Mystery Zooms, Genius Hour, and a Whole Lot of Passion with Melisa Hayes

What's going on everybody, I hope this finds you striving 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 I have an amazing interview for you. When Melissa Hayes, Melissa is a second grade teacher, she's a wakelet Flipgrid and night, zookeeper ambassador, and an Apple Distinguished Educator. In 2020. She was the global Teacher of the Year. And in this interview, she dropped so many gems. And when you're listening to her, it's easy to hear that joy and passion that she has for this amazing profession. And I hope you enjoy this interview with Melissa Hayes. What's going on everybody? I am super excited today, because we have Melissa Hayes on the podcast, and she's gonna drop some amazing wisdom on us. So Melissa, I just want to welcome you to the podcast. Thanks for having me. Absolutely. And I just want to say before we get started that I came across Melissa, and we connected on social media. And I think we made first contact because most of the something called Celebrate Mondays, and it's all about building the culture in the schools. And I'm huge on culture. And I absolutely loved it when she would go around and pick a certain individual in the school to celebrate with her students. And I've been following her closely ever since. And I have to say, every single day, I open up the Twitter feed, and I see what you puts out. And it's absolutely amazing. So I can't wait, because I know the wisdom and gems that you drop every single day on social media, but I can't wait for all the listeners to get a chance to experience that as well. Melissa? Oh, thank you. So no, it's the truth. And before as we get started, would you mind sharing your story for us? Sure. I grew up in makes county again, I'm Melissa Hayes, not gonna say my age 25 Again, but not again. I am married to a college sweetheart. And we've been married for 23 years this month. I've been teaching for 25 years, I think. And we have two beautiful daughters. My oldest is a freshman in college at Ohio University, and my youngest is in eighth grade in my district. So excellent. And I know you have a very important personal message with your daughter, would you mind sharing that with everyone? Sure. Um, in the early years of education, I strive to include all of my kids. And I did my best. And over my early years, I've heard veteran teachers say, well, that's okay, that good kid goes to the resource room, they can do that. But my youngest daughter has Down syndrome, of course, you would never really know because her sassiness comes from me. Not from her diagnosis. She's so much more than that. And she has opened my eyes so much to loving life doing your best. And I think all kids any learner has ability. So that is the number one goal I want. All educators and parents to know is that just because that child goes to resource room for reading or writing or math, it is our job to make sure they are doing 99% of what other kids are doing just modified to where they feel successful. So if there's a paper on the hall, from reading, and they were out for is my job to make sure that they are doing the same thing, but not in the same way. So absolutely. And you have a unique role because you're in the classroom. So you see it through the lens of an educator, but you're also a parent so you get to see it through that lens as well. And I know I can be better. I can sit here and say I want to be better What are some things that you have seen or that have brought to light to you that can help people like myself that want to be better at including everyone and making it great for each and every single student that's in our class. I think just being mindful of all kids, and highlighting those abilities that they have, and giving them that grace and being empathetic, I know, two years ago, I do Genius Hour, I've been doing it for probably 10 years. And two years ago, I, I taught gifted to I usually have gifted kids. But there was a child in my class that had Down syndrome. And he did a Genius Hour project, and his Genius Hour was on Sesame Street. So by the end of his project, we knew every character on Sesame Street, who they were, and he even did an activity. So I think the biggest takeaway for me is knowing that every child has an ability, and it's our job as educators to highlight that ability, and make them feel successful, because we would not want them to go home and feel discouraged, frustrated, like shutting down, we want them to come to school, we want them to love school, we want them so excited to get to school. So I don't know, just be more mindful. And knowing that they all have a wonderful gift to share. I love that, because we all need to know that that we all have a gift to share and highlighting that to the students so that they see it in themselves. Because sometimes, if all we see is that we struggle with all we see that, you know, we're getting the red marks on the paper, or we're getting pulled out we we can make that our identity. And it's like you said, it's important to highlight that make it a bright spot. And to make it visible for all of the students in the classroom to write so that they can see each and every single one of us has a bright spot in everything. And I've heard you talk before, what I've really liked is building off of their successes. So when we stack the wins one on top of the other, that's a great thing. And that creates motivation, and creates that space where like you said, we want to we want the kids especially, we have the younger ones. So we there is no reason why a second grader shouldn't want to come back to school, hopefully, that's a beautiful place for them to be and that the parents can be at home. And that they can rest a little bit easier knowing that their child is in a safe place where they're celebrated. And yeah, so that's great. Now, I know that you're big on classroom culture. And like I said, that was one of the first things that I saw was how you created that school culture. What are things that you do inside your classroom to build that classroom community? Well, it starts on the first day when we, you know, have a family meeting, and we do our Family Promise. And it's not me creating this, this is the kids. And then the kids are telling me what they need from me. This is more their direction. It's not me I know teachers are, you know, feel like you're a teacher, you have to take control. But the majority of my classes, my kids take control because I've told them I'm not in second grade anymore. You are, this is your education, you have the control to create the path that you choose. So I think making sure we have that trust, building that trust. Like I said, I want them to come to school. I want them to go to sleep going, what is Mrs. Hayes gonna do tomorrow? Is the room going to change? What are we going to do? You know, I have kids that won't leave my room. And that's so awesome for me to know that. I also think seeing them outside those four walls in the classroom. I go to the kids soccer games, dance competitions, a baseball games, and it's something that I want to do. I don't feel like I have to I don't do it just because I want to be popular and I want people to like me. I love my kids sincerely and I love to see them out. Doing the sport they love. You know, me cheering them on the best part is just embarrassing them because they're like, oh my gosh, what is? Um, so I think it's just taking the time to get to know each of them and gaining their trust and gaining that respect. And that's pretty much you know, as younger teachers or pre service teachers, they want to know, well, what's your behavior management plan? What do you do? That's the most important thing? Well, it's not really a plan. It's just relationships. I need to get to know your kids. And I say this all the time, but how fun, I talk to my husband, he gets annoyed at me all the time. Because I love what I do. It's not a job to me, I wake up every morning, I'm super excited. Now, sure, I'd like to sleep in a couple more hours. I'm excited to go to school, I'm excited to see my kids. And I always joke around and say, If we win the lottery, I still want to keep my job. I still love it that much. And I think that's pretty awesome for someone to love, especially what's going on now. So I just think getting to know our kids and making sure to establish that family bonding experience is so critical. Yeah, I love that. I love the fact that you've talked about how you love your job, because I think the energy that we bring to the classroom matters. And the kids feel that energy, and easy to tell that you bring that that positive, you know that energetic energy every single day. And also love. You know, when we talk about building that classroom culture, it's little things like how we talk to the kids. And I always hear you, because I've listened to other podcasts that you've been on. And, you know, right now, you refer to it as a family. Yes. And and I think, you know, that's something small, but I'm sure you do every single day in the classroom. But when the kids hear that, and they're hearing over and over again, family family, I think it just brings brings them together a little bit. So yeah, awesome. And you also, when you talked about making it fun and engaging. We talked earlier, that I every single day I look on on your Twitter feed, and you never disappoint, because every single day, there's something fun and engaging that's going on in your classroom. So what are some of the things that you do and inside the classroom to make it fun and engaging for the students? That's like a loaded question. I mean, people who know me know I'm such a big kid, like, I have to have fun too. So I'm but um, they we do STEM a lot with STEM, whether it's reading a book and doing STEM, we finished fairytales. And they had to create a shoe for some off her foot. So they had to be creative on how a shoe stays on your foot, what tools they use. And then there's certain everyday recycling things. And I taught online last year, so probably 85 to 90% of the things like in the classroom, I was able to do online too, which was pretty cool. But we do a lot of stems we do a lot of classroom transformations were transformed the whole room. We've done whether we've done our Super Bowl celebration, basically, like for the Super Bowl, we play a game in the beginning. So the kids are on two teams. They have index cards they have to scratch off to see their team. So it's either the Bengals or the if it was rams, I didn't know that. Absolutely Good job. Hey, they scratched it off and they knew which team and then I had these buzzers. So I'm asking questions. One person on each team comes up hands on the buzzer, whoever presses it first gets the question. If they get the question, right, they have to throw the football through like a little kneaded thing, and they get the extra point. So that was in the beginning, then we do like a lot of games that's more math related. So there's a lot of classroom transformations. That's all academic, but it's super fun for the kids. So it's highly engaging. We do mystery zones. I think we're short of eight states and we've had off of the states. And we've had London gonna Kuwait. So we've done countries to Canada. So those are super fun for the kids. We've done Genius Hour, which they absolutely love and they just research a topic that they enjoy and are passionate about. And then they teach us through a presentation of a slideshow, and then they have to do an activity. So it's not just to sit and get we get up and move and do things. We do Reader's Theater, we're doing that right now. The latter part of the years is going to be fun because we're doing like a water bottle flipping lesson. We're doing a fidget spinner with the stem type of lessons and there's a bunch more tricks I have up my sleeve still. We just have a lot of fun and I it's my job to make them Your second grade year memorable. If it's not memorable, I'm not doing my job. And quite frankly, kids when they get to college, and in high school, they don't remember the test you take. They don't remember an a on the quiz. They remember this lesson and how fun it was. And that's how they've learned this X, Y, and Z. So that's what I'm trying to do is just make it memorable. No, you crush it. Now, how often do you transform the classroom, we've done three, and I'm doing my last one next month. And they don't know about this, but it's usually do a hospital. But this is going to be a little different, because it's going to be a vet. So they get to bring a stuffed animal in, they're going to be dressed in like scrubs with the mask, and the hair thing. And then they have to take their stuffed animal to a vet, and the vet is going to, they're going to, from the menu, pick what they need from the vet like grooming their pets, sick shots, and then they have to do it. And then they have to write up the bill and tell them how much it costs. And then they're going to have money and have to give them the exact amount or if it's over, then they have to make change. So you're dealing with social skills, math, they're having fun, it's imaginative creative play. I mean, it's kind of a win win. So that is awesome. And I love how you you know, you take multiple different areas, and then you combine them. And I'm really curious about that genius hour to do do Genius Hour every week. Yes, it's usually on Fridays for an hour. The only bad thing is I started at least this year, so we're only getting one round of Genius Hour. And normally I can get two. So if they only do it one Friday, a month, and we start at later like in January, it's going to take for research, it takes good four to five months even to get it done. And then their job is to do a slideshow presentation. So I've had kids, they can get with a buddy or a group, or they can do it by themselves. I've had kids do cook baking, and then they did a slideshow and then their activity was they brought in ingredients for no bake apple pie. So the kids crush the graham crackers and put it on top of the applesauce. You know all that stuff was on it. And then we ate it. One group did football. So they presented football way back when what it looked like which was interesting with the football and what they used. And then their activity they had and these kids are amazing. They had three groups, three groups. One group had a playgroup and use place. One group showed how to throw a spiral. One group had showed how to throw a target. I mean, the list goes on. And on this year, I think a group did rainbow loom bracelets, and then brought in the rainbow loom bracelets and the kids. They showed them how to make them so everyone went home with a bracelet, they knew how to make it anywhere to buy him how much it costs. Canada, I mean, it's just a great, I mean, it takes time. So but the kids love it. That is awesome. The creativity, like when you allow the kids to step out there something that they enjoy and create. Now, how much guidance do you need to do to set that Genius Hour? Well, in the beginning, I read like, I think it's how to something with an idea, the most magnificent thing, or something I do with an idea. Yeah, I've used those books as an intro. And then I have butcher paper up and it says what are you passionate about? What do you like to do? And then that's our kind of intro. And then from there, they're like, Oh, I know I want to do this. I want to do this and they get with buddies are by themselves. They start researching. They create the rubric themselves. So we talked about, you know, your presentation, how many slides Do you want? One group might have five slides, another group might have seven. If the bar is a little low, I might nudge it up a little higher. They also have so they have certain tasks that they have to do activity. Do I have my supplies? You know, is everyone involved? There's also a QR code on every single kiddo that goes to the Flipgrid. And they have a reflective diary every Friday at the end of Genius Hour and they kind of talk about, you know, I'm really not far along. I'm kind of stressing, I wonder when Mrs. Hayes is gonna give us a calendar. And when I give them a calendar, they have to sign up for days and times. Now most teachers are like, Well, do you go through everyone? Do you check their presentation before I my answer is no. Why? Because in my class, we fail enthusiastically. So if they get up there, and they present and they start reading the slide which has happened. And it's nothing what they put it's what's in their head and not. There's questions and they can answer them. At the end of the presentation, they'll come to me and they'll go, can we fix this and be present? And I'm like, absolutely, yeah, I never had to kick go up there and be like, okay, I'm good when it was not a high air quality, like, I know where the bar is for them. And always, like, you know, I think I need to fix that. I think I need to redo it. So that's why I don't go through it with fine tooth comb, because that's a bigger lesson than them hitting up work. 100%. I love that, I think how we approach failure, because I'm big on that too, inside the classroom, how we approach failure. And I like when you said, fail magnificently, but also you're bringing in that reflection piece and talking about all right, I failed. I didn't show up, maybe I didn't put in the work, I set that bar too low. What do I need to do to go back and fix that up? And that's an important lesson for us as adults, too, sometimes. And another thing that could you explain, because I've been really impressed from what I've seen on Twitter, the mystery zooms, and how that all came about. I think I don't know how many years ago it's been. But I saw something on Twitter where a teacher did a mystery, Skype, mystery Skype back then. And I was very intrigued. And I wanted to know more. And I'm the type of teacher that just absorbs I want more, I want more. It's kind of like a drug. So if it's a new app, if it's a new way to do something. So I saw this, and I was like this looks really neat. So I asked my tech person, how do I get my computer hooked up with Skype, then I knew a friend that taught like in another state, and we Skyped with her. And I have to say I was addicted from that point on. I tried to get, you know, half the states are three states, the next year, five states. And then the last few years, we've gotten every single state in the US. It's awesome. And I think because of Twitter, and how many connections that I have and, and just connections and they have connections and then they have connections. And it's so amazing, because even this year, I we miss resumed with a person that wasn't an educator. And she was just as lovely and sweet. I know, we resumed with a educator last year, and I think she did cooking on YouTube and sing songs for the kids. It was just, it's just a great experience. And I tell my kids, you know, it's not about the States or the location, even though we try to guess it? Well, because the people make our life so much richer, and they have so many great gifts to share. So we need to get to know these people, and they just adore every one resume with that is awesome experience. Yeah, yeah. And I love how, you know, you transform that into yes, we're crossing off countries, we're crossing off states, but it's about the people. And, you know, learning we can learn from so many different people from all across the whether it's the country or the world. It's just another great lesson. And I also think that you do an amazing job, whether it's transforming your classroom, doing mystery zoom, but how you incorporate technology into the classroom, because you do that I see what you put out there. What are some of the things technology wise that you do in the classroom? And what would you say that you would recommend the most you found to be the most beneficial in your classroom? Well, anyone knows me knows I'm Flipgrid crazy. Like I love Flipgrid them for way long, long time, but I love them. I love the people. They're a family. But the kids love Flipgrid too. So we use that a lot. The kids do student led conferences. I never do a parent conference. It's always student led even last year through being virtual, the kids let it over zoom even though I wasn't with the other side. And we do that through Flipgrid because they have all the things that they want to share all the great products that they created throughout the year. And they have things like their goals for this year. Things they want to improve on things. They're excited about things this year that they want to share that they loved. So we use Flipgrid as kind of like breaking the ice so when they come in the school building to meet with me their child will be with them. Or if it's over zoom they share their Flipgrid. First, we have a conversation. And it's just a great way for the kids to be proud of everything they've done so far, and share, you know what they're working on and what they're working towards. That is great for that. We use that for stents, we use it for Reader's Theater we're doing right now. And I have a flyer that I give all the staff and parents and they have to write reviews after watching our Reader's Theater, what they liked what they didn't like, what we should work on. I know kids sometimes throughout the or go on summer vacations. So instead of doing homework, they get on Flipgrid. And they give us clues about the location they're at. And then we have to guess where they're at. And it's like a clue a day. So we still connect, we still see them. So Flipgrid is huge, so versatile, so easy. We use it in a lot of other different ways. But like PicCollage, we love I use that for GA fo cab shape Museum, Zoom snap. So when we miss resume with the state, they write down some important things about the state or the person and then they use Pic Collage to create pictures. So it's kind of like a snapshot of that mystery to keep. And then we put those on a wakelet. So weightless. Another great one that we like, merge cube, we got merge cube cube. So full set, and the kids are loving those Mozilla hubs. Jamie Donlin is amazing. She's tells me all the her and Rochelle are awesome with the technology and the AR VR. So they're my go twos for that kind of stuff. But code Spark, I mean, I just I could go on and on. So and it's not just I know a lot of teachers are like, Well, I only do one or two. And those are our Go twos, which I think is great everyone, on way, I just worry if we don't give them enough things. So they can pick and choose what they want. Because not everything works for every kid. So I just want to make sure that they have variety, so they can pick and choose from that toolkit of what they want to do. And then it's not just thrown at them, it's more meaningful. And sometimes we don't use technology at all. It's more paper pencil writing. But those are some apps that that we love. So no, and then you gave a bunch there's a bunch that I gotta go on, look up right now. And that's why I brought you on so I can pick your brain right now. But some of the other things that I saw the that you're doing on Twitter, like, I think you said it was with iMovie. And you were doing push and pull. And it seems like that you do a lot on with whether it's doing videos, or walking around and looking for like real life examples with the technology to reinforce what you're teaching. Yeah, we're pretty much I love the real life aspects of that. We're starting for some motion. So I've done the push and pull movies for a few years. I think the movies date back to I think the kids are in eighth grade now. But actually, to introduce that I just showed them a couple of the kids videos from years past. And they were so funny, like, Oh, we're gonna do that really, we're going to do that. So they were so excited to dive into into this iMovie and try it out. Some of them even were like, I need you to sign up at home. I'm gonna make a movie at home. So it's just it's great to see but Yeah, real world I want it to be more real world just like with the vet thing I want to do a store even to Hayes, Hazel mark is what it was called. And I had things in there and the kids had money and it was earned to family so it wasn't like oh you're good today you get a quarter it was like I love how you cheered up our family. So you know people were giving each other money so wasn't in it. And then at the end they would shop at my store. Some kids wrote a check I taught them how to write a check which is outdated um, had changed and they paid for it just with the amount like if this was 15 cents they would have to give me 15 cents other kids had to add up the total and give me the amount other kids had to add up the total give me $5 And tell me to change I was supposed to give back so all the abilities are there, all of them. Not a one size fits all, but it's real world too. So um, yeah, and I think I'm not going to be able to do it this year, but I wish I could if I had more time but we did a book tasting already this year but my book tasting the second book tasting I do as well. really different is create menus based on books. So books have to be the orders. And then What books would be your dessert, What books would be the main course. And then I have tablecloths and everything. And then they have money. And I have staff come in, and they see them at the table. Menus, they take their order, they go out there fill their order, they pay, they give them change. So it's like they're running a restaurant, but it's all books. And they're doing it. So I did this for a couple years. It was so fun. I just don't have enough time. But yeah, a lot of the stuff we do is more real world. I love that, that. That sounds like so much fun. I'm sure that the kids get super pumped about that. Yeah, they love it. So do I so awesome. Well, here's the final question is, I get on your Twitter feed, because I see what you're doing. And it inspires me. Where do you go to to get fresh ideas? Because you've been teaching second grade for over 20 years. And I listened to you and I think anybody that listens to you, here's how many creative ideas that you get. How do you keep keep it fresh? How do you keep going? Where do you look to? Or who do you look to, to continue, I'd say maybe to push yourself and try new things. I look on Twitter, that's my family, my PLF my learning family right there. I have so many, like I said, I'm rich with all of my friends, I call them brothers and sisters, because they pretty much are the best, most, the best gift in the world I can never get was to see them all face to face to give them a big hug. They have influenced me and inspired me in so many different ways. I can't stress that enough. For my for my LGC family, which is our global classroom. I have so many brothers and sisters. They're crazy. PLN rethink learning teach pause, I mean, all those PLNs and then other people, that might be a part of it. But there's just so many people, it's hard to list them all. But that's the only reason why I get opportunities is because they push me, I wouldn't be where I am today without them. And I know that's really silly to say it's only Twitter, you don't even know these people. But I do. These people are the people who check in with me every day to see how I'm doing. These people are the ones that that motivate me that cheer me up that they're just, they're just so amazed. I just love each of them. I can't stress that enough. No, I have to agree with you like, I was a late comer to social media to Twitter. I've been on there for about two years. And it is amazing, like the connections that you can form. And it's nice because you can connect with people outside of your school. And you can connect with like minded individuals, bounce ideas off of one another, get fresh ideas. And like you said, it's more than just teaching. It's people who are checking in on you, and there to support and encourage and lift you up when you need that. Yes. And not all my friends are like minded. So I think that's, that's the best thing. I am such a better person because I'm seeing things through a different lens, and it's making me be better. So like, it's a great way to to meet people and to lift each other up. Yeah. And I love how you said that not everybody's like minded, because we need to surround ourselves with people have different voices. So thank you for saying that. And if you could have the listeners of this podcast, walk away with one thing, what would that be? I would say that I'm an educator. So of course, it's going to be about education, or our kids. So I would say that all of our kids, all of our learners have abilities, and that they only get one year in your classroom, or one year with you, whether it be a coach or a principal. So our job is to make it the most memorable and fun that we can possibly give them. Absolutely. And when you make it memorable, when you make it fun, they want to be there. They're learning and they're growing and you need. Yes, absolutely. And you create that that family atmosphere. If the listeners want to get a hold of you and to connect with you. Where should they go to connect? Um, they can go to my Twitter handle, it's at capital N And Mrs. H Hayes spam. It used to be something else, but it's not there. I did do a new Twitter account. Sounds great. And I would suggest to everyone to connect with you, I'm not just primary teachers, I would Intermediate High School collegiate educators, everyone connect with you, Melissa, I, I just want to say thank you, um, you are the real deal. I, you know, I can see it as I connect, and I see what you do on Twitter, and you can see the joy that you have. But being able to sit here and talk with you and feel it, you know, you can feel it through the zoom, how much you enjoy teaching how much you love this profession. And, you know, thank you for this episode. And thank you for dropping so many gems, I can't wait to go back and listen to them all. You inspire me. And I know you inspire a lot of other people too. So keep doing amazing things. Thank you so much. This was so fun. I appreciate you inviting me on. So thank you. This was such a great interview with Melissa Hayes. And I'm truly grateful for the wisdom she dropped in her energy and passion is so infectious. Now, this is the teaching champions tape, where I'm going to give you three gems from the interview that really stood out to me. And the first gem is to focus on your students bright spots, to make those bright spots visible to highlight it, to pointed out to the students to let others in the class know about individual bright spots that we have in our classrooms. Because it's easy to get focused on areas in which our students need extra help. That's where our attention goes to. But we need to highlight the successes for our students, we need to help them see their shine, they need to feel success, they need to see their strengths. And we need to build off of these. And the beauty of each and every single one of our classrooms is that we have a wide range of gifts and abilities inside our classroom walls in every single champion that is in our space has a shot. So let's recognize it. Let's shout it out from the rooftops. And let's build off of it. The second gen is to be innovative and try new things. Whether it's mystery zooms, Genius Hour classroom transformations, or a wide array of technology, Melissa makes her classroom fun and engaging. She's constantly pushing herself to try new things. And this makes her classroom a place where the students want to be. The third gen is creating that family atmosphere. Whether it's developing those bonds by truly getting to know the students by going to the extracurricular events, celebrating others in the school, or by something is small, is referring to the classroom community, as a family. Those small things are extremely big things. And they create strong relationships. And the student teacher relationship is pivotal for our champions success. And these are just a few of my takeaways. And there were so many more, shoot me a DM and let me know what were your favorite takeaways from this interview. And make sure you go out and you follow Melissa? On Twitter for a little inspiration in your Twitter feed. I'll leave her information in the show notes. And if you think someone will be inspired by this podcast, if you could please share it. This teaching champions community is all about encouraging, supporting and lifting each other up. And always remember, 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 you go out into the week, May step into your strength may step into your shine, and let's build our champions up. Have a great weekend.