to cartwheel out when we're done with this. So I think I'll take my headphones off.

Lauran: Yeah, I think that's the only way, but thank you so much for joining us today. This was so fun. And I'm so glad that we finally could sit down and talk. And me too. It's too long. We can't let it go down again. No, I'm going to, I will share numbers cause that, no, I'm going to be like, Jess, Yes. We can, we can vent about the world together.

I love it. So, um, before you go though, are there any like projects that you're working on that you would like to share? 

Jessica: Yes. Well, uh, for the past, I just signed with an agency in LA because I would like to get back into commercials, which I used to do in the eighties when I was in high school. And I'll see how that goes.

Cause I'm right near Philly in New York. So I said nothing on the West coast. I'm not flying to do that. Okay. We're not 

Lauran: even that far from you, then. Six hours. Oh, where are you? Yeah, I'm, we're in like an hour from Cleveland. Oh, get out of here. Yeah, so, I mean, I know Philly's the other side of Pennsylvania, but still, I mean, usually all the people that I talk with are on the other side of the country, so.

Yeah. I'm excited. Awesome. East coast and Midwest. I love it. Yes. Yes. And then. What kind of commercials did you do? 

Jessica: Um, clothing store, hair salon, restaurant, all kinds of things and, um, I've done, I did Build A Bear a couple years ago and it's just something I enjoy, but, um, I don't know, you know, being on a set all day is exhausting and sometimes the pay isn't that great.

So I said, I'm going to be judicious in what I choose. And then I've been working with a producer in LA for the past couple of years, workshopping a little project that we hope will eventually make it to streaming. So, I'm keeping it kind of under wraps, uh, we're in the Workshop phase right now. And, um, everything's outlined.

So we'll see, listen, the chances of anything happening are slim to none, but why not give it a shot? Yeah, 

Lauran: yeah, absolutely. Those sound like so many fun projects. I can't wait to hear about them once you're ready to announce any of them. Good luck with everything and enjoy retirement. And I, um, I'm just so happy for you.

Um, before we go though, where, where can people find you on social 

Jessica: media? Well, they can find me on TikTok and Instagram at my teacher face, and in August, I joined YouTube. So I have a presence there. I'm small potatoes. I only have 50, 000 followers, but I'm trying to build it up as much as possible. But I love, I love the audience at YouTube.

It's completely different than Instagram and TikTok. And I'm really enjoying my time there. 

Lauran: Yeah! 

Jessica: They're wonderful. 

Lauran: They are. Well, good luck with all that, make sure you guys go and follow her, um, I, I just have to slip this in there before you go though also, I'm going to say before you go seven more times, um, but, I, I love that your handle is my teacher face, that has a really hilarious story behind it, yes.

Can you give us the short version of that story? 

Jessica: Yes, so for a number of years, I was the internal suspension monitor at the high school first period of the day and I needed to set the tone and of course kids came in and they were in there for discipline and so I would just sit behind the desk and do this

and I could hold it For minutes, 10 minutes, and kids would just say, stop looking at me. And it really did kind of get the mood, and I wouldn't break character, I wouldn't do anything, so stop giving me that teacher face. And I'm like, ah, but it's my teacher face. I love it. And then you did that in your yearbook photo every year, didn't you?

I did for the past six or seven years. And then this last year, there were about 40 or 50 staff members who did it as well. 

Lauran: Which is so special because it did that in honor of your retirement, right? So 

Jessica: sweet. I had no idea. They made a little yearbook for me with all of those pictures. It was really, really special.

Lauran: Amazing. So I just wanted to end on that, on that note, because it's such a fun story. But again, thank you for being here today. I can't wait to have you back on the show already. Oh, thank you. I would love to come back anytime. Absolutely. All right, guys, we'll be right back.

Oh my gosh, I love Jessica. And first things first, I have to apologize because never once did I refer to her as Dr. Jessica Hawke. So, first and foremost, she is Dr. Jessica Hawke. So let that be clear. I, I feel like I need to say it. Yeah, I needed, I totally just, it went right over my head and I was like, Oh my gosh, I feel so bad.

I need to say it now. So, well, now you said it. I did. I know. Dr. Jessica Hawk. Like that is awesome. So, I just wanted to say 

Jordan: it. I'm not gonna lie, that's a badass name. It 

Lauran: is! That's a cool name! That is 

Jordan: just a badass name. Dr. 

Lauran: Jessica Hawk. 

Jordan: It almost sounds, it almost sounds, well, okay, I might be letting my nerd out here because one of my favorite characters in My Hero is Hawks.

Lauran: Oh, yeah. And 

Jordan: he's just, he's super cool. And then it's like, Dr. Jessica, so it sounds like a superhero name, almost, like it should be in Marvel. It sounds 

Lauran: like, for me, it does. It sounds like, Almost kind of like a Tony Stark. 

Jordan: Yes. 

Lauran: Like a super genius scientist. Yep. That's, that's, that name gives off that energy.

So awesome. Good for you, Dr. Jessica Hawk. I love it. I loved having her on the show. She was so fun. Oh, that was a lot 

Jordan: of fun. That, that lesson plan, man. 

Lauran: The fast spatula of transcendentalism. I'm not 

Jordan: gonna lie. Every time you guys said transcendentalism, I don't know why my mind kept flipping to A song by Death Cab for Cutie because the song's called Transatlanticism.

Lauran: Oh, okay. And every 

Jordan: time I was like, oh, why are we talking about Death Cab? No, we're not. We're not talking about Death Cab, Jordan. Stop. 

Lauran: Oh my gosh. Anyway, it is time for our special bond this week. So this week's special bond comes from Sophia. She says, In 8th grade, I took a design class about art. It was a required class for everyone, and the teacher of that class, for me, was one of the most influential people I have ever met.

He helped me through countless things in my 8th grade year, like the grief process, and he showed me that certain things that are out of control can be difficult to accept, but that you get there eventually. And you don't need to rush or stress about it. This lesson ended up doing so much for my mental health.

Oh, I love that. 

Jordan: I do. I like that I love 

Lauran: that after every special bond, but I love all of them. 

Jordan: I was gonna say, they've all been just really good. No, I like that one. I think you should take some lessons from that one about slowing down and relaxing and not I am, uh, 

Lauran: I'm, uh, an expert on rushing and stressing about things.

Jordan: I know you are, that's why I'm saying Sophia has served you 

Lauran: a lot of life lessons that she's learned and is 

Jordan: saying, hey, Lauren Woolley, you should learn these too. 

Lauran: I should, I should. I know, I know, but that, like, that's a great life lesson that your teacher taught you and it's always, I'm just going to 

Jordan: say, leave it to the design teachers to be super cool, like yeah.

Lauran: Right? And like profound. Oh 

Jordan: yeah. 

Lauran: Of course. It's the artsy ones. It is. It's always the artsy ones that give the most profound life lessons. 

Jordan: Most profound are art and English teachers. 

Lauran: I agree. They are always the most profound. I agree. I agree. And then your math and science teachers are going to give you logical answers to everything.

Yeah, 

Jordan: they bring you back down when you're like, it's two in the clouds. Yeah, you know, 

Lauran: but you need a healthy balance of all of that. 

Jordan: You need a healthy yin and yang. You need the 

Lauran: Exactly. You need some logic with your, you know, Daydreamer mentality. 

Jordan: Exactly. We love it. That's what I am to you. 

Lauran: Exactly. I'm the daydreamer and Jordan brings me back down to earth sometimes.

Jordan: Oh yeah. 

Lauran: Anywho, if you guys want to share your special bond with us, we would love to hear it. Please submit it at hello at wearefinepod. com or you can head over to Instagram and TikTok and reach out to our Human content family at human content pods where you can also tell us about your thoughts about the show how you liked it 

Jordan: I don't know why you're pointing at me 

Lauran: what you didn't like.

Jordan: Oh, that's not that's not I don't want to hear that No, I want to hear that because I don't want to do it again 

Lauran: exactly, and who else you want us to have on the show because we love having all kinds of Guests on the show doesn't have to necessarily be someone who is a teacher Yeah, so we would love to talk to them.

Let us know who you would like to have on the show next I have to, I have to clue all of our audience members into something. 

Jordan: Please do not. I, 

Lauran: I am. Okay. No, that is, 

Jordan: oh no. So, 

Lauran: so, we have like, we have a document that we follow to help us keep the show on track. Otherwise, Things would go off the rails. 

Jordan: Are you gonna shame me right now?

No, 

Lauran: I'm not shaming you. We have, um, an iPad in front of us. 

Jordan: That I also didn't charge and then put on a cord and then the cord decided not to work. You know what, technology sucks sometimes. And then it died in the middle of the show. 

Lauran: It's okay. We usually have to like get up and down to keep scrolling up on the, on the iPad so we can see it and Jordan just, you know, 4D chest moved his way to moving it with his toe.

So, it works. 

Jordan: Now everyone is going to think that I use my iPad with my feet. And I don't want that to be Special skill? No! It is not my special skill, please! I use my iPad with my hand. Of the feet. Of the feet, I mean, I guess it doesn't matter. 

Lauran: No, or of the legs? Yeah. Hands of the legs. I 

Jordan: guess it doesn't matter.

Whatever. 

Lauran: Feet, toes, he uses his toes. 

Jordan: I can use it however you want to use it. 

Lauran: I think, I think it's a special skill. 

Jordan: It's my special skill, okay. The fact that I can just reach my leg and there we go. Yeah, do a nose. There we are, okay. If for some reason you want to To watch this in its video format, you can head over to her YouTube channel at Mrs.

Woolley and Fifth. 

Lauran: New episodes every Wednesday. Yes, 

Jordan: new episodes every Wednesday. Thank 

Lauran: you guys so much for listening. We're your hosts, Lauren and Jordan Woolley. 

Jordan: Our special guest today was Dr. J. 

Lauran: And you can follow her at my teacher face. 

Jordan: Our executive producers are Lauren Woolley, Jordan Woolley, Aron Korney, Rob Goldman, and Shahnti Brookes.

Lauran: Our editor is 

Jordan: Andrew Sims. Our engineer is Jason Portizo. Orzo. Our 

Lauran: music is by OER Sby 

Jordan: to learn about our program, disclaimer in ethics, policy in submission verifications, and licensing term, go to we are fine pod.com or reach out to us at Hello at we are fine pod.com with any questions or concerns 

Lauran: this podcast discusses.

Sensitive and challenging topics including mental health and personal struggles. If you're in crisis or need someone to talk to, please reach out to the suicide hotline at 9 8 8. The suicide and crisis lifeline. You are not alone. 

Jordan: We are fine is a human content production. Hey you! Hey!

Lauran: I love 

Jordan: that shirt you're wearing. And you know what would go great with that shirt? What? A nice big virtual hug. And you can get that by hitting some of these buttons down here. Subscribe, like, and share. Like, comment, we'll give you a big ol virtual hug. 

Lauran: Thank you so much for listening and we will see you guys next Wednesday.

Bye!