Finding the Right Fit: a Conversation with International Teacher, Greg
In the 10th episode of Making the Grade Podcast, Georgia and Christine connect with Greg, an international teacher who has over 20 years of experience. Avid scuba diver, technology guru, author…& most importantly, a teacher at heart.
A fellow podcaster from Wisconsin, Greg is passionate in telling others about “the best kept secret in education”: international teaching. Greg is well-traveled - he has visited over 70 countries, and taught in 7 different countries across 5 continents. Given his unique perspective, he speaks to the similarities rather than the differences in teaching children all around the world.
An animated storyteller, Greg has some really incredible (& wild) stories to share from his journeys; some of which may or may not involve scuba diving with great white sharks. Greg speaks to the joy he has found in mixing traveling & teaching, and his desire to “be a tourist, not a traveler”. He recognizes the privilege in being able to have these experiences & has become so passionate about others doing the same that he wrote a book about it (see notes below)!
This episode covers a lot: technology in education, the importance of autonomy in the classroom, & the reason why he won’t teach in the US. Greg is a laugh a minute - he keeps Christine & Georgia on their toes with his own “this or that '' & you definitely don’t want to miss why his students call him “Mr. Chicken!” His lighthearted approach to teaching & life will help remind you “it’s not the destination, it’s the journey”.
Greg’s Podcast, “International Teacher Podcast”
Greg’s book, “Finding the Right Fit”
Christine
Welcome to Making the Grade An Education podcast for current and former teachers to share notes, define success, and assess their own happiness in the classroom and beyond. We are your hosts, Christine, in Georgia.
Georgia
The problems in education may seem endless, but so are the possibilities. Listen, laugh, and leave our episodes empowered to define your own success as an educator and an individual.
Georgia
Hello fellow educators and welcome to Making the Grade podcast. We are your host, Christine Georgia, and we're so excited you're tuning in to share your teacher voice. Today we will be talking with our guest, Greg, about his experiences traveling and international teaching and how he measures success in his current classroom. Greg is a pre-K through 12 international teacher, traveler, author, and one of three hosts of the International Teacher Podcast. He has lived and taught overseas since 2001 and has been in seven schools on five continents. He's taught in Honduras, Venezuela, Egypt, Cambodia, Switzerland, Kuwait, and the Middle East. Greg specializes in technology integration, makerspace education, and he's passionate about make, matching the art of teaching with technology. When he is not teaching all over the globe, Greg is taking and sharing beautiful photographs of the amazing underwater places he visits on his personal blog. If that's not enough to keep you interested, stick around to learn why his students call him Mr. Chicken and what he thinks is the best kept secret in teaching
Christine
Teachers our school schedule can make it really hard to schedule a doctor appointment or go away for a long weekend. Nevermind. Find the time to go scuba diving. Our guest today is a teacher and a world traveler. We think this is a really cool combination. We're excited to talk to him more about some guidance and inspiration on how he came to the place that he is currently and how you can do the same if you're interested.
Georgia
All right, Greg, thank you so much for being here. We're so excited. I share your love of travel, so I'm super excited to get into all of your travel stories and hear everything you've gotta say about teaching overseas. And yeah, we can't wait to get into it and we love to start our shows with some, with some this or that. And would you rather, are you up for that little segment there?
Greg
Bring it on.
Georgia
Okay, cool. I'm gonna go first with a travel one. And I got asked this recently and I am still struggling with the response, what I wanna choose. So would you rather always travel first class for free when you're flying, but always have a layover or always travel in regular back of the plane for free and never have a layover?
Greg
Oh, I'll take the first class anytime because I can sit in an airport forever and just watch people.
Christine
Interesting.
Georgia
Okay. That's true. That's true. I, I think I would too. I've actually never flown first class, so I guess, I don't know. I'm assuming it's awesome, but I don't love layovers sometimes I just wanna get where I'm going, so that's why it was tough for me.
Christine
I think. I think I would choose no layovers. I think it's just the stage of life I'm in. I'm just picturing if I were traveling as a family and having to wait longer than normal, just no thanks that, but I don't know, I, I don't know that I've ever flown first class either. I think I got bumped once to, on a flight to the front. I, I assume it was a smaller plane, so I assume that's what they call first class. It wasn't that different of an experience. It wasn't that unique.
Greg
I have a first class story for you.
Christine
Yeah, I would love to hear it cuz we, we need to travel more clearly.
Greg
Right. So I was currently living in Cambodia and I flew back to the states and then I flew from the states down to my new school of the Venezuela and I just had to make that trip cuz they didn't have anything more direct. So I flew from Cambodia to like Houston or Miami and then Miami down to Venezuela and on the, the leg and I was gonna drop my stuff off and see where I was gonna be and then go home and see family. So anyway, long story short, the Miami to Venezuela was like four hours and I fell asleep the minute they put the little, the chair back for me. You know, we took off and I put my chair back. I never had a free drink. I never, I even got to use the real silverware. I got nothing cuz I fell asleep and all of a sudden we're landing and I'm like, what a waste of first class. Right? And I was so tired from travel, it was terrible. But no, I, I could sit anywhere in an airport for hours. I, in fact, that's my, can I do the next this or that then?
Georgia
Sure, of course.
Greg
Okay, so this is a little bit trickier. Let's do this or that. Would you rather fly sit in an airport for like four hours in a layover or would you like to get to the airport just in time, but you have to run to get to the gate?
Christine
No, I, I've only missed one flight in my life and it was very stressful. So I would, I would rather wait.
Georgia
I'd rather, yeah. Can I tell a quick story, a quick travel story?
Greg
Please do
Georgia
My fiance might kill me for telling this story, but I guess it was like four years ago we were going to Italy and we're on our way to the airport. I, at the time lived very close to the airport and my parents were driving us. We were going to get dinner first, be there nice and early, it was gonna be great. We're on our way. Sergey says, I think I left my passport at home and we weren't living together. He lived an hour away. So we're like, great. Of course, okay, well go get your passport and meet us at the airport. I'm gonna go to dinner with my parents, goes home, can't find it. We're now searching his suitcase cuz we still have his suitcase. Can't find it. Ultimately we think we're gonna just miss our flight. So I'm like, all right, well mom and dad take me to Sergey's house.
We're gonna go cry at his house that we missed our flight to Italy and find his passport. Hopefully we get to his house, bring in his suitcase, he opens his suitcase, the passport is right on top, the passport that we have searched for for hours, throwing his clothes everywhere. It's all of a sudden there like no idea how this happened. So my dad's like, get back in the car races to the airport is like speeding. We get there, we get to the desk, they're like, if you were one second late, we would not have let you in. But go ahead. And then we're running. We get in line like as everyone on our plane is getting on the plane for an international flight. And we made it. And it was the most hectic experience of my life. I'm very grateful we made it, but I would never wanna go through that again. So
Christine
Classic Sergei.
Georgia
Yes. That was a good one though.
Christine
That is all right. I had another travel one in mind, but you just leaked that you are from Wisconsin and now I'm thinking about the Midwest. Not like I didn't know. Come on. We already did a deep dive on you, but
Greg
Yes, I'd rather eat cheese curds than drink beer. I'm sorry, was that another question? Oh, I'm sorry, go ahead.
Christine
No, I was just thinking about the recent, recent headlines. So are you sports, sports person? Do you follow?
Greg
I'm from Green Bay and I follow a little bit, but I am quite far away, so go ahead.
Okay.
Christine
No, I was just curious your, your thoughts on, on Aaron Rogers leaving and everything, but it's not really this or that. It was more just making headlines everywhere.
Greg
That's, that's a whole nother episode right there. If you could turn that into a this or that, I'll take beer and cheese curs right there at a Packer game.
Christine
Would you rather come in early or stay after?
Greg
I'm an early person. I like to be the first person at school, even if they don't pay me to be, because I would always rather to be early than to be late. How does that sound?
Georgia
Makes Sense. Similar to the airport thing,
Greg
Right? What about you guys? Do you got like to go? Were you early or late or
Christine
Neither? No. Yeah, I don't know. Georgia, what about you?
Georgia
So I would say in general, I'm a get to something early person and I think when I started my teaching career, I was like that I gotta get there early and be prepared towards the end of my time in the classroom. Last year I was kind of getting there right at the last minute only because I was so, I knew what I was doing, I was comfortable, I didn't feel like I had to prepare as much, but I would always prefer to get things done in the morning to be able to leave right when the bell rings. That would always be my preference.
Christine
I'm kind of opposite. I, I kind of was throughout teaching too, so I found that most students in the schools that I worked in, they would come in decently early and I was in special ed so I would have to do bus duty and stuff. So I feel like I couldn't get as much done in the mornings. Also, most teachers came in early to make copies and things like that. So I found that staying after just served me better. No one was in the places that I needed to get to to make copies. I became best friends with the custodians. I, it was quiet and I just, I kind of did my thing and then I went home and then I had everything set for the next day. So yeah, I guess typically I like to be early, but yeah, opposite there. All right, so back to our questions about international teaching. So you are, you're actually our first international guest. Where are you currently?
Greg
I'm in Saudi Arabia and I don't say which school because it's a big company, just think that they sell more oil than anybody else. And they have schools, their own little school district of like six schools, but five schools I'm in, I'm in that now. And other podcasts might talk about it, but I don't. So just, you know, I mean Middle East, I guess I could say it. I think of Oil and Ramadan and Muslims.
Christine
Yeah, no course. Yeah, that's
Greg
Short answer. Yeah,
Christine
No, I was just, I, I was just thinking you're, yeah, our first international guest and yeah, so we have not spoken to anyone who has done what you've done in terms of international teaching. We had a guest on who was stateside and did, you know, a year or two away and came back. But you have made it your, your life's mission essentially. Can you tell us a little bit more about your decision to head overseas? What has that been like for you? And speak a little bit about how education looks the same and different in all of these places you've been.
Greg
Absolutely, and I guess my quick elevator story is that I was gra, I graduated from University of Wisconsin in Oshkosh, which is near Green Bay. Between Green Bay and Milwaukee and total Cheesehead. And I was getting near the end of my fourth year, so graduating, and it was Christmas time, so right before I did my in Wisconsin, you have to do your student teaching and your graduate courses before you graduate. During that last semester. And I was, it was December and I went to a cocktail party and this person says to me, I don't remember who it was, says, oh, you, you know, you were talking about Germany, you love travel and you say you're gonna be a teacher, you should just go to Iowa. And I'm like, what? Why would I go to Iowa? What are you talking, you freak? What are you talking about?
And he's like, no, no, just look it up. University Northern Iowa does some kind of an international teaching thing. And I said, what's that? And I really had no idea. The guy had no idea. So he said, just Google it. So later on, I mean I went down to Iowa, they have a job fair every year and I missed a whole week of third grade student teaching. And because I went to a TESOL conference for college before that for a week and then flew over to Iowa and ended up getting a job in Honduras. And that is a true story. I had no idea I had, I didn't have a resume set up, I didn't have a portfolio. I was doing that over Christmas and it was crazy Here I'm trying to prep for my, my teaching and oh my God, I went through all this.
But I ended up doing lots of interviews and hired on with Honduras, even though I didn't even have my certificate, I didn't have my, I didn't graduate yet. So they hired me. And it was really cool because I went down and taught fifth grade in Honduras in a school that used the same textbooks, the same McMillan or Hutton Mifflin and same curriculum that we used in the States. That's wild. So it was so, yeah, it was so weird. And you know, the funny, I always tell the story too is that when I came home to the airport and my mom and dad picked me up and they're like, what happened? What'd you decide on? Did you even choose somewhere? Did you interview? And what parts of the world were there? And I was like, well there were like 150 schools there from different countries around the globe.
And I end up, I'm going to Honduras and my mom was like, what? You're gonna die, right? Because it's this impoverished country. There's no money, it's poverty. And I said, and my dad says, oh, they've got great scuba diving there in the same breath. And we, it was crazy. But I never looked back and I loved it so much. I went down there and I finished up my student teaching. I graduated and then in August 1st I was in my own classroom teaching fifth grade. And I couldn't believe it. It's changed my life. So I don't know, that's where I, how I got into it. And no, nobody had any information. There was just a little like packet that you could get from the university right before you, as soon as you paid their money, their fee to get in, they would give you this little booklet of what you can and can't do.
And it was so weird. I mean, you go to this hotel and they would interview you in the ho hotel rooms and it was, so, I'm not a woman. I mean, I'm not that uncomfortable about stuff, but it's like, you wanna leave the door open, but they're interviewing you in the same room that they're sleeping in and their, the whole hotel is packed. It was crazy. And I could tell you a thousand stories about those. I've been to about five of those now. Wow. Five or six. Wow. But yes, and that's why say I'm an author cuz I, I inspired me to write a book 20 some years later about how to do it so that people want to get into international, they can actually learn how to get in through a job fair like that successfully. Cuz there's a lot of twists and turns. It's a rollercoaster. And there's quite a few fairs nowadays too. So that's, that's,
Christine
what is your book called?
Greg
It's called Finding the Right Fit. And the reason I called it that is because when international recruiters, when superintendents and principals and teachers talk about teaching at a school, they say, is it the right fit for you? Because you're talking about the country, they're talking about the school itself, the culture, the language, everything. It's all part of the puzzle. So it's a real difficult decision to, and you're, you're making, it's like a dating game on the weekend for a two year contract, right? You're going from school to school to school, and you end up making a decision overnight of where you're gonna move to for two years for a contract of teaching and living away from family and friends and all that stuff. So finding the right fit was what I called it based on, that's the, the key phrase that I learned even from 20 some years ago about what it means to go overseas. Okay. How's that?
Christine
Amazing. Yeah, congrats on your book too. That's to have gone through the journey yourself. I'm sure you found through your own experiences, all of the parts that you're like, I wish someone had told me this, you know?
Greg
Yes, totally. And that's why I wrote it. And I don't even care if anybody besides my mom reads it, but I, it's really interesting because one of my best friends back in Green Bay, his name is Joe Kittinger, he's written three books. And during Covid I, he says, Greg, where's your book? And I said, oh, it's, it's all in my head, you know, I'm almost there. I've written it out. A manuscript is getting there. He is like, Greg, if you can't publish a book during Covid, what? Well, you know, I'm like, just give up. I'm like, oh yeah, can you believe that the challenge was set in front of me? And I finally did. I called him back, you know, a couple months later and said, Joey, it's up. It's on Amazon.
Christine
Good for you. Well,
Georgia
We'll have to put the link in our show notes for anyone who's interested in reading it.
Greg
Oh, I'd love that.
Georgia
I'm interested reading it, that's for sure. I love that, you know, finding the right fit. I think that applies to so many things in life. Like there's no one size fits all, and so you gotta find what's right for you.
Greg
Well it also, it goes for schools in the states too, and people in their home country, I wanna call it that. But if you're in your home country and you're sitting at the same school, like my friend has been at the same school for 20 some years ever since I left for Honduras. She's doing e s L and she's been doing that for 20 some years in the same room for, you know, throughout the whole time. I think she found the right fit for her. Clearly. Yeah. There's no way I could do that. Right? No way.
Georgia
But yeah, I always thought that when I was teaching pre-k and like the eighth grade teachers would be like, how can you teach preschool? Oh my goodness. And I'd be like, how do you teach eighth grade? Like, they're so intimidating to me. So obviously there's something for everyone. And it would be boring if everyone wanted to do the same thing.
Greg
True that, and here's an interesting question I got on another interview once. They said, are they wanted to know, are kids the same across the world? Right? Because I've been to so many different countries and taught in different grade levels and do you know what my answer is? Basically, yes, they are, they're all the same. That there's differences in culture and language and you know, things with family and customs, but they're kids, you know, your eighth graders wanna be on their phones and your kindergartners want to play and the the boys are gonna make, you know, guns outta straws where the girls are playing, you know, with the Legos and building a garden. And that, that's just the way it is until they find other things. And that's my stock answer. I've found that kids are wonderful in every school across the world. And you're gonna have the people that are the naysayers and they're upset and they pick apart, you know, international or this school's terrible or th that's gonna be everywhere.
Greg
But I tell you what, it has to do with your own attitude too. And there's no way I'm gonna burn out from this kind of a job. I, I love this career and I just, I know that after this, I know George is gonna finish up her little trip around the US and she's gonna go back in the classroom because it's for teaching, it's for teaching couples. Take your dog with you, find the right school where you could take your husband and take your dog and go and teach for two years and get that, that jazz back into your life cuz you like to see the little kids. And that's what I do. I don't teach English in the sticks. I'm not like holding up a chalkboard in Africa and, and pointing to letters and saying, this is, you know, this is what I do.
Greg
And by the way, they don't have microwaves here because people, when I go back home to Wisconsin, unless they know me, the conversation gears towards that when I say I'm an international teacher, they think I work for the Peace Corps, but I do the same thing that you guys do. I taught special needs in Kuwait and I was using modified materials to teach the kids at different reading levels. Like I had a 11th grader that read at a second grade level and I was there to help him become a better reader and go through some of the science and get that out of him. And I had special needs across the board. It was like a, a crazy experience, but I had a lot of support and it was, it was really neat to do that. And the same thing with pre-kinder. You know, if you're gonna teach kindergarten or pre-kinder, I do the same thing that you do in the states with pre-kinder. I have kids sitting on the carpet and I'm like, wow, you know, woohoo, let's you know we're gonna do this today. And I go in and sub all the time. That's been the worst thing about recently is we have a shortage of teachers. So I've been subbing on all my prep periods. Oh that's, and I go in and sub for all different, I'm the worst music teacher you've ever met. I mean it's the kids laugh, but oh my god, I'm terrible. I'm like, what do I do next? Oh my god.
Georgia
So the shortage of teachers is worldwide. Huh? That's
Christine
Interesting.
Greg
Well it is with our company I think they're just, you know, cutting corners because they're two tweaking things. They plan it about two or three years ahead and I can't speak for the company, but it's different when you work for a company than you just work for a school. So I'll I'll leave it at that. Yeah, we'll make it through.
Christine
How, so as you were talking I was thinking about how, so how many countries have you taught at?
Greg
I've
Christine
or is continents easier to count?
Georgia
Five, seven countries? Is that what it's
Greg
Right. Seven countries. And you know, I'm not alone. I've been doing a lot of interviews on our podcast with other teachers that do the same thing and I I just love it. It's, it's, I have this travel bug because I grew up as a, as an army brat and then I was an exchange student in high school. So I switched friends every two or three years just because where we moved around the states and you'd think that I've been to more than like 11 states and I haven't, which is strange. Like I count staying overnight in a state, right? Like if you just drive through in your RV right through Arizona and don't stop somewhere overnight and you just, I can't say I went there. Okay. Right. So I have to count that I've been to like 70 countries around the world and I've only been to like, I would say about 11 or 12 states. But you have to count staying overnight and spending some time there cause you're not, you know, I wanna say like Anthony Bourdain always used to say don't be a tourist, be a traveler is so true. Off the beaten track, right? Yeah. Oh
Georgia
Actually, actually like experience the place versus just go to the trendy stop at the touristy stop and keep going.
Greg
I hope you're doing that with your husband right now and your dog. You're going off the beaten track. Yeah. See the big ball of twine, you need to see the movie Michael. If you haven't seen the, the old, old movie Michael, it's John Travolta's an angel and they have to go in the car cause they can't fly just to get there. It's the journey. It's not getting there. It's the journey. That's what my life is like.
Georgia
I like that
Greg
Totally.
Georgia
I'm gonna have to watch it. Yeah,
Greg
Cool. You'll love it. Yes, you'll love it. It's, that's what I do. I, I'm like on a big RV trip around the world I guess. Yeah. But I have a job. I have a secure, I have a secure job that I love in every place that I go. So I sort of travel in that area. If I have enough money at the time, I'll travel around that area or investigate that country that I'm in.
Georgia
Cool.
Christine
At what point did you decide that this was gonna be your lifestyle in your journey?
Greg
Oh my god, you're gonna hate me if I say it chose me. Instead
I just fell into this. I tell you, I went to a cocktail party and all of a sudden, you know, I'm living it up. But I do what I love when I, when I'm not teaching, I'm either scuba diving or traveling with somebody else or traveling on my own. Like for my 50th birthday I bought myself a ticket to Australia and I went diving with the great white sharks. And then I saw, I dunno, you see any, did you any Oh you bet. Oh, a beautiful pictures of them too. I should have, I should've worn the brown wetsuit that day, that's for sure. Big. Yikes. I went on two different trips for that and then I bookended it with some travels in Adelaide down in the south to go diving with leafy sea dragons. And that's a kind of seahorse, which is absolutely, if you haven't ever seen it, it's on the blue planet. They have like a five minute segment on these leafy sea dragons and they're gorgeous. And I have the most beautiful pictures and experience and memories of that. Oh my god, it was so cool. Wow. So yeah,
Georgia
I like, I have a fear of the ocean. I've never gone scuba diving. I don't know if I could, but it's like I see your pictures and they're so beautiful and I'm just like, oh that you just, it just seems magical down there. Do you share your travels and photos and stuff with your students?
Greg
I do. In fact, you know, especially elementary students love underwater stuff. So I will throw in a picture of the great white shark and I'll say, or I went to The Bahamas and dove with Emma. She's on shark week all the time, right? So you go to Bahamas and die with the tiger sharks and Emma's like this thousand pound shark. And I did that years ago with my dad and my brother and a friend from Venezuela. When we did that, I got a picture of Emma coming right between my friend Scott and my brother Jeff and my dad coming right between them and coming straight at me. And then this is a thousand pound shark coming straight at my camera and I tell the kids this and I, it turns into Shark Week in my classroom. Right? All of a sudden there's 20 minutes they all they wanna talk about is sharks. Right? So
Georgia
Think you're so cool. Yeah. I must be the coolest teacher ever. He swim.
Greg
Oh I am.
Georgia
You are. Yeah. There's, you want kidding for that? You're the I I would say you are.
Greg
I have a lot of fun.
Georgia
What a cool thing to be able to integrate into, right? How you're teaching. And I know you're also, this is something I'm excited to talk more with you about is Sure you love to integrate technology and makerspace education And in, when I was teaching pre-k makerspace was such a huge thing that we incorporated, you know, letting the kids filled with miscellaneous objects and we had this program called the Beautiful Stuff Project. Shout out to Marina. She would collect all these random little things, buttons and you know, things that companies didn't need anymore and put them in these little treasure boxes she called them and the kids could just make things with them. And it was just so cool to see. And you know, we wanted to do it. We were able to do it. We had the ability to do it a lot in Pre-K.
In Pre-K because their curriculum was a little bit more free. But even, you know, the kindergarten classrooms at my school felt like they didn't have enough of an opportunity for it. And you know, beyond that the curriculum was so structured it was hard for teachers to incorporate makerspace activities and you know, just improvise with things that were interesting to them. And I'm wondering, do you find that in the countries you've taught in, have you had that autonomy to kind of integrate things however you like? Or has the curriculum been kind of structured the way that we see here in, in the us
Greg
Well, the worst part of my answer is that I have to sort of prelude it with, it depends on the school, it depends on your experience at the school. And they do change a lot. There is a huge, huge amount of, of school that are going towards the makerspace idea. And we call ours future lab and our school just sort of grabbed onto it right before Covid we had bought all the products, we bought Legos, we bought robotics stuff. And it was amazing. And it's not about the products you have in the class, it's just the ability that the school actually says we're gonna give you the autonomy in your classroom to experiment. And I've been so lucky that at this current school I'm at, they said across the board my, my immediate boss is in charge of tech and he's like, listen, we have carte blanche, let's just experiment.
Greg
And that's been so much fun. I mean let's just take out the, you know, Kiva planks and Legos and I get paid to play Legos. But we're not just playing with Legos. We're building things we're, we want the kids to explore. The hardest thing is to, to build something and then take it apart because the next kids have to come through. I have 300 kids come through my classroom. I have, you know, all the K through four is what I teach currently. And I'm one of three teachers cuz we have a very big school of over a thousand kids and 300 come through my classroom each week. So if you come in as kindergarten and you play with the Legos or build something out of Kiva planks or you know, you build something out of cardboard, well that has to be used by the next class. So as a teacher, I have to plan not only the setup but also the breakdown and give them time and say, okay, 10 minutes, it's time to clean up. Right. I wish I could do every class like fourth graders. I wish I could just sing the cleanup song like I do with the preschool and the kindergartners. Right? Clean up, clean up. Everybody cleanup you just that
Georgia
Started singing it and they just know they start doing it's
Greg
Right. The fourth grade, the second graders did that, right? Yeah, yeah. They all remember that from kindergarten and, and preschool. So that is, it depends on the school, but a lot, there's a big movement right now for makerspace and everybody wants to do it. But the hardest part of that is that teachers that are doing the makerspace time have to be w have to be given the permission to just sort of let it go. Let the kids build something. And if it's, if it doesn't work, it doesn't work. If they're unhappy, that's fine. But you have to have a space for it. And you have to have the, the staff, I mean the, the admin have to be on board with you. So that's the biggest struggle. Right? Because other, other homerooms want to do it too. They want to come in and spend some time, but they have a crunch of their curriculum.
Greg
They have a crunch of the other times. Right. And our school, so I love the school so much and I've been here for seven years now almost. It's the longest I've ever been in one school. And the reason I'm still here is because I chose to stay longer because they're doing that with, even the homerooms now are starting to have like exploratory time or passion projects. Can you imagine your fourth graders have a passion hour every Thursday our last day of the week, they have an hour to do a project on their own. And the teacher's not doing it for them. They're just the coach. We're just the, the homeroom teacher. And, and I just support them by giving a little extra time during my future lab. And it's really been working out. I don't know how it's gonna work. I don't know what kind of, you know, sustainability this has, but the school's into it now as an admin. So let's hope for the best. I love it. Totally love it girls Love it, love it.
Georgia
We, we talked with someone recently who mentioned yes passion projects in their classroom in the US and how it actually led him to do his own passion project as, as the teacher, you know, the kids doing it kind of inspired him. So I think everyone,
Greg
Well you have to model as a teacher, you have to model it. So every time the kids sit down and do something, I'm doing the same thing. I'm inspired to build something if they're building something right. Right. They have little plus plus we call 'em plus plus they're these little plastic manipulatives and and Legos. And we have connects. I sit down and actually do it with the kids. So we're always building things, we're always exploring. So
Christine
Cool. Yeah, so the guests that we were talking to recently, who is doing passion projects in his classroom, had older students. But I love that you are able to do that with your fourth graders. Cuz imagine if we had the opportunity to do that when we were growing up, I feel like that would've changed maybe our trajectory a little bit or even what we got into now, you know? Yeah,
Georgia
No, that's actually really true.
Greg
Absolutely.
Christine
Very, very cool. All right, so on the topic of education, you have an education podcast and it's how we connected. Do you wanna talk a little bit more about that?
Greg
Totally. The biggest message that we have is that we're just having fun. We don't monetize. And one friend of mine, Matt said he's a family guy. He's got four beautiful kids. He's got a beautiful wife. Right. So
Christine
I was curious how you all got these nicknames, the cat guy. Tell me about that.
Greg
Yeah, it's on purpose. It's on purpose because we're trying to reach a large audience as a co-host. And we want to let people know that overseas teaching is just like teaching in the states in many respects. So it's open to somebody that's burned out or somebody wants to expand or doesn't know about international teaching. It's not just for somebody that's a guy like me, but my other cohost Matt is, and I'm Uncle Greg by the way, or Tio Goyo. But we met in Venezuela and now we teach at this. He, he, he and his wife got me to come to this school to teach. He's a family guy. So he has four kids and a wife. So his travels are different. His airport experiences, his vacations, his teaching, his day overseas and traveling back and forth to different countries. They're all different compared to me as a single guy. And then one of the fourth grade teachers that I actually teach in the same building with, cuz Matt's at a different school, but Kent and I teach in the same school and he's louder than me. He's funnier than me, funnier looking than me. But he has a wife and a cat, right? So they're a little bit old. They don't have, they're past the kid stage. So they, they have a cat, so he's the cat guy. Okay. So
Christine
We have that makes more sense.
Greg
Three different situation. Right. And now we have a single woman named Jacqueline, but she's, she's a consultant for overseas teachers. And she's been on our episodes a couple times. She totally loves it. She's like part of the family now. And we were thinking we'd get her on our show, but I don't know if she's, I don't know if she's or that single anymore. She's living with a guy in Mexico and she's retired at like 50.
Christine
What's her, what's her stick gonna be? Her stick the resume girl. I think I've listened to her. Yeah.
Greg
I don't know. And we haven't really even asked her officially. So she hears this, I'm like, we're,
Christine
This is her indication Jacqueline.
Greg
And the podcast started because by chance Matt and I both just love talking about teaching and sharing it with friends. We sit around and just talk. He, he loves to be on a microphone. He's a DJ as well as a teacher. And he's got, you know, so many brilliant ideas and we like to share with other people what, what we're doing. So his family and friends and other people can, can sit down and listen to our podcast and see that we're doing a, we're having a great time, we're safe, we're living a great life. And then Matt, so Matt and I said, Hey, let's do a podcast together. And at the same time, Kent had asked me how, how do I do podcasting? I wanna do podcasting about an anime, anime with my kids in fourth grade. Yeah. So he's one of those teachers that wants to take another passion and put it into his classroom with his kids. And I'm the techie school as well as makerspace. So he says, Greg, how do I do podcasting? And all of a sudden I go down that wormhole. Right? So I totally love talking about life teaching and sharing it with people because they, it's the best kept secret in education. That's our little tagline. And it totally is
Christine
What, what is the biggest misconception you get about what it is that you do? So you've talked about like people thinking it's not safe or that if you have a family, you can't do it. What do you think is the biggest one that people are like, you do this? What
Greg
I think the biggest one that we're, I'm trying to really relay out there is the, the idea that you can do it either of you personally at your stage in life, in your teaching, you can do it. Be they say, what's school like? And I said, well, my school in Venezuela was just like, or my school in Switzerland. I couple examples, but pretty much an international school. If you take one of the boarding schools or one of the K through 12 schools on the coast in the, in the States, and you just pick that up and put it into another country. That's what we do. We use the same curriculum. There's differences of course. But in general, I teach as a third grader, just like a third grade teacher in the States. I teach special needs in, in elementary or middle school. I teach it just like you do in this, like in most schools in the states, it's a private school in most cases.
Greg
But the kids are from all over the world. And there's nuances, there's different flavors. But people are like, what do you mean? And I said, well, tell me about your third grade day today. Right? What'd you do in third grade today? Did you have the kids line up? Did you lose one to go to the, the, you know, you're trying to give instructions and one raise their hand as I have to go to the nurse come in, they have map testing three times a year. Maybe they have to do a, you know, reading time. They have to do a reading log, they have a backpack with, you know, Pokemon cards are still a thing. I can't believe that. Isn't that crazy trading? Right. You know, you have the kid that wanders down the hall and looks at all the bulletin boards with all the borders on there and it's in English. That's the other thing that people don't know.
Christine
I was gonna ask about language. So you've been to so many. How, how does that translate? You know, obviously being limited in, in I'm sure some of the countries you go to and speaking the native language. How, how has that been challenging or not
Greg
As a teacher? I'll tell you what, anybody listening to this as a teacher or is thinking about teaching, do it because you're going there and they want you to speak English and you teach in English. It's the lingua franca we teach in English and that's almost every international school around the world. Okay? Right. Okay. The accredit, the accredited, it was for teaching. You just speak. You, you have your own, you're bringing the us to them. Okay. In, in our case, that's the great thing. Now outside of school, it might be a different story and other schools have different levels of language within. There might be, you know, I hear I hear about 10 different languages every day, right. Because I have a very international student body and a very, I don't know, our, our staff at this school is very much Canadian American and so, and, and Saudi, but that's it. Right? We have a smattering of others, other schools you'll have staff from all over the world, but you're gonna hear English. So outside of school, I'll give you an example. When I lived in Venezuela, I, dude, I was oblong with all of the, I was having a great time. I was dating the women from there, Switzerland, I tried to learn Italian cuz I was in the Italian part. I'm horrible. And I shut down ever since. The Italian teacher's like, oh, you speak Spanish, you sound like a Spanish speaker. I'm like, ah, I'm
Georgia
Similar, but yeah, right.
Greg
I'm learning Arabic, I know German, I learned a little Cambodian. But right now it's, it's what do you want to do? Do you wanna learn the local language? It'll open up your eyes to that country and it makes your life amazing if you learn the local language. Right.
Georgia
Makes sense.
Greg
Yeah. So the language, there's
Georgia
Lot of languages to know. It is, yeah. Even just a little
Greg
And you can't learn 'em all, you cannot learn all the languages. It's impossible. And your mind goes
Georgia
Right. Maybe if you started at age three, but starting as an adult to learn languages is challenging.
Greg
I know. Totally.
Georgia
Cool. Yeah, we listened to a little of your show and we definitely recommend others to listen because I've, I've learned, you know, you've made me realize I have
misconceptions about teaching overseas, so Oh, definitely. It's really
Greg
Cool to, yeah. Well let me clear those up for you. How can I help?
Georgia
No, I mean, you already have. You already have. And I think the fact that your show is, you know, three people with different life scenarios all doing the same thing in a way that works for them. What could be better than that? And that's, you know, you guys,
Greg
And we have fun. Just like you two have a great relationship on your show and you're remote, you're not always next to each other. You know each other really well. I'm part of Matt's family, right. I know his, his wife and his kids really well. I've seen his kids grow up even more than my own nephews and nieces. So it's been a pleasure. I I'm very lucky to have Matt and Stacy in my life and their kids. Kent has become a very close friend at this school and, and he and his wife are good friends of mine. Now the other other thing international is that since you are an expat, since you are just sort of a guest in that country, when you moved and to a country and teach at a school, usually you form a cohort and they might become friends for life.
Greg
So I have this whole idea of, you know, six degrees of Kevin Duncan is what we call it now. And that's a long story, but it's based on one of the international teachers wrote another book and they know so many people around the world and it, it's so true. You learn and you become very good friends and friends for life with these people. So I enjoy that. That's a good point about international too. And that's what the international Teacher podcast, it's the i tp expat.com. T E X P A t.com. And that's a website that has all the information. It has all of our episodes on there, but like you guys, we are on Apple, we're on Spotify. Cool. We've been doing it for two years now. Yeah. Wow. Good link. Good for you. I already put yours on, on our site, which is sort of fun.
Georgia
Oh, thank you So much. That's Yes, thank you.
Greg
Yeah, this podcasting is about your, your circle of friends and your circle of other podcasts. Right. We grow by hearing other people's and inviting other people on ours and to go on to yours. That's how podcasting works.
Georgia
Very cool. Yeah, I, it's, it's interesting to hear how the similarities between education in the US and education in all these countries you've been to, you would think that they would be so drastically different. So it's great to hear your perspective of, there's a lot of commonality. It's not as different as you would think. Kids are the same and you know, they just need quality teachers that wanna be there and share in their experiences. So I'm curious to know whether it's in the US or overseas or in both places, do you have something in mind that you think would make education better for everyone involved?
Christine
Yeah. Do you Hear about what's happening here?
Greg
Yeah, there's a Reason why I listen all the time. Yeah. I listen, I listen in and I try to listen to podcasts. I watch the news, read the books. I, I mean, I'm an educator, so I, I've swamped with my, I have downtime, so I just envelop myself in education. So, and do I, you know, have to re-up for every year, you know, for your state, stuff like that. So my answer is how do you make education better? The one thing that I have seen overseas, which I have not and why I won't teach in the States, is that we have respect overseas. You two are, when you were teaching, you would've had res more respect overseas than you would have in the states where we, you know, I like to say we pay our plumbers more than we pay our, our teachers, right? And that's a debate for some, or this horrible article of this guy defending plumbers around the
world, around the state.
Greg
So I'm like, I don't care. That's not the point. The point is that they don't pay teachers enough for what we do. And we're always going to be based on our history, especially elementary. We're just gonna be babysitters. And and you guys have said that on, I think you've said that on one or two podcasts, but it feels like we are not respected in the states. And I, it's obviously true. We are not respected for what we do. The amount of school you have to go through to become a teacher and the fact that they drop their kids off and expect us to take care of their kids and educate 'em and give 'em a safe environment, and then they're cutting of the funding and they're, they're requir more and more from teachers, well, overseas and around the world. I think that if you respect your teachers and hold them in high in a high esteem and trust them and pay them well, you will have a much better in in society. I don't think that they pay the people that they trust their kids with enough. It's like the biggest investment in, in their lives should be their children. And it's not happening. So around the world and in the states especially, I thi I would like to see respect. That's why I stay overseas. I can make a difference and I can make a lifestyle that I love and be respected for something I love to do.
Christine
That's a really good point. I, I saw recently someone was posting on, I think it was, we are teachers on their page about how the number one topic and one of the biggest reasons why teachers are leaving the classroom right now and have since the pandemic started is the, the la the increase in student behaviors, aka a this lack of respect that you're speaking to. And something that I've been thinking about while you're talking is when I left the classroom, it student behavior wasn't, you know, a huge driving force I don't think in Yeah. Georgia and myself leaving. But I do remember. So I I I think student behavior and the environment at home and culture does play a really big role in a really positive way. It, it kind of what you're saying, I, when I left the classroom, there were 17 students in my class and there were, I believe it was 11 different languages spoken, you know, so all of these 11, at least 11 of these students were, had families at home that spoke at a language other than English and whose parents came from a country other than America.
Christine
And those students I remember in connecting with their parents, you know, it was always whatever the student did, it was their fault. Like it was never my fault. And it was such a, that was the biggest, the such a stark difference between, you know, what are you doing? And, and I really did not have these run-ins with parents thankfully, you know, I really didn't. But I would hear of with with, you know, other, other teachers getting, well what are you doing to my student? Why is this happening? And I, I never got that from, from parents, but I think if I did I would, I would feel like, what, what's going on here? But I do remember thinking like, wow, that that is a really interesting insight of oh no, it's their, they need to respect you and you're their teacher and they should be doing what you're saying. And you're right. I think there is, you know, I've never taught abroad, but I think that is a big disconnect in the United States right now. So interesting perspective.
Greg
Yeah. Don't get me wrong. It's not shangrila. I'm still a teacher. Right. And there's parents that are helicopter teach parents. You've got your parents that blame the teacher. It's whether or not your admin re you know, stick up for you on your, are they on your side? And when I look for a school, I look definitely at the direct, the director, the superintendent, the, the principals. It's a, it's a tough decision where to go. You know? Cuz you have to respect and hopefully you're gonna get that support from your teacher, from your principal. That my first year of teaching, I had principal on my side all the time and I had to earn that from her. In the end, it was also respect from most of the parents. Right. So I totally agree with you. In my experience, pre-service experience before I graduated and went through all the student teaching, I was in the E S L or E L L at the time and we had five or six different mother tongues that were spoken. And I agree with you, it was a different style than when I stepped into a homeroom, you know, homogenous style of, of classroom economics background and colored background and cultural background. It was pretty homogenous and it was a completely different scenario and that was 20 some years ago. Right. But I don't think that's changed. I think it's even gotten worse in some ways.
Georgia
Right, right. I think the principal really sets the tone, kind of what you were saying, it's like about the admin because I've had both kinds of principals, ones who are so supportive and have your back no matter what, you know. Yeah. Reason. And so, you know, parents go to that principal, oh the teacher said this, she didn't do this. Right. And the principal's like that teacher's been here a long time, she knows what she's doing. Like, you know, I stand by her decisions and that kind of grooms the parents in a way to be like, wait a minute, the principal respects this teacher. That teacher knows what she's doing. Like maybe I should reevaluate my level of respect. Whereas if you have a principal that's pleasing the parents all the time, oh, I'm so sorry that happened. Like I'll talk to the teacher, we'll change it for you. Like the parent's gonna feel more entitled to always get their way and
Greg
It's gonna, I had a principal in Egypt that was horrible for me. It was not the right fit school, it was a profit school and the principal just everything was my fault. Like the, the 17 kids I had there in Egypt and that sixth grade teaching math and language arts, everything fell on me and it was crazy. And I ended up believing that contract, I broke contract, which is the worst thing you can do is a big mark on my resume. And I had to sort of dig myself out of the hole at while, but they also understand as admin that you, maybe you're not the right fit, like I talked about before. And that school I got there and it was the wrong school to be at. So it was a horrible experience for me. Not socially or in the culture of that, that country. I mean I loved Cairo but had a great year, but teaching, it was the worst ever. It was one of those years where like either you stay in teaching or you leave. Right. And that was a tough one because the principal was not on my side, but thankfully that was the only one out of the seven I've taught at.
Christine
No, but I mean, thanks for sharing cuz you know, it, obviously it's not all rainbows and butterflies all the time, you know, but I, it that makes sense. If you're, you know, the best thing
Greg
Everywhere. The best thing about it though is that I am, you know, how the heart grows fonder, you know, distance makes the heart grow fonder. I am away from my family, but I'm totally like, connected with my core family back at home with mom and dad and the brothers and their families. And I am totally a US citizen. I totally stick up for the US I've been in, you know, in situations where I'm the going, Hey man, don't mess with America because the, the whole room is sort of cutting you down and I feel patriotic, right. I'm not like gonna go and move to, to Michigan or you know, join a militia or anything. No way. I'm talking about the fact that I get very patriotic. So when I see a baseball game on, on TV or whatever, and I hear the national anthem, I will break into tears when I go home and go to a Packer game and you know,
Christine
You Got your cheese head on.
Greg
Exactly. Or I go to a Brewer's game, I just fall into tears. I love my country so much. There's nothing like the US You can say whatever you want and you can tell me any story that's going on. That's horrible news in the States right now. And I'd be like, it's worse everywhere else. Totally. It is worse everywhere else. Oh,
Georgia
It's, it's a perspective that, you know, we can't relate to. So we appreciate yours, you know?
Greg
Oh, but soon you will.
Georgia
You're converting me. That's so true. That's so true. Cool. Well, what would you say our favorite question to ask our guests, what would you say success means to you now versus how you were making the grade when you first started your career overseas?
Greg
I totally prepared this. I mean, cause when I was, you know, coming, I listened to your first episode and I believe, which one of you was it? Is it Georgia? Are you the one that was like, one of you was saying that you were relying on the students, like whether or not the students liked you and how the students felt about you as a teacher was your level of your grade level. I mean, you are making the grade right?
Christine
Student Centered. That was probably me. Thank you.
Greg
Yep. Yeah, that was you. Yeah. Okay. I was opposite that. I was worried in the beginning, probably the first 10 years I was worried about am I the right teacher? What do my colleagues think of me? I am, I have, I got the masters and I don't have the masters' yet. I have to get the masters. I'm not my, I'm not the professional in the building maybe. And I was worried all the time about what parents thought, am I a good teacher? I wanna be known as that good teacher. And now after, you know, 20 some years, I, I realize it's even before I heard your podcast about making the grade and turning it on yourself, turning that mirror around and saying, let's evaluate myself. It's all about the kids. So I've actually come full circle with it that yes, it means to me, like where do I, where do I fit with other teachers?
Greg
Where do I level myself? But that's going out the door now because it's more like, are my kids doing two things? Number one, are they leaving the classroom with a smile? And in a, like are they safe? Are they learning, et cetera. And number two, can they actually, are they learning something enough that they can explain it? Can they explain to mom and dad or to you, if you were to ask one of my students, you know, how, what do you learn today? Right? They're not always gonna have an answer, but they will have an answer for you if they think about it. And that's what I want. That's my, if I, if they can't, that's my failure. So I re, I make the grade by kids wanting to come into my classroom instead of trying to run away and leaving with having learned something with that metacognition. We talk, talk about can they think about their own thinking? What did they learn today? And not just say, yeah, I learned something. Can I have another snack?
Christine
Right. That's awesome.
Greg
Yeah. It's difficult, but you have to
Georgia
No, I was gonna say, you had a quote in one of your email signatures, and I'm gonna butcher it, but it was something along the lines of like, you can tell everything you need to know about a school culture by spending a few minutes in a classroom. And it was something like that. And I just loved it because it's so true. Like, it doesn't matter the test scores or what's written on the school website or you know, what's happening at the school committee meeting, it's like, go spend time in a classroom, talk to the kids. That's all you need to know. Are they happy?
Greg
Absolutely.
Georgia
Yeah. That's true.
Greg
One of my favorite things to do as a specialist, if I've been a, I've been in the homeroom and out of the homeroom and when I was a technology teacher, I went in, back into the homeroom in Switzerland. I was at a boarding school and I taught fourth grade to go back in the homeroom and get what it feels like to be a teacher again with a homeroom set of kids so that when the technology guy comes along, you know, later on I went back into tech thinking, I, I can relate to the homeroom teachers. Now again, I just didn't go off and start teaching, you know, talking in some robotic language about an app that they should have downloaded and they should have cleared their browser and all that crap that you hear that blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, coming to you. So as a tech person now, I really relate to the homeroom teacher and I think I'm happy. I did that for like five years. I went back in the homeroom and I wish administrators would do that. Right? Yeah. I'm, wouldn't that be fun?
Christine
I'm laughing because recently I was doing a, a, a class and I, I, I teach college students and I was trying to get a game up a jeopardy, a silly little jeopardy game, and they kept saying like, you need the correct browser. I was like, oh, why didn't I do this ahead of time on this computer? It's cuz it was on my laptop. And it was just one of those like, do moments, right? You're like, oh, it's, but tech makes a big difference in the classroom. And it was like the most fun thing arguably that we had done in a while. So it, that stuff matters.
Greg
It does.
Christine
All right. Well we've enjoyed talking to you so much. I feel like we could talk all day, but I need to know before we hop off, why are you called Mr. Chicken?
Greg
When I was in, I was a technology teacher in Venezuela and it was this beautiful little beautiful little school of 200 students and is in Puerto La Cruz, which is to the east of Caracas and it's right on the Caribbean. Okay. So, I mean, it was a dream job. I loved it there. I got fired and after four years, but that's a long story and it, it's a hilarious story. But this chicken story comes because back then we had, and you'll remember what it was like to be in school where you had a computer lab. Yes. So we had 25 desktops in a horseshoe around the school, the classroom. And I was teaching from pre from three year olds all the way up to high school, 11th grade. Wow. So I was teaching video editing with high schoolers. I was teaching whatever, everything across the board were, they were coming to me for a tech class. And what I did with the third, the three year olds and the preschool three year olds, I had like fifth of them to walk in. And for the first week that I had ever done that before, I was just terrified. I'm like, oh my God, they had an aide walk in and they just wanna roll around on the floor, but Right.
Christine
I have a three year old. Yeah, that's, that tracks right.
Greg
Okay. And I totally, I mean, kids under a three years old, kids scream when they see me. I don't know if it's my face or whatever, but they, they hate me. They scream, they're my, all my niece and nephews, they all scream. Sorry, too much detail here is back
Christine
To the story. The glasses or the, I don't know
Greg
I just Started wearing the glasses. I Don't know, it was my face or something. Anyway, I'm loud, I'm loud, I'm a loud and like in your face kind of person. Big strong personality. So these three year olds come into my lab and I had Mickey Mouse set up on every one of the screens. And the kids were actually with a mouse would just click on the shapes, the colors, the music, and it was very age appropriate, a wonderful software. I have to start up on every computer. So I, these little kids, I, I sat down with 'em on the carpet the second time and I said, do you remember my name and one little kid's like Migging and Mr. Mr Mr. Mr. Chicken. And the reason the little boy said, Mr. Chicken is because I would log in with the kids sitting in front of me. I would log in as chicken for each one of the kids as I got them going on the software, thank
So I'd say, and I would be telling the assistant, like the assistant was there with the class and I told her, I said out loud, I'd be like, in front of the kids, I'd say, yeah, please, I need, you know, I need you Maria, would you put in chicken for the password for, for, you know, the next kid down. So they, they got this and the little boy just raised his hand. He goes, Mr. They can't say my name. Right. Look how you're laughing right now. Both of you are just in stitches. Do you know what happened with the entire 15 three year olds at that point? They died.
Christine
Oh God, I can't even, how'd you ever bring them back? 20,
Greg
20 minutes. I did it after 20 minutes. I mean, cuz once
Christine
You just to own it, at that point you're like, oh, BBA, I'm Mr. Chicken.
Greg
I started, I was laughing with them. Yeah. I mean I was rolling on the carpet sitting down and I'm like, why should we just not just sit around and laugh? I mean, these are three year olds. So they start laughing. The little girl starts laughing. They all start laughing and it slowly, it sort of calms down. And right when I'm about to say, okay, let's, why don't you come with me, Mario, or come with me, you know, Juan or something. And all of a sudden one, the kid starts laughing the chicken and they all laugh again.
Christine
Oh my
Greg
So that was, that was years ago. And when I taught, I mean I've been teaching elementary since then. I left that school and, and I've been teaching home and doing technology. But I tell you what, if I introduce myself to a fourth grader as Mr. Chicken, they can say it with respect. They do nothing but laugh. And the first day, and they smile. I've had parents stop me in the grocery store and they say, oh my God, they just wanted to say hi. And you know, oh my God, they just want to say Mr. Chicken, the parents are like aghast, like, oh my God, you need to call him Mr. Lemoine, call him his name. And I'm like, no, no, no. I told him they could call me chicken because the little kids told their, the little kid, the three-year-olds told their
first grade brothers and sisters.
Greg
And it went up into high school. I had high school was calling me that. So I kept it for the next couple years and schools. And even when I went to Australia for that 50th birthday, I told you about, I was sitting in Australia for no less than an hour. I went down in the, in the Intercontinental hotel at breakfast at a big, huge buffet on a continent I've never been to before for Christmas break in 2000, was it 2000? 20? 2019. And I sat down and I was having my, I was having a beer with breakfast, long story, but I had traveled a long way. I sat down and this little girl standing in front of me, no kidding girl, standing in front of me. She goes, good morning Mr. Chicken. And I said, oh my God. And her mother's right behind her and said, no, call him Mr. Lemoine. And she, this is in Australia. I'm like, what are you doing here? Right.
Georgia
My God, you're not supposed to know here.
Greg
I swear to God. No, she's, she and her family were from Adelaide. I was actually vacationing. I had been on the same plane with him and didn't even know it. But, but that's why, that's such a great story. The long story about chicken and staff can't believe it. And I introduced myself as chicken. My email is Mr. Chicken, kids make chicken things for me. Yeah, I know. But hilarious. I love life. If I latching in, the kids love it. So when they leave laughing and smiling and they're respectful about it, it's magical. They will never get me mixed up with Mr. Lamont again. It's always Mr. Chicken. Huh?
Georgia
Oh my gosh.
Greg
I, that's my chicken story. Yeah. Well,
Georgia
Mr, we are so happy that you came on our show. We feel honored to have the be Mr. Chicken on the making.
Greg
There You go.
Georgia
Great podcast. I think we have achieved success by having you on. We're we great? Now we can retire. We've had Mr. Chicken on our show, world renowned. Yes. But you have so much great information and resources for a lot of our listeners, and we're gonna share all of that out with everyone who follows along. We'll put it in the show notes, put it on Instagram, our website. Yeah. Thank you so much for being here. It's been so fun.
Greg
Thank you for having me on your show because I'm a big fan for show. I've list all your episodes and I will continue to do that. We will continue to celebrate your podcast, on our podcast, on our website. And of course I tell everybody about it because as a teacher, I don't know about you, but if I learn something and I don't share it, it's sort of wasted.
Georgia
That wraps up our show for today. Remember to always listen to your teacher voice and measure success with your own ruler. Thanks so much for taking the time to listen. If you like what you heard today, share with a teacher who needs this in their life and don't forget to like, comment, and subscribe to our show. If you like what you heard.