Speaker: 0:03

Welcome to a special live edition of Auburn Ed Talks, the official podcast of Auburn University's College of Education. Today's episode is being recorded in front of a live student audience in the Dr. Gerald and Emily Leischuck Meeting Room right here in the College of Education building. Auburn Ed Talks brings you conversations with educators and leaders shaping the future of learning. Our featured guest is Richard Smith, a proud Auburn alumnus who recently retired as chief of schools for the Options Network after nearly three decades of service in Chicago public schools. His journey from custodian to special education leader, principal, district leader and ultimately chief of schools is a powerful example of leadership grounded in structure, consistency and care. And guiding today's conversation is one of our great student ambassadors, Kiersten Wilson. So let's get to talking!

Student Ambassador: 1:02

Hey everyone. I'm Kiersten Wilson, a student ambassador here in the College of Education. And it's so great to welcome everyone in our live audience to this special edition of Auburn Ed Talks. We're thrilled to have you here. And we're also very honored to be joined by Mr. Richard Smith, an Auburn graduate, a long time Chicago educator, and someone whose leadership has shaped thousands of students lives. Mr. Smith, welcome.

Mr. Smith: 1:23

Thank you. Thank you, Kiersten for having me. And thank all of you for coming.

Student Ambassador: 1:29

So, Mr. Smith, we always like to start with a very quick lightning round. Just three fast questions. Ready?

Mr. Smith: 1:36

Yes.

Student Ambassador: 1:36

Okay. Where is your hometown?

Mr. Smith: 1:40

Chicago. Chicago. And between Arizona now that I’m retired.

Student Ambassador: 1:46

Alright. And what brought you to Auburn for your undergraduate studies?

Mr. Smith: 1:51

Just the opportunity to, be educated at a great university and the opportunity to play, college athletics, which was basketball.

Student Ambassador: 2:01

That's wonderful to hear about. We got to talk a little bit about that. And I like to hear about basketball. What is your favorite Auburn tradition?

Mr. Smith: 2:11

I think the Tiger Walk, because, at that time we are basketball players, and football players lived together at Sewell Hall. And it was always great to see, the football players get ready for war before you know the Tiger Walk, before the game started. So I think that was a great tradition for me.

Student Ambassador: 2:31

A ll right. Okay. Let's shift now into your career journey and the lessons you've learned along the way. So you've definitely had one of the most unique career paths in education. Can you tell our audience today what grounded you as you moved from support roles to teaching and eventually into school leadership?

Mr. Smith: 2:52

It’s a long trajectory, right?

Student Ambassador: 2:54

Yes.

Mr. Smith: 2:58

With the understanding that when I started at Chicago Public Schools, I had a degree. So I was very different from a lot of people in support roles that were trying to get a degree. But I had come home and already had a degree. So, but I wasn't in education, so I had to go back. I came back to Auburn to begin my master's degree in education. I didn't finish here; I did finish at Chicago State. But I think as I moved up in roles, the philosophy that I had was every time that I moved up, I had to be ready to take the role, not taking the role and then getting ready. So, it was very strategic with me from leaving, being, a janitor to a custodian to a truck driver, to a substitute teacher, to a regular teacher, and then into administration. Every movement was strategic in which, I prepared myself to, you know, advance. And also having my mother and father, who are both career long retired educators in the system and knowing the ropes. of the system really helped me.

Student Ambassador: 4:17

It's a really good perspective.

Mr. Smith: 4:17

Yeah.

Student Ambassador: 4:19

What would you say were some of the biggest challenges you faced as an educator?

Mr. Smith: 4:25

Well, we can we can we can target, specify, you know, several different, you know, situations as a teacher, as an administrator. I think I’ll focus in on teaching, and teaching at the schools that I taught at, they were low performing schools. And what my job was, my job was to figure out how can I take the blame off the school and then the blame off the administrators, because I know the teachers are doing excellent work. They're coming in and they're prepared every day. They're teaching students, but we're still not hitting district averages on assessments. I said, that's not the principal’s fault, that's not the teachers fault, so what I began to research is, adaptive assessment and then figuring out what was the most important concept of education. And for me, it was reading. So engage the students in reading seven periods a day, understanding adaptive assessment and then understanding how to really adapt, analyze where students, students reading current reading level and then their lexile levels. So I could bring in reading materials, which they were comfortable with. I did that for a year, and the following year my the test scores in my buildings would rise dramatically.

Student Ambassador: 6:08

Incredible.

Mr. Smith: 6:08

So yeah, just reading is essential in all subject areas. You said you’re a math --.

Student Ambassador: 6:16

Yes. I was going to ask how did you incorporate that into the math and science classes?

Mr. Smith: 6:23

If students don't understand like a word problem, they can't solve it. If they can understand and teachers can break it down to where to a level where they can understand, they can solve it. So, just correlating the reading and the numbers and figuring out how to set up problems was very important to me. Not that the students were getting the problems right, but how do you set up the problem to begin to get it right? And once we figured that out and it was a lot of work from teachers, it was a lot of professional development. It cost a lot of money sending teachers out. But the preparing teachers was very important because I got the buy in from teachers that, “hey, we're serious about this work. We're going to invest in you. And when I invest in you, I expect you to come back to support students.” And, I got in a lot of trouble with the district, because I didn't fall for the, you know, the philosophy of your students aren't on grade level. Your students are testing on grade level. No, and then I shared data through the adaptive assessment. This is where my students come in to high school. They come in reading at a third, fifth grade reading level. How do you expect them to test at a ninth grade level? So I had to strategically use data to support what I was talking about. And then they left me alone. And then I became a stellar principal after two years doing that. Yeah. The and the district copied and brought in different reading programs and placed them at schools that, you know, I was, a principal and then they put me over that all time. So it's great to see that commitment and what the impact of it can accomplish.

Student Ambassador: 8:16

Tell us what accomplishments stand out most from your time in the classroom or as an administrator, as you look back on your career and how you've achieved so much?.

Mr. Smith: 8:26

I think, I think going back and I'm going to repeat what I just said, I think my greatest milestone was figuring out that reading was essential and that if students comprehend and they read, your scores, testing scores and the culture of your building will become better. So instilling a reading program, figuring out exactly where students are, what level, what grade level, their lexile level, and then providing them materials that fit them. And then using students to actually let us know the teachers and administration know what they prefer to read. So providing them with a book list, providing them with the choice to, to bring in different curriculums, really, I think was a big accomplishment of mine because it began to be student led instruction picked by students, which caused bigger buy in from students to be more comfortable with what they were, you know, actually doing.

Student Ambassador: 9:36

Yeah. I like that, giving them the choice so they have more of a want to learn. Next. This is I always like asking this question, but what is your why behind what led you to becoming an educator?

Mr. Smith: 9:51

I think, growing up in, in Chicago, I grew up in a community called Hyde Park. President Obama lived right around the corner three blocks from me. I grew up with with him on the basketball courts in my neighborhood. But he was a little older than me. But my father, being a University of Chicago graduate and Northwestern PhD graduate, I was always involved in education. He would always have me at at schools and, you know, supporting and mentoring and helping out, students that, you know, the most disadvantaged students. So as I came to Auburn and, you know, education wasn't my major, but I always found myself in Opelika at schools, you know, supporting students, cutting their hair, particularly the autistic kids. And as I graduated, I knew I wanted to come back, and pursue education, teaching, particularly in the area of special education, supporting autistic students. So my first ten years of teaching, I specialized in autistic children and teaching autistic students. So I think my parents played a big role. My mom was a 35 year teacher, and she graduate, she retired as a teacher. Just being involved in educational conversations. Being involved in and seeing my parents and company and educators and doctors come by the house as a kid. That was my life. So I knew what I wanted to do as I moved out. So from a very young age.

Student Ambassador: 11:37

Yeah. You knew. What's one challenge you believe future leaders must be ready to face? And how can they prepare for it?

Mr. Smith: 11:46

Teachers, leaders? It's a lot going on now with teachers. You got AI, you got, a lot of different factors, you know, with the government and understanding different curriculums. But I think for teachers in the field of education, new teachers, I think they have to ground themselves in students, the particular students that they're faced against every day and understanding how students learn individually, particular how every student learns to be successful. And the key focus is learning styles, understanding how students learn and then creating a mental. Like all of you prospective teachers understand what an IEP is - individual educational plan, right? So that's not only for special education students. I used it for regular students as well because as a teacher and as an administrator, you have to understand in your particular class how teachers, how students learn individually in order to really maximize how to deliver instruction and curriculum to students. You don't know how they learn, and you're generalizing and you're just teaching. You're not going to get the impact that that administrator sitting in that office wants you to get. And and because that administrators looking at data, they're looking at, assessments, they’re looking at state assessments, that just to your individual students are taking and they want to see impact, they want to see growth. So my recommendation, and the way that I look at it is really understanding individually how students learn the learning style and then figuring out how to deliver instruction in a fair and equitable way to every student.

Student Ambassador: 13:55

I really like that. I think that's something I would love to incorporate into the classrooms one day. Many of our students here today are preparing to enter a field of education. So what advice would you give them?

Mr. Smith: 14:10

To be open to be lifelong learners and don't start when you become a teacher. Start now. Engage yourself in all different types of like, podcasts. Different professional development activities. And don't always wait on, on your school to fund them; fund them yourself. Because the knowledge that you can bring into a school will not only help you become a better teacher, but it will also help you to put yourself in a position for leadership opportunities within the school. But ground yourself and the most important people in that school are students. Make sure that they're at the forefront of your work every day. Students, students matter. They provide a great living. Without students being in a building, you know, we can't we can't have a living. So just make sure that you put students first, and you're very dedicated to understanding how each and every student learns in your building, in your particular class, and how you can manipulate that learning to make them better at it, better learners, better students.

Student Ambassador: 15:24

I love what you said about being a lifelong learner. I think that's awesome, even if it is just learning the students and then the professional development. I think that's really great. Well, this has been such an inspiring conversation. Before we open up the floor to student questions, what is one key takeaway you hope our audience carries with them today?

Mr. Smith: 15:48

I think one key element is, first, I'm happy that everyone's here because it's always great to give back to a university. And I've been to all of your so-called top universities studying, the Harvards, the Yales, and I tell you, the information that I got at Auburn University was essential to me being an effective teacher in terms of theory, the theory that I got and how I could look at student behaviors and then tie it back to the theory and say, “oh, that's why they’re doing that.” I've got that here at Auburn University. So you’re in a great - you guys are in a great school and don't and and one thing that I always did when I went into these different so-called “high institutions,” I always let everybody know where I was from, what school I went to. And I was very arrogant about it and always was the top in each class. So I would always get invited at Harvard. I would always get invited to the meeting after the meeting, which is the evening meeting at the pub! That let me know that I was doing something the correct way. So, you guys are in a great place. What was the what was that question again? I got

Student Ambassador: 17:11

just one key takeaway, but that was awesome, I love it. Yeah.

Mr. Smith: 17:15

One key takeaway is be yourself. Be true to your product. Be true to those little babies that are sitting in in front of you every day and understand they're going to come in with a slew of problems. But your job as an educator is to figure it out, not to give up, and to support and understand that Richard may be having a rough day, but we're still going to get the most out of him. So just understand the students, be true to teaching, and understanding, different learning styles and how to deliver instruction based on the learning styles of these students.

Student Ambassador: 18:00

All right. Well, now we'll take a few questions from our student audience, if you.

Mr. Smith: 18:05

Oh, one last thing. I just want to personally thank Jennifer and Michael. Without them, I would never be here; without that first phone call from Michael. And he he he tracked me down all the way to Arizona. This would not be possible. And this whole set up here is a set up from Jennifer and Michael, and I'm just. I'm really appreciative of both of you putting this together. So thank you.

Student Ambassador: 18:33

So, for our audience questions, if you have a question, raise your hand. And then when you'll stand up and when I call on you, if you'll give your name, your major, what you love about your educational program and how it's helped you prepare already as an educator, and then please ask your question of Mr. Smith. Yeah.

Student 1: 18:57

Good morning. Thank you for being here.

Mr. Smith: 18:58

Yeah. Thank you.

Student 1: 19:01

My name is Lucy Kate and I'm studying elementary education. One of the most impactful, one of the big things that we talk a lot about is supporting students with different learning needs and really trying to build a welcoming classroom. We've been in a classroom management class, which has been really fun, and I've learned a lot of great practices. But you've talked a bit about your experience kind of advocating for special education. So I would love to hear a little bit more like your advice for us as new and prospective teachers, what guidance you would give us, how to build strong, really welcoming practices like right from the get go from day one?

Mr. Smith: 19:34

Yeah. Yeah, I served and as, behavior disorder teacher after, serving as, working with students with autism for ten years. I think as a teacher. Your classroom is your classroom, and you have to set standards in your classroom that are fair, but in setting standards, I think it's very important to let students set the standards for the classroom then hold students accountable to those standards within the class. Now they're going to be one offs, right? There’s going to be some that just just ain't going to do right, right? But those are those are special too, because through you as a teacher and understanding the resource I need to supervise in terms of, social work. How can social workers support students, not only students, but if that student is coming to your classroom struggling every day, that student is also struggling with the home environment that they live in. How can we provide wraparound support for not only that student, but for the home as well, and advocating for that student through the services that each school has may have? But knowing what for teachers and understanding exactly the supports that each school has for each student is very important, as it relates to solving individual behavior problems within your class. And when you do it, students intrinsically, intrinsically will know that you care because you've reached out and you've done this, done that and, and, it hasn't been punishment. But it's been support and understanding. Real quick story. I had a student that would come to my class and sleep and just sleep, and I was, you know, my, my job as an educator was to go around and ask other teachers how they deal with this student. And, a lot of them were punitive. I said, I'm not going to be punitive. I'm going to pat him on his back and say, “get some sleep, but come see me at the end of the day.” And once I did that for a week, that student finally came back and saw me. He took a week worth of work. He completed that work that weekend and brought it back. And then I dug into him and he was couldn't get no sleep when he went home. Had four brothers, they lived in a one bedroom apartment. Education wasn't a value in their home. The parents were in survival mode. So the school had to become the foundation for that student to be successful. And those are the things that I put in place for not only that student, but several other students through my years in teaching. So, again, that's understanding students that you sit in front of in your classroom and not being, not taking a punitive approach, but really understanding, “well, why is this student coming in here sleeping everything?” And why is this student, you know, he hasn't been fed. I know you guys have gone over Maslow's 7 hierarchy of needs, right? Have those needs been met before that student hits that classroom or that school? And you know, the difference between students that where the needs have been met and the students where the needs have not been met. And that's a distinct difference. So that's some of the things you have to look at. Or, you know, you have to have a toolbox as a teacher. Build your toolbox so you can handle any type of situation that comes within your classroom.

Student 1: 23:49

Thank you.

Student Ambassador: 23:51

Alright. Our next student.

Student 2: 23:54

Hey, good morning. My name is Lindsey Houser. I’m studying exercise science and one of the most valuable things I’ve learned through the College of Education is the sense of community and all the people that you are going to come in with, you're going to leave with and you’re all on the same path. From kinesiology perspective, we mostly study like the movement and the overall physical well-being of students or, any community. How many students, based on your teaching in the, Chicago system, have you seen students’ physical health or access to movement impact their focus, resilience or academic success, especially in high need school environments?

Mr. Smith: 24:31

I prepared for your question. Right. I had I told Michael I had to go back into some of my notes, right? Because, and as I was preparing, I thought of me, right. I was a very high academic student as an elementary school student, but, I wasn't engaged. After I finished my work, I would destroy a class. Right. So the importance of recess, particularly for adolescents, is so important, right. There's a philosophy about dopamine in students’ brains where exercise creates dopamine, which creates movement. Right? Which creates a decrease in students not paying attention. Right. So I came up with a couple of bottom line things for your for your question. So without movement, right, what I'm just going to ask you without movement and you're dealing with a student with ADHD. Very smart handles your work, knocks it out of the box. And he's just sitting there looking for any little thing to happen because he's going to disrupt the entire class. What do you do?

Student 2: 25:58

Good question. Well, personally, like, I was kind of like that when I was in, elementary school. I have a really short attention span, so I would talk. I was a talker, but I know a lot of kids and students can't work when other people are talking, so I don't really know what I would do. Maybe.

Mr. Smith: 26:20

So think of the terms of without movement. What happens when you sit within a classroom? You're moving now, right? You've been sitting too long. So a couple of things when you sit and just think, I’m that student, they say I'm ADHD, but they haven't diagnosed yet. They say I'm a discipline problem, but I'm scoring at the 98th percentile on all the state assessments. So what happens when I sit? My attention drops, right, my stress rises right, my retention suffers, and I'm looking for the slightest sound. I'm looking for somebody to drop a book. I'm looking for the teacher to trip a little bit so I can laugh. I'm looking for any little thing to disrupt the class, right? When you sit off track behavior rises. These are the behaviors. These are the things that are happening to me because no movement. Right? Frustration increases because that teacher’s: “Richard. Please stop. Please stop doing that. Da, da, da...” And then I'm combative, right? Learning drops, right? So what what needs to happen with movement? And I've seen this, and I'm pretty sure you've seen it in your studies. Focus improves. When I know that I can hold on for five minutes because I get to go outside, I get to run. I get to kick that ball. I get to play tag with my friends. I get to roughhouse a little bit. My focus improves, right? My behavior stabilizes because I get that jolt out of me. So then I can come back and get ready for instruction. But with particular students, I think, you have to have a plan in place where that student may need two and three times to go out, to walk around, because if it was me, you know, and I was in when I was in elementary school, I can remember distinctly there was a group of us that teachers would let go to the gym during instruction and we thought we were special, right? We weren't special. We were giving teachers a break because if not, we were going to destroy the class, right? So, again, learning sticks, outcomes improve. So yeah, these are things that I think in your studies, you will, you will see. But stagnation being staggered in a classroom, where a teacher is teaching everybody the same, and they're not looking at individual learning styles, not only will that student suffer, but you as a teacher will suffer as well, because you'll become frustrated at student behaviors. And they will whoop your butt every day until you figure out how to manage and how to deal with it. Because that student ain't going nowhere and that administrator ain't going nowhere. He's coming to your class to figure out, “well, what are you doing? How come this is happening? What skills have you implemented? How have you helped this this student? Have you looked at that 500 for the IEP? Are you using the accommodations the correct way?” So you just have to understand the resources of a school, the social worker, make sure to hold that social worker accountable to doing their job and aligning that student with the direct resources. And then one last thing, making that student a student leader within the classroom. When it's time to hand out papers, you get that student up, get that student moving, hand out papers, and, collect pencils, wipe the board down, you know, all kind of stuff to get that student to get some movement. So I hope that helped.

Student 2: 30:52

Thank you.

Student Ambassador: 30:56

All right. Do we have any more questions from our audience? Okay.

Student 3: 31:02

My name is Ben Graham. I'm a social studies major. And, right now, one of the more interesting things we're learning is how intentionally structured classroom routine can help shape student success. So given your experience improving school culture and supporting learners from different backgrounds, how can you go about creating a supportive environment where all students feel seen and capable?

Mr. Smith: 31:30

Yeah, that's that's a great question. And I think what you have to understand is what you're speaking about is rigid process. Every day is the same thing. I challenge teachers and administrators. What does the contingency plan look like? What does carpe diem, seizing the day when there's a problem, how do you deal with that? How do you become flexible in your approach? Because every day is different. Culture, when you have - just one thing that comes to my mind, you could be having a perfect day where everything is going. Your culture’s good in your classroom, culture’s good in the building. And then there's a fire drill. Everybody has to vacate. Leave the building. As a teacher, social studies teacher, you're teaching the US Constitution. How do you come back to get those students back engaged when they come back in from that fire drill? And it's not that same rigid process. It's about you as a teacher understanding flexibility, and what is my contingency plan to attack the situation in hand right now, right? Every day we going to, you as a teacher, you're going to go into your classroom with lesson plans. This is what I'm supposed to teach, this is the pacing. This is the outcome. This is the formative and summative assessment that I'm giving. But how do you adapt to that culture when 70% of the students hit criteria on what to teach and that 30% don't? What are you going to do with that 30%? You have to become flexible in creating, reteaching class for that 30%, right? Because you can't move on. You can move that 70% on but you got to move that 30% on as well. So I think it's a matter of being flexible, understanding the concept of carpe diem, where you see, “how do I get through every day as a teacher? How do I get through every day in my classroom to deliver what I'm supposed to deliver in terms of equity to each student?” And I think if you ground your mind in that, I think, you can become rigid but also have flexibility in your toolbox to be an effective teacher, if that helps. You know, that's how I did it, you know?

Student 3: 34:23

Thank you.

Mr. Smith: 34:23

Yeah.

Student Ambassador: 34:25

Alright. Do we have any more questions from the audience before we wrap up?

Audience Member 1: 34:31

I got a question.

Student Ambassador: 34:31

Yes.

Audience Member 1: 34:33

My name is David Shamp. I’m not a student, but I lead our student ambassadors, and obviously you've, had the ability to lead a lot of teachers as an administrator. What qualities do you think are most important for our future educators that they could learn within a program like the ambassador program that I can help to instill? I've, I've taught and I definitely know where you're coming from. And all these students are going to be great educators. I look forward to them, being the best that they can be. But what advice would you give me, as far as helping shape our future educators?

Mr. Smith: 35:11

I think, as ambassadors, you have to be worldly. I think you have to, to understand people because you're talking to everybody. Key pieces you have to understand culture. You have to understand me from the south side of Chicago, from the Hyde Park community, you have to understand what that community is like, what my upbringing is like in order to be successful as an ambassador. And then I think part of the training that you are over is making sure students that are ambassadors understand coaching and genres of each culture, whether it be, Latinx, whether it be African American, whether it be Caucasian, whether it be, Asian, you know, just understanding where students come from, having a general understanding of what their life is like and what their culture represents, and how to respect that culture. I think that's very important.

Student Ambassador: 36:28

Well, awesome. Thank you all for those questions and those awesome responses. Thank you for joining us for this special live edition of Auburn Ed Talks and a huge thank you to Mr. Richard Smith for sharing his wisdom and Auburn spirit with us today. Be sure to subscribe for more conversations that inspire, inform, and empower future educators and War Eagle!

Mr. Smith: 36:50

War Eagle!