 This afternoon we have Ms. Jasmine Carey, who we will be interviewing today. One of the most critical components of Illinois' work around the college and career pathways are the cross sector essential skills, employability skills referred to as the essential skills. We previously talked about these skills as soft skills, but I want to put all of our listeners and viewers in the frame of mind that these are essential skills in order for our students to be successful in the workforce. So without further ado, I would like to introduce Ms. Jasmine Carey. Ms. Carey, if you would, please tell us just a little bit about yourself and your background. Yeah, no problem. So my name is Jasmine Carey. I am a graduate of NIU. I went to undergrad for engineering technology and I have my master's in instructional technology, like softball, a big sports fan, go White Sox. Okay, tell me a little bit about your upbringing. Where are you from? Where did you go to school? I'm from the south side of Chicago and I actually went to high school at Simeon Career Academy, which is a career technical education vocational school. So there's really where I found my love for the vocations. Awesome. So if you would, please tell us what your current career is and what your day is like in that career. It's full of surprises. Currently a elementary STEM teacher. So I teach K through five on an enrichment schedule. So I kind of fit in with your music, arts, gyms and things of that sort. How about your day to day? What is your day like working in an elementary school, teaching STEM? It's actually, it's pretty cool. At that young age, they're still really excited about learning and being able to put the hands on things and touch and feel and explore. So it's really relaxing to be able to be like, hey, I facilitate as an educator. We all want to reach that level and sometimes it can be challenging. But with the STEM position, I feel like I'm able to grasp that concept. A lot of prep work, preparing things because I do go class to class, kind of like a workshop basis. I'll get my kinders first, second and then I'll get the rest of the school as well. So I see a lot of kids in one day. So very busy, very prep oriented and making sure everything is in a line. Did you know that you wanted to be a teacher when you were in high school? I would not say so. However, I did have a great teacher in high school. Mr. Stapleton was my architectural drafting teacher. And he might not know it, but he had a big impact on everything that I do. He's a great teacher, very understanding, very relatable and just believed in us. Even if we didn't want to be there, he still was like, you can do it, you got it. My freshman, not freshman, my sophomore year sent me to a bridge building competition as well as a CAD drawing, which is computer aided design. And I had no idea what was going on. I was just like, yo, I like the class but the competitions, this is a whole new level. But he's like, no, just go see what you can do, see what you learn, see who you meet and then we'll work on it. And by my junior and senior year, I was actually placing in those competitions. So just that belief alone, encouraged me to go through and continue to go back and continue to learn and figure out what I knew. So he pushed me, pick up to the stake. So you said that you didn't know that you wanted to be a teacher. What did you want to be when you grew up? I didn't know. I knew I liked building with Legos. I was a Lego fanatic. I would design my own little Lego furniture that was actually like practical use. Like I designed a game case one time that would hold all my PlayStation games at a Lego's. And then I did have an uncle who was in school to be an architect. So I kind of knew some words, but I wasn't really sure. I knew I wanted to build, but I didn't know exactly what that encompassed. I didn't know about STEM really much then. Okay. For people who are watching, Ms. Kerry, talk about what advice you would give someone who is interested in STEM and even being a teacher who's teaching STEM. Those that are interested in STEM, just keep exploring. There's so many fields and disciplines within STEM. There's the sciences, the technology, the engineering, the math, and then there's so many levels to all of those disciplines. To the STEM teachers, I would just say that our work matters. Whether we see it on a day-to-day or not, it definitely does. The ability to develop the critical thinking is such an essential skill to be able to help students problem solve on their own. Just keep empowering the youth and keep going. So we have stereotypes about women in STEM, women in science in general. If you have female students who are watching this video, what kind of advice or encouragement would you give those students who are looking to pursue the sciences or engineering or STEM? I just actually read an article that said that the science field is about 75% male dominant, I wanna say. So we're a quarter of the entire population. So I would just say keep going. You're just as good as the boys, if not better, no. But just keep going. I think a lot of confidence comes from within. So at young ages, we're taught certain things about stereotypes and you kind of have that image of boy jobs versus girl jobs, just like the boy colors versus the boy colors. I would just say believe in yourself, keep going, keep trying, failure is a lesson. So just keep it up, keep at it. Thank you for that. What excites you about your job? The questions, the questions I get all day. Can you give me an example? Let's see. I had so many, let me snare it down. Give me one second. Well, just the simple one, just to show you how kids are watching everything. I was in class and sometimes I help students solve outside problems as well. So one of my kiddos, his PS4 remote controller was broke. Mine happened to be broke as well and I ordered a new battery for mine. And he was just like, Miss Carrie, my controller's broken. What do you think I should do? And I'm like, well, first check, make sure it's not dirty and there's not a bunch of snacks all over it. And he cleaned it all and then see what that does. So he came back the next day, like that didn't work. I was like, all right, try resettin' and I gave him the commands and controls for resetting it and things like that. That didn't work either. So I was like, bring it in, we'll open it up and we'll look at it. And he was just so fascinated from looking inside the controller that he uses every day. And then we both kind of figured out together that it was his battery and it needed to be replaced. He's like, oh, that's like the cycle, that cycle that we use. It's like, yes, yes, it is the engineer. And besides like, yes, and we do use it in class. So just looking at the kids have those a-ha moments. That's always excites me. Because it's like, see how we applied it outside of the classroom? Look at that. Now you got a brand new controller. So you talked about critical thinking skills. What other skills do you have and use that are imperative to your career as a teacher? Definitely communication. I think us engineers, we have a bad rap of being anti-social or withdrawn or reserved, whatever you may call it. But I'm kind of a total opposite. I'm trying to break the stereotype. So definitely communication on a, just with the adults that I come into contact with day to day, but as well as the children. The kiddos have different situations at home. Some are living great lives, some are not. So it depends on my approach, whether we're having a good day or we're having a bad day from that point when they see me. And definitely communication. My biggest thing is when a class walks into my room, whatever happened outside is outside. And now I'm gonna say good morning, good afternoon, whatever that may be, and we're gonna reset here. And just the power of those simple words, like the reset is amazing and I see it all the time. So definitely communication, you know? I love that. Ms. Kerry, how do you celebrate your successes? You know, I just really started figuring out how to do this not too long ago. As a student, I was just go, go, go, go, go, go, go, finals, midterms, tests, quizzes, go, go, go. So I didn't really see the fruits of my labor. So now I take a step back and I'm reflective every day. And I highlight my successes and I highlight the things I can get better at. So every day I'm celebrating my success. Like if I got that one kid to learn that one vocabulary word today and use it in a sentence, it's a success. So, yeah, definitely being reflective. I don't think we often take enough time to think about what has happened in the course of the day rather than evaluating the bad stuff and picking ourselves apart. That was a great question. I like that. And how do you encourage yourself within your failures? I've always kind of been a go at it type of kid. Like if it broke, I'm going to fix it. And if it's not going to fix, I'm going to figure out what to do to improve this situation. It's really, for me, it's really kind of been heartwired. I've seen the adults in my life be very resilient. I've always been very interested in my history where there's so many resilient and strong people. But for someone who doesn't have that those role models or that in their lives, I would just say, again, be reflective because in every failure, there's some success. Now you know that this isn't the solution. So what else can you try? And you kind of do the process of elimination by going to standardized tests. It's like, well, I know it's not A, that's a success. So keep it going like that. What is your favorite thing to teach in your STEM class? Robots. I love the robots. The robots are my favorite because they're displayed in kind of a fun, goofy way where it looks like we have dashes and dots. So it looked like the eyeballs are watching them and they're kind of like, what is that creepy thing over there? So it's always fun to introduce code in that way. Actually, a former employee of NIU's team taught me the activity where you have the kids command you like they're talking to a robot to show them how specific the coding language can be. So they love it when they called me to walk in the doors and over the desks and to the walls. But they really get the concept afterwards and they're really careful with the robots. Not so much me, but with the robots. They're very careful. So I love the robots. And my last question for you, Miss Kari. What are some hidden things about your job that no one else would know? Hidden things about my job that no one else would know. As far as what, what are we talking? So people have preconceived notions about teachers. So what is something about you as a teacher that no one would know? I can be very hard on myself sometimes. When I feel like I haven't, when I feel like maybe the students aren't receiving the message that I'm trying to convey, I actually was told one time that maybe try wording it differently and try these methods and things like that. So I can be pretty hard on myself. But as time goes on, I'm a little bit more seasoned. I'm a little bit more experienced with teaching. I've understand now that, again, reflection is the key. What went well to get me out of that funk of like, man, they didn't get it today. But I'm always going back again tomorrow and we're back at it. So I think, I think I'm a great example of what I teach with the design process. I'm always back at it again. Well, Miss Kari, I really appreciate you taking out the time to speak with me this afternoon. Our trailhead series is for students and students will be viewing this video and learning a little bit more about what it means to be an educator. And most importantly, what it means to be an educator is teaching a STEM course. So I would like to personally thank you for this interview and do you have any questions for me? If you were a STEM teacher, which discipline would be your favorite? I am not good with the scientists. With the sciences, I'm playing into the stereotype. I would probably say the technology piece. And technology is ruling a lot of what we do every single day. And I am pretty interested in the new chat TPT or chat GPT where it's AI software that will write for you and can write a book. You just give it the first line and then we'll write an entire story. Interesting also, I'm very interested in finding out how that will affect students and their ability to access original content that they did not create. So I would say technology today. All right, all right. Well, thank you so much. No problem, no problem.