Relaunch Take 27! Let’s Relaunch This Thing!

Let’s Relaunch This Thing!

Adam Peterson [00:00:22]:
Let’s get started. So we are laughing even harder now because if you had listened to what we’re going to cut out of this, you would know that we have restarted this about three times because it’s been a minute since we’ve done a podcast. But I know we don’t know how.

Deedee Wills [00:00:37]:
To talk to each other.

Adam Peterson [00:00:38]:
We don’t know how to talk to each other. I am sitting and ignore the mess back here. So we. I used to have like a full blown office that I would record in. Had a cool shelf behind it. Now that shelf is like right here. So I’m working on getting my computer set up over there. But our office that we had was huge and we never used it. Like, I used it to record videos every now and then.

Deedee Wills [00:01:00]:
Yeah.

Adam Peterson [00:01:01]:
And then we had this room that I’m in now that was. It’s, it’s a smaller room, but we had our treadmill and our sauna and our bike in here. But that’s all you could do. Like if someone was on the bike, you couldn’t get to the sauna. It was just like tight. So like one person could work out at the same time.

Deedee Wills [00:01:16]:
Oh, that’s nice.

Adam Peterson [00:01:17]:
So my after Christmas project was I took everything out of that office. My dad and I. My dad and I painted it. And then we took everything of this workout room and moved that over there. And I put down like one of those foam floors and it’s like three times the size of what we had. So we actually have space that we can treadmill, bike, punching bag, sauna, weights. Like all four of us could technically work out in that room at the same time if we wanted to. So that’s why I’m sitting in Olivia’s craft room, which is also my office. But that’s, that’s my background right now.

Deedee Wills [00:01:52]:
That does look like a pencil sharpener over there.

Adam Peterson [00:01:55]:
That’s an old school pencil sharpener.

Deedee Wills [00:01:57]:
Those were the best.

Adam Peterson [00:01:58]:
That’s like the, that was here when we bought the house. The people left. The guy that had this like, this room was his like, like, like work room. Like what do you call it? Like he had a tool bench down here. And that, that table workshop, that was what I was looking for, was actually like his work table, but Olivia and the kids, or Trisha and the kids painted it perfect.

Deedee Wills [00:02:21]:
That pencil sharpener brings me back to Mrs. Hess in second grade because she was the most amazing teacher that I had. Like one of my, one of my favorites. I had a couple, a couple of favorites in elementary School. Mrs. Hess. And I remember like, I was like the pencil sharpener.

Adam Peterson [00:02:35]:
Oh yeah, that was a job.

Deedee Wills [00:02:36]:
It was a thing. And so, yeah, that I just had a little, little flashback in time.

Adam Peterson [00:02:42]:
I remember you talking about Mrs. Hess a lot. Previous episodes there.

Deedee Wills [00:02:46]:
She was so good. Followed up by Mrs. Leopard, who traumatized me. But we are, we’re talking in the 72 takes that we had before, you know, actually doing this about what we wanted to do because it we last year about this time we said, we’re relaunching, we’re going to be recording. And then we never did. So it was a year ago. And so we’ve, we’ve actually formulated a plan and we put it down on 500 post it notes that I have all over the place. And what we really were wanting to do is to reach out to teachers that we know who are in the classroom full time, but that also do some professional development and just have a conversation. People that are our friends, people that we want to have as friends, like people maybe we don’t know yet, you.

Adam Peterson [00:00:22]:
Let’s get started. So we are laughing even harder now because if you had listened to what we’re going to cut out of this, you would know that we have restarted this about three times because it’s been a minute since we’ve done a podcast. But I know we don’t know how.

Deedee Wills [00:00:37]:
To talk to each other.

Adam Peterson [00:00:38]:
We don’t know how to talk to each other. I am sitting and ignore the mess back here. So we. I used to have like a full blown office that I would record in. Had a cool shelf behind it. Now that shelf is like right here. So I’m working on getting my computer set up over there. But our office that we had was huge and we never used it. Like, I used it to record videos every now and then.

Deedee Wills [00:01:00]:
Yeah.

Adam Peterson [00:01:01]:
And then we had this room that I’m in now that was. It’s, it’s a smaller room, but we had our treadmill and our sauna and our bike in here. But that’s all you could do. Like if someone was on the bike, you couldn’t get to the sauna. It was just like tight. So like one person could work out at the same time.

Deedee Wills [00:01:16]:
Oh, that’s nice.

Adam Peterson [00:01:17]:
So my after Christmas project was I took everything out of that office. My dad and I. My dad and I painted it. And then we took everything of this workout room and moved that over there. And I put down like one of those foam floors and it’s like three times the size of what we had. So we actually have space that we can treadmill, bike, punching bag, sauna, weights. Like all four of us could technically work out in that room at the same time if we wanted to. So that’s why I’m sitting in Olivia’s craft room, which is also my office. But that’s, that’s my background right now.

Deedee Wills [00:01:52]:
That does look like a pencil sharpener over there.

Adam Peterson [00:01:55]:
That’s an old school pencil sharpener.

Deedee Wills [00:01:57]:
Those were the best.

Adam Peterson [00:01:58]:
That’s like the, that was here when we bought the house. The people left. The guy that had this like, this room was his like, like, like work room. Like what do you call it? Like he had a tool bench down here. And that, that table workshop, that was what I was looking for, was actually like his work table, but Olivia and the kids, or Trisha and the kids painted it perfect.

Deedee Wills [00:02:21]:
That pencil sharpener brings me back to Mrs. Hess in second grade because she was the most amazing teacher that I had. Like one of my, one of my favorites. I had a couple, a couple of favorites in elementary School. Mrs. Hess. And I remember like, I was like the pencil sharpener.

Adam Peterson [00:02:35]:
Oh yeah, that was a job.

Deedee Wills [00:02:36]:
It was a thing. And so, yeah, that I just had a little, little flashback in time.

Adam Peterson [00:02:42]:
I remember you talking about Mrs. Hess a lot. Previous episodes there.

Deedee Wills [00:02:46]:
She was so good. Followed up by Mrs. Leopard, who traumatized me. But we are, we’re talking in the 72 takes that we had before, you know, actually doing this about what we wanted to do because it we last year about this time we said, we’re relaunching, we’re going to be recording. And then we never did. So it was a year ago. And so we’ve, we’ve actually formulated a plan and we put it down on 500 post it notes that I have all over the place. And what we really were wanting to do is to reach out to teachers that we know who are in the classroom full time, but that also do some professional development and just have a conversation. People that are our friends, people that we want to have as friends, like people maybe we don’t know yet, you.

Adam Peterson [00:03:38]:
Know, so those are, maybe you could be our friend.

Deedee Wills [00:03:40]:
If you’re listening to this, won’t you be my neighbor? But I was thinking maybe we could have, have, you know, we have a list of some people that we would really love to talk to. We’re going to reach out to them. And then maybe you’re sitting there thinking, you know what? I have this teacher. This was actually Adam’s idea. So I’m not going to steal his thunder. Adam, you go ahead and say what you, what you had said before.

Adam Peterson [00:04:01]:
Well, no, I think so. Like you, you’re visiting schools, you’ve been working in a classroom. I’ve been visiting schools, been working in a classroom. And I know when we go into schools that there are some pretty awesome things we see. Right? But we’re not in every school. So I, I had thought, like, what if, you know, I’m going to throw out our friend Katie for an example because I was just at her school and it was phenomenal. Her classroom is the best. We need to have her back on. But like, if Katie came to us and said, or text us and said, oh my gosh, you guys, you’re not going to believe what this teacher down the hall is doing. Like you need to chat with her or him. And I think that might be kind of cool. Like get someone who isn’t someone that’s out there sharing ideas regularly. But sometimes there’s some pretty amazing stuff happening in classrooms. And that’s something I share all the time in my sessions is I, I know that like, because of safety, we have to shut our doors and lock our doors now. But back when you didn’t have to shut your door, I used to say all the time, like, open your door and teach. Open your door and show off what you’re doing because there’s someone in your hallway that needs to see what’s happening in your room. And I’m not saying do that in a boastful way. Look at me, look at me. But you all know you’ve got pretty amazing educators in your hallways. And if there’s someone that’s doing something, we, we’d love to share it.

Deedee Wills [00:05:17]:
You know, I remember walking down the hall and going by different classrooms and you always had the teacher who was, you know, it looked like a party going on. And then you had the teachers who were up close and they were engaging students. I mean, there’s just all these, there’s more than one way to. Well, I’m not going to use that expression. That’s a bad expression. But there’s more than one way to bake cake.

Adam Peterson [00:05:36]:
You know, my grandma say to skin a cat.

Deedee Wills [00:05:38]:
Yes. And, and I was like, you know, when you start to think about some of these things, you’re like, no, we’re not going to say those anymore.

Adam Peterson [00:05:45]:
What does that phrase even mean? Because I’ve heard, I had a friend that used to say that all the time.

Deedee Wills [00:05:50]:
I know, no, we’re not skinning cats around here, but we do bake cakes, you know, and there’s more than one way to make a cake. And it may not. Maybe it’s not. Maybe it’s not a teacher. Maybe you have a school counselor who has really had an impactful way of helping students with self regulation. Maybe you have, you know, you have a school administrator who has changed the feel of your building. You know, we know that. You know, it’s a trickle down effect, isn’t it? Like you have the school administrator that trickles down to the teachers, which trickles down to the students. Sometimes the teacher is working in a way because something might be missing elsewhere in that student’s Home or maybe in the school. School. And same thing with the principal. Maybe they’re having to do some things because of the community that they live in, might be suffering in one way or another, and they’re helping to augment that. So I would, I would love to talk to some of those people. If you have listened to any of our podcasts for like a minute, you know that we are the least formal people on the planet. Probably. We probably could use some discipline ourselves.

Adam Peterson [00:07:04]:
We keep it pretty candid. Right?

Deedee Wills [00:07:06]:
It’s. Yeah. I mean, it’s just casual. So it’s just having a conversation, as if you were to have a conversation walking up into the hall with two other people. So we would love to have that. I think that, like you said, there’s some great things that are happening within schools that we need to hear about. I think teachers need to hear about. And it doesn’t have to be something like, oh, yeah, you know, we started this and we got a grant and we got this and that. It can be small. Those small things add up.

Adam Peterson [00:07:36]:
Yeah, small things lead to big results for sure. And I think even if, you know, I was constantly looking for the next way or the, A better way to teach this, that, or the other. Right. Because. Not because I’m saying any teacher is better than another teacher, but we all share ideas and we all learn from each other, and there’s always something to be learned. I know. I. I mean, that’s why there’s blogs and websites exist and YouTube exists and whatnot, because people want to know more. They just need that fix for what might be happening. I, I especially.

Deedee Wills [00:08:07]:
Or to say, you know what, I’m not alone or, yeah, I’m doing that too. And I feel, I feel seen. Even though we’re not seeing you, you know.

Adam Peterson [00:08:17]:
Right. And I think when people hear it from someone that’s. That’s living it. Right. Like someone that’s doing it. You and I could speak all day about visiting schools and working in classrooms, but that’s not our own personal classroom. And we could speak about, you know, whatever ideas we share at conferences. But for someone that’s in there daily and coming up with something that, that is, you know, a fix for someone else that might be struggling, it could be huge.

Deedee Wills [00:08:43]:
It could be really huge. I was thinking about. You had said something that triggered then another thought. That’s why these podcasts, they take forever. More like, did we say anything?

Adam Peterson [00:08:52]:
Get your post it notes.

Deedee Wills [00:08:53]:
I know. Keep my post notes. But when I was down at the ILA CD conference in Chicago. That was a big mouthful. IL a s c d conference in Chicago is for K2 teachers. If you’re listening to this and going, where are some conferences? That’s a great one to go to.

Adam Peterson [00:09:08]:
Yeah.

Deedee Wills [00:09:09]:
But when I was there, I was at a booth, and somebody was talking about the whisper phones, right?

Adam Peterson [00:09:16]:
Oh, my gosh. Yeah.

Deedee Wills [00:09:18]:
There was an administrator there, and he said I was a former music teacher, and he said that he taught his students how to make a whisper phone with their hands. So that when you’re small group reading. So I’m going to demonstrate it and try to tell you what I’m doing.

Adam Peterson [00:09:34]:
I’m curious.

Deedee Wills [00:09:35]:
You. You make a cup with your hand as if you were going to put a little bit of water in your hand. Right. So you make a cup. Your fingers are all together. Your thumb is against there, and you have, like, a little bowl in the center of your hand. Then you put your fingers up to your ear, to the top of your ear. And then you bring the palm of your hand down to the side. No, you got to make a cup, Adam. Oh, okay.

Adam Peterson [00:09:57]:
I’m trying to listen to what you’re saying through my headphones.

Deedee Wills [00:09:59]:
Oh, I got it. So you make a cup, and then you bring the palm of your hand so it’s kind of aligned to, like, the edge of your mouth. And as you bring it in, you’ll start to hear. You’ll start to hear your own voice.

Adam Peterson [00:10:12]:
I’m going to talk. Oh, my gosh.

Deedee Wills [00:10:14]:
Is that crazy?

Adam Peterson [00:10:15]:
Like, right away?

Deedee Wills [00:10:16]:
I know it’s crazy. So it’s almost like, you know, like if you’re pretending like you’re on the phone.

Adam Peterson [00:10:22]:
Yeah.

Deedee Wills [00:10:23]:
You know, you. You. But you’re copying it, and all of a sudden, now you’re hearing your own voice. And I was like, I would have.

Adam Peterson [00:10:30]:
Thought it would have escaped, like.

Deedee Wills [00:10:32]:
Yeah.

Adam Peterson [00:10:33]:
Not funneled up as much as it does.

Deedee Wills [00:10:35]:
And. And I was like, you know, those are the. Like these. You guys are so filled with these little things that you use that other people may not know about. And if. If you come on and you don’t have anything to share, we’ll just love talking to you. We’ll get information out of you. So anyhow, we. So my excited.

Adam Peterson [00:10:59]:
My whisper phones have a cool story behind the ones that I used in my classroom for a number of years. My mom made them out of PVC pipe, and my great uncle, before he passed away and my great aunt had passed away, so my great uncle used to do stuff with my mom and dad and my. My, like, her sister all the time. Like they were always at our family things. They came up to our house all the time. Uncle June is what we called him. And Uncle June helped duct tape all my whisper phones for that my mom made, like with fancy duct tape or color coded duct tape so they could be used in groups or like, you know, like all those different fancy duct tapes you can buy. So, yeah, I had a class set of whisper phones that my mom made with him out of PVC pipe and he helped wrap them with duct tape. Yeah. Which. So I’ll hang on to those forever.

Deedee Wills [00:11:47]:
Yeah. Oh my gosh, that’s so great. And you know, those, you know, the, the duct tape things are great, but sometimes, you know, you might be conferring with a student or might be, you know, listening in and they’re trying to do, you know, something, you know, you don’t always have some things in on hand or you may not have your mom to make those, or maybe not, you know, you may not have the money to buy the whisper phone. So I love. Isn’t that good?

Adam Peterson [00:12:16]:
I’m gonna use that today with my. One of my tutoring students that I’m gonna work with.

Deedee Wills [00:12:20]:
Yes, I love that. Especially, you know, if you are in small group and you’re trying to get students to read, you know, not on the same lines. You know, you’re not quarrel reading or, or echo reading and they’re reading independently while you listen in. I think that’s a really cool way to do it. And it’s always available. You know, it’s in their hand all the time. So I thought that was all the time.

Adam Peterson [00:12:41]:
Well, those are the, and those are the ideas that, like, I had not thought of that before. So like talking to teachers about things like that and that, that’s one of the cool things about a conference like ASCD is there’s that exhibit hall. Right. And. And I have done more networking in that exhibit hall than I have ever done, like buying a. Well, I’ll be on. I. I spent a lot of money in that place and I was still in the classroom all the time.

Deedee Wills [00:13:02]:
But I hide in the exhibit hall. Actually, I’m not gonna lie.

Adam Peterson [00:13:05]:
I do you what?

Deedee Wills [00:13:05]:
I’m like, it’s over. Those things are overwhelming.

Adam Peterson [00:13:08]:
They are. But the thing I love about that one is, like, it’s a great networking spot. Like, you can just go talk to people at booths and there’s so many fascinating people there like that have come up with ideas for classrooms. You know, like, a lot of the people in those booths were or Are teachers true. And now they’re sharing something that worked for them, which is. Is kind of cool.

Deedee Wills [00:13:31]:
Very true. Very true. So I’m excited. We have a plan.

Adam Peterson [00:13:35]:
We have a plan.

Deedee Wills [00:13:36]:
We have a Google form.

Adam Peterson [00:13:38]:
We have. We’ll let you know if it’s a good plan when you start listening to more episodes. If they work out. But we have a plan.

Deedee Wills [00:13:44]:
If you’re listening. Since 2026, we failed.

Adam Peterson [00:13:49]:
Oh, who was that?

Deedee Wills [00:13:51]:
That was Harriet.

Adam Peterson [00:13:52]:
She’s sleeping.

Deedee Wills [00:13:53]:
She’s having a little dream.

Adam Peterson [00:13:55]:
I was gonna say. She’s out.

Deedee Wills [00:13:57]:
She’s out. She had a little dream. She had a little bark dream.

Adam Peterson [00:13:59]:
So can you tell the difference between their barks?

Deedee Wills [00:14:01]:
Uh-huh

Adam Peterson [00:14:02]:
Can you? Okay. I was gonna say, I don’t know how you knew that was Harriet right away.

Deedee Wills [00:14:06]:
Yeah, yeah. I mean, Ozzie’s is low and kind of confused, and Harriet’s just like, bless  Ozzie. But Harriet, she’s. She’s purposeful. But she’s having a serious dream going on right now.

Adam Peterson [00:14:19]:
Oh, she’s running her dream now.

Deedee Wills [00:14:20]:
I can see her back there because I’m moving it.

Adam Peterson [00:14:23]:
He’s low and confused. That’s good.

Deedee Wills [00:14:25]:
Yeah. Bless. Love him.

Adam Peterson [00:14:28]:
Oh, man.

Deedee Wills [00:14:29]:
So, yeah, see you guys next week. We’re gonna launch this. I think we’re gonna publish this on the 30th of March.

Adam Peterson [00:14:36]:
That’s crazy.

Deedee Wills [00:14:37]:
Is that what we said?

Adam Peterson [00:14:38]:
That’s what we said. And then we’ll be back each week with someone new or just know if.

Deedee Wills [00:14:43]:
We’re liars or not. I don’t know.

Adam Peterson [00:14:44]:
Find out. So you’re listening on the 30th. Set your calendar for the following Sunday and we’ll see.

Deedee Wills [00:14:50]:
Love it. Love it.

Adam Peterson [00:14:51]:
All right.

Deedee Wills [00:14:52]:
Okay. Thanks, guys.

Adam Peterson [00:14:53]:
See you. Bye.