Spotlight 4 Success
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Spotlight 4 Success
Preserving the Past Through Technology
What happens when students turn their digital skills toward preserving family histories? Something magical, according to veteran educator Wesley Fryer. Speaking from the North Carolina Mid-Level Educators Conference in Charlotte, Fryer shares his 30-year journey in education and his current role teaching STEM subjects at Providence Day School.
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Welcome to Spotlight for Success by American Book Company. We are here at the NCMLE, the North Carolina Mid-Level Educators Conference in Charlotte, north Carolina. I am here with Wes Flyer of Providence Day School.
Speaker 2:Welcome, wes Welcome yes, I'm actually Fryer Fryar, it's like a chicken, that's right, wes Friar.
Speaker 1:I have flown before, but Wes tell us a bit about yourself and what you're doing here at NCMLE this year.
Speaker 2:Well, I am a middle school teacher at Providence Day here in Charlotte and I'm a STEM teacher, so I teach primarily computer programming, web design, design and, of course, we call computer applications, which is media literacy. But I'm really excited to be here for professional development. I've, you know, spent 30 years in education, most of that in public ed, and this is only my third year to be here in Charlotte, and so the chance to network, to hear speakers, to you know, get to learn about new things, like what you all are doing with podcasting. I love podcasting, I love media production. I think empowering kids with the ability to communicate with a variety of media today is super important, and so those are some things I'm passionate about.
Speaker 1:That's wonderful. So what got you into this space of podcasting, as well as the things that you're doing in the computer science realm?
Speaker 2:Well, I'm kind of an old guy now. So when Web 2.0 first started back in the day, this was in the mid to late 2000s and podcasting became a thing. I actually learned about podcasting for the classroom through a New York Times article. There was a wonderful teacher named Bob Sprankle up in Wells, maine and he had the Room 208 podcast and the New York Times featured him and his kids did corners. They called it and different episodes and I mean from things about the word of the week to like they found an animal at the local shelter that they would tell about so that they could be adopted to what they were learning about in social studies, like all kinds of things. But they were using this medium and so I started learning how to podcast and did that with some of the classes that my own children were in and became an educational podcaster, and I've just loved podcasting ever since.
Speaker 2:I mean, I listened to podcasts this morning, you know, getting ready to come here. So I'm a consumer of podcasts but I'm also a producer and I really think that, as a medium, podcasting offers so many benefits that it's not a replacement entirely for traditional media, but it really offers a way for us to enrich our learning, connect with other people and, just you know, fuel curiosity that we have, but also a desire that we have to connect with others, for instance, that are professionals, and so I've learned so much from other teachers over the years and I just I love podcasting years and I, just I love podcasting. I love it as a medium and I consider myself to be a real beneficiary of the platform because it's taught me so many things and allowed me to connect with so many people over the years.
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Speaker 1:That's wonderful. Wes, Can you tell us a story dealing with podcasting where you felt like, wow, that was really impactful. What happened today?
Speaker 2:Well, I guess I'll talk about oral history projects, because now, teaching middle school here in Charlotte, I have an opportunity for this computer applications class to really kind of set the curriculum and one of the main projects we do is a family oral history project. And so I remember and I've done, you know, done these now for a number of years stories that parents have come back and told me, because our, my students will learn, we'll listen to stories from like story core and we'll get ideas and practice. We'll interview each other. How do you conduct an interview? How do you have a good open-ended question? How do you ask a follow-up question?
Speaker 2:But then they'll interview someone in their family, and so, just, one of the best things is when parents come back and tell me you know, our daughter, our son, you know, interviewed my mother, their grandparent, and they told stories that I'd never heard before, you know, and they opened up about things.
Speaker 2:Sometimes they're veteran stories, sometimes they're just about growing up, but I just love the insight that that gives into the lives of students. It allows us to grow closer together, but I think it also just, you know, there's a rich collection of skills that students can develop and I don't think we spend enough time honestly like listening to each other and telling stories, and so we make that an emphasis point and it's really a wonderful thing for the parents and the family to get involved and then for that assignment to be more than just something we're doing to get a grade in class but, like I share with them, you literally might be recording a story that your children or your grandchildren would listen to and you're preserving history and it's important work and it's connected to the family and the community. So those kinds of stories really, you know, warm my heart and give me incentive to keep doing that kind of work.
Speaker 1:That's wonderful, wes. Wow, that's really profound the things that you can do simply with podcasting to reach other generations in the family. That's fantastic, wes. Can you tell us a bit about what you'd like to say to the NCMLE community, something you want them to have as a takeaway from this conference?
Speaker 2:Well, I just think collaboration is essential. You know we are in a difficult time in education. We have been for quite a while. I was in Oklahoma for 16 years and came here to North Carolina and many of the challenges that we face are similar. But I think that the power of networking and connecting with other educators is just huge.
Speaker 2:I was a participant in a lot of ed camps back in the day. Conferences like this that allow us to hear speakers and learn about resources are great, but also just being able to connect. So I guess I would encourage people to connect and network and then also find other teachers that are focused on empowering student voice. That's what you're doing right here by interviewing teachers is you're amplifying voices and you are working to, I think, empower teachers to do that in the classroom with their students, and I think that's just absolutely fantastic because with testing and with everything that goes on, sometimes we can lose sight of that and there's a number of teachers that are really passionate about that and I think, being able to sort of connect with your tribe and then be equipped with maybe literal equipment and resources and be equipped with maybe literal equipment and resources, but just also those connections to other teachers who share a passion for that is priceless and that's one of the best things about coming to a conference like this.
Speaker 1:That's wonderful Wes Well. Thank you so much. Wes Fryer with Providence Day School in North Carolina.
Speaker 2:Thank you so much for joining us today. Hey, thanks for having me on.