Public Education Matters

Various student voices 0:08
Public education matters. Public education matters. Public education matters.

Jeff Wensing 0:15
This is Public Education Matters brought to you by the Ohio Education Association.

Katie Olmsted 0:26
Welcome back to Public Education Matters, a special Teacher Appreciation Week episode of the podcast as we celebrate across the country the first week of May, I'm your host, Katie Olmsted, and I'm part of the communications team for the Ohio Education Association and the nearly 120,000 public school educators OEA represents around the state. We celebrate those educators every year in the first week of May for National Teacher Appreciation Week. And here in Ohio, OEA is once again inviting educators, parents and students, to nominate great teachers they know at ohea.org/thankateacher, and those teachers will be entered into a drawing to win some great prizes, including a resort stay in Mexico from NEA member benefits now as the person who handles that drawing for OEA, it would be unethical for me to nominate anyone, but boy, do I know some great teachers who would be so deserving of a nomination. I was so lucky to have so many amazing teachers growing up in Dublin City Schools. I absolutely would not be where I am today without all of them. But there is one in particular that I want to celebrate right now, especially as he gets ready to retire at the end of this school year. Steve Kucinski, my junior year, English teacher at Dublin Coffman High School, way back in, 2004 and 2005 made a tremendous impact on my life and made a big difference in shaping who I am now. Obviously, I ended up in a job that requires some decent language arts skills. And remember I was a journalist before I came to OEA too. So what I learned in Dr K's class has served me pretty well professionally, but his impact on me is so much bigger than that. Dr K taught me to think, never what to think, but how to think, how to be a critical thinker and to think for myself. I had the enormous privilege of sitting down with him a couple weeks ago to tell him that to his face and to pass along some messages from other former students, and I got to hear from him about his teaching career, what's changed over his three decades in the classroom, and the life lessons he's been sharing with his high school students and the aspiring educators He teaches at the college level now. Take a listen.

Dr. Steve Kucinski 2:53
I'm Dr Steve Kucinski, and I currently am in year 33.3 of teaching high school this year, freshmen and juniors. I also teach adolescent development and educational psychology at Ohio State University.

Katie Olmsted 3:05
And you have been at Dublin Coffman High School since 1999 is that correct?

Dr. Steve Kucinski 3:10
1999 I student taught there in 1993 and then Scioto had just been built. There were no jobs. So off I go to find a different job in Newark City Schools out on the east side. And then in 99 I come back to Coffman, and have been there ever since.

Katie Olmsted 3:24
And you have touched an enormous amount of students lives, mine included, I was Dublin Coffman class of 2006 and I don't have the words. It's funny to talk to my former English teacher and say I don't have the words to say what you meant. Talk to me a little bit about why you became a teacher and how you ended up where you are.

Dr. Steve Kucinski 3:46
Oh, absolutely I I mean, I liked school, but I enjoyed telling my students now I was not a great student. I love being at school. I love doing sports and music. I love my teachers as people. I they didn't push us the way we push now, and maybe we push too hard. I knew I could get into any number of state schools by pretty much just filling out the application, so there was not that sort of demand. And so I loved the interaction. I loved I've always loved helping people. I love learning. I love reading and writing. I think certainly my English teacher in grade 10, Dottie Keith, I mean, I remember the moment, like she's going over vocabulary, and I'm like, this is cool. How did you do how did you make going over a vocabulary cool? And I just thought, this, this is so awesome. I did think maybe I do some journalism when I went to OU briefly. But again, that was, that was, it was such a different era. Then there was no cell phones. There was you paid for phone calls by the minute. So I just always loved working with reading and writing and thinking and helping people. And that's a great combination. So when I graduated with my degree, it was really hard to find a job. I mean, it was strange, of course, that was in paper application time you put a paper up. Location in the mail, took a couple days to get there. Meanwhile, you're waiting. So my wife had gotten her job at where she's about to retire from. She's been there for 33 years, and I'm like, I guess I'm going to find something else to do. I had a lot of hospitality management experience in college, and so I'm on my last interview for Wendy's management, which actually seemed like it would have been a good gig. And I was thinking about doing financial advising with Edward Jones, and if they knew how bad I was with money, that would that's kind of cool. So then I get, I get this job at Lincoln Middle School in Newark, and I get the job like they send me from central office to the school, and it's, there's no air conditioning, and this is the funniest part. So I do, I do a great job, and I'm all excited. And then I'm getting in the car, and I'm like, Okay, I'm taking off my dress shirt. I look like just a bum, and so they're coming running out to offer me the job. I'm like, This is so awkward. I'm like, I have like, half my T shirt hanging off. But that was my first job. It was extremely difficult. I almost quit my first year it. It didn't allow me to do any of the things I thought I was going to do after student teaching. That's not a uncommon thing. But I mean, from there, I learned so much I survived that I got to love the middle school students in that age. I'm not trying to go back, but it was, it was quite a whirlwind there. And so everything that transpired there, you know, brought me back to Coffman. I was, I was lucky to come back and really just aspire to do everything I could to learn how to be a better teacher to students. And I've been, I've been almost obsessed with how to how so I want to, I want to learn how to write ACT questions and write ACT because then I can help them. I want a great AP test, because, you know, that's how I can become a better teacher. So that's been sort of my passion all along.

Katie Olmsted 6:45
And that certainly has been a thread through your entire career. How has teaching changed over that time? You touched on it a little bit about maybe pushing a little harder now?

Dr. Steve Kucinski 6:56
Well, I it's gone in waves, you know. And I'm not even going to get into the covid experience, which was bizarre. I think, depending on your grade level, I think teachers get, we get we forget that probably from the beginning of time kids didn't just love to go to school. I mean, you know, you see the old movies from the 40s and 50s. I mean, they look like they're behaving and complying, but I'm sure they'd rather be somewhere else. But I remember in the beginning of there was, you know, you had, you had, maybe an honors class where there were not teachers pets, but they wanted to be look smart. They wanted to answer questions. They might have had the vibe of when I answer this question, no one else needs to say anything, because I have definitively answered the question. It was a competitive thing, but almost toxically. I know that students, for the most part, would do what we asked them to do, almost to a fault, and we would almost without trying, become blind to that, like, oh, I asked you to read 30 pages of a difficult novel and one night, and you did it. Well, how about 40 tonight? Almost, in the spirit of enjoyment and learning, but you know, the students say, All right, I'll stay up all night, if that's what you want. You know, there was no way to fake that back then, and I think in the spirit of teaching, we might have gotten carried away with that. I mean, we did too much maybe. I don't think students felt as comfortable saying, I'm not doing well, I'm not healthy. Mental health became such an issue and well, it always was. It became to the forefront the increase in suicides, the increase in self harm, the suicidal ideations we might have over corrected, not in terms of the suicide prevention, but I think now there's this opt out culture. I'm too busy to do this, and you just need to understand that, you know. And I think we've also this might be a Covid backlash, but we don't want students to feel bad about themselves ever. And I hope that doesn't sound weird. It's like there's a healthy bit of like I I screwed up, and I need to at least acknowledge that, and I'll learn and get better. But I do need to first acknowledge that whatever happened was my fault, and I'm glad I'm going to help you. Great. Let's learn from it. With with young freshmen, brand new to high school, that's such a that's such a meaningful interaction for me to say, look, I still love you, but look, can we talk about how we got here with let's not pretend. And I think that.

Katie Olmsted 9:20
That's like when they're adults, they they're gonna need to admit to their mistakes, or they are not going to be keeping jobs. They're not going to be able to thrive beyond school.

Dr. Steve Kucinski 9:30
Well, and it's, that's the thing that scares me. I see it at the at the college level too, I see and it's, this is the new thing I'm informally researching. It's called Student-teacher relational entitlement, and it means that there's this sense that my teacher wants me to succeed. They will do whatever they can to help me, not that I'm going to snap my fingers and ask for it, but they're certainly not going to let me get a bad grade on something as long as I say, oops, sorry, or I was really busy. And so when that comes to the point of like, no, I'm sorry. This, this is where the rubber meets the road. This is the accountability piece. It's like, it's like, hurtful. And so when I say entitlement there, I mean on paper, teachers and students were working together, and so you'd never want me to do poorly. But that's, that's kind of backlash to where, at the college level, it's like, okay, you have my emails and you have stuff on Canvas, and you have all these handouts, and then you email me and say, what are you supposed to do? Now, I've always been that empathetic person that's like, Okay, I'm going to help you, because I want results too. It's a little selfish, but I also want to be able to go, are you serious? Did you just ask me that I need to tell you without being mean, you can't seriously not be able to do this if you're in college. So how can I help you not do this? But even with young college students, there's a sense of, how dare you say that to me and not, not in a angry or sad way. It's just like, wow, what's your problem? Like, What's my problem?

Katie Olmsted 10:55
They're surprised that somebody actually called them out on their behavior.

Dr. Steve Kucinski 10:59
And if it's an in person class, it's different, because they can see your affect. But online, I have an online class now, and I do struggle with this just seems rude. I mean, I'm going like, Look, you didn't follow directions at all. Yeah, do I really need to let you fix this? I mean, your future teachers. And so at some point, I'm asking you to think about, why is this okay for you to do now? And you're thinking, heck, in five years, I'll have my own students, will you? You can't tell me that'll be okay, right? But I've never been a this my way or the highway person, and probably the opposite. So I say all that to say I think we've over corrected, and let's not have students ever have discomfort. You know, let's now, if I, if you, if a student's struggling, you if anything I've learned over my career is when to press you know, you see someone's having a rough time. That's not the time to go. All right, look, I need to tell you about this thing. That's just not you're not doing it correctly. You know, I, I used to, I still get nervous if I have an awkward interaction with a student, or if there's frustration, and I'm no I'm no saint, I can be impatient sometimes. And I say, Okay, I need to find them before they go home. I just need to catch them in the hall and go, Look, that was on me. You know, I need to model for them like I did not. I just know I snarled at you, and I'm sorry, but tomorrow will be better. And just the thought of sending someone home and you don't know what's going on in their life, and I would hate to be the catalyst of some crisis for them, because it seems so insignificant, and that's the challenge. That's the utter challenge of teaching today. Is the content, of course, but just the range of students walking in and that you want to know how they're doing. You may not be their person. They may not share everything with you, but you hope and pray that they know that somewhere in that building, somebody will help them, if they just let them know, and hopefully their peers too. But I guess I've always struggled with the control of that. I would prefer that they liked the class and me, but I can't always control that, and that surprised me for a while. Like, no, I will work harder, like Boxer from Animal Farm. I'll just find a way to do it. And it's like, that's not working, crap. Maybe I can't fix this problem. What you know, do I just, is it okay to back off? Is it okay to say that's just going to be okay? I still struggle with that.

Dr. Steve Kucinski 11:45
One of the things you said there, and I'm paraphrasing, but you said students like my teacher just will make sure that I do well. But I really think you do want your students to do well. You want them to do well. And I know this about you, because you see your students as individual people, and you want them to thrive, and part of that is making sure that they have the skills and the tools to thrive in the real world.

Dr. Steve Kucinski 13:17
So what I see today, I see the students who are so grateful. You know, there are some students who are super polite, and they say thank you every day, and it's, it's it's nice and it's warm. I think it's just an act of politeness. I'm I'm grateful that they are that way. I can tell when I've reached out, when I've gone out of my way for a student. I can tell it matters to them. I have to fight the resentment of I went out of my way for you and you kind of ignored it. Now, I don't mean personally. I mean, like, I gave you extra feedback and you didn't even look at it, but I have to remember, these are teenagers. These are teenagers. I mean, I tell myself that in the morning I do. I tell myself or my colleagues, like, that's exactly what you would have done. We would have been all over our phones. We would and if attendance is not you know, attendance is an issue these days because the state's changed some of its, you know, policies, and it's pretty easy to just miss school. We also put everything online now, in a way, you you actually can just do some stuff at home, and it doesn't it doesn't matter. It used to matter. We never wanted it to be a punishment to miss school, but if you miss school, you might be like seven periods of boom. Now you can pretty much know what's going on, and that's a great way to communicate, but it means that if you, if a student doesn't do well on something you you might have to say, like, Look, you weren't here, and that's the problem. And I, I don't want to get in your business and ask you why you weren't here. I know what the computer says, but you know, this is where I need to coach you a little bit. Say you've got to do more for yourself. And the younger students have that really quick learning curve of, okay, I didn't know I was going to do well in high school, and I was scared to death. But now I think I'm I've got it under control. And now, as the year is ending, you see the little bit of a little bit of plateauing of like, Oh, I'm good, I'm good, and like, then something happens. They're like, oh, I'm not good. Like, yeah, you are. Come on. But let's talk about what happened, how we got here. All right, and they're making some decisions too, like, this is how much time I'm going to spend on this before it was I will do whatever you say. I want to be successful. You got you got advanced placement juniors that might be in a little different boat. They're worried about getting into college, or, for example, they're like, I've done the math, and this is my grade probably for the end of the year. And so I have, I have deduced and decided that this is how much effort I'm going to give. And that's right out of educational theory, expectancy value theory. It's the same for adults. And I have no tolerance when I talk to anyone, especially sometimes colleagues who are like, I can't believe these kids are XYZ. I'm like, look, look at our staff meeting. Look at some things that come on now. You want them to be more mature than we are sometimes, but it's and I want to respond to what you said. I believe that kids still understand all teachers could be doing something else. They want to be in that building. I don't know anyone who in today's society would want that job if they didn't, at least care about kids as people. Trent Bowers is the superintendent at Worthington, and I think he's great. And he he has four years as part of his, you know, meetings everywhere talked about that to be kind to kids. That is, that is the number one thing. There's so many ways to do that, and it doesn't look the same for everybody. You know, I think about all the times when I've been at a presentation in the beginning of the year and, you know, someone trying to inspire you, which I love, but we had a speaker once, he talked about surprise and delight. You know, can you surprise and delight students? I still seek out ways to do that. It's harder than ever. Though, used to do a big thing for the PSAT because there was not a lot of online resources, and that was a big deal. Today, there's the students have seen that and done that. They have booked that they had. They don't really need me to do that for them. So it's not even I don't, I don't think they're like, this is a waste of time. They're just like, I get play rock and roll music and do some fun stuff. And they're like, Well, that was cool. But like, we're good, like, oh, man, wow. You know it's harder than ever. I was putting the when I was out in the portables, and we were in The Great Gatsby always had the Gatsby party, and I got up at four in the morning and drove, drove down to the Columbus Music Hall, where I knew someone that owned it, and brought these tables in and said, had the whole room. Oh, it was a hoot. And it's not that I wouldn't want to do stuff like that anymore. I just don't feel the same energy from them. They're rushing through their lives. They read The Great Gatsby, but not, not for the weeks that we spent on it and really immersed ourselves in it, whether they liked the book or not. I mean, I am not under the impression that every student liked every book, but we made it. I tried to make it special. I wanted that. I went home and went, how can I do something fun? And I think I don't want to lose that. You know, even in these last weeks, I'm kind of thinking about how, what's something cool I can do at the end? I do think it's edutain. Edutainment a little bit. I don't, you know when, when I have my college students do little presentations. I said this, turn on your teacher voice here, like you got to put on the pizzazz here, or the rizz, or they would say, but I mean, that's, I don't mean to say teachers have to be a certain way. You know, I still feel like, if I'm sitting down, sometimes I feel like you need to stand up. Like, no, I don't. In fact, why aren't that? You know, the kids could be doing more. When I sort of had that epiphany when I visited High Tech High in San Diego as a part of the Ohio State College Ready Ohio program. High Tech High is an abandoned naval base. It's most likely to succeed. Is the film in the book based on that school. It's all project based. It's a high achieving charter school. They do really well on their standardized tests too. But I thought that I'm just not. There's so much more these kids are capable of that I'm not. I'm not asking them to do it. I got really good at doing things in a certain lane, and it served a lot of my students well. But then I realized there's so much more, even the way I taught writing, but getting into project based learning, and realizing it's so much fun to watch them go, I can't think of anything, and you start helping them, and then they're like, Oh no, I got it. I'm like, Thank you. You know it's an irony. It's the same with parenting and coaching sports, at some point, if you do your job, they don't need you, not as much. And it's a little bittersweet, but it's like, that's how you succeed, if they still and that's even a connection to what I said earlier, my my desire to continue to help almost sometimes I need to say, no, just let them sit for a second. Yes, they're confused, but they need to learn, what do I do? And I'm confused. You just read their facial expression and went here, let me keep explaining. And they're like, cool, go ahead.

Katie Olmsted 19:55
Do the work for me, yeah. Well, as you're preparing to retire, which is amazing, since we're all still 29 I don't know how that happened. What do you hope your students remember about you? You've said it's it's different now than it was back in my back in my day. Just different vibes. But what do you think the big picture thing is that you want them to remember about you?

Dr. Steve Kucinski 20:23
Well, I think part of it you, I think you mentioned it earlier, like I want them to know I cared about them as individuals, and I wanted to form a relationship with all of them. That's extremely difficult, both by logistics and time, and I need to accept that some students want to come in and do their work and leave, and then I also feel like, Yeah, but how do I know that? And am I? Are they sure? Are they those breakthrough moments, those little special moments where you just say, I'm going to spend one more second, I'm going to circle back one more time. I've always said to them, I want to be the hardest working teacher they've had, not as a show off, but like, that's how committed I am to helping them. I'm a no excuses person. You know when, when we got through, gosh, I'm not sure. I don't I definitely wouldn't do this anymore, but AOL Instant Messenger I had, I don't know how students found my, my my screen name, but they were, they would pop on there and ask we would be editing papers. That's that was unheard of back then, like, well, you just type it up and hand it in and I grade it now. I mean, you can embed comments. And I mean, there's so many ways to do that. The there's an app called Mote that lets you do little voice recordings right on the paper. And again, I have to, I have to, I keep tempering that with, was that too much feedback and so on. But to me, it was always symbiotic, like you want to or you want to work harder, to get better, and I'm here for that, and if it's not today, maybe tomorrow. So I want them to also know that I always want. I was always in their corner, and I was, I was cheering for them. It's funny the times when, you know, sometimes somebody would confide in me something that I thought I didn't know we had that relationship, but you clearly needed to tell somebody. So, okay, switching gears. I mean, that just happened recently. Switching gears. We were going to talk about this, but I can see and then I'm going through my training of, okay, is this a crisis that goes directly to someone who's trained professional, because I'm not a psychologist or a psychiatrist, but also I just, I hope the students know about me and other teachers always that that we, we can't help but feel good when they're treating us like that they care about us to not, not even just casually conversation. You know, I think we're in an era now where we we don't say those things out loud. I was, who's I telling I could. I did something like I recorded all these sound effects for Lord of the Flies, and I'm doing all these different voices and stuff. And it was a hoot. I mean, the end of that book's bonkers. There's a forest fire, and they're hooting and hollering and chasing them down, and he's screaming, and I'm doing all these sound effects and stuff. And I, I saw their faces. They were, they were digging it a little bit, yeah, but nobody said, nobody said, like, that was so cool. And I thought, okay, that doesn't mean, you know, that's the tough part of teaching. You have to sometimes go, all right, I know that was fun, and I know it worked, but I'm not going to get the warm fuzzies about that, but I didn't do it for that reason. But it's just a reminder that you know, sometimes you don't. So I guess to you know, to plainly answer your question, I want them to know I cared about them and that I always wanted to work hard for them. That's what I hope. I hope they remember that I really, really loved what I was doing and wanted the best for them and cared about them as individuals.

Katie Olmsted 23:41
I will say that I spend a lot of my time on Facebook, and I want to share some things that students have said about you. Most of these you've seen or heard before because they were on the the posts about when you were the district seven Ohio Teacher of the Year, but just a small sampling of what you have meant to students past and present. Tricia Watson wrote, "Well deserved congrats, still one of my favorite teachers". Lauren Klosterman wrote, "Dr. K was one of my favorite teachers and has inspired me in my path as a future educator". Kristina DeMichele says "One of the most impactful teachers I've ever had". Kendal Kolba wrote, "You are the best teacher and an even better role model. Your dedication to teaching and helping each and every student is inspiring". Taylor Lumley wrote, "This man is an absolute legend. I'll never forget the lessons I learned from him, and I'm so thankful for the grace he shares with all of his students" and one more, Elizabeth Groce, "you have impacted my life in more ways than you know. Thank you for everything you've done for me and always going above and beyond for others". Lots of congratulations in there, I actually ran into one of your former students last weekend, Michelle Roy back in the day, she's Michelle Gaines now, and she recorded a. Video that she wanted me to share with you, with her husband, also one of your former students. Here's what Michelle and John said when they sent me a video for you.

Michelle (Roy) and John Gaines 25:10
Hey Mr. K, it's Michelle Roy and John Gaines, back from your 2001-2002 Junior Year honors English class. We're married now and have two kids. Here we are, but we really appreciate you and your class. We still remember it, even after all these years. I in particular, just really appreciated you and the rest of the Honors English program, making it so that I could write effectively. There were shockingly few people in college who could just write an essay? And I could, thanks to you. I also particularly remember your Socratic seminars where you had these little markings, like there was a check and a star, there were like, 18 different markings, and you had to actually say something original. You couldn't just, like, slightly repeat what the person before you had said, which had been my go to strategy in most classes. But turns out that doesn't work in real life, and get that out in school. So thanks for that. Yeah, excellent. I read, write and talk for a living, and I appreciate you guys setting the foundation for that. So it's been great. Thanks. Thanks for everything in your career and happy retirement.

Dr. Steve Kucinski 26:19
That's awesome.

Katie Olmsted 26:20
I also wanted to share some of my thoughts. I'm going to make this the Katie show for a little bit, because I don't think I can adequately tell you the impact that you made in my life. You taught me the power of words. It feels so silly to say it like, oh, words have power. But I remember sitting there in your poetry unit and you telling me the difference between the way a K feels in your mouth and the way an S feels in your mouth, and how that sets the entire tone for the message. And it changed my outlook. It changed the way I communicate. It changed just my understanding of the world around me, of how the actual feeling of a sound in your mouth can change everything you taught me to be capable. You treated us like we were responsible, smart, capable people, and in doing so, I became a smart, responsible, capable learner and somebody who was ready for college and somebody who was ready for the world. You taught me to love reading, even when I hated the book. And we've mentioned, I've never had a quiet face. But you love the transcendentalists, and it was contagious. How much do you love the transcendentalist? And I hated, hated, hated Catcher in the Rye and that guy from Into the Wild. I was like, This guy has the worst judgment out of anyone I've ever had to read about. And I was able to be like, I hate this, and here's why. And you encouraged me to have an opinion, to think, to be a critical thinker, and to have the courage of my convictions. I will. As a side note, the summer before junior year, I had meningitis, and in the hospital, my mom was reading me my summer reading so that I wouldn't get behind and reading as I only dying, was not a not a good choice. I don't know why she chose to read that one of all things, that book did not make sense on the hospital drugs. That book did not make sense to me, not on the hospital drugs.

Dr. Steve Kucinski 28:31
No, that was a horrible choice to even have anyone read. I have to say.

Katie Olmsted 28:32
Oh, thank God. I hated that book so much. But you know what it was? It was a very teachable thing for me, where was like power through this, figure it out. It is okay that you're not good at this, but you are going to get there. All of it is to say that I would not be who I am, professionally, in my own life, as a functioning most of the time adult, none of it would be possible without you. You taught me how to be the best version of me and to lean into the worst things about me, to be honest, and turn them into things that are powerful and that make it so that I can make a difference. And I don't have the words to say thank you enough, but I want to say thank you.

Dr. Steve Kucinski 29:17
I mean, that's just so humbling. But I you know, and every teacher probably is going to say, you know, that I don't feel like I deserve all the accolades. I don't feel like.

Katie Olmsted 29:26
I don't think we have enough accolades for you.

Dr. Steve Kucinski 29:29
Well, we think I'm not doing it for that reason. And it feels like if you if you start to feel good about those things. I mean, who wouldn't feel good about what you just said? But you start going like, oh gosh, I'm not doing it for that reason am I? But here's what I do want to say, you You allowed me to do that. It is a two way street. You know, you could have been the same way. You would have been the same person you are back in that day. But it was sort of that, the collision of us together, where and I was of the mindset that was inviting you to be yourself and you were ready for that, you could, you might not have been ready for that. And then this would be, this wouldn't be happening. Here by the way, is my end of the wild bus tattoo.

Katie Olmsted 30:11
See, I said I knew you loved it. I know you love it.

Dr. Steve Kucinski 30:15
These are three of Chris's journal entries in his handwriting. So I'm still, I did Into The Wild one last time with freshmen. And of course, not only are they, this isn't an insult, they're like, too young maybe, to really get, but they also, I mean, they're, they're, they're thinking in terms of, you know, the it's a tough book to read, you know, I also want to say the the names that you read a bit ago, those kids ranged from top students who could have been successful without anybody's help, to some folks that were like trying to figure out life, and that's really meaningful to me. I don't think you could possibly have known that when you pulled those comments, but that makes me feel good to know you know it wasn't just people like you who had so many talents and gifts but were but needed a vessel. And I remember teaching regular classes going, Okay, this is tougher, this sort of stereotype of, I don't want, I don't like school, and I won't do well. And so those are some of the students that I connected with, I mean, in a way that I can't even describe. And, you know, and sometimes I had the top students and I went, I don't know if I'm really doing anything for you. I want to. I'll try, if you'll let me, but you're so far past like, what I'm but that's where it's like, this is more than school, you know, it's more than, you know, assignments and grades. And you make me realize now, like, as often as I wanted to, I invited students to join me on a bit of a journey that was not just grades that not everybody wanted to or they weren't ready to. I hope I've always done that. I hope I have, as much as during your era, continue to offer that even if it's just joking around with somebody. You know, I think everybody has good and bad days, but no, I to you specifically. I mean, you you have a, there's a spark in you that not everybody has. I mean, I you know that don't, don't actually act like you don't know that. But you had, you had that and you had colleagues in your class that had similar if. But I mean, you were going places anyway. I think if we believe in fate, then you landed in my class at the right time, in the right place. But I mean, I want more students to feel the way you feel now. I want more students to feel the way you felt back then, of I'm going to say what I got to say, and I can't worry about what everybody thinks. You know, not that you ever shut off, even adults, whatever, 50 some years old, like we all we pay attention to what's going on around us and how we are perceived and so on our place in the world. But I think again, you know that I felt like you guys were invested in the learning, even if it was I don't like this, and I want to talk about why I don't like it, or who says this is a classic book. Or, if you knew me better in the beginning of the year, someone would have said, who assigned this off? I mean, some are reading by ourselves, with no guidance. Faulkner, come on now. I still, there's just, there's this Carley Kranstuber, who's now a lawyer. She's, every time I see her, she's like, Why? Why I said I don't have an answer for you. I just don't It was a mistake.

Katie Olmsted 33:30
But I will say Carley is a powerhouse, and she had that strength in her that I admired back then. I admire it now. And to what you were saying. I think I did, even at that time, realize I had potential, but I was also very lost. I was kind of rudderless. And I think without your encouragement and your belief in me, I do not think that I would have achieved.

Dr. Steve Kucinski 33:58
I mean, I just don't know what to say. I still, I still think about, you know, even, you know, you mentioned Carley like you guys, let me be that for you. I think there's a, there's an agency and a control there. You know, there are students who are in that classroom. You're speaking of that I I wouldn't, I wouldn't recognize if I passed them and maybe we didn't connect. And I could say that means something I don't know. I would hope they'd say, we just didn't, it's okay. I hope they wouldn't say, Well, I don't think, I don't think he wanted that that would be, that would be horrible for me. But no, thank you so much for that. It's an, it's a scary feeling to think that that is the influence that is capable. It's a positive thing here, but it is, it is scary. I say to all young teachers, know what you're getting into because that absolutely is, it's, it's wonderful and scary. And that's why I think it's such an important job. I've always thought that it's, it's almost to the sense of being arrogant, of like this job is, is so important I I wouldn't want to do anything else. I've never wanted. To do anything else I'm gonna.

Katie Olmsted 35:02
So now, what are you going to do?

Dr. Steve Kucinski 35:04
Well, I mean, I just when people ask me that, like, what? Why am I retiring? Why now? I mean, I could have retired last year when they changed the dates and I could stay. I say this, I if I had any secret sauce, and maybe I had some. It's just not working the way it used to, and I need to be okay with that. I don't want that to turn into I'm just coming in and there's kids that walk in the room and do work and leave. I don't ever want that to be the case. I guess that's the seasons of life I feel like. You know, 33 years is a is a great experience, and I still want to teach the college students. I would love to anything with education. I don't want to just teach a college class. I think teaching future teachers, supervising student teachers would be fun. That's still super important. Boy is that scary? You're, you're working with an expert teacher, and you're, you know, you're trying to, you have to pass and then that's likely going to lead to your job, and you got to get a job. And and I respect, and I tell my students all the time the college students I respect anyone who wants to get into teaching right now, there's a lot of reasons that maybe it might be too daunting, but yeah, and we need them. I mean, we're, I look at our TV screen scrolling all the things that kids are doing. I mean, that we provide so many cool opportunities. And I love that. Even going back, I guess I won't be doing this anymore, but when I come in, you know, in the summer to get stuff ready, I'm like, they're already out practicing, they're in, they're doing drama stuff. Like, this is the place. This is the hub, right? And even some kids, like, I don't like school, like, well, I like this, you know what I mean? And I think that to be a part of that in the community, and know that it gives kids and parents special moments. I will miss that tremendously. Just the idea of, there's we offer so many things, and we've and, my gosh, we feed and clothe kids, we do all those things, but also we just really provide everything that that's a cool thing. So yeah, college, college teaching will be okay. I have a website where I promote my, you know, speaking and consulting, and I haven't promoted that much. I mean, that's, that's kind of a different job. And maybe I'll get to that. Well, my wife's retiring, I guess we'll find out how much we like each other, if we're also but, yeah, I mean, some time off would be nice. And, yeah, that's, I mean, I'm very ambitious. I always have been almost I get, I get, like, jittery when I'm not doing something. So, I mean, I guess I could, I could I could write. I would love to write a little bit, and I guess I can do whatever I want. This is a new thing. I can't shut off. My brain keeps going. How can I do this better next year? I think every teacher does that. I don't know how to shut that off. I'm starting to now go, Well, I don't need that handout anymore. Recycle. I'm like, Oh, that feels weird. I'm always saving stuff and but that's the fun part. I need to find something else where I can always try to get better, that that that desire to improve is almost intoxicating to me. So I whatever I do and improve myself as a person. I mean, sometimes that gets put off, you know, physical health, you know, spiritual health, all those things to be able to say, like, Okay, now you have some time to do the things you like when I have some time. So that'll certainly be the case.

Katie Olmsted 38:13
I appreciate you taking this time to sit down with me today. I appreciate everything.

Dr. Steve Kucinski 38:19
This was awesome. I mean, I think, I think I won today with all the all the positives and things you've shared with me that I would never have known otherwise, and I do appreciate that.

Katie Olmsted 38:34
Our thanks again to Dr. Steve Kucinski for joining us for this Teacher Appreciation Week episode, and really to all of you for letting me share what turned out to be a little bit of a therapy session for myself. We want to hear about a great teacher, you know, who's making a big impact on other students lives too. Go to ohea.org/thankateacher. To nominate an awesome teacher, you know, and they'll be entered into a drawing to win gift cards Ohio State Fair experience packages, or even a resort stay in Mexico courtesy of NEA Member Benefits. Teacher Appreciation Week is May 4th through 8th this year, but you can submit your nomination all the way through May 10th. Again just go to ohea.org/thankateacher, and make sure you join us for next week's episode of the podcast to find out how you can hear more. You can hear more from one of our favorite Abbott elementary teachers in person with OEA this summer. And honestly, that's just a small part of the draw for this year's Summer Leadership Academy. We're talking about all of that and more as season six of the podcast continues, because in Ohio, public education matters.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai