The One Thing All Great Teachers Do | Nick Fuhrman | TEDxUGA

45 minutes that's the amount of time it can take to change someone's life forever it happened to me I'm taking you back to Maryland and I when I was seven I grew up in Perry Hall Maryland and I'm sitting on a square of carpet on this Tuesday in the morning in particular at the elementary school and I was on the edge of the carpet square and my friends and I were all on the edge because there was a boy who came to visit our school on this particular day who was known as ranger bill , ranger bill worked for the maryland department of natural resources and ranger bill was an environmental educator and that day he brought with him a turtle, a snake, an owl, a hawk and a vulture, and he walked in and this guy was looking fancy, he had a

great

looking uniform on all these animals and he educated us, it wasn't just teaching, he was entertaining us, he had us on the edge of that rug and I watched this guy teach this day and I remember 45 minutes is the amount of time What happened to us and then he left and I remember thinking: I want to be like that guy, I want to be like Ranger Bill, the way he looked, the way he taught every

thing

and the animals he was using, all these animals.

He had injuries and they had stories and they were ambassadors for the messages he was sharing. Well, I went home that day and told my parents and I guess I became a Bill Ranger fan because I went out and started following this guy. I probably wonder what this seven or eight year old boy is doing in the back of the room looking at me everywhere I go, he would go to the library, we would go there and we would see all these

thing

s with that picture there. little nikki there, ranger

nick

in the uniform holding the eastern kingsnake, you know, I finally had the courage to go up and talk to ranger bill, even after doing a junior ranger program with ranger bill and I was about eight years old at that moment. and I ended up saying is there anything I can do to be closer to you to follow you and help you and I tell you what he said, he said, well, sure you can and I ended up over the next eight years cleaning a lot of The cages are fine and Owls and hawks are not the cleanest animals in the world, but I had the opportunity to be around this guy and watch the way he taught and go out with him on stages and different places and observe.

He taught and after a while I was maybe 11 or 12 years old. He was like, Nick, why don't you hold this turtle and stand up and talk a little better? Nick, why don't you hold this eastern owl and tell it? the audience talked a little about that. I did those things and I turned 16. and ranger bill tells me I've been doing this for eight years dating and talking and ranger bill says

nick

, this is all you've ever known is watching. I teach and I want to teach with animals. He said: Why don't we offer you a job?

So I was the youngest guy working for the state of Maryland, the Department of Natural Resources. This little 16-year-old kid in my ranger uniform and everything, and me. I would start going out and using animals to teach. Now you had to be 18 to drive a state vehicle, so I had to drive my old Chevy Blazer. I would put the seats in the back and put those transporters that the birds were in. there and we would hang out and talk now I couldn't teach a bunch of high school kids, I was younger than them, you would hear me, but I could go out, I could teach younger kids and I would visit camps and things and use animals in teaching and I remember that One day, it was in November, at some point I was at an event and I was holding an owl in my glove here and I remember a news guy came up to me and he had a camera there and he put it in my face and said, " I'm here with Ranger Nick" and when he said that I felt like I had really made it, you know, like I had done it, man, yeah, my whole life, this is all I had done with my

great

-grandmother.

I used to say you really called me your little preacher and if I didn't do this gamekeeper thing I'd probably become a preacher and people say, well maybe you should think about doing that, but I didn't and that guy called me. For me that and it was a profound moment, well, I continued teaching with those animals for several years and that led me down the path to college and graduate school and at the University of Georgia, now for 10 years, teaching students how to do what Ranger Bill. he did it 31 years ago, he was still talking about it and he was there for 45 minutes.

Deep Impact Ranger Bill was not just presenting information, he was teaching it and there is a difference. I want you to think for a second about a great teacher in your life, what would he do? You put that blank space, excellent

teachers

, what do you think? I'll give you seven and a half seconds without cheating, keep it to yourselves. I'll come back to it in a couple of minutes. I'm going to talk about that because I have my own thoughts about what great

teachers

do. The first thing I think great teachers do is celebrate mistakes. Things that happen and were not planned.

We have the choice as an educator to take advantage of this or ignore it. Bob Ross. that television artist who paints things on television calls them happy accidents it's a happy accident we made here it's okay in the world of education we call these things teaching moments it just makes it sound better you make a mistake you call it a teaching moment and times from time to time I don't know if you guys I don't know if you see this or I don't know I'm not supposed to leave the mat but something is going on here I hope you'll forgive me I'm coming here to talk about a teachable moment look what what's going on here this this you're not going to hang up what are you doing what are you not going to believe this is not that this was planned or anything else Suddenly I look over there and there is our state reptile, a gopher tortoise, we are talking about moments of teaching that I had to take at this moment.

I could have ignored it and continued where it could have become a distraction, so I thought, let's take advantage of this as a learning moment, so let's talk, if you don't mind please me first, let me tell you a little about Shelley, okay, this is Shelly and Look at the face, I mean, she's not the prettiest 12 year old Shelly. She will be almost 100 years old when she is at her maximum life expectancy. She will be approximately three times her size. Shelley is a gopher tortoise, a state reptile. Many people didn't know that Georgia had a state reptile.

That's great. kind of a keystone, man, that sounds important and it's like an arch that has a bunch of stones and there's a stone on top that keeps all those stones in place if you take that keystone off the top and take all of them away. the other stones. falls, you take this little lady out of a key ecosystem species, all these other animals are going to be affected because she digs these giant burrows in the ground that are the size of a school bus and when fires break out in south Georgia and the northern Florida. all the animals that the fire would otherwise burn, these animals go to her district, so she is essential in an ecosystem and it is kind of a concern right now, these guys and gals there aren't many around anymore, so we have to do it. what we can to help them, so I'm very glad that she decided to make a little entrance every now and then, she will wait, oh look, she's waving at you, look, look, you do that to children and children, we all They return the greeting.

You know that's something else, okay, lady, well, I'll tell you what I'm going to do. Becca is coming out here as a turtle herder, thanks beck, I'll give her back to you. look she's playful, now be careful, yeah. celebrate mistakes the next time you make a mistake call it a teaching moment you will feel much better about yourself and others it is a teaching moment the first thing great teachers do is celebrate mistakes the second thing i think they do because they appreciate the differences and I don't need to tell you that as a teacher at uga I have many different types of students in my classes, they are all different and that's great because they bring all these different perspectives and levels of experience to that classroom, but each of them has something in common and each of them has something in common just like most of us in this room tonight, we all deal with public speaking anxiety, sure communication anxiety and the students that are in this class come with me to this class I call teaching with animals and it's just what you can imagine a class on teaching with animals we learn to speak in public but we integrate animals like that animal into that image and we help students overcome anxiety when handling an animal and teach with it and they will say They will call me Ranger Nick, they will tell me that when I hold this turtle or this snake or this alligator or the salamander I don't feel like everyone is looking at me, they are looking at the animal and I can relax and I can be a better teacher and not just a presenter, appreciating those differences is very important.

One of the best things I've done at the University of Georgia through that class is have those students get together, take those animals and go down about 10 miles. the road to extra special people if you've never heard of extra special people or especially as we call it, let me tell you if you're into it, it's true, if you need a hug, go on especially, you'll feel that way. welcome and greatly appreciated especially it is a place where literally hundreds of people with disabilities with learning disabilities come together and thrive with special needs, come together, I get my students with those animals and some of those students are scared to death, get up off the audience and I give a presentation and I understand it, but they go to esp and they see those faces like my dakota student and they pull out that snake or that turtle, that salamander, they interact with those special needs kids and they see the difference they can make. those participants look at my students as if they were celebrities they come to espn they want to take photos together they know the animals they know the animals by name and my students visit there and it builds their confidence by appreciating the differences they think about esp I tell you what an incredible organization, so the second thing great teachers do is appreciate the differences.

The third thing I think great teachers do is give feedback. Now when I'm in class, I can look at my students and see if anyone might be having a bad day or have something on their mind and I can ask them about it. Hey, how's everything going? Give them a pat on the back and add a boy and a girl. High five with your fist. Everyone needs that positive feedback. Sometimes we are trapped. aware of the negative things we don't take the time to say hey you did a good job on that well my students know I enjoy grading grading my assignments tells me how I'm doing as a teacher it's a really cool thing and my students They know that if you get a 90 or higher on one of my assignments, I put a stamp on it and I have friends who know that I teach at the university and they say nick, I mean, they're not second graders.

I said yeah, you get a 90 or so, I put a turtle stamp on there and I write, I write a great piece of work, I write it right there, so I do it every time people come over and I look at their faces when I get it back and they're comparing hey, I have a turtle on mine, but the one time I thought, I don't know, Nick, you know, maybe I could just grade it and send it back to him, it doesn't really matter. Well, I tell you yes. I was teaching at a school south of here when I was a graduate student and it's a great university that starts with an f ends in Florida.

I know I'm not supposed to talk about that in Athens, Georgia. but I went to school there, there's credibility in this talk, okay, there really is, let's get out of here, this guy, so I'm over there at that big university south of us and I'm teaching a big class as a PhD student. It's a big class there, a couple hundred students and a lot of soccer players took this class and they all sat in the front there and one day they gave me my homework back in class and I finished doing it. I went back to my little cubicle when I was a grad student and I'm sitting there in my cubicle and someone knocks on the door of the grad student office and I'm like back in the corner of this big office in my cubicle and I look around. the door and there's one of the football players, a linebacker, and he literally looked like a refrigerator, I mean the guy who took up the whole door and he's standing there and he looks at me and he has this task in his hand. and it looked like a post-it note in his hand, I mean, that's how big they got and he's standing there and he's like, ranger nick, can I talk? and I love that they call me ranger nick, ranger nick, can I talk to you?, come in, come.

In it it says I got a 91 on this and I didn't get a stamp and he handed it to me and this guy walked all over campus, you know, he came to my office and I'm looking at him and sure. I must have forgotten enough, so he hands it to me and I can still see this like it was yesterday. He hands it to me. I reached into my desk and I had an owl stamp on my desk that I still use today. My students are here. I know this owl. snap, it's a real owl, it's agood owl and I pulled out this little owl and I inked it and I stamped it on his page and I wrote standing owl and I gave it back to him and you know, it came out of there. so proud smiling like he was going to go show his mom the ranger nick i earned an owl stamp and i told my friends they get mad at me for nick you know you give out stamps i said let me tell you if that big tough football player could walk all the way across campus with that assignment tell me you didn't get a stamp wait to give me one I'm going to do that until I retire from teaching matter matter matter nice you really do it conveying feedback you have to tell people how you feel , man, you're doing a good job and it motivates them and they can't wait to do the next task.

What other seal will we use? I have an awesome worksheet if you're having some trouble. I have a positive improvement leg. This kind of things. Excellent teachers pass on feedback. I think great teachers do too and this can be difficult. They evaluate themselves. It's easy to take it personally. It's easy to see because I don't know. Don't think they like me, you know, but you look at what the students tell you and you have to be willing to change what you're doing. If something doesn't work, you should look around the room with those facial expressions. Look around the room and see that body language.

Do I need to change what I'm doing? It's important to evaluate yourself and your environment is really key and I'm sure you're wondering what this black table is doing here with this black bag on it. Which, by the way, I know you can't see it, but my wife buys me these bags and she also says "Ranger Nick" on the front. It's nice that you're here tonight, so inside this bag is something that really does a good job of assessing its surroundings and uses multiple senses to do this. You know multiple facts, so I'm going to reach into this bag and pull this out and I promise you it won't escape me.

It's okay, I promise. I'll keep this thing, it's in a bag because it's a really good way to carry it, plus no one knows what's in here, so when I'm at work in Uga and I have a bag with me. in a meeting and the stock market starts moving people most people think what the hell is going on there so I'm going to stick my hand in here I'm going to take one I'm going to introduce her her name is Snowy her name is Snowy she's a sweetheart she's honey come here girl let me show you oh she's already warmed up ready to go she's all warmed up and ready to go now I know what you're thinking and I appreciate that no one jumped She ran away you know those football players were the first to run away When I pulled out a snake, tough guys.

I know the first thing you wonder is if it is a poisonous snake. First of all, there are no poisonous snakes, they are just poisonous or not. -venomous this is a corn snake this is totally sexy I don't get paid enough to play with poisonous snakes so it's a non-venomous name it's not poisonous snowy is a snowy corn snake it's a snowy corn snake that's what it's called beautiful miss , now this begs the question, how can you tell if a snake is poisonous or not? You know, people ask me what you do right if you look it up in some of these textbooks.

This is what they tell you. The first thing they say is. look at the shape of its head, the head of a non-venomous snake has an oval shape and the head of a poisonous snake has a triangular shape because of the poison glands back there, you have to get a little closer to a snake to know which one has had. about us okay, okay, proceed with caution the next way I laugh at this right, I start laughing at this yes, the next way they say in textbooks scientists this is what they tell you look at the shape of their eyes and not -The pupils of a poisonous snake are round and the pupils of a poisonous snake are vertical slits like a cat's eye, but can you imagine it, Bobby, come here?

Ranger Nick said, look at the shape of his eyes, is this thing poisonous or not? At that moment, things bit you. on the nose, you know, so I always say that when you see something as beautiful as this in nature, shake it and say, "hey, thanks for what you're doing, don't pick up a shovel, don't jump on its screen, appreciate what you're doing." you do". what they are doing and stay away from it, they are doing amazing things to help us here in Georgia and around the world deal with rodents and snowy things evaluate their surroundings like all snakes do that tongue goes in and out tasting the air I wonder if Someone in the front row has a mouse or rat in their pocket.

I hope not. He will soon be about to eat again. He's tasting the air. His belly feels vibrations, so when he's on the ground he can feel the things he has. this gland on the palate that senses heat because they hunt a lot at night, so it brings all these senses together to determine their environment where there is food, what is safe, what is not in the same way that a grandmaster evaluates himself with multiple data points to determine a decision on how we are doing Snowy is a really cool lady and she lives at home with us in an aquarium she is not loose but she lives at home and those ESP students know Snowy very well when I go to ESP, they asked me. about Snowy, did you bring Snowy today?

She's great. I'm going to ask Miss Becca. She comes back. I have a snake herder. She was a turtle herder. She is now a snake herder. Can I give you a Snowy? Thank you so much ladies, we'll give you a round of applause for taking care of that, that's great, think about what you put in that blank space a couple of minutes ago, great teachers. I imagine not many of us in this room write that great teachers are the smartest people in the world or know. everything there is to know about your subject, the four points that we talked about with me are really important, celebrating the mistakes, appreciating those differences, giving that feedback and evaluating yourself.

I think the bottom line is that great teachers just care, that's what they do, yeah, thank you. That's what I'm telling you, that's the coolest part of my job, I get to act like me, like tonight, with these animals, which is apparently unheard of in this Ted Talk, having animals involved, this is me, this is the ranger nick, you know, and being able to do these things and empower and inspire people with great teaching. That's amazing, Ranger Bill. 31 years ago, 45 minutes he spent with me put me on the path I am here tonight talking to you about.

I never wanted to do it. I do anything else in my life except this, talking to you about animals and nature and inspiring you by being me, it's empowering. I want you to leave tonight and think about the difference you can make. My title is educator. You know, that's what I do. I'm an educator, but while most of us here may not be educators, you're all teachers, so the next time you have 45 minutes with someone or even four minutes with someone, what are you going to do to show them? What do you care I think Maya Angelou said it best she said people will forget what you said people will forget what you did but they won't forget how you made them feel I hope this made you smile tonight I appreciate it very much You are listening to me thank you very much a all.