Dealing With Combative Parents – 6 Tips and 2 Warnings [Episode 207]

Rebecca Joyner [00:00:01]:
So at this point, we are pretty far into the school year, but unfortunately, it is never too late in the year to be surprised by a parent, you know, kind of coming out of the woodworks and blasting you for your teaching practice, how you grade, the resources you’re using, basically anything you’re doing. So what are you supposed to do? How should you best respond to combative parents or parents that just are difficult, that come out of the gate kind of wanting to fight you? That’s why I feel like combative is the best word for this. So how should you approach them? How should you move forward in the school year with them and try to have some semblance of a relationship with them? Especially if this is a parent of a student who has siblings that you may have down the road? What should you do? That’s what this episode is all about. So. So let’s get into it. This is Secondary Science Simplified, a podcast for secondary science teachers who want to engage their students and simplify their lives. I’m Rebecca Joyner from It’s Not Rocket Science. As a high school science teacher turned curriculum writer, I am passionate about helping other science teachers, love their jobs, serve their students, and do it all in only 40 hours a week.

Rebecca Joyner [00:01:19]:
Are you ready to rock the time you spend in your classroom and actually have a life outside of it? You are in the right place, teacher friend. Let’s get to today’s episode. Honestly, I cannot believe I’ve had the podcast this long and not done an episode about this. I know I said this in the primetime episode last week, but genuinely, this is something that I’ve dealt with so much that I cannot believe it’s not coming up until now. Recently, I was discoursing with one of you who was dealing with this, a parent who just kept coming at you, and you hadn’t even responded to the first email when they’d already sent a second. And it just reminded me of how many experiences I’ve had that are similar to this I know I’ve mentioned in the past. You know, I remember one time having a parent who busted through the front office, and you know, what it takes to get past those front office ladies, okay? And luckily I was on the third floor of the school, but she was getting chased down by the sro, the student resource officer, and luckily she had to go past my vice principal’s office to get to my room, and my vice principal jumped in, too, before, you know, she made it to me. So I’ve had a situation like that before.

Rebecca Joyner [00:02:30]:
I’ve told you I’ve had a parent who called me the Antichrist an email before, and I’ve also had a parent who one time sent me an email so long that I copied and pasted it into Word and it was 14 pages in size 12 font. So that’s just a sampling of the type of things I’ve dealt with. On top of those are obviously extreme cases. But then, you know, there’s just those naturally difficult and again, combative, argumentative, who, the parents who kind of just seem like they’re out against you from day one, those kind of more run of the mill cases. So that’s kind of the perspective I’m bringing into this. And I have six tips for how to deal with these kinds of situations and these kinds of people, and then two warnings I want to end with just for the sake of your own personal protection. Okay? So first and foremost, anytime you get any sort of correspondence from a parent that’s negative, difficult, combative, whatever, I want you to take 24 hours before you engage or respond, y’. All.

Rebecca Joyner [00:03:32]:
I have never once regretted waiting to respond to someone and I have often regretted responding too quickly. I mean, all of us are different. So it totally depends what your nervous system does when you, you are given a threat. You know, if you fight, if you flight, kind of what your natural response is. Mine can be fight and that is not ever really the right approach. Yours might be different. But I have just found if I wait, I can be so much more calm. I am also personally a verbal processor, so I like to take time and be able to talk it through with my spouse, to be able to talk it through with admin or a coworker or whatever.

Rebecca Joyner [00:04:14]:
Especially if this is a parent that you don’t know well at all. Like maybe it’s a student you’ve never taught or you’ve never had their sibling. I like to kind of go and talk to my co workers and say like, hey, what was your experience with this parent? I think it really helps to take the time to kind of get that perspective and see like, oh, has this parent been a delight for everyone else but then has something very personal against me? Is this generally just like a difficult parent overall? Like, I just think there is no reason to not wait. Even if it means like this teacher I was talking to this past week, the week of me recording this, I should say, even if it means though that like they’re going to keep emailing you or calling you in that 24 hour wait time. I just think it’s worth waiting. Get some Time, do some research, you know, figure out kind of what other people have experienced and kind of the best way to approach this and give your nervous system a chance to calm down from the threat that was just posed to you through their words and kind of allow your brain to think a bit more logically about the situation. Because, again, you may be different from me, but I have a very strong emotional response to people coming at me. And then I can get very harsh with my own words and maybe not respond the way I would have necessarily liked to.

Rebecca Joyner [00:05:31]:
Okay, so that’s my first tip. Take 24 hours. Second, during that time, do take an honest look and see if there is any truth in what they said. Are they acknowledging a mistake that maybe you made in terms of, like, how you announced the due dates or how you communicated something with students? Are there places you could improve your practice or, you know, update or replace the resource that you used? Or maybe be more clear in your communication with teachers and parents, you know, on the front end in your admin, you know, like, what are ways that maybe there is truth? Now, again, I’m not saying to, like, take this and, like, have this be something that totally brings you down, but I do think there’s always an opportunity with any feedback you get to assess if there is truth in it. Now, again, this is why we want to take 24 hours, because right away it’s going to be hard to receive any feedback. And again, you might just be really defensive, like I would. But if you take some time, then you can kind of look at it and try to separate out, like, maybe the crazy emotion that’s being thrown at you from maybe something that actually is something like, oh, you know what, I could have done this better, or in the future, I could do this, or, wow, they hated that I did that. Dissection anatomy.

Rebecca Joyner [00:06:45]:
In the future, I need to lead with letting parents know that this is what’s coming, here’s why we do it, here’s why it’s so important, et cetera. Okay, so that’s my second tip, is take an honest look. And here’s the reason why people respond so much better to humility than defensiveness. So just like, I’ve Never regretted waiting 24 hours. I’ve never regretted leading with humility in a confrontation or conversation. It really softens people up if you’re like, I hear you when you say X, Y, Z. And I will own that I made a mistake in this capacity, and here’s how I plan to improve that or change that in the future. Here’s what you can expect from me in the future.

Rebecca Joyner [00:07:32]:
I have an episode, episode 1 14. That’s how to bounce back after you mess up. I think that will have a lot of encouragement for you. If you’re looking at this correspondence from this parent and you’re really realizing like, ooh, some of this was really on my end. Now how do I bounce back from here? Okay, so definitely check out that episode. So first, take 24 hours. Second, we’re going to take an honest look and see if there’s any mistakes kind of we made here. Now again, this is another opportunity with number two where this is a good chance to go and like verbally process with some other people, like your admin, like your coworkers.

Rebecca Joyner [00:08:06]:
See what their experiences have been with this parent before to kind of help, you know, if there is any truth and basis to what they’re saying. Say, hey, I know it might seem scary to invite other people in. It feels exposing. But I think there is so much more benefit that can come from getting outside opinion on this and helping you see it clearly separate from the motion. By bringing someone in who is not emotionally invested in this and getting their perspective. So highly recommend doing that. We’re all doing this in that 24 hour time that we’re waiting. Third tip is to own what you need to own on your end.

Rebecca Joyner [00:08:43]:
Once we identify where we may have messed up or maybe you didn’t even mess up, but maybe there are ways like you just didn’t anticipate someone having such a strong reaction to you doing a genetic disorder research project. Now you can own like hey, in the future I will go ahead of this project and send a correspondence to all parents and say, hey, here we’re going to do this research project. We’re going to be sensitive in these ways to genetic disorders. And here’s why this is such a valuable learning experience for, for the students, the skills they’re going to gain, how this aligns to the standards. Like you’re going to present all of this on the front end. So that’s the third thing you’re going to do. You will own what you need to own on your end. Again, you may not have made a mistake, but now your perspective has shift based on this person’s perceived perspective.

Rebecca Joyner [00:09:27]:
And now it may change how you approach this assignment or this way you do something or this way you grade in the future. 4. And this is so important and you may not want to do this at all. I highly recommend when you get that long email or multiple emails or that Just hot email that is like steaming with emotion. You ask for an in person discussion with admin present. So this is another thing that can help too. If you’re like, I need to respond right away because anxiety begs action. We’ve talked about that on the podcast before and you’re like, I can’t let this sit in my inbox.

Rebecca Joyner [00:10:03]:
I have to say something. If you need to respond immediately or after 24 hours, I recommend responding with something very short and brief and not even engaging all the things they brought up. And just say, I believe this would be best handled in an in person discussion with admin present to best serve all of us involved in this situation or to best serve your student. When are times that you would be available to come in for an in person conversation? Or even better, if you can go in and go ask your admin, hey, what would be some times that work for you? And then you go ahead and send the parent. You know, I have proactively reached out to admin and these are some times that work in both of our schedules. Give them three options. Do any of these work in your schedule? If not, please propose some alternative times and I’ll circle back with admin and get back to you. I would only respond with logistics.

Rebecca Joyner [00:10:54]:
I would not address any of the things they brought up and I would not even say, like, anything like, wow, you seem to really be responding to this pretty emotionally. Or I wouldn’t even necessarily, like, apologize right off the bat and say like, I’m so sorry you feel this way. Like, maybe you can say like, I hear what you’re saying and then say, I think this will best be handled in person. And again, make sure there is admin present. I’m telling y’, all, nine times out of ten people are going to be less combative face to face than they are through the screen. Now, there are the 10% of people that are still going to be incredibly aggressive face to face, but I still think it’s going to be a more productive conversation if you’re sitting down and you’re putting the nail in the coffin and you’re just knocking it all out right there in one thing as opposed to this back and forth with the email. I also find that to me, if I’m going back and forth in email, it starts to make my inbox like a very triggering place to be. And that’s not productive for my work time because I have to check my email for all the reasons that we do email at work and I can’t have it be a Place where like I’m literally having anxiety as I open it.

Rebecca Joyner [00:12:00]:
So that’s where I’m like, let’s just make this logistical. Let’s get in person. Also, the admin is a non negotiable. I don’t want you ever meeting with a combative parent in person without an admin present. It’s just not safe. I also think it’s very beneficial if you can ask for their student to be present. I’m not saying I want to pit parents against students or students against their parents, but I do think it is helpful for all of the players in this party to see and hear the conversation so no one’s getting secondhand information. I think it’s helpful for the student to be able to chime in because I found oftentimes the parent will say, well they told me that you did X, Y, Z and that may be something that absolutely did not happen.

Rebecca Joyner [00:12:43]:
And so you can kind of look at the student and be like, is that what you said? Because here’s what actually happened. I think if part of the party is absent, oftentimes things can get blamed on that person. So like the miscommunication can come be blamed on the student. Or if you’re meeting with just a student, they blame it on their parents and vice versa. Like if we’re all there, it’s a lot easier to get on the same page. I also think too, I, I like for students, again, I’m not trying to pit students against their parents or have them be embarrassed by their parents, but I do think if you’re having tension with the student, it can be helpful for them to witness you corresponding with their difficult parent and how you speak to them with respect and calmness and patience. Because if this is their parent, imagine how this parent has been talking to their student in their home. And so I think it’s a good opportunity for everyone to kind of experience conflict resolution in a mature way.

Rebecca Joyner [00:13:39]:
And I genuinely think that is just so best done in person. Okay, fifth is then once you’ve got your time set, you’re going to use the time that you now have in advance to prepare for your time together. So again we do that 24 hour delay, but then we also want a little bit more time so that we have time to prepare and make sure we are ready. And again, especially if they’re sending you a lot of emails with a lot of points, you’re going to have to write these really long, you’re going to spend so much time writing these really long emails back addressing all the points and things are still going to get miscommunicated. And so I just find it so much easier if you have the time to prepare and then talk in person, make sure as you’re preparing for the meeting, you know what their biggest complaints are. I find that they typically make that loud and clear. But if they’ve initiated a meeting because, you know, maybe quote unquote, they don’t like how you teach, I would respond and say, I would love to meet with you in person and talk about that. Here are some times that work for me.

Rebecca Joyner [00:14:34]:
Let me know what works for you. And then after you’ve got the time set, say, I would love to hear some specific feedback that you have for me on how I teach so I can be prepared as we meet and then try to get the specifics from them in advance and writing so that then you can think through how you’re going to respond. And then I would print out a document of each concern and have something physical to show them. I think having something printed shows preparation to both the parent and the admin. So maybe it looks like printing out all their emails, like with that 14 page email, I printed the whole thing out and then I went through and highlighted and like took notes on like the themes and the major points. And then I had my own piece of paper where I kind of made a chart of like addressing each of the things or like a list in bullet points just so you make sure nothing’s getting lost and they’re not coming back to it later. Another example, the thing that I told you kind of sparked my inspiration to do this episode was talking with one of you all, one of you listeners, and it’s not Rocket Science resource users about a parent who just, you know, this teacher had had this parent before, had had an older sibling and had issues with them then too. But this parent was coming back and they had a lot of things to say in their long email that I read.

Rebecca Joyner [00:15:44]:
But the main thing was saying that the teacher wasn’t teaching the standards and that like for instance, macromolecules were not in the state standards. Like, why is this entire first test on macromolecules? You know, you’re not preparing my students for college biology and it’s not even in our state standards. So are you even teaching the standards? And what’s so funny is like this states, I don’t want to identify it because I want to keep this, you know, this teacher and this whole situation as protected as possible. But this state their standards are nearly identical to the ngss. And if you know the ngss, High School Life Science Standards, macromolecules are all over it. Now, the specific term macromolecule is only in the clarifying statements, like maybe two or three times. But the concept of a macromolecule is all over because us biology teachers know anywhere it says DNA or protein that’s talking about a macromolecule when it’s talking about molecules made out of carbon, hydrogen and oxygen, we’re talking about macromolecules here. And so one thing I recommended to that teacher and one thing I actually did in my email response to her was like, I listed out all the places in the standards that are.

Rebecca Joyner [00:16:49]:
That macromolecules are covered. And I told this teacher I would print out the state standards and I would go through in highlighter and highlight every single place that macromolecules come up so that they can visually see how all over the entire curriculum and the entire state standards, macromolecules are. I said I would also make sure that you’re using terms about your pedagogy and like, this is teaching practice, because I think that helps the parent to be reminded subtly that you are the teacher, you are the trained educational professional. It reminds your admin too. That’s there. The parent is not. So I recommended to this teacher, I said, explain to them what scaffolding is as a pedagogical strategy, like the reason why we scaffold and because macromolecules is this concept that comes up in almost every single unit. Well, really every biology unit, we can tie something back, but it’s, you know, there’s a few concepts that it’s not as heavily integrated with.

Rebecca Joyner [00:17:52]:
But you can say we’re going to scaffold this by introducing this early. All we do in this first unit is introduce it foundationally, some basics to it, and then we’re going to bring it up over and over again and build on our understanding of macromolecules throughout the year. Like, lean into that language so that again, they’re seeing that you are the teaching expert here. You are the trained professional here. So again, I would print these things out. Another example too, like this, this parent saying, you know, the whole test was on macromolecules. I would have that email printed out. I would have that argument that that parent made highlighted.

Rebecca Joyner [00:18:24]:
And I maybe use a different color here. And then on my notes, I would actually have the facts. For instance, this was a mother, so I would say, ma’. Am. I actually looked back at the test and I did the math. 26% of my unit 1 biology basics test is macromolecules. 74% is other content. So to say that the entire test was on Macromolecules is false.

Rebecca Joyner [00:18:45]:
The student can actually get a C on the test and miss every question on Macromolecules. And you can even show if you use my it’s not rocket science resources, how the tests are divided by concept. So it’s really easy to identify that. You can say, I’ve intentionally done this. Because even if you are using it’s not rocket science resources and you didn’t write those because I did, you still made the choice to use my resources. So you can freely say, I’ve intentionally written the test like this or use the test like this. Arrange the test like this so that I can identify if students are not doing well on certain topics. So I can see if the whole class did poorly on Macromolecules or just this one student.

Rebecca Joyner [00:19:25]:
And if this is something I need to address in my instruction, or if this is something I need to address on a one on one basis. And then that’s an opportunity too to bring in the data and say, actually, the class average on the concept three macromolecule questions was, you know, this. And then this is where your student kind of fell. And you can kind of say, and again, this could be an opportunity where you own, like, everyone did poorly on the Macromolecules section. So actually, I decided that we actually went back in class, we spent three days reviewing it and making sure we really understood it. Or I have decided to change out the lab that we did for this so that students are better prepared. Another argument too is if the parents saying, you know, this wasn’t on the test. Show the alignment.

Rebecca Joyner [00:20:03]:
I told this teacher, print out that Unit 1 Biology Basics packet with the COVID page, which is their study guide. And print out the test and show how every single question on the test aligns to one of the objectives or vocabulary terms on the COVID page of the Biology Basics packet. And then you can also say, hey, now, now let’s flip in the packet to the end. That’s where all the Concept3 resources are. I want you to see. These are the notes we did. You know, this was the flip chart we made. This is the two labs we did on this topic.

Rebecca Joyner [00:20:30]:
Here’s some practice handouts we did to reinforce this and show like, having the visuals is so important, which is again, why it’s so important to get together in person. Okay, so print out some things have physical things to show them. Now so far we’ve said one take 24 hours to engage and respond. The only exception to this would be if you want to respond right away and just go ahead and start the ball moving with getting something on the calendar to get together in person. Number two, take an honest look and see if there’s any truth in what they said, anything you could improve, update more clearly, communicate in the future, mistake you’ve made, et cetera. This is also a good time to like get in some outside feedback from coworkers and things like that. They can have an honest look. 3.

Rebecca Joyner [00:21:15]:
Own what you need to own on your end and I would do that at the start of the in person discussion. So four is ask for that in person discussion. Get your admin present. 5 is use the time in advance to prepare your time together. And again, as you’re planning, I would plan in your notes like I would have this all written out. Start with lead with owning what you need to own and then move into addressing each of their complaints and having the data and the sheets and everything printed out to show them. And then sixth, this is so important is kill them with kindness in person. Okay, again, this is why we want to meet in person.

Rebecca Joyner [00:21:50]:
So much easier to show this with your facial expressions, to show your tone like body language. And all of this is so critical during this. Okay, so when you’re in person, lead with gratitude and positivity. Like start with even this is if this is the most psychotic parent you’ve ever met. You can start by acknowledging your appreciation for their passion to see their child succeed and then say, you know, I’m grateful to partner alongside parents that want to see their child successful like you do because that is my greatest desire for your student. Also, like remind them like we’re all on the same page. I want to see your students successful too. Then follow up with humility.

Rebecca Joyner [00:22:31]:
Apologize if you need to, or own whatever you need to own. Again, don’t just apologize if there’s nothing to be sorry for, but you can address. Like I can see how it would have been beneficial if I had notified you in advance of X, Y, Z. In the future you can expect before future tests I will do XYZ or in the future I will. So go ahead and lead with what you need to lead and be clear about what you’re owning and what you’re doing on your end. Next, address their false claims with evidence and reasoning. Okay, we’re doing a CER like in practice here. This also shows your preparation again, that you’ve printed out their emails, you’ve highlighted the key points, you have your own document where you’re addressing all the different things.

Rebecca Joyner [00:23:12]:
And then at the end, then we’re going to circle back to that original language of partnership and reminding them that we’re all on the same team. So at the end, say, okay, before we all go our separate ways, I want to make sure we’re all on the same page of working together to see this student success, because I know that’s what we’re all really wanting to see here. And I want to ensure that, like, we don’t have to keep meeting throughout the year, because I know this was a sacrifice of your time and energy to get here, as it was for me and my admin. So let’s make sure we’re all on the same page, so we don’t necessarily need to keep meeting over and over again this school year unless we absolutely have to. And if we do, I’m willing to do that because I’m willing to do whatever is best for these students. And then I’d outline in the future, I will. And then you fill in the blank. In the future, our admin will fill in the blank.

Rebecca Joyner [00:24:02]:
And then you can say, we expect your student to fill in the blank, and then we like you to fill in the blank. And maybe it gets to the point where it’s something like, I’ve had an admin once tell a parent, we do not want you to contact this teacher directly ever again. Like, basically, the admin, it was the one who called me the Antichrist. The admin was like, you have lost the privilege to contact this teacher directly. You will send all correspondence about this teacher directly to me. You know, and that, again, that was an extreme situation, but that’s where we’re kind of identifying everyone’s roles. And again, we’re ending on this note of, like, we’re all on the same team. Okay, now, two warnings I want to address before I wrap this up.

Rebecca Joyner [00:24:40]:
I want you to be sure to hold on to your personal boundaries. If they’re, like, asking you to do all this extra tutoring or stuff that you don’t have time for, you say, that is not something I have the capacity to do at this time, but here are ways that I have built in time to offer extra support, you know, and then that’s where you identify like, these are my tutoring hours. This is whatever, you know, they could come meet me for lunch at this time, or whatever. You know, you make that clear of, like, this is what I have the capacity to do. Don’t feel like you have to just lay down and be a martyr here. Remember, we’re on a team. It’s not your job to do everything to see this student succeed and to see this parent be happy. Everyone’s contributing to this plan.

Rebecca Joyner [00:25:21]:
And. And my second warning would be to have an end time for this conversation. Now, this is where you need to talk to your admin, talk to other coworkers, kind of figure out what’s best here. There are certain parents that I found. I like to meet with them before school because then the start of the school day is a natural boundary. Like the bell rings and my first period students start, you know, busting through the doors. That parent has to get out. Those are for the people that, like, will never leave.

Rebecca Joyner [00:25:46]:
And again, that will help to bring in your admin and say, like, do you know this parent? What do you think would be best for dealing with this parent? There are other parents who are like, the issues are so great. I don’t want to rush it. I want to make sure we get through it. And so then maybe it’s like, we are going to do this after school so we aren’t rushed and we don’t have to extend this conversation at another date. Like, we can knock it kind of all out. But then I would say in the email, like, hey, we want to meet from 3:15 to 4. And then there’s an end time set in place. And then that way through the conversation, if things start getting off the rails, you or preferably your admin can say, okay, let’s get back on pace because we’re wrapping this up at 4.

Rebecca Joyner [00:26:21]:
Now if you guys make the choice jointly to kind of go past that time, that’s fine. But I think setting an end time sets expectations clearly as to what to expect here. Okay? So I really hope this was helpful. I feel really, really passionate about this given the unfortunate experience I have working with combative parents. So I sincerely hope that these six points were helpful and these two warnings and that this language was helpful. And one thing I want to remind you, if you’ve never gone to my website, you can find the show notes for every episode. So, like, you could just go to it’s not rocket scienceclassroom.com right now and search combative parents and this will pop up. Or you can always do it’s not rocketscienceclassroom.com episode and then whatever the number is.

Rebecca Joyner [00:27:04]:
So, like, this will be/episode207 and the show notes will pop up and the show notes have a bulleted list of just kind of like the highlights of what was covered. And then I always link episodes or other things that I’ve mentioned. So like for example, I mentioned episode 114, which is how to bounce back after you mess up some other related episodes. Episode 70 is an interview I did about dealing with difficult parents. Episode 195 is another excellent interview I did this year with a teacher sharing just their regular parent communication strategy, which I thought was really helpful. Like those kinds of things will be linked. So if you’re like, I need more about dealing with combative parents, go to the show notes and see kind of what else is there. Also in the show notes is there’s a dropdown thing.

Rebecca Joyner [00:27:48]:
And it should, when you open the page, it should automatically be open. But if not there’s a little carrot you can drop it down and it’ll be the transcript of this episode. So it’ll be word for word what I said. So if you’re like, I want to have the verbatim language that I said as we were talking through some of these different points, you can see that there and copy and paste it and swipe it and use it from there. Or you know, you can re listen to the episode. But I just want to remind you that that’s there. So today’s Take Home Challenge, hopefully there’s nothing to take home because hopefully you do not have someone currently coming at you. But maybe the take Home challenge is forwarding this to a teacher friend that you know is dealing with a combative parent right now.

Rebecca Joyner [00:28:27]:
Or maybe the take Home Challenge for you is like you’ve already had a lot of back and forth with the parent and it’s starting to get a little bit. Starting to feel a little hot in the email correspondence. Maybe we should proactively just go ahead and say, let’s go ahead and meet in person. Let’s get something on the calendar. Or maybe the take Home challenge is sitting down and re listening to this episode again or sitting with that transcript and taking notes of these points. Because I feel like this is like a plan for you, an action plan and taking this and having it ready so that if you get that parent who comes out of the woodworks, especially before midterms or something at the ninth hour, you know, before grades are due, you have a plan in place for how you’re going to move forward with addressing them. Okay, so as we wrap up, I always like to say, hey, if you have not left a review on Apple podcast. I would love it if you did, especially if you’ve ever had a psycho parent or a compatible parent.

Rebecca Joyner [00:29:17]:
I shouldn’t say a psycho parent. I’m a parent too, and I could. I could see myself being combative. But I hope I never will be with my children’s teachers since I am a teacher. But y’ all know I mean that term in love. But leave a review if you’ve had that or if y’ all are on Spotify. I cannot believe I’m saying this because it’s, you know, however many years into this, four or five years into podcast, I just found out that y’ all who listen on Spotify can leave comments on the episodes. So I just went back the other day and responded to comments from the last several years that people have left.

Rebecca Joyner [00:29:47]:
So now that I know that I’m not a Spotify podcast listener, I always do Apple. I know to check for comments. So if you leave a comment on Spotify on this episode, I will see it. You can always email me@rebecca classroom.com Instagram is also a great place to reach me. That’s it’s not rocket science. I would love to hear from you. All right, teacher friends, that wraps up today’s episode. If you’re looking for an easy way to start simplifying your life as a secondary science teacher, head to itsnotrocketscienceclassroom.com challenge to grab your classroom read set challenge.

Rebecca Joyner [00:30:22]:
And guess what? It’s totally free. Thanks so much for tuning in and I’ll see you here next week. Until then, I’ll be rooting for you, teacher friend.