
# Summary
Today on Educators of the Metaverse, we hear from Jessica Popescu. Jess is wrapping up her 9th year teaching and teaches now at Blue Springs High School in Missouri. She was the teacher of the year at BSHS for the 2021-2022 school year, and also is an assistant coach for both track and cross country. Aside from her career, Jess has found a passion in native plants, and you can often find her in her yard trying to get the perfect picture of a pollinator that is busy with her flowers.  She also has two little girls, and an amazingly supportive husband who works as a scientist. Join us today as we discuss how Jess creates space for meaningful “difficult dialogues” in the science classroom, and shares her recent experiences these last few months as an educator. 

## Listen To Podcast Here
Spotify: 

<iframe src="https://open.spotify.com/embed/episode/1lSnYcvbrVfokzbxbXNfsx" width="100%" height="232" frameBorder="0" allowfullscreen="" allow="autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; fullscreen; picture-in-picture"></iframe>

Anchor: 
<iframe src="https://anchor.fm/inspiritvr/embed/episodes/Making-Space-for-Difficult-Dialogues-in-the-Science-Classroom-with-Jessica-Popescu-e1gi21t/a-a7m6hj5" height="204px" width="100%" frameborder="0" scrolling="no"></iframe>

## This Show is Hosted by:

Inspirit, the 3D STEM learning platform, revolutionizing virtual science learning everywhere! Click __[here](https://inspiritvr.com/signup)__ to sign up and build your 3D lesson plan in less than 30 seconds.

## In This Episode We Cover

- The fun and challenges in teaching Biology to students of all levels 
- Not teaching to the test provides more freedom for actually doing science
- No deadlines means that students get to drive the class- they follow their curiosity
- ”Micro-Museums” as an activity where students get to pick and present the topic, like “pandemics across the world.”
- The changes in the educational landscape- legislation changes put a magnifying glass on teachers
- Mental health disparities in schools 
- Feelings of safety (and not safety) as a teacher 
- Learning from (and taking cues from) students when it comes to creating an inclusive space for difficult dialogues in the classroom
- Utilizing data and resources to structure and encourage challenging conversations (a science background is a huge advantage here!)
- Example: Social Determinants in Health
- Finding a group of like-minded colleagues or resources can be really helpful as well
- Start local! Find a topic/conversation your students are interested or invested in

## Hot Takes
”I had a student who said, “Oh I think he has this disease.” A couple students around them said, “Hey hey they use they/them pronouns!” And it became a whole discussion on “wait, so what do I say?” “You need to say they. You can’t say he.” So the students were correcting each other, and actively attempting to practice they/them pronouns... And it was a safe place to discuss a potentially difficult topic and they (the students) were practicing it!” 

## Links from the Show

- [Kelly Kluthe](https://twitter.com/KlutheScience?s=20&t=Wo18hVeOdApjjo5x49RjQA) (Social Determinants in Health)

- [KABT](https://www.kabt.org/) (Kansas Association for Biology Teachers) 

- [Gender Inclusive Biology](https://www.genderinclusivebiology.com/)

## Connect & Follow here!

Connect with Jess on Twitter here - [https://twitter.com/MrsPopescuBio](https://twitter.com/MrsPopescuBio)

Learn about making space for difficult dialogues with Jessica Popescu!

Tune into Educators of the Metaverse (4)

Making Space for Difficult Dialogues with Jessica Popescu | EOTMP Episode 4

### ****Teachers across Reddit face an increased rate of**** consistently decreasing levels of motivation ****over the years.****

Over the last couple of months, we’ve analyzed instances of increasing frustration in the teacher community. We decided to investigate the question: 

“What are the negative factors that cause demotivation to educators?”

To understand this better we analyzed over 14,000 comments in r/teachers and r/teaching subreddits, looking for keywords like “disinterested students” and “institutional problems.”

To further analyze the data, we compiled the following visualization in a gif. It visualizes all incidence usage for the above-mentioned keywords and the rate they are used over a trend line.

![Reddit-post-gif-Negative factors that affect teachers’ motivation](//images.ctfassets.net/4yflszkpcwkt/gFkhRIH4jY3DnW9xsrIEh/caea0964dc5256a99909321bfd6c4935/ezgif-1-37f34a145b.gif)

### **Main observation**

Our main aim was to show the increased usage of the target terms even with increasing numbers of subreddit subscribers. This also does not include reduced activity per average user as the subscriber count grew for /r/teachers and /r/teaching.

### **Anecdotes**

During several teacher interviews, teachers reported student engagement in today's classroom looking very different compared to a pre-pandemic world. Many students seem to be disinterested and consistently distracted due to additional dependence on smart devices. Teachers, as a response, have had to find ways to make their lessons more engaging and fun.

Inspirit offers a collection of 3D, engaging, and interactive science materials to support students in their love for technology and their curiosity about the world around them. 

Another point here is the lack of support by the administration and a disconnect with the teachers. Teachers felt that they do not get adequate support in the classroom and that they would love to be heard.

### **Overall, we believe this data** visualization helps us understand how deep and persistent the challenge of teacher engagement has been **so that we can begin to address them.**

Stay tuned for futuristic trend analysis in the Edtech and learning spaces

P.S. If you're a teacher, parent, student or a school administrator looking for awesome FREE 3D STEM resources, please check us out! We have hundreds of 3D __[study guides](https://www.inspiritvr.com/study-guides)__, models, __[simulations](https://www.inspiritvr.com/simulations)__, __[lesson plans](https://www.inspiritvr.com/lesson-plans)__, __[worksheets](https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Inspiritvr)__ and more - all 100% free, no strings attached. Thanks for reading!

Read about and visualize instances causing demotivation to our educators across Reddit via our analysis of 14,000+ comments and posts including keywords like “disinterested students,” and “Institutional problems” across /r/teaching and /r/teachers from 2016-2022.

Image thumbnail for Negative factors that affect teachers’ motivation