Creating Successful Classrooms through Clarity and Expectations with Jeffrey Pax

What's going on everybody? I hope this finds you strong and thriving and doing absolutely amazing. My name is Brian Martin. I'm a second grade teacher and host of the teaching champions podcast. And today we're joined by Jeffrey packs. He's a children's author and has taught at the pre K level as well as in a middle school self contained room. Jeffrey is also an army reservists. And before we get into this conversation, I want to share with you an amazing opportunity. That's coming up. Hey, education heroes. This is Kyle Hill founder the recharged family and host of the exhausted educators recharged podcast, I want to tell you about something amazing that's happening this summer called the recharge family back to school virtual bash, our recharge family team is working to put together over 50 workshops provided by educational leaders from across multiple continents. The idea here is that we're all working together to help you and educators everywhere, get ready for the new school year. And the amazing feature of all this is it's all going to be video recorded workshops, you can watch them all year long. registration opens up on July 1. And as long as you register before August 1, you'll get everything for 10 bucks, you can register every charge family.com. That's recharged family.com. I'm so fired up to be part of this. And I can't wait to see the other sessions that are going to be included in the virtual bash. Because let me tell you, there's some absolute rock stars presenting it this. Now as we dive into this conversation list, as Jeffrey talks about lessons learned from his time in the military list, as he talks about the importance of having clear expectations. Listen, as he talks about the importance of having visual reminders, and so much more. I hope you enjoy this conversation as much as I did. I am super excited for this episode. We have individual here today with us that I share very unique bond, and I can't wait to dive into it. I want to welcome Geoffrey packs the teaching champions podcast Jeffrey, welcome, my friend. Hey, thanks for having me. Yes, this is gonna be great. Now for the people that are listening, that aren't familiar with who you are. Would you mind explaining a little bit about your journey? Sure. So I grew up in Michigan, and I worked in respite care and group homes for people with disabilities. And Michigan is beautiful, but it snows there. So as soon as I graduated, I moved down to Savannah, Georgia, where the weather is much nicer. And I started teaching in special ed, I started in pre K, I had, like three year old through six year old students. And then eventually I moved on to middle school and had a self contained special ed classroom. So I've I've always wanted to be an author since early childhood, you know, writing books and stories in school. And my home was a very, you know, book friendly, language, rich environment. And so yeah, I've I've written this book, mostly I had teachers in mind, but anybody working with early elementary aged kids, excellent. And it's I've seen the book, it's a phenomenal book, especially for the beginning of the year. And before we dive into that, though, I want to discuss that unique bond that we have, because you're part of the military is Wow, drove you to join the military. So part of it was I wanted, you know, the adventure. And then also, just honest to God, patriotism, I got lucky and was born in this country. You know, I wanted to be a teacher. So I went to college and became a teacher, I wanted to be a landlord and own a business. So I just bought some houses and did that I like the opportunities here are truly limitless. And I just got lucky and was born here. So I did. I wanted to do service and actually give back and participate instead of just, you know, absorbing all of the riches and benefits. Yes, I agree. Like we are so blessed to be in this country with the freedoms that we have and the opportunities that we have. And your story is really unique because you didn't join right out of high school you didn't join right out of college. Can you talk a little bit about your journey as far as Whereas when he joined and how that happened for you? Yeah, it is. It's almost unique. I joined really late, I was 33 and walked into a recruiting station, and was like, Hey, I, you know, I've already got a career, I've already got a business that I run, I just want to make sure this is off the table, because I kind of I always wanted to do it and just never did. And they told me about a program that would allow me to do basic training one summer, and then go back and teach, and then do more training the next summer, so that it wouldn't interrupt my career. And I can do reserves and still, you know, live in Savannah and run my business. And so it wasn't off the table. So I joined and I actually turned 34 years old at basic training, which was hilarious, because there were a bunch of 17 year olds there. So I was I was literally twice their age, and got to do push ups while they sang happy birthday to me, the oldest person there by fogger. Okay, that's pretty fun. Now, when I look back at my military career, there were a lot of lessons. There's a lot of things that when I look back, there were things that I experienced that helped shape me into who I am today that helped shape me and how I run the classroom. What were some of your takeaways that you took into your classroom or your own personal life? Yeah, so joining the military was unlike anything else that I had done. And especially, I think, because I was so old when I joined. And, you know, I had already been in leadership roles, I had already been a teacher running a classroom, I was already in business. So to start something where I'm a trainee, and have no experience, no background in, I was very much a confused student, like everybody else, for the first time, you know, that I could really remember. Because you, you start school, when you're so young, and it's very cohesive, it's very similar throughout, and then you do college, that's just high school, part two, and you do you know, and then if you become a teacher, you go right back into a school. And yeah, you're in a new role, but you already know how that building works. So then I joined the military, I was very much a fish out of water, no idea what was going on. So I learned the value of the clarity of instructions and expectations, like any, any teacher, any education, one on one class, they're going to tell you, you know, set your expectations, that's very important. But it was, it was a whole different thing to see it from the student perspective. Like, because I was trying to do good. And there were times that I didn't know what good was, you know, I didn't know what was expected of me. And in basic training, they do that on purpose to create stress, and it brings out decisiveness, you know, things like that. But then there's times when you have an actual mission that you're trying to accomplish. And when people don't know really what they're supposed to be doing, it's just a disaster. So I was able to take that back into the classroom immediately, with a much deeper understanding of how important instructions and expectations are. And then also, I think, without really being conscious of it at the time, that is basically what this book is. It's what you read day one, to tell your kids Hey, everybody, this is what good looks like, this is what you need to do. And I tried to have it as clear as possible, which also was helped by teaching pre K special ed, you know, three year olds would come in verbal and nonverbal. One of them I remember I asked his mom after a few days, hey, how do you get him to sit in a chair like when we're eating or working on, you know, coloring or whatever? I cannot get this boy to sit down. What do you do at home to get him to sit in a chair? And she said, Oh, I don't? Oh, okay. So we are starting at square one, you know, so I had to find a way to communicate to this child, what I was expecting of him. As far as behavior before I could get into, you know what coloring is and what I wanted him to do. On the academic side, I had to find a way to make him understand what behavior was expected of him and the right way to just be in that environment. And that's what the book is about. Just the simplest form of basic group behavior for young kids. The asset that is so good I love when you were talking about, you know, you're in basic training and one thing that you really took away was the toughest parts were when you didn't know, what was expected of you. And that's so pivotal when we look at our classrooms, because our students struggle when they don't know what's expected of them. Yeah, a lot of the time, you know, we can, we can get frustrated with our students, and there certainly are some intentional troublemakers, but a lot of the time, they most of them want to do the right thing. You know, they want to be good, they might not love whatever particular lesson is at hand. But most of the time, most of the kids want to do the right thing and basically be good. And sometimes they just genuinely don't know how, you know, new activity, new set of environments. And they if if they're not sure how to be good, then that's when you get a lot of behavior issues. And, you know, it's yeah, it's partially the kids fault. But it's also it's on you, as the teacher to, you know, prep them for that when you're about to do a new thing. Tell them what the new rules are. So they already know how to be good before they even get there. Yes, absolutely. And, you know, you were talking about the one student you had that didn't want to sit in the chair, and you had that conversation with the parent. And the parents said, well, we don't have them sit in the chair. And you said, Well, I had to find a way. And I think that's, you know, finding a way for our students. But like you also said right there, explicitly modeling it for them, letting them know what those expectations are, is pivotal. Yeah. And I realized in that conversation, you know, when I, when I said to him sit down, and I'm using ASL, you know, sign language, I'm doing the sit down. So there's a visual cue and a verbal cue. But he didn't really know what sit down meant, because he had seen people sit down, but he had never sat down on command before. So he didn't. He wasn't misbehaving. When I said sit down, and he didn't. That was not his behavior. That was misunderstanding. Yeah, I'd say it wasn't misbehavior was misunderstanding. Yes. So you know, laying that out there for our students is key. So you took that military training, you looked at the importance of expectations, and specifically laying them out? What are some key things that you included in your story? So the book is, it's basically, you just kind of channel me when you're reading it, it's very much the teacher voice. It's how I spoke to the class. So right, right there in the text, you'll stop and ask questions that the kids can answer. And it you know, it keeps them involved. And it helps them like take ownership of the lesson. And I've had a lot of parents specifically comment on that, that, like, the kids get to the point where they're very prepared to answer the questions like they, after reading it a couple of times, they know what the rules are, and they will tell you. And so that that was a key part of the book. And also, there's examples of misbehavior. So for for all of the three rules, I go through first three examples of, you know, typical classroom inappropriate behavior, that, you know, with the illustrations are kind of funny, and that that keeps the kids interested, too. And it's behavior that they've probably seen and probably exhibited themselves. And so without, without being in a scolding way, or like having a list of don't do rules. It's, it's just kind of going through like your list of options, like, Okay, if you want it to be your turn to speak, are you just going to speak right now? Are you gonna yell, you know, scream and shout over everybody? Or what if you raise your hand, you know, then then this will happen. So it kind of it leads them through, like a thought process. So it was very important to me to have the rules, not just be a list of don't do's, so they're all They're all phrased positively. It's, it's, if you do things this way, we'll all be kind we'll all get along, and things will go pretty smoothly, and then it can explore some natural consequences of you know, the results of misbehavior that you don't want. Yes, no, that's excellent. Now, what were some of the Would you mind sharing what were a couple of the rules? Sure. Yes. So it's just the basic rules that pretty much any classroom is going to have. It's just raise your hand to speak. Be gentle. and keep your hands to yourself. And I, this is like the distilled boiled down version of every rule that I've ever tried to have. So then everything, everything, I don't want the kids to do everything I do want them to do, it all sort of fits in there. And then you know, if you have that, like written on the wall, if you've got the poster up, when when someone is not being gentle, you can just walk over and like touch that write on the wall, be gentle. And if you've read it enough times, and there's pictures, even if they can't read, they know what that one means. You know, and you don't even have to stop what you're doing as a teacher. So it's just, it's the simplest form with the broadest application, so that you can just have these three rules. Without you know, because kids can't handle a long list, you can't have 25 rules, they simply will not remember them all. So I created these after years of tinkering with the language in my classroom, for the simplest way to express it the clearest way for it to be understood with the broadest application, so I don't need any more of them. I actually, I walked into a daycare once with this book. And I was, you know, I was selling it. So I'm showing her lay look at my wonderful book. And she said, Oh, well, we already have our own rules. So you know, that won't work. So I opened it up to the Rules page. And I was like, here's the rules. And she looked at it for a second and kind of said, yeah, all of our rules fit into that. Okay. And she bought three copies? Yes, yes, absolutely. Because when you look at them, a lot of the rules just fit into every single classroom out there. One thing that I love that you were talking about is having that visual on that wall that goes with the rule book, so that you could walk over, you don't have to disrupt the flow of the lesson. And the kids can visually see that because sometimes they need that picture to see. Definitely, and that was one of the great experiences of working in in such a low age level Special Ed environment, then, you know, you can't take anything for granted. They, they come in with almost no background knowledge, and some of them with almost no communication. And so, you know, pre K teachers, kindergarten teachers, they label things in their classroom a lot, because kids know what a chair is. And so seeing it in print on the chair, helps them learn to read that. But you kind of have to do the reverse of that, when you're trying to teach a concept that the kids don't really have any words for. And so matching a picture with a simple set of text that you can refer to over and over really helps because then they recognize the picture. And like anybody who's read a book to a little kid over and over, you start thinking they can read, but they don't actually read yet there, they have pages memorized, or they have quotes memorized, that, you know, they you open it up to the page, and all those visual cues, remind them of what text is on there. And so I definitely, everything had a picture. I mean, if I had the number five up for some reason, there were five dots. If if I had the word happy up, there was a smiling smiley face, you know that we had to do a lot of visual matching with text and print. Excellent, excellent. Now did this change at all? Because you went from teaching, like three to five year olds to the middle school, how you approached, this didn't change at all, or was it basically, you know, the same thing just upped a little bit. So it didn't so much change as it expanded, because I got students who were well beyond the students academic level that I had been working with, but because it was still self, self contained Special Ed, I still had some very low functioning students, I still had some nonverbal students. So I actually expanded the amount of sign language that I used. And I would try to teach them and a lot of the other kids would learn it too, so that they could communicate with each other and I had different grade levels. And I actually got a couple of the kids that were younger than they were supposed to be in my program. But they were just such a terror, Bob behaviorally in the room they had been in that they got moved into my room because I have been pretty good with classroom management. And most of my students were bigger and could defend themselves. So I ended up having some younger kids still. And so like there was a game to learn letter sounds that I had it was they were it was a cookie a little like plastic cookie that had a letter on it in a bag and the kids were just supposed to pull it out. And you know, some kids could say What letter it was some kids, I would just make the sound and they would imitate me. Some kids could say a word that started with that letter or sound. And so I could, I could play that same game with three kids, one who couldn't read or really even speak at all. And I'm trying to get him to imitate me going bah, bah, bah. And then another kid who can read, you know, insane book when he pulls out letter B. So I never, I never truly left those basic first lessons, because I always had students that were still at that level. But I also had students who were well above it, so I had to expand. Yes, I love that idea of expanding, meeting our students where they're at. Excellent. Now, you're also continuing to write Can you tell us? What's next for you? Yeah, so this, this book is for parents of kids that age, or teachers and daycare, you know, anybody working with six year olds and under. And so I've had a lot of parents who read it. They say, you know, you should do one for parents now. So I did, it's already written, it's not illustrated yet. So this next one is called going places. And I'll be working with the same illustrator Robert lens, and the same Spanish translator, Heidi Becker. And so this one instead of classroom environment rules, this one is for all of those places, that you go just in normal daily life. So like, if parents are going to take their kids, you know, to dinner at a restaurant, and then the grocery store, they can read a couple of pages that are about restaurant and grocery store, and prep their kids like, Hey, these are the three rules, you know, while we're sitting at a restaurant, and then these are the three rules at the grocery store. And then once they're there, if the kids, you know, go off track a little bit, they can just remind them like, Hey, what did we talk about? What are the rules here, and you know, they're already going to know that. So it's the same concept of prep them with the expectations, let them know we are going this place, you will do these things at this place. And then once you're there, it's so much easier to remind them of that and keep them on track, instead of just like reacting. So the next book, I don't want to put a like a calendar date on it. But that is the next one, maybe a year, maybe. All right. So it'll be the same, the same characters, and the same kind of teacher voice language from this book, book for parents to use just out in the community in the places they go. That's fantastic. I love the fact that you have a companion book. And this time is for the parents. That's fantastic. Now, two of my favorite questions, Jeffrey, book recommendations or podcasts recommendations that you have. And so I definitely have some book recommendations. The first one, I don't know if it's still, if everybody just talks about it. It was a big deal while I was in college, but I feel like I haven't heard about it in a while. So it's worth mentioning, the first days of school by Harry and rosemary Wong, if it has fallen out of fashion at all, bring it back. None of it is dated. None of it is technology based. It's a very good book very much a lifesaver for anybody who has maybe not the most cooperative group of students. It's all about establishing behavior expectations. At at a, you know, at all the levels I want to say he taught elementary, but you know, none of it is like little kids specific. And then another another book that i read i I heard her interviewed on NPR and I went out and bought the book. It's called Mindset by Dr. Carol Dweck. And that's about you know, there's a people with a fixed mindset, where they have to constantly prove themselves and everything is like Do or die, this is the test. And then there's a growth mindset, where you look at everything, as an experience that you can learn from and get better for next time. And when you identify the those patterns of behavior, and some like red flags of, of who thinks in what way, it helps you recognize why they might be behaving in a way that that you wouldn't behave and that you don't understand. It helps you communicate and like think of things from both both perspectives and guide toward a more positive way of thinking. But then I also have like, if you're looking for a recommendation for the kids, if you're a teacher and you want to want books to read to kids, and I don't care what age they are, because both of these books bring me to tears and leave me like revved up to go conquer something And oh the Places You'll Go by Dr. Seuss and St. George and the Dragon retold by Margaret Hodges. Like if you have not read those in a while, go read those. Awesome. Those are some fantastic recommendations. Now. Are you a podcast listener though? I feel awful saying this to a podcaster. But I am not. I I've just never. I've never done book on tape. I do very little. I'll listen to NPR sometimes very little, like talk radio kind of stuff. So change my mind. What's a good one for me? A good one for you. I'm trying to think well, you know what? Diving into the the mindset. One of my favorite podcasts to check out is called Finding mastery by Michael Gervais. So then I would recommend that to everyone. It's all about, you know, mindset breaking down what Highly successful people do, how they think how they overcome certain situations. It's one of my favorite podcasts out there. Okay, yeah, I'll give it a listen. Yeah, absolutely. You might be a big fan of Tim Ferriss has a very nice podcast out there, too. Now, if the listeners wanted to connect with you, what would be the best way to do that? The easiest place is just my website. It's Jeffrey packs.com, je FF R EY, PAX, I've got Facebook and Twitter and Goodreads. I have a contact page on there. If they just want to send me an email directly from the website, I have an Amazon Author Page. And all of those links are on the website super easy to find me. And I love it when people do connect with me every now and then somebody will send me like a you know, a picture of a kid holding the book. And though they'll tell me, you know, hey, he he asked for somebody that he asked, Can I use that when you're done? You know, that's a line from the book. I love hearing that stuff. I love knowing that the book is out there in action. So if anybody wants to contact me for any reason, feel free. It makes my day. Awesome. And what is one takeaway that you would like the listeners to walk away with? The main takeaway from the book is it's actually book ended with this, the first page on the last page just say, be kind. That is the source. That's the point of origin for all of the rules. You know, they're not, they're not just a list of prohibited things you can't do. It's, it's a list of ways that we can get along with each other. And so it really just begins and ends with be kind to each other that that is all if you're being kind, then you're not wrong. You know, whatever the environment, whatever the situation. Yes, yes. can never go wrong when we're being kind. Jeffrey, I just want to say thank you so much for being here. I love what you're putting out. You're doing a great things for teachers. But now you're moving into doing great things for the parents as well. So that's much appreciated. And definitely thank you for your service, man. Thank you. It's been great meeting you. Thanks for having me on the show. This podcast is a proud member of the teach better Podcast Network. Better today. Better tomorrow, and the podcast to get you there. Explore More podcast at WWW dot teach better podcast network.com. Now let's get on to the episode. This conversation was so good. Jeffrey is such a great guy. And he's just looking to inspire and help educators and parents out. Now this is the teaching champions take where I share three of my favorite gems from this conversation. In the first gem that I love is how he stressed how we need to have clarity in our instructions. And we need to let our expectations be known. Because a lot of issues can arise in our classrooms. If our instructions are unclear, or those expectations are not set. The second gem that I loved is how Jeffrey talked about the use of visuals. Whether it's labeling things in the classroom, having posters or other things, visuals offer another way to help students out. And the third gem that I loved is how Jeffrey talked about the one thing that all of us can do. And it can make a huge impact on others. It's just to be kind, plain and simple. Just be kind. A big thank you to Jeffrey for so many great takeaways. And a big thank you to all of you for being here for being part of the teaching champion. As community, we support we encourage we lift each other up. And if you think someone will benefit from this conversation, please share. And always remember, it doesn't matter whether you're from rural America to urban America, to Canada, to Spain to Bahrain. We're all on that same team. We're all on that same mission, and we're always better together. Keep being amazing, my friends, and as we go on to the week, May step into your strength may step into your shine, and let's build our champions. Have a great week, everybody