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Tell me your name again. My name is Sterling And my name is Vernon. You know, this is the Humanities Truck. We deal with different Humanity issues and I'm on of the team members for the truck and my name is Vernon. And your name is Sterling? Yep.

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Okay, now. This question is in reference to late or maybe your life experience in terms of labor and your experience with working -- that sort of thing. Thing and your experience that you work at that you like. Actually, I'm going to ask you a question. Everyone has something they worked on. They have worked on in their life. What is something valuable you have contributed to and can share with others with thinking about the work you have done in your life, thus far? What are you proud of? And what can you point to? Okay. A loaded question. Well, let's see. I work in education. And so I started off not in education at all. I actually started off in wildlife and wanted to work with elephants and do conservation work.

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So, you're in education, where did you attend school? So I did undergrad at Virginia Tech. And then grad school at Lesley University, Lesley in Boston. But I realized that conservation can't happen without education. And so, decided to go the education route and kind of figure out how to teach people different conservation strategies or how to teach people in general. And so I started off with kids and started teaching Elementary School and really enjoyed it. What are you teaching? Getting off the beaten track. Where you teach kids? What are you teaching? Oh what do I teach?So when I taught in the classroom, I taught a little bit of everything. So I was mostly math and science, but there was one year where I did English and I did history as well.

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Yeah, cause I'm trying to get at where does the conversation fit in. That's the science part is where -- yeah, so I would try to tie that into the life sciences, or if we were talking about animals or ecosystem. That's where I would tie the conservation part in. Great, so did you work for the DC public school? I did, yes. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

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Okay and when thinking about your work, the work you have done in your life thus far, what are you most proud of? Yeah, so after working for DCPS for a couple of years, I transitioned to a non-profit and still worked with kids at after school, but my goal in moving to that job was to make sure that instructors felt prepared to go into the classroom and felt like they were really successful in teaching and really successful in connecting with the kids. And so, I think what I am most proud of since being part of this nonprofit, I've been able to create a website for instructors to use and access their lesson plans, access schedules, access different resources to be better fit in the classroom, and I'm proud of it. I think that yeah it's able to help a lot of people at a very kind of easy accessible and quick way. Instructors can get to the website from their phones and use it in real time with the kids. And so it's been a lot of work trying to get that together because coming from the classroom standpoint there's a lot that I know kids need to learn and you have to be cognizant of and going into the classroom. And so yeah. Wow, that's great. So now this -- I'm very interested in this part -- I mean you pointed to the website, the classroom. How, how did the corona thing affect you and your progress and since you mention your field is education, how did that affect where you were. That's okay. Yeah, it affected us dramatically. So being an after school. We rely heavily on what DCPS is doing. And so a lot of it was like, okay, we're going to be virtual for a bit of time and then we're going to go back in person. And so initially, it was a lot of planning for like maybe 6 weeks or so of virtual instruction which was a shift, but it wasn't a huge shift. It was something that we could do, we could manage, but then that six weeks extended to be the whole year. And so that meant that we one, had to revamp how we interacted with kids. So all of our in-person programming now had to be virtual. We had to make sure that families were set up for success with that. So, all the students making sure that they have laptops to use, making sure they had good internet connection. And then because we care about the families and everything in the nonprofit -- making sure that families had resources. So making sure they had food, making sure they had access to different things, that they lost their job. So really, it shifted from being wholly kid focus to being focused on the whole family, and making sure that everybody was supported.

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There's a saying that says "it takes a village" Yes and that saying rang true. Well, you just made it real plain right there. So, what is something that you find in that process that...well nothing can be left out of the process but what are you most...what would be your claim to game in that whole problem. When it's said and done when all of this is over? I think it would be that transition to virtual learning.

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It was hard? It, it was not hard. It's just time consuming at least for my part. For the instructors that are on the front line. Definitely harder. Because it's a shift to keep kids engaged online, you have to shift your lesson plans to match the time and and all of that. So definitely harder for them. And for me just that initial shift to getting everybody on their classroom links getting that set up communicating with schools to see how we could partner and then making sure that the instructors still felt successful going into that arena that they have not done before. Or so, I think that would be my claim to fame with that. Yeah. Yeah that's a lot. So the student, how did they respond to all these changes? How do you think they're taking it from what you said? That's a good question. So like you said, I think each kid is different. Some students have really thrived with virtual. I know that some students appreciate the one-on-one interaction and you get to kind of be in a comfortable setting and feel very focused that way. And then, there are other students on the complete opposite of the spectrum that need to be around people and need that engagement and the hands-on. And so, I think for kids in general, it's a shift and I think that they are navigating it as best as they can. Especially, I work with a lot of younger students. So it's learning socially -- like Elementary aged. So primarily second grade through and around fifth. It is! It is a lot of attitude, but rightfully, so there's a lot going on in their lives, but --

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So actually, you actually going in to the home cause you can see. Right, you can see right there. First head. Where's the parent? Sometimes the parent is right there in the background. Sometimes the parents and the next room at work. We can kind of at home. Sometimes the parent is not there and they have an older sibling that's watching them and all of that. So, [VS: wow], it's yeah, it's different. It's different and I think it's weird for kids to be in the virtual setting because you're at home, but you still have to raise your hand and let the teacher know that you have to go to the bathroom and get a snack even though you can just get up and do it. So I think coming back into in person is going to be learning those things again. Yea

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Yeah. Because I think, I think one of the greatest [INAUDIBLE] When I was in school, I looked forward to it [INAUDIBLE] I'm sure even when I was a student in elementary school, I blossomed! [INAUDIBLE] Everything, I looked forward to everything. The cookies and milk in the morning. Yeah, there's nothing like being a kid getting ready for school, picking out your outfit, getting your book bag together. All of that. It's just, it's an energy, a lot of fun. Yeah and just to think that that whole [INAUDIBLE] and you all have to adapt. They talking about [INAUDIBLE] It's likely, it's likely. Yeah, I think though, more energy has to go to the teacher. Because I think that teachers have been great and like you were talking about going to school like you look forward to seeing certain teachers because they brought an energy. They really cared about you. And teachers have had to continue doing that while also themselves navigating this transition and now navigating going back and it's a lot of work for them. And so I think really making sure that teachers feel supported and feel the love and you know have that grace, you know, it's where things are not going to be perfect. And we cannot expect teachers to be perfect going back.

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Yeah [INAUDIBLE] It's a big questions. It's related to labor and the labor aspect of teaching. And it's a big one right now cause this issue on the table right now [INAUDIBLE]. Yeah, I think you know, it's kind of a loaded question, but I think that you know, teachers of course should be paid more! I think that DC pays their teachers fairly well, but there are also some nuances with DC's structure that kind of leaves some teachers out, but I think especially coming back from this pandemic, we have to prioritize teachers because I know a lot of teachers are recognizing that their skill set is transferable to so many other positions that pay a lot more. And so if they're not feeling the appreciation, if they're not getting compensated fairly, then it's easy for a teacher to leave and go somewhere else and then we have no teachers. So I think that teachers need to be paid more. I also think teachers need more grace in how much they are kind of held accountable to. [INAUDIBLE] Sterling that was wonderful energy. I learned a lot and it makes a lot of sense because you're a teacher teaching me something. Thanks, thank you so much!