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Hello, and thank you for listening to the teaching math teaching podcast. The teaching math teaching podcast is sponsored by the Association of mathematics teacher educators. The hosts are a with Anheuser me, dusty Jones, and Joel Amidon. Today we're talking with Dr. Crystal colonic Craig crystal is an associate professor, Department of interdisciplinary learning teaching at the University of Texas at San Antonio. We're talking with her for several reasons. Specifically, we want to hear about her recent experiences with online field experiences for prospective teachers. Welcome, Crystal, would you please tell us a bit about yourself and background? Sure. Thanks for having me. As you know, my name is Crystal Kalin. And Craig, most of my students just call me Craig, because the hyphenated name is a mouthful. And I have been at the University of Texas at San Antonio since fall 2013, moved from Tucson, Arizona, where I got my doctorate, but I am a native of Texas, went to the University of Houston, got a math degree, then got married to a person in the Air Force, and we moved around. So for the first five years, I was in a new school and a new state every year. So we moved to North Carolina, and I taught a seventh grade math there, in my future sister in law was actually in my class. My second day of teaching ever was September 11 2001. And then we moved to Columbus, Mississippi, where I taught at Amory High School, which is a tiny little town just north of that city. And I taught calculus and geometry, five sections of geometry back to back. So by the fifth time that I taught geography, I was like, these lines are parallel. I don't know what to tell you my brain shot. And then we moved to Arizona in 2003, where I taught at a charter school that had only 100 students that was very much participatory action research very much embedded in Ferreri and principles, we would go out and do a lot of volunteerism, I taught psychology, algebra and geometry there. Then I moved to Germany, and I taught at bitburg Air Force Base. And I taught seventh grade math, eighth grade math, eighth grade algebra, and then moved back to Tucson and taught at an alternative high school, where students were just trying to, you know, get their high school diploma, many of them would either go off and do trade schools or join the military. And then I finished up with my doctoral work, where I knew that I wanted to end up being a teacher educator. And then after I graduated, I knew I needed to get out of Tucson and spread my wings. And so San Antonio was the place that called me. And I'm really glad to be here in San Antonio, because I've met so many wonderful friends. That's great. So how did you start teaching teachers to do that I had always been teaching night school, ever since I had graduated from Houston. So I would teach lower level introductory elementary or developmental math class at junior and community colleges. So I kind of kept my foot still in the door in the higher ed space. And it wasn't until I got my master's at Texas a&m, that I knew that I really enjoyed being a middle school teacher really, really enjoyed it just because it's that awkward age, and they're awkward with me. And they could appreciate my awkward this just like I could appreciate there's and I knew that eventually I wanted to end up at a university, but that I didn't necessarily fit in a math department. And so because I had experienced as a teacher, that then the next stage in my life would to be to find myself in a place in the College of Ed so where I could more closely work, and prepare future teachers, because then I could kind of close the loop on all of my experiences, both as a teacher and as somebody who wants to play a role in how future teachers are going to be prepared. I felt like that was going to be the place that was best suited for me. So was some what's the best advice that you received when you started working with prospective teachers? Whenever I first started to work with teachers, I had mostly been teaching college algebra. So freshmen, and

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I realized very quickly that I was not meant to be a freshman and sophomore teacher professor, just because they were a little bit too close to high school. And there was one time where I was teaching ninth grade in the basement of the electrical computing, engineering building that Arizona where it's cinder blocks, there's no windows. Right across from my classroom, were people doing robotics. So there was really fun cool stuff happening but not in my classroom because we were talking about transformational geometry and quadratic formulas and things like that. And the students lives in the fall semester. So they literally had just graduated from high school and prom was still in the foreground of their mind. And one of the students was talking about prom and how her dress was, you know, still hanging up in our closet and she she interrupted

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My class and she said at the time, my name was Miss Bartell. She was Miss Martel's? Can I just give you some advice? And I was like mid discussing, like slide transformations and rotations and reflections. And I was like, yeah, sure she goes, this classroom is so bare, like, there are no posters up. There is nothing. There's not like a poster that has a little kitten that says, hang in there, you're gonna keep going, like attitudes, everything. And I looked at her and I was like, Okay, what.

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So I had to remember that for freshmen, they were not only transitioning themselves physically from a high school space, but also from a space in which high schools looked very differently than college. And so instead of, you know, dismissing her, I was like, Oh, my gosh, you're right, I totally do like need, I need to jazz this up a bit, because this does look, you know, very stark, but I had to explain to them that this wasn't my classroom, this just happened to be the class that I taught him. And so that was the first thing that I learned whenever I was teaching is to just like, really ground and root myself and the experiences of my students. Now, whenever I got to being a math teacher educator, in the beginning, I really had to unpack first for myself, what my math experiences were before I ever listened to the experiences of my teacher candidates. Because my experiences growing up as a math student, were relatively positive, I was always the helper that would come around the class, and do my work first and help all of my other classmates, I was the teaching assistant in high school, I was the person that would always do things the fastest. And I didn't really experience some of the more painful experiences that I know, my friends and colleagues and teacher candidates have. And so when I started to teach elementary methods, I would hear their stories of what it was like being a math student, and in the first few years, I would have to take about a week to like reground, myself, because their stories were so painful to read, where they were marginalized, where they were silenced, where they weren't being seen as smart, where they were never called upon because they weren't ever the fastest kid. And so it made me really reflect on how I as a math teacher educator who had some different experiences needed to really reground myself and where my students were at. So where I know that some of my students aren't going to leave my class loving math as much as I do. But at least they're going to be able to like soften that harder outer candy shell. So where they can say, yeah, you know what reading is probably my more favorite subject, but I can go ahead and teach fractions, I can go ahead and talk about algebraic thinking has patterns across multiple grade levels and not have that pit of fear that has been building and growing over my k 12 experience. And so I think that the honesty that I take with my teacher candidates about this, about how we're always an ever changing person, that we should never be frozen in time. And that status plays a role, I think, has been one of the most helpful pieces of advice that I received from my mentors at Arizona, Aaron Turner, Marcy wood, Marta, Seville, all of them over there is just to really ground myself and my students and where they're coming from. Cool. What advice do you give to someone starting to teach math teachers, you don't have to know everything. I am very proud to say that even with all of my degrees, it took me to teach what we have in Arizona math 32 302. A, which is the first elementary math content sequence course for elementary math teachers. And it's where we do the order of operations, the four operations and get into fractions. And as I was teaching that class, I was in a math department, so I was qualified to teach there based on the credentialing that I have. And there was one section where I got to unpacking the long division algorithm. And I was like, This is gonna be easy, like, okay, we're gonna divide, I don't know. 342 divided by 70. Okay, so 17 doesn't go into three doesn't go into the Oh, what did I say? 334. Yeah, yeah, it doesn't go into third. And my students were like, okay, I kind of get that. But then as I went through the lesson plan, I was like, but I don't conceptually understand why this works. Like why don't we go from left to right, why don't we go from right to left as we do whenever we multiply and we add and subtract, and I was having this conversation out loud with my teacher.

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It's who are sophomores and juniors and they were looking at each other like, yo, our professor doesn't know what, like, you don't know what's happening. And I'm like, No, no, no, no, just me. I am very competent, I'm very qualified. But I'm actually having like this existential crisis right now. So hang with me. So I went back, and I reviewed more of the material. And it was because of the way Mazda and others had that class crafted, that it really helped us all to unpack why the division algorithm works the way it does. And it was mind blowing to me, as you know, somebody who had almost 10 years of experience teaching middle grades, and second middle and secondary High School, that I couldn't explain how the division algorithm worked, because nobody had engaged that conversation with me. I don't remember learning it in college or learning it in my high school or middle school. And so here I am being super vulnerable. And you know, in front of all these sophomores and juniors saying that I'm not actually really sure how this works. I've never been asked to count in a base other than 10. And so I was learning right along with them. What Randy Phillips and others say that elementary math is not Elementary. And so for me, as a high school, in a middle school teacher, I had to eat a whole lot of humble pie, because I had poo pooed elementary teachers saying, all y'all do is you know, you play with some blacks, and you do some finger paint, like all of the horrific stereotypes of elementary teaching. And it required me to, again, situate myself in a place of humility to say, I had those painful, awful stereotypes of what about what elementary math is, and that I need to do a better job of understanding this. So that way, I can engage you in this my teacher candidates, so that then you can engage your teacher candidates in it. And so now, I love talking about invented algorithms. I love asking students, like, do we have to multiply from right to left? Can we do it from left to right? Do we have to divide in a particular order? In what ways can we think about like incremental and compensated strategies with CGI, whenever we think about multiplying and adding and subtracting different numbers, and so I think the biggest advice is, like, get your plate and get your fork ready, because you're probably gonna eat a lot of humble pie, you probably going to have to say to yourself, you know what, I don't know. But I'ma get back to you on it know that there is a very supportive community of math teacher educators out there that are willing to bend over backwards to share ideas, to share out things from their teachers. I mean, Dr. Anheuser did that on Facebook just last night, where she shared out different ways that her students engaged in a number talk. And I messaged her, I was like, Hey, can you share this on Twitter, because I really need my students to see it. And she did it. And she tagged me in it. And then I got lots of people to like, follow her to go ahead and like engage in this conversation. And so I think the world of math teacher educators is just, it's growing to be so tight. So that if one person says I don't know something, then it's not necessarily seen as punitive. Or it's not necessarily seen as something that is a character flaw, but it's an opportunity to learn. And so the last thing that I would say, for people who are starting out is that you're good is good enough, if you're good is waking up every day and telling your teacher candidates that you love them, that you want them to be safe and healthy and happy. And if they happen to also be parents that you want their kids to be safe and happy and healthy, and that you want to engage them and in ideas that push on that thinking that you know, whenever they go out into that classroom, they're going to embrace their students and that same ideals so that we can push back on ideas of injustice and systemic racism and white supremacy so that we can have justice for all. And that good has got to be enough. Because sometimes that good doesn't show up on an annual review. It might not show up on a tenure packet. But if you have people strategically placed around in your university, on your external letters on your, your annual review board, then they're going to be able to highlight those things. Because not all of those things get captured. But in the first few years, just know that you're good is good enough. And that it's sometimes going to be a lot of eating humble pie. At least that's what it was, for me is incredibly difficult to follow this up because it's just so much amazing stuff that you've said. yet. It's like trying to figure out a question to ask and I'm just being amazed by all the things you said. So I'm going to let some of my co hosts ask questions. I was just gonna be a little bit more honed in on some advice. So you

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talks about liking, teaching Middle School. And again, it's really hard to ask this question after that amazing stuff that you just said. But like liking teaching Middle School, and that's a unique space right between it's kind of this middle ground, between secondary and Elementary. And so I just curious, like, what advice might you have for someone that's training up those that are going to be Middle School Teachers of Mathematics? That's a good question. So most of my experiences in elementary school, and my elementary teacher candidates know that I don't necessarily completely have all the street cred credentials, like I can't pull out my elementary, I've been an Elementary Ed teacher passport or driver's license. But there's a fundamental difference whenever I teach my middle grades methods class, because I can talk to them in ways that obviously grounds itself within my first hand experiences. So the first thing would be to center them on, like the theories of adolescent learning and growing and development. And so those kids are trying to find and seek and use their voice. They're trying to situate themselves in the world, where they're getting more autonomy, they're trying to build more social relationships and networks, they're trying to figure out who they are as a person and who they want to be. Because by the time you're in high school, you probably have a little bit better of an idea about where your interests lie. But Middle School is just this jumbled up mess of, you know, hopes and dreams and different hats that maybe you want to wear. And so to be able to take part in that kind of jumbled up Kaleidoscope place is just fantastic. And then also on top of that hormones. So there might be like, some drama, that might happen between groups, not necessarily, you know, within genders that could be across, it could be in different spaces. And then also, you know, like, they get my jokes a whole lot more. So whenever I taught in Germany, I was at the very end of the hallway. And we had our eighth grade call was just one big call. And so as the science teacher and I that were at the end, and then all of the English language arts fine arts for further down the line. And for some reason, I had like a group of boys that had their lockers right next to my door. And it was always right after lunch, they had already gone to PE. And I knew that like at 1pm I can't remember his name, but tall kid, he would always open up his locker and he would pull out his big ol heavy duty Axe body spray. Oh, yeah. And I would scream from the opposite end. I was like, don't you do it, don't shoot, do it. You go, we smelled in my room. My room smells like roses, and vanilla. He's like, the bar tells you don't know, like I have smelly and I'm like, I know, dude, let's figure something else out. I'd let me just give you a candle. Can you not just like white thing.

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But it's just having those conversations. So where they know that their bodies are changing. And they know that they're trying to impress certain groups of people, and that their teacher recognizes that but doesn't shame them, but engages them in like, more jovial ways to have those conversations, while still maintaining that maintaining that trust and rapport and respect of students. And that is something that I learned over time, because I knew instantly whenever I lost a group of students where they just did not trust me, because I did not engage in that mutual rapport and respect and trust with them. And so that's what I try to impart on my new middle grades teachers is it's going to be messy, it's probably be some crying, it's probably going to be you know, some medical things that are coming up for them just because it's that time and their their life cycle. And, like, Don't make them embarrassed about being human beings, embrace them and love them and cherish every moment that they have. And just let them know that these are the transitions that happens and that we've all been at some place or another. And I think once that happens, they start to see themselves less as teachers and more as the the people who can help Shepherd in their students into then being young adults. You think about that, you know, that you said and it's like, you can't slice off that just the math side, right? You're treating them as an entire human being and like, you know, it seems like you know, obviously, right, but then, like knowing that that's something that you need to bring to the classroom, like thinking of who your students are as people and going through middle school, some tumultuous times, but thinking about like, how do I then support them in my role as a teacher of mathematics and so that's great. Thank you. Yeah, I feel like what comes through loudest in almost all your responses is the love for the students that has to come first. Absolutely.

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And I think that comes from my second day of teaching being September 11 2001. I walked into that classroom about two weeks late, just because I initially had wanted to go back in June, that summer to go work for the government and do like cryptography and all that sorts of stuff turns out like, I'm a much better teacher than I am keeping a straight face. So that line of work was not going to be good for me. So I spent that summer figuring out what I wanted to do. And I said, Well, you know, I got a math degree, I got a teaching certificate, I have somebody that I fallen in love with. And so I'm going to go move closer to him in North Carolina, and spent about a week kind of getting everything set up in my house. And then Monday was my very first day and got to know the kids names, like I said, My future sister in law was in the class. So that was also interesting to be able to wear that dual role. And then the very next day was September 11, and that half of my students were military kids. And so they, they were getting pulled out of school, because the Seymour Johnson Air Force Base was getting shut down and getting put on Delta. And thankfully, we lived off base. So we didn't have to worry about that. But for some of our kids, they knew that their parents were going to get deployed within the next week or so. And just the fear and panic and unknown on their face was terrifying. In my soon to be husband, at the time, I was training to be a pilot. And so he wasn't in fear of getting deployed. But there was just that very abrupt, smack in the face of reality of what this new life was going to be and how, and the types of investments that I was going to have to make both as a teacher of students who are military children, and then also as a wife, and a family member of those who are in the military, because my brother was in the Marines as well and got deployed three times. And so all of these things kind of came crashing around together. But being a military wife that had such a fortunate opportunity to move to so many places, like literally every single year, I had a new set of curriculum, I had a new classroom, I had a new principal in Mississippi, my principal was a former rodeo clown.

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He was, he was fantastic. He couldn't hear he was hard to hearing out of one of his ears. And he was just so lively and funny. And then it's how I drove one hour one way just to get to that school because there were not very many jobs in rural Mississippi, my students enrolled Mississippi couldn't understand me, because I didn't have a deep Southern accent. They thought that if I was from Texas, that I should say, y'all and howdy more, and I didn't.

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So they were having a hard time understanding me even though we're all speaking English. And then I go move to Tucson, Arizona, which is an hour from the border and never been in a charter school before, never taught psychology before, although I had a minor in it. And that's where I just I got to be in such a tight family, that we went out and would do volunteer work with homeless vets or with the Ronald McDonald House, and I would be able to make connections right there in the moment to math, that I started to really soften what it meant to be a math teacher and what it meant to be somebody who needs to use my practice, to embrace the humanity of both my students, my community, and then also the family of everyone that I interact with. And so I just carried that all throughout. That's awesome. Crystal, I want to think back to what you were talking about in all of this. And specifically, I guess, with preparing middle school teachers, and thinking about helping them, you know, practice embracing their students, their community, and humanity in general. One of the things I know that you're teaching, because I follow you on Twitter

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is sorry, that's all right. No, I mean, I, I can manage my stuff, but I leave it on I like it is I know you're working with some students who are in field experiences where they, in maybe 12 months ago, they would be out in schools, and maybe you would be visiting them or you would have things for them to do. And this semester, I think it's either mostly or completely online. At least your class is mostly, or completely online. Can you tell us a little bit about the classes that you're teaching? And especially the ones that have the field? Experience components? Um, it's a hot mess. Yeah.

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I think everybody can agree that it's a hot mess. So when the pandemic hit in March, I had to keep telling myself as a human being, this is not normal. This is not normal to be in my office. That's my spare bedroom. This is not normal to be wearing sweatpants. Usually I'm dressed up you know, a little bit more, not wearing

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to class, this is not normal, that I'm trying to talk to my students and I hear my two cats and dogs beg for my attention on the other side of the door, like, none of this is normal. And so I like I think many other teachers tried the best that we could in the spring to figure out some type of routine, and practices that would somewhat mimic what we would have done face to face, but I'm gonna be honest, it was lonely, because I am a person who loves to stand up, walk around, you know, sit down next to a group of students get their facial expressions and see how they're experiencing the task or the math of the conversation. And when you've got a bunch of blank boxes for your zoom screen, that you just I kind of felt like I was screaming out into a void. And so when the fall hit, I was so blessed to have so many amazing colleagues that shared their resources. So shout out to Dr. Katherine Yang. Shout out to Teresa wills shout out to so many people that were so grateful a gracious to share their expertise and their resources. Because it was because of those that I learned how to make a bitmoji classroom. It was because of those that I learned how to mimic group work with a Google slide deck and breakout rooms. It was because of them that I also started to pick up on the jam board. So where everybody could collaborate on a whiteboard. It was because of them, that and others that I really had to let go of what I would normally see as participation. And I know that others and other spaces, I think I was just talking to Teresa Dunn lady about this, about how we've had to let go of what participation looks like in this online space. So I don't request that my teacher candidates turn their cameras on, although I would love to. But it's because my population, there's probably four or five teacher candidates in my room, my class that have kiddos, and some of them are nursing. And so it would be more harmful if I were to demand that the participation be the way that it was in a face to face setting. So I will give more wait time for people to type in a chat, I'll give more opportunities for people to type in a Google slide, I'll give more opportunities for them to do a, you know a little emoji thumbs up or something. But know that just because I can't see and hear them doesn't mean that they're engaging in that idea. Also, I record when I have consent of my students, and then I put that video up online because sometimes your kid gets sick. And so you can't physically be there. And that helps them to have still that connection to what we were talking about. But then it helps me to really problematize What will this look like when we get back? What will this look like? Like? Did I before whenever we were face to face, expect 123 eyes on me. It even hurts me to say that. I did it. But I would look around the room and see if people were looking at me. And if I had a student that a child was sick, I would say Okay, no problem. Just make sure that you check the syllabus for the attendance policy. Well, oh my goodness, could you imagine me? Like I could not imagine me saying that now. Like there's a pandemic, I get it, everybody's super stressed and land, we might have some medically fragile people. And maybe some of you have lost your jobs. And maybe you know, you're financially having some hardships, but make sure you check the syllabus for the attendance like that sounds so completely inhumane and violent and harmful. And so for me, I am really resetting myself every single day to say is what I'm doing to the benefit of my students. And have I set the conditions just like what God told us says, am I setting the conditions that will help you to be successful? Because if I'm not, then I'm not doing my job? And how am I going to figure that out? I give them an exit ticket. Tell me what's going on how you feeling? How'd you sleep? Are you eating? Are you having financial issues? Can I set you up with some community services. And that's been ways that I can really have been able to pivot that I don't think I was in a place to whenever we were face to face. So I think it's really going to be interesting what happens when we go back face to face. Because a lot of our teacher candidates, at least the ones that I have, weren't used to their professors ending a class by saying, hey, nobody told you this today. I love you. I care about you. I care about your safety. Have you figured out a place to vote? Have you figured out a place to vote that safe? Like are your kids or your kids? Okay, do you need community services? And I think the more that our teacher candidates here and embrace those type of conversations, even if they don't, they feel like awkward, like oh my God, my my math teacher educator is telling me that she loves me. It's just because that is showing the humanity and more of

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Have an explicit way than just giving extra credit or giving somebody an extra couple of days on an assignment. And I am, like hoping, hoping, hoping that it is these practices that they'll take up, and the grace and the humility to then translate that whenever they have their own kiddos because I'm a clinical teaching supervisor. So I'm watching students who are teacher candidates, work on zoom with kiddos in front of them and kiddos that are working at home and trying to navigate both of those spaces. And they're like, Craig, I don't know how to do this. And the one thing I say is, dude, this is not normal. None of this is normal. None of us were prepared for this, but what they need, they need to know that their teacher loves them, that their teacher is there and cares about them, and is willing to like Lisa delpit be that warm demander. So where there are high expectations, but that there will always be somebody who will lead with their heart and with compassion. So can you tell us in this, you know, world that we're living in of a hot mess, but I'm really inspired by, you know, living, leading with a heart and compassion. So what does it What does a good day look like in this semester? I know you've had some good days. Yeah. So I would say that I've had better good days online than I've had face to face. And I think it's because I am more open with my students. So I have always started off my class with Tell me something good. That's happened since the last time we've met. Okay, and about mid point in the semester, it is crickets. It is their head goes down on the desk, or they shrug their shoulders, they're like, Craig, we're tired. I'm like, dude, I'm tired, too. I hear you. But you did something good. And I want to hear about it. And it doesn't have to be about math or teaching. And so that's been starting off class like that has been incredibly helpful. I know that a good day for me for my class, is when I get to show them more of the behind the scenes of what it takes to do my job. So where I show them that I have literally pebbles right behind me in a box. And she's given me the stare I like, eventually, you're going to have to come around and pin me, or I've got Teddy underneath me, I have all my co workers. But the other thing that makes a really good day is whenever I give them the exit ticket, and I say is there anything that you want to tell me that you want to share in private? And when the majority of them say, I think I'm okay, I know I'm stressed. But I just want to say I'm so grateful that you even asked that question that makes a good day. Because it means that they're listening. And it means that they know that I'm caring. And it means that when we lead with our hearts with our students, then we can overcome challenges of understanding how to approximate decompose and represent practice that we can talk about, you know, explaining the keep change flip algorithms that we can go ahead and step into a space of understanding how to add, you know, do operations with multiple bases. I think for me, if we think about for granting that humanistic stance, then we can accomplish and we can tackle any type of challenge that we might have in our practice, hopefully. So I think that's where I ground myself in a good day. It's not necessarily if students turn on all their stuff on time, or if they give me a correct answer or if everybody's participated. That I think is what the pandemic has shook out of me is those standardized norms of what it meant to be a good day and teaching a good day and teaching is my students are healthy, happy and safe. And that they're able to show up in whatever way that they can, and that they are engaging in really humanistic practices with the kiddos in their field experiences. They're doing case studies through zoom. And they're doing amazing work because again, this is not normal. We've never done this before. And so they are also blazing trails for us. And I'm just really, really proud of them. So can you share with us some of the stuff that you like to do for fun besides making sure that pebbles gets pet back there?

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So, when Tic Tac first came out, all of my students were talking about Tic Tac and I was like, Okay, I'm gonna have to see what this is about. So I downloaded tic tac, I went down the rabbit hole, like I stayed up one night until 2am. Just watching cat and dog tic tocs. I learned like half the dances and I'm uncoordinated. Like in middle school. I was on the basketball team. And people are like, Oh, cool. What position did you play? I'm like, No, I was not coordinated. I sold the blow pops and the pizza and the popcorn. You could not trust me to not trip over myself and break a bone and they're like, okay, so I was learning all the TIC Tock dances and

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I was like pulling lots of social media memes and gifts. And so the things that I do for fun, and I know some of my other colleagues do it with me as well is that we swap different meanings or gifts, or Tick Tock videos that are funny, that are really going to get, they're going to get my students to understand that, you know, I'm not completely disconnected from the world, I even have my own tic Tock account, and I asked them to go ahead and find me it was like a scavenger hunt. And so I think, appreciate that. I'm still connected to the world. And that's fun for me is to figure out what new ways I can make my class fun and relevant and connect to pop culture because I had a doctoral student, she graduated Martina McGee, Dr. Martina McGee, who's at Auburn, did her dissertation about pop culture as a curriculum. And I've really stepped into that and thinking about how my class can how a small GIF, or a meme can really be connected to more mathematical concepts. And it doesn't necessarily always have to be, you know, like a snapshot of a coordinate grid. But it could be a snapshot of a coordinate grid with pebbles, sleeping in almost a perfect circle. I don't know if y'all saw that on Twitter, or on Facebook, but she exactly was x squared plus y squared equals 36. And I was like, pebbles. Thank you for helping me out. You're You're an amazing teaching assistant. So it's things like that, that I like doing for fun. Oh, it's it's really it is really fun. I remember when one of the many hurricanes we've had many tropical storms. One of them was your dog, I think was it Teddy? Yes. Yeah. Yes, Hurricane Teddy. He is a tear. And he is another one of those that my students had nicknamed him whenever we were first fostering them. He had one of those inflatable doughnuts around his head because he had surgery. And I say y'all, you need to help me name this foster doc. And they're like, his name needs to be donut because it looks like he's got a donut around his head and I was like, Okay, I'm gonna go home and try it out. So I was like, donut, come here and he kind of walked over and I was like, I don't know that if he gets out of the house and starts running down the street that I want to be screaming donut because people are gonna think that I was so I said we're gonna go ahead and slap like a more a name that I might be more familiar with. And so I he looks like a teddy bear. So I wanted named in Teddy. But then I was very quickly told online that Dr. Shetty Chow had Teddy first. And so now every time I talk about Teddy online, Jeff, she is like way which Teddy? Are you talking about? About Teddy Chao? Are you talking about teddy bear? Like, of course, I'm talking about Teddy dog.

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Whatever, come on, but as we wrap up crystal, is there anything out there that you'd like to promote? While you have the microphone? Olga. Doris is Casio webinar. Please, please, please listen and watch that. She is music to my ears. And she is warmth to my heart. And she is one of the people who has made who I am. And so every time I see the article about the rights of the learner gets rotated around. I can't emphasize it enough that that work did not start with me that that work started with Olga Torres. And she is truly someone who continues to be a mentor, that when you hear me speak about leading with the heart, and leading with compassion, and leading with ideas of trustworthiness, that literally is Olga coming through. And I don't know where I would be if I didn't have her as a mentor. If I didn't, I don't know where some of my students would be, if they didn't hear that they had the right to say that they didn't know. Or that they didn't have the right to instead of writing down an algebraic expression that they could pull out some blocks and show me the exact same mathematical representation, I really don't know. So, at the end of the day, I will always and forever, make sure that people listen to Olga that they learn from her that they look out for her book whenever it comes out. And other than that, just make sure that we check in with our teachers, especially our teachers who are parents in these times just because they are juggling lots of things. And so I don't have I am really terrible at self promotion. So I would much rather promote other people and their ideas. So other than that, just Be kind, be happy, be safe, be healthy. Crystal, you have given us a lot of great advice and great things. I think as I listened back to this later, I'm gonna just keep learning from it. So thanks so much for joining us today. We really appreciate it. Thanks. I appreciate it, too. This is great. And thanks again to you for listening to the teaching math teaching podcast. Be sure to subscribe to the podcast, we hope you're able to implement something you just heard and take an opportunity to interact with other math teacher educators. Just one

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more thing before we close out the 2021 AMT e annual conference will take place virtually this year with synchronous presentations and asynchronous poster sessions, please say February 11 through the 13th and February 18 through the 20th for the 2021 virtual amtv annual conference. If you've never attended before, this just might be your opportunity to do so. The meeting will feature shorter days and we would normally program for an in person convenient, with schedules designed to accommodate multiple time zones. For more information, check out the AMT website at AMT e dotnet.