Connection and Consistency Over Content Coverage With Alex Crim [Episode 245]

Rebecca Joyner [00:00:01]:
This week on the podcast, I have the privilege of sharing my conversation with you where I got to sit down with Secondary Science Simplified listener and It’s Not Rocket Science resource user, Alex Krimm, who recently completed his second year of teaching. After spending his first year teaching middle school science, he transitioned to teaching 9th grade biology and AP Environmental Science at Devon Preparatory School. Before entering education, he played college baseball and initially majored in exercise science, before ultimately earning his degree in biology. He is currently finishing his master’s degree in secondary education while teaching and coaching full-time. Prior to teaching, he spent 4 years coaching college baseball. He now serves as the JV head baseball coach at his school, where he enjoys combining his passion for athletics with mentoring and teaching students both in the classroom and on the field. In this episode, Alex’s energy and enthusiasm for teaching high school students is so evident and so contagious. He shares a wealth of knowledge despite his only 2 years of experience thus far.

Rebecca Joyner [00:01:03]:
He talks about teaching AP Environmental Science for the first time, why he loves teaching biology, the 2 things more important than getting through all of the content, and a big misconception many people have about high schoolers. We also covered grading hacks, work-life balance with the demands of teaching, coaching, and working on his master’s, and how he is simplifying his life right now. I genuinely loved talking with Alex, and I wish he could be my son’s high school biology teacher and baseball coach. I know that my boys would absolutely love him, and I think that y’all will really enjoy him too. So without further ado, here’s my conversation with Alex Krimm. 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 [00:02:05]:
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. Hey Alex, how are you? Good.

Alex Crim [00:02:19]:
How you doing, Rebecca?

Rebecca Joyner [00:02:20]:
I’m good. I’m so excited to talk to you. It’s been a long time coming. We’ve been corresponding in DMs and now it’s here. So thanks for coming on the podcast.

Alex Crim [00:02:28]:
Yeah, of course. I’m excited.

Rebecca Joyner [00:02:30]:
It’s gonna be great. So you just finished your second year teaching, which I’m, I’m just, I love talking to people with all sorts of range of experience. So this is fun for me to get to talk to you. I would love just to hear how the year went and how work-life balance was. I know first year is always insane. And you’re a coach, so that’s also tricky. So I’d love to hear kind of how that went for you.

Alex Crim [00:02:49]:
Yeah, I mean, I think this year was much better than my first year teaching. I mean, first year teaching is, is just a, it’s a wild experience. I don’t think anyone can ever prep you enough for that.

Rebecca Joyner [00:02:59]:
Mm-hmm.

Alex Crim [00:03:00]:
But the school that I was at was really supportive. They allowed you, they, they, they treated you as a professional, which I really enjoyed. ‘Cause I’m a type A personality. I, I have all my, you know, ducks in a row. But it went well cuz I learned from a lot of my mistakes from my first year. I’m very reflective. And then also like the help of, of It’s Not Rocket Science resources from the curriculum to the podcast episodes to the PDs that I did. It was really helpful in getting my like system set up.

Alex Crim [00:03:27]:
I mean, I spent all last summer, like I’d go on walks and just your podcast would be playing as I walked and I’d have to like stop my walk and go home so I could like write down, take notes.

Rebecca Joyner [00:03:38]:
That’s awesome.

Alex Crim [00:03:38]:
Of some of the things you were saying, some of the guests you had on. So like in terms of work-life balance, like I’m sure if you ask my wife, it was a lot better than my first year.

Rebecca Joyner [00:03:46]:
Well, hey, those people in our real lives are like the best metric of, hey, am I, am I doing better on this or whatever? So I’m glad that, you know, the podcast and the resources have been a, a small part of your success this year. And you had a big change. You went from 7th grade life science, right?

Alex Crim [00:04:03]:
Yeah, it was 6th, it was 6th grade, but you know, it’s, it was life science nonetheless.

Rebecca Joyner [00:04:08]:
But you’re still in the same school, but now you’re teaching high school?

Alex Crim [00:04:10]:
No, I actually changed schools. So last year, yeah, last year I was in the city of Philadelphia doing that middle school life science class. And then my new role is at Devon Preparatory School, which is a little bit closer to, you know, where I’m living, which is like the King of Prussia area. Yeah. So made that change. I still had a 7th grade physics class. We talked a little bit about that.

Rebecca Joyner [00:04:31]:
Yeah.

Alex Crim [00:04:32]:
So I did have a 7th grade physics class, but then I had 9th grade CP bio. So 3 sections of that and then 1 section of AP Environmental.

Rebecca Joyner [00:04:39]:
Okay. So did you feel like you were completely starting over, not just at the school, but just new courses too?

Alex Crim [00:04:44]:
Yeah, it definitely felt like another first year in terms of the content. Mm-hmm. Learning how the school works itself. I mean, that’s something that, that I had to learn that like schools kind of have their different ways of doing things. Things that are accepted at one school aren’t gonna be accepted at another. Just the systems they run themselves. So it was kind of like a first year, but I, I, it, it is an all-boys school, which I do think is helpful.

Rebecca Joyner [00:05:08]:
Oh, interesting.

Alex Crim [00:05:09]:
So I’ve coached baseball for, you know, practically in the last 8 years. So, you know, teaching boys was, was kind of, you know, easy for me. So that kind of helped with the transition too.

Rebecca Joyner [00:05:20]:
That’s so fascinating. I’ve always like wondered what that would be like at the upper level to have the, the divided schools like that. I think that’s really fascinating. Okay. So I also always just think too, your school environment just totally affects your job. So I think that’s encouraging for you to hear, like, just how the transition’s been positive. And, ’cause I think people are often afraid to change schools and you obviously weren’t afraid ’cause you did it after just one year. What has it been like teaching high school? And especially a, you have AP Environmental too, right? That’s like totally different than middle school.

Rebecca Joyner [00:05:53]:
Yeah.

Alex Crim [00:05:53]:
Yeah. I mean, teaching high school, the 9th graders were more familiar to me cuz I did middle school last year and 9th graders are essentially the middle schoolers of high school.

Rebecca Joyner [00:06:04]:
Yeah.

Alex Crim [00:06:04]:
Um, they’re still a little immature, they’re chatty, but you know, a lot of them still kind of have that motivation and drive, especially at the school I’m teaching at. A lot of the students there have that motivation and drive, which is, which is easy and helpful when you’re a teacher trying to get something accomplished. The upperclassmen was definitely an adjustment.

Rebecca Joyner [00:06:20]:
Mm-hmm.

Alex Crim [00:06:20]:
You know, I had some seniors in there and senioritis I think started in August for them.

Rebecca Joyner [00:06:24]:
100%.

Alex Crim [00:06:25]:
You know, and, and I think AP Environmental, and I, and I know you’ve had other guests on, a lot of times the AP Environmental is the easy AP.

Rebecca Joyner [00:06:32]:
Mm-hmm.

Alex Crim [00:06:32]:
The easy AP science. So I did have some guys that thought that this was the easy AP, and when I came in there teaching it like an AP class should be taught, there was some pushback. There was some pulling, you know, so it was an adjustment, but Hey, we got it through. And like all my guys after taking the national exam were like, that, that was easy. I was like, well, I’m glad I prepared you.

Rebecca Joyner [00:06:51]:
Yeah, that’s awesome. I always love freshmen because I just think, like you said, they’re the middle schoolers of high school, but they just change so much. Like, especially the boys. I always remember cuz, uh, my last school they had uniforms cuz it was private. By the end of the year, all of their khaki pants were like capris cuz they all grow like 6 inches freshman year and their voices change and it’s just, it’s fun to be a part of their growth, I feel like during that time. You mentioned in your application that biology’s your favorite subject to teach. So why, why do you think that? And is there any topic that you most enjoy or you feel like you teach really well?

Alex Crim [00:07:24]:
Yeah, it’s funny enough when my students ask me about biology, like biology was not a, a favorite of mine when I was taking it in high school. Um, it just wasn’t, it was a lot of sit and get a lot of the, the cookie cutter, you know, labs, you know, but when I went to college, you know, after I got injured at my first school, I had to transfer and I was like, I, I wanna get this done as quickly as possible. And at the time I was a kinesiology major and I said to my new school, like, what’s the, what major can I do that’s gonna get me outta here as quickly as possible? And they said biology. I said, all right, like, like here we go. And the school just did such a great job. I had such great professors, you know, when I had just regular bio to genetics to ecology, and they did so many hands-on things. And it really made me appreciate that biology is literally everything that’s going around us. Mm-hmm.

Alex Crim [00:08:13]:
Right. It’s, it’s all these living things. And I find it fascinating. Some of my students, some of them find it fascinating that, you know, you take something like DNA that has 4 bases, just ATCG, but the way you can rearrange those and the differences and the complexities that you can have, that there’s microorganisms that are living around us that we can’t see. but contribute to our lives.

Rebecca Joyner [00:08:36]:
Mm-hmm.

Alex Crim [00:08:37]:
So like, there’s just so many complexities in how we’re all interconnected that I just find fascinating. And I think some of my students, because of how some of the ways I teach things and the, the phenomenon that I bring into it, incorporating daily, like daily life stuff.

Rebecca Joyner [00:08:51]:
Mm-hmm.

Alex Crim [00:08:51]:
You know, I think some of them appreciate like, wow, like this is something, you know, I had so many things on my, uh, feedback form. They always send an end of the year course survey. And like a lot of the guys were like, I didn’t like science before taking you. And I’m sure some of that is the personality that I bring and just myself in general, but I also think I made science applicable. Like I’m an athlete, like I’m, I’m the baseball coach, but I can also geek out on this bio and the science. And they really enjoyed that. In terms of a topic I teach well, I, I think like genetics and heredity.

Rebecca Joyner [00:09:21]:
Mm-hmm.

Alex Crim [00:09:21]:
And I think a lot of students can relate to the genetics and heredity unit. But like I had a couple twins that I taught, I had brothers. Uh, I had a kid that was colorblind. I had a kid that had sickle cell anemia. So like just being able to make it relevant, like being able to like ask, hey, hey Chris, do you mind if I talk about you having colorblindness? Like, and he didn’t know how it was inherited. So like there’s our sex-linked recessive traits. Like, so making it relevant, asking them questions, presenting them with images and, and saying, how, how does this happen?

Rebecca Joyner [00:09:52]:
Mm-hmm.

Alex Crim [00:09:52]:
Like how does something like rolling your tongue is just dominant recessive, but how is eye color determined? How’s height determined? And they really like dove into it because they’re like, I don’t know how they just thought, some of them thought height was just your mom and your dad and you get in between.

Rebecca Joyner [00:10:06]:
Yeah.

Alex Crim [00:10:07]:
So like being it, making it relevant and making them have those discussions and actually try to figure out like, how do we get to this? And then another thing that I really liked about your resources was you included some, some topics in epigenetics. Mm-hmm. Um, and like things like CRISPR technology and, and these boys loved to debate. They love to discuss. So when I rolled out, you know, who should be in control, like should we be able to change our genes?

Rebecca Joyner [00:10:30]:
Mm-hmm.

Alex Crim [00:10:30]:
Right. At first, a lot of them, you know, I teach at a private Catholic school, so a lot of them are, are saying, you know, it’s whatever God’s plan is. And then I throw the curveball in, well, what if your, what if your brother or sister had some disease that they could, that they could change?

Rebecca Joyner [00:10:42]:
Mm-hmm.

Alex Crim [00:10:43]:
And all of a sudden it gets a little more personal and they have to start thinking about it. So I just like genetics and heredity because you can really make it personal and really make it relevant.

Rebecca Joyner [00:10:50]:
I love those discussions with students. It is funny how they can come in with such strong opinions, but the more you question, the more they see that it’s a lot harder to draw lines in the sand than we may think. And I always said, Mike, my goal is really not to get them committed to like any sort of side, but to really humble them to think things are a lot more gray than we want them to be. Like we want things to be black and white, and that’s just not how the world works, you know? ‘Cause we’re so quick to have an opinion on things and what people do and the decisions they make when actually it’s a lot trickier. So I love that you’re having those conversations with them. I wish I could be a fly on the wall in your classroom with all these boys.

Alex Crim [00:11:27]:
Yeah. I mean, and I, I always tell them that there’s never an always in science. I had one of my professors at, at, at my college, he always said there’s never always because there’s something that’s probably not been discovered yet or something that we don’t know yet. So like I always, when they, You know, it’s just about trying to teach them how to think like a scientist. And like, yes, we don’t use the word always. We don’t use the word right and wrong for hypothesis. Like, yes, you know, it, it supports your hypothesis, but someone could do another experiment that, that rejects your hypothesis.

Rebecca Joyner [00:11:55]:
Mm-hmm.

Alex Crim [00:11:55]:
So just keeping an open mind, I think, you know, as you said, high school boys are very, you know, dig their heels in, but just kind of playing that devil’s advocate, always asking that, that further question to really make sure that what they’re saying is supported.

Rebecca Joyner [00:12:07]:
Mm-hmm. It’s a good life lesson. Like even my 8-year-old has been learning to read the last few years and He is a firstborn male, so everything is a rule. And so he hated learning to read cuz he is like, there’s all these rules, but then there’s all these exceptions. Like he just wants to memorize the rules and apply them. He’s like, every rule has an exception. I was like, welcome to literally the rest of your life. Like nothing is gonna be that cut and dry, my man.

Alex Crim [00:12:30]:
Yeah.

Rebecca Joyner [00:12:30]:
But he’s funny. All right, I wanna hear about AP Environmental, your first year. Like how did you kind of approach that? Where did you kind of, How did you get started? What did you lean on? Anything you wanna, anything you did well that you’re like, I’ll definitely do that next year. Anything you’re like, ooh, I’m definitely gonna change this.

Alex Crim [00:12:46]:
Yeah, so funny enough, I’m not teaching AP Environmental next year. They’re giving me, they’re giving me all 5 sections of bio. So I’m doing 3 sections of CP, 2 sections of honors, which I’m excited about because I, I love biology.

Rebecca Joyner [00:12:58]:
Mm-hmm.

Alex Crim [00:12:59]:
But I did make a list, as I said at the start, I’m very reflective. So I did make a list as I was going throughout the year.

Rebecca Joyner [00:13:04]:
Cuz maybe the next year you’ll get it again. You never know.

Alex Crim [00:13:07]:
Exactly right. So. You know, one of the things that I learned about an AP class is that it is very fast, right? Especially with AP Environmental, there are 9 units with 99 total topics. The CED recommends about 140 days on the maximum side, 140 days to teach all the material. At my school, when you got done with, you know, we had a, an 8-day cycle. One of the days was a drop day, so we’re essentially meeting 7 of the 8 days.

Rebecca Joyner [00:13:33]:
Hmm.

Alex Crim [00:13:33]:
You throw in the random The random trips, the random in-service, then you throw in the fact that there’s, they do Kairos cuz it’s a Catholic school and paired after Kairos is the senior trip. That’s 2 straight weeks I didn’t have, guys. So when I really boiled it down and you take out the testing days, I had about 110 days.

Rebecca Joyner [00:13:50]:
Whew.

Alex Crim [00:13:51]:
To teach in 140 days worth of material. So what I learned was, you know, the CED gives you each unit how it’s weighted. So, uh, I had to use that weighting and say, okay, they weight unit 4, 6, 7, 9. More than unit 1, 2, 3, 5, 8. Okay, so I need to prioritize those things. And then looking at some of the material and saying, some of this just is gonna have to be done at home, right? I’m just gonna have to assign a topic at home because I don’t have the time and I think it’s not worth our class time to do together.

Rebecca Joyner [00:14:23]:
Mm-hmm.

Alex Crim [00:14:24]:
So some of those things were just, you have to do it at home and I’m gonna have to just give you a, a, a quiz on it to check that you did it and took your notes.

Rebecca Joyner [00:14:31]:
Right.

Alex Crim [00:14:32]:
And then also the labs. Labs, especially AP labs, are, are very involved. So I had to make sure that the labs I chose covered multiple topics in a unit and had a lot of bang for our buck. So things like soil testing, water quality testing, those are the labs that I had to do. There were so many labs I could have done, but when you’re limited on time, I just, I didn’t have it and I had to make sure that they’re a lot of bang for your buck.

Rebecca Joyner [00:14:54]:
And were you getting those labs from the lab manual for AP Environmental, or were you choosing like alternates that you were doing for those kind of topics?

Alex Crim [00:15:00]:
So I, I, I did do the soil testing, which was straight from the AP classroom. But then the other, so my first tip, you know, that, that will lead me into this answer is, is getting into the Facebook group. Mm-hmm. You know, the National APES, uh, Teachers Group. Now it can be tricky and I fell for that in the summer. I remember I reached out to 3 or 4 APES teachers in my local area that I connected on the group with, and I got, I fell into the trap of like looking at what everyone was doing and was going like, man, like I am not ready for this. Yeah. Like I, I don’t have the time.

Rebecca Joyner [00:15:29]:
100%.

Alex Crim [00:15:32]:
This, this, and that.

Rebecca Joyner [00:15:33]:
Or these people are way smarter than me. That’s what I thought in the AP Bio group. I was like, I don’t know what they’re talking about.

Alex Crim [00:15:38]:
Yeah. And I, and I realized that, you know, not everyone is doing all of these things, right? These people are just posting the things that they’re doing, like, but I was looking at all the teachers thinking that everyone’s doing all these things. Um, so like my tip would be get in the Facebook group because people share their labs, they share their pacing guides, they share their PowerPoints, they share everything.

Rebecca Joyner [00:15:57]:
Mm-hmm.

Alex Crim [00:15:58]:
So like in terms of creating the content, I didn’t have to worry about that. It was all there. Just making sure that you go in with like a focus and saying, I’m looking for a Unit 7 PowerPoint. That’s what I’m going in for. Don’t get distracted.

Rebecca Joyner [00:16:11]:
100%.

Alex Crim [00:16:12]:
And that’s where I got some of the labs, like some of the labs, because some of the AP Classroom labs are very involved, very timely, like multiple day things that I didn’t have time for. So then saying, okay, I wanna do the AP Classroom Lab 12. Let me go on the Facebook group, see if someone modified this for a 40-minute schedule or, you know, a 45-minute schedule.

Rebecca Joyner [00:16:29]:
Yeah, that’s great.

Alex Crim [00:16:31]:
I would say another tip is practice math skills.

Rebecca Joyner [00:16:35]:
Mm-hmm.

Alex Crim [00:16:35]:
Because APES is a lot of dimensional analysis and kids for whatever reason just do not wanna do dimensional analysis. They don’t wanna set up the picket fence. They don’t wanna do it. And then also just practice FRQ writing cuz that is a struggle for guys. They look for very specific answers. They don’t want fluff. It’s not English class. So practicing that from day one was something that, you know, I think I would keep for next year.

Rebecca Joyner [00:16:57]:
That is one of the hardest things to train them is from, they’re so used to just trying to hit like a 10-page paper limit. And I’m like, no, I literally need the opposite. I want you to write as few words as possible to answer this question. I don’t want any of your fluff and like taking up all the things.

Alex Crim [00:17:14]:
Yeah.

Rebecca Joyner [00:17:14]:
That’s great advice. Anything else for AP?

Alex Crim [00:17:18]:
Yeah, I have 2 more. Peer grade FRQs, and there’s a, there’s something that you can find on Teacher Pay Teachers, also in the Facebook group called Point/No Point, where they’ll take previous answers from previous FRQs. And, you know, you essentially have to go through and say like, would you give them a point or not? Because it’ll, it starts to teach them, you know, like, why, why are you giving that one a point, not this a point? And they have to actually work through it. And then peer grading the FRQs. So what I did is, you know, once pretty much like every Friday or, you know, I try to do every Friday, uh, I do FRQ Friday and, and we would grade the grader, right? So like, it wasn’t so much that I’m grading the FRQ itself. I want to grade how you grade because that’s teaching you like what to look for, have to go through and highlight. And in fact, like I would give a bonus point if your score matched mine, right? So to make, to keep them honest and not just, you know, go through it, I would say, hey, if your, if your FRQ grade that you gave that group matches mine. I’ll give you a bonus point because you’re, that, that means that you’re hitting the nail on the head there.

Alex Crim [00:18:17]:
And then last tip, make sure all your exams come from AP Classroom.

Rebecca Joyner [00:18:21]:
Yes.

Alex Crim [00:18:21]:
And keep the pacing the same as the national exam because early on it was a struggle, but they came back to me at the national exam. They were like, I had an hour left for the multiple choice. Like I, I, they were like, I had so much time.

Rebecca Joyner [00:18:33]:
They were cruising.

Alex Crim [00:18:33]:
Yes.

Rebecca Joyner [00:18:34]:
Yeah.

Alex Crim [00:18:34]:
So I, I would recommend that because, you know, I think sometimes you can get caught up in, you know, make, giving them the, the, I wanna make sure they have enough time. It’s like, no, like they have to get used to it and you rather them have Time left over than running outta time.

Rebecca Joyner [00:18:46]:
100%. And when you were doing your tests, were you, were you curving your tests in like, just like the AP exams curve? Were you just kind of, were you doing test corrections? Kind of how were you handling that? Because I do think when we use the AP provided questions, obviously they’re not gonna do as well as if we wrote the questions.

Alex Crim [00:19:02]:
Yeah.

Rebecca Joyner [00:19:02]:
So then there has to be some sort of balance there.

Alex Crim [00:19:04]:
Yeah, so I started out doing test corrections, which went fine. But, you know, it got to the point where there, it was just too much for me to keep up with. So I ended up just doing a, I ended up doing a curve. But in order for them to get the curve, they had to complete what’s called a focus sheet.

Rebecca Joyner [00:19:20]:
Okay.

Alex Crim [00:19:20]:
So you can, if anyone’s teaching APES, they can find these on the Facebook group. Someone did them, but, you know, I kind of modified them based off of, you know, what I was kind of teaching in that unit. But they had to do this focus sheet and it was a, it was an in-depth, they essentially had, you know, say there was 12 topics for a unit, they’d have 12 questions they had to answer and they had one sheet of paper. Right? An 8 by 11. Sometimes if it was more in depth, I’d let them use front and back. Most of the times I’d say, you just get the front side of this paper. You have to answer this. So you have to be really concise.

Alex Crim [00:19:49]:
It’s a focus sheet. You have to answer the question, but you have to make sure you fit it all in. If they did that, then I would, I would get, I would give them a curve because it showed me that you’re putting in the work. And some guys just didn’t do the focus sheets and they, they also didn’t get the curve, which they struggled. But the guys at the end of the year also said the focus sheets like were helpful because I gave them all back at the end of the year. You essentially had a study guide, a little cheat sheet study guide. Mm-hmm. For units 1 to 9 to study for the national exam.

Rebecca Joyner [00:20:14]:
So this is something they make before the test?

Alex Crim [00:20:16]:
Yep.

Rebecca Joyner [00:20:17]:
Okay, cool.

Alex Crim [00:20:17]:
So I give it to them, I give it to them at the beginning of the unit. Now, how many guys actually do it throughout the unit? Not many. Most of them wait till the last, you know, day or so. But it allows them to focus it because, you know, I, I would make the focus sheet based off the, the types of questions I was using on the test. So it allowed them to focus, you know, we went through a lot of notes.

Rebecca Joyner [00:20:36]:
Right.

Alex Crim [00:20:36]:
Here, I’m gonna focus what you should be kind of paying attention to. And if they did it, they saw better test scores and they also got the curve. So it was a win-win.

Rebecca Joyner [00:20:44]:
Yeah. And you’re not grading ’em. It’s just like, this is for you. So like, if you want this, then yeah, that’s awesome. Okay, let’s talk classroom management and just what, how, what you feel like is important about teachers and students and that dynamic outside of just academics and teaching them what they need to learn.

Alex Crim [00:21:02]:
Yeah. You know, I think the biggest thing that I learned was connection and like, you kind of hear it all the time, you know, you gotta build relationships. You know, relationships are, you know, the most important. And my first year, like I didn’t really grasp that. Like I was like, well, but I gotta teach the content. Like, and you know, I realized this year and, and like my first month was a little rocky cuz I kind of went in with the same mindset of like, I gotta get through the content. Here’s my pacing again. I’m a Type A, like very organized.

Alex Crim [00:21:28]:
Like, Yeah. I have my pacing guide done for the year. If, if it says I gotta do this on, on Monday, then I gotta do this on Monday. And what I quickly realized was that like, that I just wasn’t gonna get anywhere. Like I was burnt out because, you know, they were, they weren’t listening and they weren’t giving me like their full attention. And when I kind of made that switch to really start with like the connection point of understanding that like, hey, like if I can start to build these connections, these relationships, not only are they gonna be more invested in my class, more invested in myself, but like all of a sudden their behavior’s gonna start getting a little better too because they’re, they have that relationship with Mm-hmm. Not to say that the behavior was perfect all year. We know that they’re high school boys.

Rebecca Joyner [00:22:05]:
Mm-hmm.

Alex Crim [00:22:05]:
Right? You have 15 high school boys in the same class. Like you can only imagine some of the things they’re gonna, they’re gonna try and do. But that connection point was something that a lot of them, a lot of them want, a lot of them look for. And it made my life better too, right? Like instead of like dreading that class being like, oh man, I gotta, I got Bio 1 today. Like I went in being like, I can’t wait. Like I, I, I’m gonna catch up with these guys, kind of be a little more Focus on those relationships and then the content comes a lot easier. It’s easier to ask them to do something when you have that connection point, that relationship, than when you don’t have it.

Rebecca Joyner [00:22:35]:
It’s so true. It changes everything. But I’m, I’m the same as you exactly. Like all my lesson plans I feel like are in pen and it’s like, I wanna get through this cuz I’m excited to go through this with you. Mm-hmm. But they, they’re not excited about biology, you know? But when they are excited about you and spending time with you, then it all kind of flows from there.

Alex Crim [00:22:52]:
Yeah. You know, and I think The, that connection point, like it started with, you know, I don’t have my own classroom. No one really has their own classroom. I was in 2 rooms and sometimes, you know, moving from one room to the other. But I really tried every day to like greet the kids at the door every day.

Rebecca Joyner [00:23:05]:
Mm-hmm.

Alex Crim [00:23:06]:
Like, you know, I know that I, I need to have the prime time up on the board. I know I need to have this, this, and that ready to go, but I just found it more important to just greet them, give ’em a fist bump, handshake.

Rebecca Joyner [00:23:15]:
Mm-hmm.

Alex Crim [00:23:16]:
You know, welcome them in, just get that connection point. Because I do think some kids, a lot of kids, You know, they just kind of go through the day. They’re happy, more than happy just to float through the day. It’s something that I know you said like all the time, like I use popsicle sticks, like at the beginning of the year, like I use popsicle sticks probably for the first semester. One, to know their names.

Rebecca Joyner [00:23:33]:
Yeah.

Alex Crim [00:23:34]:
But 2, to be like, hey, like you’re not escaping me. Like I’m calling on you. Even if I’m asking you what you’re doing this weekend, like you’re gonna tell me something.

Rebecca Joyner [00:23:41]:
Exactly.

Alex Crim [00:23:41]:
We’re gonna talk. And by the second semester, I didn’t have to use ’em because a lot more guys wanted to participate. I’d cold call on guys. They knew it was coming, right? If they were looking away, like, hey, They knew I was coming for ’em. But yeah, I think that connection point. And then also just like consistency. Mm-hmm. Like beyond the academics, like a lot of these high school guys, like they need that consistency day to day.

Alex Crim [00:24:01]:
You know, it doesn’t mean we do the same exact thing every day, but like a similar structure. Like even though I only have 40 minutes, like I rarely do things for more than 20 minutes. Like it, it’s probably 10, 15-minute clips. I’m trying to like get, do this and do that. But they can rely on the fact that they know that like there’s gotta be some type of prime time. You know, I kind of switched up the prime times like every so often. Like sometimes it was exactly kind of how you would do ’em. Like come in, something on the board, 5 ques— they go 3 to 5 questions.

Alex Crim [00:24:28]:
Use your notes, not your neighbors. They got tired of me saying that.

Rebecca Joyner [00:24:31]:
Yeah.

Alex Crim [00:24:32]:
But you know, I, I’d kind of switch it up. They knew there was gonna be some type of prime time. Sometime it was, it was like, you know, you have 60 seconds to discuss the question with a partner and then we’ll, we’ll share as a group. But they always knew that there was some kind of warmup going on. There was gonna be some type of mini lecture, some type of activity, and probably some time to start their homework. And they thrived on that. Like they knew that consistency, they knew like what to expect.

Rebecca Joyner [00:24:54]:
Well, and they know you’re gonna actually do stuff that matters. Like when they just don’t, when there’s not a plan or consistency, they just are like, they’re going in thinking, how can I derail this? And like do as little as possible. Yeah. As opposed to like, no, the train’s already moving. I’m inviting you to jump on board cuz like, We’re going. I’m proud of you doing prime times with a 40-minute class period.

Alex Crim [00:25:13]:
Yeah. I mean, that’s tough. It, you know, there were certainly some days that, you know, if we had a lab day, I would skip it. You know, I just, you know, kind of had to get them in and going. But like, as I said, like, you know, I, I, I would try to mix it up with them, but like just knowing that there was some type of consistent warmup that they were gonna have to do, they were gonna have to look at their notes, they were gonna have to have a discussion, right? Like. You know, the days that they weren’t writing something down, they were discussing, I was still, I was still looking for a back and forth conversation.

Rebecca Joyner [00:25:42]:
Right.

Alex Crim [00:25:42]:
Right. So like the grade was still gonna be there, but if you were, if only your partner was talking, then you weren’t gonna get the grade. And I really pushed some of my like upper, upper kids in my class that if you know the answer, don’t just tell your partner the answer. Try to help them get to the answer. Just things like that, right? Yes, you could. It’s easy for you to just tell your partner the answer. But that’s not gonna help him out and it’s not gonna really help you out, right? Why not try to ask questions and try to push and prod and get them to get to the answer? Which I also really enjoyed those types of primetimes because there was like a connection point between our students. They got to talk, right? Like these kids just want, all they wanna do is talk.

Alex Crim [00:26:19]:
So, hey, like you have 3 minutes here. I want you to discuss bio. And I would tell them, I was like, hey, if you’re done talking about that, you guys can talk about your weekends. You guys can talk about your Mondays, right? I’m fine with that. So it felt like, you know, it was kind of like a give and a take. Like, hey, I’ll give you some time to talk when you get through this. But then when I talk, then, then, then that’s when you’re gonna shut it down and— Yeah.

Rebecca Joyner [00:26:38]:
When I talk, it’s your minute talking.

Alex Crim [00:26:40]:
Yeah, exactly.

Rebecca Joyner [00:26:42]:
I love that. I, I think the give and take is so important with high schoolers and just, it’s like you’re seeing them as like young adults and saying like, okay, like you’re gonna respect me, I’m gonna respect you. Like we’re working on this together. And I, I love that you’re creating that kind of culture within your students with each other too. I think that’s so important.

Alex Crim [00:26:58]:
Yeah. And I, I think, you know, one of the things, some of the, some of the guys really got excited about it, but when, when I, when we started doing the, the prime times, I, you know, I started to do this little corny thing where I’d say, okay, it’s time for prime. And then they would all say time, right? So like, just like those like little goofy things that like, they’re probably like, here goes Mr. Crim again, like making us do this prime time chant. But it’s just like a, a culture building thing in the classroom. Like, You may not be getting this somewhere else, but like, it may be corny, but hey, we’re doing it. And like, mm-hmm, you know, and some of the guys really like were like, they’re upset if I like forgot to do it. They’re like, whoa, are we not gonna do our primetime chant?

Rebecca Joyner [00:27:32]:
Right.

Alex Crim [00:27:32]:
And I was like, oh, my bad. Like, and they would start to lead it.

Rebecca Joyner [00:27:35]:
And it’s sweet cuz then they hear your voice. I always call ’em like refrains. Like you, you leave them with these refrains and some of ’em are silly and some are, you know, more serious and they do remember your voice. Like I have high school girls who still come back today. Now they’re like getting married and having babies, which is disturbing. That’s a weird thing about teaching high school. Like it doesn’t take long and then all of a of a sudden they have these whole lives, but yeah, they’ll come back. And one of the things I used to always say when they would leave my classroom is, do the right thing, not the cool thing.

Rebecca Joyner [00:28:01]:
And some of them were like, I would think of your voice, like when I’d be in dilemmas saying, do the right thing, not the cool thing. And I was like, well, that makes me feel good that you’re remembering forever.

Alex Crim [00:28:12]:
Yeah.

Rebecca Joyner [00:28:13]:
I love that. Okay. Any misconceptions you feel like that people have about teaching high school that you’ve kind of learned are different now that you’ve had that experience with them?

Alex Crim [00:28:21]:
Yeah. I mean, I think a lot of times, like, you know, and if you’re on the wrong side of Instagram, you know, you’ll get a ton of these, is that like just students just don’t care and aren’t motivated.

Rebecca Joyner [00:28:31]:
Mm-hmm.

Alex Crim [00:28:31]:
And I just feel like that’s such a big misconception because like I’ve, I’m kind of going through it sometimes in their shoes. Like I’m currently in my master’s program, mm-hmm, you know, working towards, you know, my master’s of educa— education. And there’s times where I’m, I have my classes and I’m just like, why am I doing this assignment? Like, this seems pointless, right? This doesn’t seem relevant to like what I need. And I think like, if that’s how you’re still, if you’re still teaching like just a lot of sit and get, and you’re just saying like, well, here’s the lesson. Like, I don’t care how you feel about it. Like, here we go. And don’t get me wrong, like sometimes things need to be boring. Like sometimes these kids need to learn to be bored a little bit.

Alex Crim [00:29:08]:
You know, they, they struggle just to sit in their silence. But like, you know, if, if you make it fun, if you make it relevant, if you make it engaging, Like they care. Like I’ve seen it where like, you know, you make something relevant to them. You make it where, okay, hey, like instead of talking about ecology, we’re going to go outside and we’re going to do a biodiversity sampling lab. Like we’re going to go to the creek, like we’re going to go and test the water and talk about it. All of a sudden it’s like they’re motivated, like they care to get it done. But like if you’re just going to sit and get and just being like, well, here’s what it is and you don’t try to connect anything. You’re gonna struggle.

Alex Crim [00:29:44]:
You know, a lot of times, like there’s, and especially in biology, you can connect it to so many things in their lives. Like instead of talking about the water problems in California, talk about the local river that they fish at.

Rebecca Joyner [00:29:54]:
Yeah.

Alex Crim [00:29:55]:
And all of a sudden they’re like, wait, that’s going on? There’s eutrophication going on? Yeah. You ever seen that green stuff? Yeah. They’re like, oh my God. Like, how’s that happen? Well, you know the farm that’s 2 miles up? Oh my God. I, I get ice cream there. All of a sudden they care cuz they, they’re like, wait a minute. Like, I experience these things on my daily life.

Rebecca Joyner [00:30:11]:
Mm-hmm.

Alex Crim [00:30:12]:
So, you know, I think that’s a misconception. Like, yeah, like they’re not gonna be motivated. They’re not gonna care when they have their phone, they have this laptop where they can look everything up. But if you challenge them, if you make them critically think and problem solve, like especially high school boys, like they’re gonna try and solve the problem.

Rebecca Joyner [00:30:26]:
Mm-hmm. I love that. And that’s the life skills we really want them to learn. I think what you said about Instagram is so real too, is like the content that gets engaged with on all social media is the content that’s negative or like a hot take. And we’ve even noticed that my best friend helps me with social media because it’s not my forte at all. I like the podcast and I like email and that’s pretty much it. But she’s always like, we need to keep doing these like controversial reels. And I’m like, I don’t want to.

Rebecca Joyner [00:30:53]:
Like, I know that’s what it takes, but that, cause that, but that’s what like that kind of fervor is what feeds it. And I think the hard thing is when we’re, we feel like really down in the dumps about our students and our job.

Alex Crim [00:31:03]:
Yeah.

Rebecca Joyner [00:31:03]:
all we’re hearing then is other people’s voices that are also struggling. And then like the negative, we’re all just bringing each other down as opposed to like, like your voice is such a positive light to say no, like it doesn’t have to be that way. And I really appreciate you encouraging people that way. I think that’s super, it doesn’t have to be this way.

Alex Crim [00:31:19]:
And I think, I think like one of the things like last year, you know, there was a lot of things about my, my first year teaching, you know, the where I was at and just kind of some of the faculty that was there. Mm-hmm. Like just really bogged me down and allowed me to kind of sit in that negative mindset. And the thing that really like was awesome about this experience this year was like, you don’t really hear a lot of that. Mm-hmm. Like you really, like there’s a lot of like positive teachers, a lot of faculty that are happy to be at their job, like happy to be working there. And that’s just a world of difference, right? Because as you said, like you want to feed off of whatever you’re around. So if you’re around negativity, like that’s what you’re gonna be.

Alex Crim [00:31:53]:
If you’re around positive people, you’re gonna be positive. So like, that’s one of the things that like I really appreciate about this like new opportunity, this new school is that like. A lot of people are positive about working there and it really helps because you said like you go on Instagram, you start getting on the wrong side of things and everyone’s just outta students and, and teaching and I quit teaching and, mm-hmm, you know, it’s all these things, but like I’ve really enjoyed it. And people always, again, some, some people when I say like I’m a teacher, they’re like, oh man. Like, no, I love it. Like, yeah, I get to, I get to essentially hang out with a bunch of high school kids, right? Like we, it’s a give and a take. Like, you know, I’ll kind of get on them, they get on me. Like, and I get to teach bio, which I love.

Alex Crim [00:32:27]:
Like.

Rebecca Joyner [00:32:27]:
Yeah.

Alex Crim [00:32:27]:
I don’t think there’s anything better.

Rebecca Joyner [00:32:29]:
I know. I think it’s a pretty cool way to have like an exponential impact on the world based on what you do. Because I mean, just like, I mean, how, you know, the average person may have anywhere from like 0 to 4 kids. And so yeah, you’re gonna influence like your own children, but think about in the role of teaching, like you’re gonna influence thousands and then, yeah, their lives and everything. So it’s a pretty cool opportunity if you’re in the right environment, like you said, which I think I just always wanna encourage people who are listening. If you’re like, well, my school’s not like that at all, like. I think sometimes we just feel so stuck where we are and it’s worth exploring. You, the culture could entirely change your perception of this job based on the school environment you’re in.

Alex Crim [00:33:04]:
Yeah. And I, I, and I will give a, a, a plug to one of the books I read over winter break. It’s called Teach Your Class Off by CJ Reynolds. I’m not sure if you’ve ever heard of him.

Rebecca Joyner [00:33:13]:
I’ll link it though.

Alex Crim [00:33:14]:
But he was, he was a teacher in, in Camden, New Jersey. Mm-hmm. And then the inner city of Philadelphia and like he really kind of changed my perspective. ‘Cause like he was teaching, right? Like a lot of kids that a lot of people had kind of given up on. Mm-hmm. Said like, nope, like they, they’re not gonna amount to anything. Like there’s nothing left for them. And like essentially taking a, a bad situation and just making the best of it.

Alex Crim [00:33:36]:
And his book is, was awesome and allowed me to be like, yeah, like I don’t, like no matter what situation, and it’s like what you make of it.

Rebecca Joyner [00:33:41]:
Mm-hmm.

Alex Crim [00:33:41]:
Right? So I, I, I think to the point of like, if you’re in a situation that’s not great, and don’t get me wrong, there are probably some situations that aren’t great, right? Administrations and things like that. But it really is like what you make of it.

Rebecca Joyner [00:33:52]:
Mm-hmm. And it doesn’t have to be the only option. You can explore other ones. I always say too, like, I don’t know if I’ve talked about this on the podcast, but I always like when I interviewed at a school to have the principal take me on a tour, cuz I like to see how other people, students and teachers respond when they see that admin. And then I also love if you have an opportunity to spend time with someone who teaches there, whether that’s sitting through lunch, subbing and getting to hang out in the department for a day, like, cuz then you’re gonna get the vibe of the department and that’s gonna really help you know what’s the culture and kind of energy there.

Alex Crim [00:34:24]:
Yeah.

Rebecca Joyner [00:34:25]:
All right. I, we haven’t even talked about this, but we need to, is just grading and balancing that. I know that’s gotta be something that you really prioritize as a coach, especially because you’re, you have limited time and you’re in your master’s, like you don’t have a lot of time outside of school, so. How are you balancing grading or do you have any hacks to share with listeners about that?

Alex Crim [00:34:43]:
Yeah, I mean, the first thing is don’t grade everything. Like if, if you’re still grading everything, I don’t know how you’re doing it.

Rebecca Joyner [00:34:49]:
Right.

Alex Crim [00:34:49]:
Props to you. But I mean, I always tell the kids like, this may be for a grade. Like I could grade this.

Rebecca Joyner [00:34:54]:
Yes. That’s a need-to-know information and you don’t need to know.

Alex Crim [00:34:57]:
Exactly. So, you know, and then I think like when you’re grading something, like I always ask myself like, what is the purpose of this? Like why, like if I grade this, like what’s the purpose? You know, do they need me to grade? This is always the question, right? And I, I did my grade book exactly kind of how you had, uh, had outlined it, right? Major and minor. You have your completion grades, you have your accuracy grades, and a lot of the homeworks, it’s just like, hey, like you can grade it yourself. Like I’m gonna come around, check to see that you did it. You can grade it yourselves. Like we can go over this, but I don’t need to collect your homework and give you a grade because, right, some of the guys, like they might go home and just Google the answers, right? They might just AI the answers. So why would I take time for me to just, you know, have to go around and, oh, let me give you actual feedback, um, or actually grade this for accuracy because you’re gonna have some kids that just go and AI it or Google it. Some kids that actually try and they’re gonna get a worse grade than the kids that Google it because they actually were trying themselves.

Rebecca Joyner [00:35:50]:
Mm-hmm.

Alex Crim [00:35:50]:
So like those things, just do for completion. Don’t stress over that. When possible, as I said, like have them grade themselves, have them peer grade, right? I always kind of do a quick look over if they’re peer grading something, but again, like they’re pretty much halfway there. I just have to do a quick once over. And then for labs, one of the biggest things I did was lab quizzes.

Rebecca Joyner [00:36:09]:
Mm-hmm.

Alex Crim [00:36:09]:
I would take the lab and I would make a quiz that would be 5 to 10 questions, like things that I need them to know outta this lab. And that way I’m only grading 5 or 10 multiple choice questions, or maybe 4 multiple choice and an open response, as opposed to going through this full lab.

Rebecca Joyner [00:36:24]:
Mm-hmm.

Alex Crim [00:36:25]:
Which would take forever. Now I did do like one actual formal lab report, you know, and that took some time. Again, like there’s a skill to writing labs, but I just, I don’t know if it’s necessary for them to really like have 100% down when they get through my class or like just grade a section of it. I’m just gonna grade your conclusion. I’m just gonna grade your analysis. And then for tests, there’s an app called ZipGrade, which is essentially just like an, uh, an online Scantron. And I mean, it is, it has been a, a savior cuz I, you know, taught almost close to 90 students this year. And just to be able to take my phone and just be like, oop, okay, 25 outta 30, like was a huge thing as opposed to going through, flipping through all the things or even just doing it by hand.

Alex Crim [00:37:07]:
So ZipGrade was a, a savior.

Rebecca Joyner [00:37:09]:
I’m gonna link that too in the show notes for people to check it out. I wanna hear about these lab quizzes more cuz I’ve never done that and that sounds really interesting. Did you, would you do them just like the next day? Would they get to use their lab? Like what did, what did that look like practically?

Alex Crim [00:37:22]:
So if I said to them, You know, if we did a lab, you know, depending on how involved it is and I said, okay, your lab’s gonna be, you know, your lab’s gonna do, be due on Tuesday. Like they would have a lab quiz. I’d say lab quiz Tuesday, but you need to have your lab done cuz I let them use it, right? Like, because, you know, I, I want them to know that like if they did the work, then I’m gonna reward you for doing the work.

Rebecca Joyner [00:37:40]:
Mm-hmm.

Alex Crim [00:37:40]:
So they would get to use their labs and the lab quizzes would, I would most of the time just make it like 10 multiple choice. Maybe I’d have a free response in there, but really it was just going through and saying like, okay, maybe one of the questions was, when they were doing one of the steps, like you had to add what to what, right? And I would just put that as a multiple choice question cuz if someone wasn’t following along and maybe writing down the, the instructions or the steps, they’re gonna miss that question cuz they’re gonna be like, I don’t know what we mixed. Or like, you know, for, for the class average results, what was the, the highest yield?

Rebecca Joyner [00:38:10]:
Hmm.

Alex Crim [00:38:11]:
Right? Like if you weren’t following along, if you don’t know how to read your data, you’re not gonna do well on it. But if you do. It’ll be a much quicker, a much quicker thing for you.

Rebecca Joyner [00:38:21]:
Yeah. I love that idea of having them, like if they’re graphing the class averages or whatever, and then making the question about, cuz then they’re interpreting a graph that they made.

Alex Crim [00:38:28]:
Yeah.

Rebecca Joyner [00:38:28]:
Like that’s a, that’s a unique idea. Okay. I really like that. I also wanna ask you as a coach too, how do you, do you have tutoring? How do you balance that with like your coaching schedule? Do you not? How are you providing students who need outside of class support with your schedule?

Alex Crim [00:38:45]:
One of the nice things about our school is that third period, so we have, now I’m blanking, I think we have 9 periods. Oh yeah, we have 9 periods. We have 9 periods in a day. Third period every day is an advising period. So it’s a 40-minute block and it’s built into the day where you can go and see any teacher. Now, how many guys actually take advantage of that? Not a lot, but it was, it was really good because we could count on every third period, you know, unless we had a mass day or some special type of schedule, we could count on every 3rd period me being available for any extra help.

Rebecca Joyner [00:39:17]:
And you don’t have a classroom, so are you in like an office or do you have like a home base in a classroom?

Alex Crim [00:39:21]:
So, you know, typically they, what they would try to do is they would try to like, so they would technically stagger the advising days. Like outta the 8, outta the 8 cycle days, I only had to be available for 4, but I was always available.

Rebecca Joyner [00:39:32]:
Okay.

Alex Crim [00:39:33]:
And I had one main room, like there was only one class I taught in a different room. So like the, The one room was pretty much, they knew it as Mr. Crim’s room, so I would just be stationed there. I didn’t have like 30 guys in there, so, right. Even if it was 2 or 3, I could take a lab table and if there was someone else using it. But that was awesome.

Rebecca Joyner [00:39:49]:
I love built-in school policies like that. We had that at my last school and it was just so nice. Like they weren’t allowed, coaches weren’t allowed to start practices until 45 minutes after school ended. And it was great cuz it was like, okay, every, I know you can’t tell me you have baseball cuz I know for a fact you don’t.

Alex Crim [00:40:03]:
Yeah. And I got to school pretty early, like I’m an early riser, so I would get into school and there’d be some guys that’d say like, hey, like, can you meet before school? I’m like, yeah, I’m pretty much there like with a, with a cup of coffee ready to go. So if you wanna come in early, that’s fine with me. But yeah, after school would be sometimes, you know, maybe before baseball practice, you know, starts at 3:45, we get done at 2:45, like that hour I’d, you know, if someone needed something, but that’s when I’m trying to really get like my copies done or, Right. You know, anything prepped for the next day. I love it.

Rebecca Joyner [00:40:30]:
Okay. That’s really helpful. I’m always just curious to hear how people are doing that. So last few questions I wanna ask you. Do you have a cell phone policy or a school one? And then also AI, how are you handling that? Or do you have a school-wide policy? Like what’s that looking like?

Alex Crim [00:40:43]:
Yeah, so we do have a school-wide cell phone policy, which is they have to put ’em in the phone caddies. So when they come into class, they put ’em in. If they’re seen out with it, it’s an automatic detention, you know? So most guys toe the line with that. And then AI, simple policy, like if you’re caught using AI, it’s automatically 2 Saturdays, uh, detentions. And then if there’s anything else, then there’s obviously steps after that. I mean, with my, with myself, like handling AI, like I had a whole class discussion on it relatively early in the year where I said like, you know, when to use AI and when not to use AI.

Rebecca Joyner [00:41:17]:
Mm-hmm.

Alex Crim [00:41:17]:
So like, you know, they did some research projects for me this year and I said like one of the great ways of using AI is to give them, you know, a topic and say like, I need research articles and journals and sources on this topic, right? Like that’s the kind of work that you use AI for, right? Because it would, it could take some time for yourself to go on and, you know, do all that work. Like just ask AI, like they’ll probably get you some good sources. You have to check ’em, make sure you can access them. But I was like, when you don’t use it is to write your actual paper. Like don’t let, don’t let AI think for you.

Rebecca Joyner [00:41:46]:
Mm-hmm.

Alex Crim [00:41:47]:
Right? That’s when you’re, that’s when you get into trouble. You know, so I, I try, because I think one of the things with AI, and I think I’m seeing more of this, is just like the proper education, right?

Rebecca Joyner [00:41:55]:
Like the proper use.

Alex Crim [00:41:56]:
Like these kids, like we just kind of plopped this down and like, and never said anything about it. We just said like, hey, don’t use it. Right? So I, I tried to actually kind of educate them and say like, why, like when to use it? Because this, this can be a powerful tool if we use it correctly.

Rebecca Joyner [00:42:12]:
Right.

Alex Crim [00:42:12]:
And then other things I was like, guys, like when you use AI to write a paper, like I know it’s not you. I’m like, I know you’re not using this em dash. I know you don’t know this word. I know you don’t. This is not your style of writing. Mm-hmm. Like, it’s just not. So I was like, I was like, you can use AI for a lot of things, but like when it comes down to that final product, like that should be your writing.

Alex Crim [00:42:30]:
You should be synthesizing all the information they gave you to put it into your words, your language.

Rebecca Joyner [00:42:35]:
Yeah, I love that. I think of like, I think that AI education is so important. One of my children’s, his second grade teacher who I adored her. But she’s definitely old school and she, she has trained those second graders that AI lies. And so he, I remember he would come home from school and be like, Mom, are you using AI at your job? Because AI lies to you. And I was like, okay, well, AI is like not, I don’t know if I would argue that it is like moral and it’s out to get me, but I do think you have to be able to assess if it’s telling true things or not.

Alex Crim [00:43:05]:
Mm-hmm.

Rebecca Joyner [00:43:06]:
So like, it was just funny because I was like, that’s an example of like a black and white statement. Where instead of just saying, hey, be afra— teaching my second grader to be afraid of AI, not that he should even use it, what are ways we can teach them to actually utilize it as opposed to being like, AI lies and I’m gonna fight anyone who uses it. But—

Alex Crim [00:43:21]:
Yeah. Another thing I, I’ve, I used AI for was I would tell guys like, when you get the notes, if you put your notes in the AI, they can come up with test questions.

Rebecca Joyner [00:43:29]:
Yeah.

Alex Crim [00:43:30]:
And like, and I said to them, I was like, I was like, in biology there’s only so many things that I could possibly ask you about certain things. So like if you go in and say like, here are my notes, could you come up with a practice MCQ for a high school, you know, biology class, like they’re probably gonna give you some good questions. Now again, some of them are gonna be probably bad, but there’s gonna be probably some good ones too. So like you could use it to come up with more review questions and help you with reviewing.

Rebecca Joyner [00:43:53]:
Yeah, I love that. And use it for, like, there are good ways to use it that can definitely help you. All right, well the last question I have to ask everybody is, what is one way that you’re simplifying your life right now?

Alex Crim [00:44:05]:
Well, I would, I’ll give you 2 answers cuz right now one way I’m simplifying is going To full body workouts 3 times a week. ‘Cause like right now, even though I don’t have a lot going on, I do have some stuff. So like I used to try to go like 5 days a week, but like what would end up happening is something pops up and it’s like, well, I just did upper body and I have a low, I can’t do it. Just do full body 3 times a week. ‘Cause if I miss a day, if I miss a day, I can just do full body again. But the one way I simplified this, this past year was using packets. And like, I have to give like a bow to you because The packets were so easy to use and simplified my life. Now it takes a while to print all the packets.

Rebecca Joyner [00:44:44]:
Right.

Alex Crim [00:44:45]:
But once you print them, that entire unit, which would be typically like 3 to 4 weeks, there wasn’t much I was printing, like maybe a one-off thing here or there. And the students loved ’em. Like the students loved that they were like right there. They knew that they were just flipping to the next page, that the homework was already given to you. The notes were right there. Now there was, was, there was one time I accidentally printed them double-sided and I got a bunch of backlash from my students. They’re like, they’re like, we want the single-sided. And I’m like, oh, I’m sorry.

Alex Crim [00:45:14]:
I was just trying to save some paper. But yeah, they were, they were really simple and like, it really was nice because I remember last year, even though I was a type A kind of guy, like last year there’s always that one class where you’re like, oh man, I’m, I’m 12 copies short. I gotta go run. Like, mm-hmm. It’s all right there. It’s like everything’s right there. You don’t have to worry about it. Just print and go.

Rebecca Joyner [00:45:32]:
I know. And I’m like, that’s just when I would always get, I’m like, I’m gonna post up in the copy room and grades and stuff while this is running. And yeah, like you said, like if, like in biology, it’s only 7, I only had 7 units. I’m only doing it 7 times a year. So it, it’s long on the front end, but it saves so much on the back end. And students really do, I think they just love being able to see the like physical progression of where we’re going.

Alex Crim [00:45:53]:
Like, it’s like a, it was like a textbook.

Rebecca Joyner [00:45:55]:
Yes. But in a more concise way. Yeah. Aesthetically pleasing also too, I guess. Well, not as, I guess there’s not as many pictures, but I love that you love packets. That’s awesome.

Alex Crim [00:46:05]:
Yeah.

Rebecca Joyner [00:46:06]:
Well, thank you so much for coming on the podcast. I’m so grateful that you gave me some of your time. Is there any way that if listeners wanna reach out and connect to you that they can?

Alex Crim [00:46:16]:
I think the easiest way is just my email. So acrim0033@gmail.com.

Rebecca Joyner [00:46:23]:
Awesome.

Alex Crim [00:46:24]:
If anyone wants to connect, that’s, that’s the easiest way.

Rebecca Joyner [00:46:27]:
Awesome. Thank you so much, Alex. I really appreciate your time.

Alex Crim [00:46:30]:
Thank you, Rebecca.

Rebecca Joyner [00:46:32]:
Thank you so much for listening to today’s episode and my conversation with Alex. There are a lot of links we mentioned, and those can all be found in the show notes at itsnotrocketscienceclassroom.com/episode245. And if you have any questions about the It’s Not Rocket Science curriculum that he mentioned he uses, or the Secondary Science Simplified Virtual Professional Development Bundle that he has used as well, please don’t hesitate to reach out to me. You can always email me at rebecca@itsnotrocketscienceclassroom.com. Now, before I let you go, if you have not left a review for the podcast yet and a rating, I would love it if you would do so, especially if after listening you just feel energized going into this new school year to prioritize connection and consistency over content coverage. I absolutely loved his attitude about all of that. And now moving forward, that’s kind of the end of our initial month of me sharing these guest episode conversations. I loved ending on Alex’s just because I thought his words and his wisdom, again, that are beyond his years, I think are such a good encouragement for the heart and soul, just a great mindset to have going into a new school year.

Rebecca Joyner [00:47:42]:
Next week, we’re going to dive into some back-to-school specific content I’m really excited to share with you. And then if you’ve loved these guest episodes as much as I have, don’t worry, I have 8 more to share with you, and those will be coming about once a month over the next 8 months. So I cannot wait to get those out to 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 Reset Challenge. 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.