Spotlight 4 Success

Breaking Stereotypes in Louisiana's Education

• American Book Company • Season 1

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Scott Jarreau from St. Theresa Middle School in East Baton Rouge joins Devin Pintozzi to explore the uncharted terrains of education, skipping the traditional coach's whistle for a fresh leadership style. Scott breaks the mold, proving that education can thrive beyond the sports field. With an educator's heart and a leader's spirit, Scott recounts his journey from a spirited student to an award-winning teacher, all while leading with empathy and innovation. Tune in to hear how Scott's unconventional paths in teaching and his passion for technology are shaping a transformative learning environment for his students.

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Devin Pintozzi:

Welcome to Spotlight for Success by American Book Company. We are here at LaCue. I am Devin Pintosa, your host, here with Scott Jaro, with St Teresa Middle School in East Baton Rouge, parish. That's right, very nice to see you.

Scott Jarreau:

Scott, thank you, I'm glad to be here. It's pretty exciting. I wasn't expecting to do a podcast today. I do them on Thursdays at 8 pm Central Standard Time on YouTube for my Star Wars podcast, the Bombadcast. But no, I'm so used to doing this, I do this every night. I've done it for five years, and doing it at a convention is something.

Devin Pintozzi:

It's pretty cool. Yes, yes, got a nice buzz right. Yeah, it's awesome. That's awesome, scott. So tell us about your life. How did you get started into what you're doing as far as being your STEM teacher Is that right? And then what you're doing, because you're doing a lot of things dealing with podcasting as well.

Scott Jarreau:

So, all in all, I knew I wanted to be in some form of leadership. I didn't know if it was education, I didn't know if I needed to be like the best employee at Circle K. I didn't know what I needed to do, but I needed to do something, you know, and be in front of people and be around people and be around kids especially. But I always was a leader, naturally in that way, even when I was a kid. But I knew I wanted to be a male teacher. That wasn't a coach. That's kind of a thing that I think most people, especially in Louisiana. When you're a coach, there's like a stipulation of like well, he's my coach, I got to listen to him, but I wanted to be a male teacher. That wasn't always the authority figure, I just wanted to be your teacher. You know what I mean.

Scott Jarreau:

And so I got an education, uh, back in 2014 and I graduated from southeastern in May of 2019 and I was the top of my class and not in the sense of like academically.

Scott Jarreau:

I won student teacher of the year that year because of, I guess, being who I was and you know, I was one of the only males in my graduating class and I guess that was a rare thing in middle school, but but, all that being said, I I was very practical with my approach. I didn't get, I didn't get caught up in the weeds like a lot of my friends did then because they were so focused on the academic and you know that kind of stuff. So, I don't know, you have to find a natural way into this thing and it always felt super natural to be able to do what we do and uh, yeah, no, I've been teaching now for six years, uh, at the same school, and I had one year of student teaching. So it's been I don't know it's been it's been a very awesome journey. I don't plan on stopping it ever unless the podcast gets big, unless we get big together. It'd be amazing, wouldn't it that'd be great.

Devin Pintozzi:

So tell me about, uh, what brings you like, what are you hoping to get out of the queue and what are you going to be giving back?

Scott Jarreau:

well, I went last year. Okay, it was wonderful. I was kind of a liaison in the sense of like I'm here to be on behalf of my school and you know I'm I'm kind of the one that takes initiative and like wants to push and do new things. Like I kind of brought AI to our school two years ago before it had blown up. You know kind of like more of 2021. And that being said, I don't know. I just think it's important to be on the cutting edge and doing this kind of conference and being around people you know that do these things, it's really important and having that opportunity to be exposed to these new ideas and concepts, even if they might not be the best thing for your school, it could be interesting for you personally. So, yeah, I'm here on behalf of the school to be able to bring some cool information back and some concepts that we could utilize in our programs.

Devin Pintozzi:

That's awesome. Scott, is there anything you'd like to say to the LICU community, like words of wisdom or what have you, as far as this conference, as it progresses?

Scott Jarreau:

Don't take yourself too seriously. That's what I always tell my kids. But have fun with whatever you do and, of course, make education fun, like right now. I'm looking at a bunch of kids in this conference who are doing like eSports and I've never actually tried doing eSports on a personal level, but I've always admired the people that do and I see kids of all ages literally right now I see fourth graders eating chicken filet and playing Minecraft. That's pretty awesome that you can do that now. When we were growing up, we couldn't play Super Nintendo or N64 in our classrooms. That wasn't allowed. But now you get to see these kids actually learn and benefit from it, be in a more communal atmosphere at an event like this. So it's pretty dope. That's awesome.

Devin Pintozzi:

That's awesome. Well, thank you very much. That's Scott Giroux, with St Teresa Middle School, a STEM teacher, east Baton Rouge, Parish. Thank you so much for participating with us. Thanks, I'm going to stay bomb bad All right.

Scott Jarreau:

Appreciate it, dude.

Devin Pintozzi:

This is awesome.