[MUSIC] I'm a teacher, and I think I've been a teacher since I was about five years old when we'd line the cats up, and put them in clothes, and whatever I did in kindergarten, they got after school, after school work where they were always falling asleep on me. But my biggest challenge everyday as a classroom teacher is to bring, I'm a science teacher. To bring the subject of science alive, or to bring the subject of how to teach science alive to my students. And what I, what I like about having a teacher mind set, is that all my life I can say well I'm a teacher and I need, I need to know about that. Could you tell me more so I could learn more about it, and when I graduated from college my dad gave me the first edition of How Things Work, because I was always asking questions. And I think turning the questioning into a classroom experience where I can begin to find out what my students are thinking, and how they're reacting to our phenomenons or the science or the things that we're doing. How, how can I make that come alive? And how can I take it from book science to real science, or everyday science. It goes back to developing those skills as a teacher. And I think the biggest thing is being a listener. Knowing, knowing, being aware of what's going around the atmosphere in the campus, and I think the, for me, is, is creating this environment that allows people to take a timeout if they need to, or find stuff. So what I've, what I've done through the years in my teaching is trying to always engage my students. Try to engage in inquiry. I ask a lot of a variety of divergent, convergent, open end and closest of questions. But what I've found in the last ten years here as a college professor is that there are more techniques than what are best practice in teaching science. So I've embraced and walk, walked into the creative study, studies program to learn more about how I can be more direct and affirming knowing the underlying principles of like the big one of deferring judgement, just letting some time sit and that I don't have to have the answer right now. And the biggest thing for me as a teacher is I don't have to tell all I know. I could turn around and go, well, what do you think about that? And I go, go, yeah, I go, the electronics are here. Go find out. Come back. And I don't have to be that sage, you know, I can just be this person that kind of goes, what do you think about that? When did you do this? So my mindset or my process is always to be open minded to things. But then go sit on the couch or cuddle with, you know, a book or one of my stuffed animals, which happens to be a triceratops. [LAUGH] We have a T-rex too. And to just look outside and walk, we do a lot, I do a lot of yoga on the beach, and we do a lot of walking. And we do a lot, I have a, a wonderful husband that we do a lot of exploring together. We spend five weeks in Australia and New Zealand this summer learning about chili boxes and what the folks down under do at night and I got to ride a camel. So, I think being open to the whole life of all life experiences. And don't shut things down because you're old or you, you know, you've got, you know, you, you, you can't walk up the stairs really well. But, you know, you can always dance, so. I think what I'm most proud about the classroom environment and the things that the, the, the philosophy that I try to instill in my students is, is, it, it goes out. You know, you, you teach your class, you interact with your students and you, you, good luck, here's your teacher certification. But every now and then I'll get an email back that will be a student who said, gee, Doc I wanted you to know I got my PhD and I'm a professor in Chicago now. We have a former student who was in our program who went out to UCLA and has a PhD in Earth Sciences. We just got a letter from, I got an email from a young gal, who just, who was in our program, who just started her career who said I just wanted to thank you for the, the way you taught me, the ideas that you helped me explore in who I am as a teacher. So the pride is that my style of teaching my passion, my openness, my inquiry base, my questioning is living on in another classroom. It, it touches the future. It's you know, I touch the future, I teach. [MUSIC]