It's side with Dan Ray on WBZ Koston's new.
Radio The Best Laid Plans, et cetera, et cetera. Alison on Grim isn't going to be on.
This next hour.
I will try to insert her into my Wednesday evening schedule to fill in the spot where Teacher Terry had been slated. Fortunately, Teacher Terry is able to come on now and hopefully this will all work out. Terry, thank you for coming on on such short notice.
Oh, no worries, No worries. You got me out of You got me out of some housework.
Okay.
Well, you know by being around radio for as many years, through me and through your husband, that things happen, and they do.
You have to be able to.
Bob and weaves just like a professional boxer and roll with the punches.
Yep.
Now, let's give people a little information about you. You are currently a teacher, and you are in the Springfield school system.
Correct, yep, yep, And that is correct.
And you've been a teacher for decades, and you have worked in a variety of school systems like Newton and other communities. And you have been a teacher of primarily second grade and third grade children.
Correct, correct elementary age, but primarily first, second and third grade, Okay, and.
It ain't the same now.
I'm remembering being in for a second and third grade back in the early sixties, and it's an entirely different world in my mind comparing then to now. Tell people listening what it's like, if they can imagine in September going into school for the first day, what's it like, what's the environment like?
Well schools today, and I will preface this by saying, good schools today really focus a lot on knowing the student and getting to know them as individuals, building relationships with them to help them want to learn more. And there are a variety of reasons why life has changed,
and the computer is certainly one of the reasons. And students interact much more with computers than they do with people, and so that's one of the main reasons why it's so important to build those relationships with both the students and the parents. But it is. It's a critical part of letting them know that there's someone who wants to teach them and wants them to like what they're learning, and it's interested in what they want to learn and
what they want to know about. We did something that past this past year that I did and we read an article and it was in a reading thing and it was about micro microplastic that is in the ocean, and we had a discussion about what would you do to get microplastic out of the ocean, which turned into a project where they built different things of microplastic, you know, different things to get the microplastic out and how you would go about doing that and whether any of their
ideas were realistic or not. They this small reading passage turned into a science project turned into a social studies thing, and all of my students will come back and say something about recycling and plastics and not using as many plastics and having that awareness because one thing sparks another.
And these are kids that are in the seconds grade. Yes, yes, and in my era, I mean, the biggest thing that we had to deal with was duck and cover as far as something that would have an overspreading of attention to something nationally, you know, local and I don't know what the world of Springfield is like, but I'm sure some of the local Springfield issues seep into their curriculum. But I wouldn't have thought well for its computers didn't exist.
In my day.
They came along long after I was in the first, second, and third grade. And that's something that's technology and that's the way the world works. And I remember watching The Jetsons in nineteen sixty one and seeing el Roy in first grade and one of his classmates with his wristwatch was watching episodes of the Flintstones. That was art imitating life. That is something that can happen today. Yes, that could
not happen in nineteen sixty one. That was just the imagination of some writer of a TV cartoon show.
Right, you did mention something. You said the biggest thing that you had to worry about was duck and cover. Yes, so we all know that school shootings are a huge thing, and you used to have to do fire drills and know how to leave the building in case of a fire, clearly, but students today not only need to know fire drills,
but they also need to know intruder drills. And it's really and that I think goes back to it's really important for the students to feel connected to their teacher because they're put in positions now of extreme trust of this one person because they don't know what's on the other side of the door, shelter in place.
You and I are here to talk about back to school and what mommy and daddy and grandparents and aunts and uncles should get for the kids shouldn't get for the kids. And we've already started to go down a different path than I want to go. So I want to get back to in September. End of August, schools are going to be opening their doors again, so let's deal with the back to school purchases. Anyone who wants to call in six one, seven, two, five, four, ten
thirty eight, eight, nine, two, nine, ten thirty. This is Nights Side. Dan Ray is off for the week. I am here. I am Morgan, Morgan White Junior. This is teacher Terry, and we're gonna be talking about what you should be thinking about purchasing for your kids for back to school time and temperature nine sixteen seventy five degrees.
Now back to Dan Ray live from the Window World Life Sign Studios on WBZ News Radio.
We're back here on Nights Side. I'm Morgan filling in for Dan. My guest this hour, teacher Terry. I've had her on many a time, talked about issues that are pertinent to those of you who are parents whose kids are in elementary.
School age schools. And in my day, I went.
To the Boston Public school system, and in my school the C. C. Perkins School, and the building is still in existence on Saint Petol Street, but it's long since been converted into condos. The school gave us eight crayons, and boy, I mean they were thick. Orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, brown, and black. Those are the colors in the A crayon box. They gave us a pencil. I don't know if they were number two pencils. They were a bit thicker than
the standard slender number two pencils. And they gave us a ruler. I think those days are gone. What do they give kids from the school department now? And what sort of implements should mom and dad purchase for their children.
Well, those will change from grade to grade, and they will change from school to school. Oftentimes, if you're in a more urban district, most of your supplies will be covered. They will be taken care of by the district. They do all of the notebooks, whether they're composition books or spiral bound, They do folders. All of those things are ready for the students on the first day of school, and they also do crayons, whether they do typically they will do a sixteen or twenty four box of crayons.
They will have at least two pencils per students an eraser. They don't give out rulers until typically I'm talking about most of the school districts that do give out the supplies, they won't give out rulers until it comes time for measurement in math class because rulers can be used in ways other than measuring things. As I'm sure you.
Know, is that your tactful way of saying that some students might actually use them.
To strike each other.
They might, They never can tell, they just might, So to resist that temptation, we usually wait until later in the year when we're actually studying measurement. Some school districts will send out a list and say please get five folders, three notebooks, pack of pencils, but they'll give you a list of things that your child will need throughout the school year. Frequently, the reason for doing different notebooks is to help students be able to keep their things organized
a little bit better. They will have a notebook for math, they will have a notebook for reading, they will have a notebook for writing. So depending on the school district, they will ask a variety of different things, and frequently they will ask that the notebooks be different colors because that helps students differentiate quickly. Oh, I used yellow for mouth, so those are.
Go ahead, go ahead.
Those are things that are typical that they will I'm so sorry.
My dog show, my dog and cat show is going to be on Wednesday.
Okay, okay, Oh dear, I was just sitting here very quietly, and I had one dog jump up on my lap and the other one said no, you may not sit on her lap, and chaos and sued. So I'm very sorry for that interruption. Like you said, things so when I always go exactly the way you expect them.
To, precisely, precisely, so you.
Will frequently get something from uh, your school district that will say, please provide your your student with these things. And a backpack or something for them to carry their items to and from school is certainly one of those things that everyone should have some type of carry carrying space to be able to take too in from And the smaller the back, the smaller the child, the smaller the bag because they need to carry it, so being
careful not to. Well, they liked this really big bag, yes, but now that they put all of their things in there, if they can't cary it, it's too heavy. So those are some big things. If you're still working on teaching your child to tie their shoes, please don't send them to school with tie shoes. Send them with velcro or just slip on shoes, because tying shoes all day long is not really the best use of of time.
A teacher's time multiplied twenty four untied chew pairs exactly, Yeah, yeah, exactly. I remember, And I am sorry I'm using me as a barometer, but I remember. I had a gun smoke lunch box when I was in the second grade. When I was in the third grade. I had a Disney school bus lunch box when I was in the fourth grade. I mean you see where I'm going with this. Yes, lunch boxes were the style.
In the sixties and the style and they also were made of actual metal, yes, and again it were a heavy metal And.
The theory of rulers can be applicable here because sometimes you might, as a child, use that as a weapon. I'm not gonna pus mind with words and one I'm just gonna be blunt and direct. Kids use them as
a weapon in my day, not every kid. But I've noticed that backpacks all have a brand, an identifiable character or characters, whether it's Pokemon, a Hello Kitty, and me by saying those two brands, I've already dated myself because a second grade child or a third grade child would not be caught dead in the fall of twenty twenty four with a Hello Kitty backpack.
But whatever, you're wrong, wrong, it's still Kitty, just keeps coming back around and around and around.
Okay, give me some other dames.
Oh, there will be some. There will be just some animal ones. So you'll get things like sharks. You'll get dinosaurs. Sharks are huge. You will get Oh my with my mind is you'll get You'll get Bluey you. Yeah, you'll get you know, some of the different characters that that are out now and trying to think, what's.
The other one with with puppy dogs.
Oh, paw patrol, Paw patrol. Yes, yes, yes, Paul patrol, Paw patrol. You will get some of those.
Depends on the age dominant for the past five years or so.
Absolutely all right, so, and you'll get some that are just their favorite color, and you will get some that are you know, Pokemon is still around because of Pokemon Go. But is there are just I've seen dragons, I've seen kitties. Hello, kitty is still bid? Yeah, there any number of them. I'm sure that if I talk to a parent, they'll say, oh, yeah, no, mine has been watching this all summer and that's the
only thing they wanted choose you. I'm sorry, Yeah, yes, indeed, I know that definitely a backpack and you know, multi colored notebooks kind of thing, multi colored folders as well. If you can get a notebook to match a folder, your golden well.
I know, in my era and now, you do not want to be the kid that's the odd ball by having something that's out of vogue, by having something that was in maybe two, three, four years ago but it's not in now, because you're stuck with that for the whole year. True.
True, I will say that I don't see as much of that in the younger grades because they all still like all the you know, the fun right, Like I have kids who I'm so dated that my kids were little when rug Rats was big. Okay, and I have kids who I have kids who wear rug Rats T shirts to school. I might you guys are still watching.
That Everything Old is New again.
Everything old is new again. So I'm eating.
Stop you here so I can take my bottom of the hour break. I'll invite people to join our conversation with the phone number here on night side six one, seven, two, five, four ten thirty or eight eight, eight nine to nine ten thirty.
This is teacher Terry.
I've used her for years for this subject, anything to do with school or back to school or specific circumstances. I've called her to come on and help my conversation. If you want to join this conversation, I just gave you the phone numbers, so that's basically about it. Let me take a break here on night Side. Give you time and temperature nine thirty seventy five degrees.
It's night Side with Dan Ray on w Boston's news radio.
We're back, everybody. I'm Morgan is night Side. Dan Ray is off. He's off for the whole week, so he should be back next week August twelfth.
We'll see.
Hopefully I will be here Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. Ben Parker will be here tomorrow.
Ben.
You hear him doing news here on BZ and I'm sure Ben will have a strong show planned for you and my show tonight, I started off with William Keck calmnesst. He's been doing calms for entertainment tonight nationally inquire all the publications people and they had a good hour with him.
Right now, I'm talking with teacher Terry. Now, Terry, are there any other ancillary items and if you need to make a separate classification for elementary versus junior high kids versus high school kids, tell me suggestions on what the items that you would like to purchase for your.
Children will be, depending on once again, depending on the school district, there will be calculators that you will be asked to get. Certainly for students who are taking higher math classes in high school, you may be asked to purchase computers, depending on what the school district itself has as a computer policy. Frequently, I know in Springfield parents
are not asked to purchase computers. The city purchases computers for the students and they get one in first grade and have it straight until they graduate from high school. And obviously there are updates made and it's a computer breaks, so you get a new computer and all kinds of other things that are added to that. But I think one of the most important things isn't actually what you buy your students. I think one of the most important things that you can do is two of the most
important things. One is please make sure they go to bed at a reasonable hour at night. Having an elementary student stay up until eleven o'clock when their older brother goes to bed isn't really helpful for the students. They need to have enough sleep so that they are awake and ready to learn at seven o'clock in the morning
or whatever time they go into school. Secondarily, if you are bringing the student to school, please bring them on time, because if you get into a pattern from the beginning of the year of coming five minutes late, then it becomes ten minutes late. Then pretty soon they're missing the first hour of school and that learning time doesn't come back to them. So if they're starting out with maths, they may have missed the entire math time and it
will certainly affect their learning. And I don't say it will affect their grade. It will affect their learning because the grade is based on what they have learned. So if you are dedicated to your child learning and doing the best they can do, two of the best things that you can do is one, give them an early bedtime, whether that's eight o'clock or eight thirty. Some students I know go to bed at seven point thirty. They have to get up early in the morning as it is,
and they have pretty full days. So let them sleep. And secondarily, make sure that they're getting to school whenever they can get to school, and that is, make sure that they're there and they're there on time.
And to me, I'm peeking behind the curtain. Your teacher, you've done this for decades. I'm not going to put a specific year on your experience, but you've seen let's do it future tens. Come September. You will see the
kids who didn't give enough sleep last night. You will see the kids who do to any number of reasons, mom and dad or grandparents or whomever, they're supposed to be in the seats by eight o'clock and they don't get to school till eight ten, eight point fifteen, and every now and then, yeah, okay, it happens, but multiply that times twenty four kids in a classroom, there's supposed to be twenty four kids by eight o'clock and they're nineteen.
That means there are four or five or six kids that for whatever reason.
You're late. Make it up.
On the other end, leave the house five or ten minutes earlier than you usually do, and that'll correct that. Put you in a bed at seven point thirty quarter of eight eight o'clock.
Yes, and get into a routine, because it will help them to be on time. It will help help you to be on time. Have a routine, Have the same thing that you're doing over and over so that it's the habit. We have the habit. We're going to school. We have the habit where we leave now, put the clothes out the night before, Do whatever you need to do to help yourself to make it easier. Because when things are done by routine, children know what to expect
and they move along much more easily. When oh it could be like this today or that tomorrow, or oh well we have this going on, and so you know, I want to go grocery shopping today, so I'm not going to be able to pick you up on time. So I'm not even going to take you to school. You know, those are just not they're not helpful in the learning of anyone. And you just use anyone.
You use the five letter word learn, learn, And that's why we put them in a classroom. Yes, so they can learn math, so they can learn English, grammar, history, geography. And believe me, it's not easy. I mean when you're six, seven, eight, nine, ten, twelve years old and all of those things are taught over four or five six hours of a school day. I remember going through it wasn't easy, but I achieved.
I did it.
Your kids can do it with your help, Marmy daddy, grandparents, Yes, with your help.
Yes. Support you know, be supportive of yours of your child, and be supportive of a good learning environment. So that means that you make sure that you are there on you know your child is there on time. You're there on time to pick them up. You know, all of those things. When the teacher calls and asks for conferences, please, she wants to brag on the kids and say these are the things that they've learned so far, and these are areas that they need a little more help.
All right now, about a minute away from another break. I know you focus on elementary age kids, but you can comment on junior high age kids. You can comment on high school age kids and their needs. Although maybe a bit different when you compare them to their younger brother and sister, there's still things that if you achieve.
It, it makes.
Their school day, school week, school months, school year go by with a lot more smoothness.
And let me come back, let you and I talk about that.
And I've only got terry to the top of the hour, So if you want to call in and let us know what your specific perspective happens to be on this subject. Six one, seven, two, five, four, ten thirty eight, eight, eight, nine, two, nine, ten thirty. This is Nightside, Dan's off for the week. I am here tonight. My name Morgan White Junior. I welcome you to join us here at Nightside time and temperature nine forty five seventy five degrees.
Now back to Dan Ray live from the Window World night Side Studios on WBZ Teams Radio.
During the course of an evening of Nightside, I guarantee you I say what I'm about to say at least two dozen times and more. Dan is Off tonight. I'm Morgan Morgan White Junior. Been a part of the broadcasting
on WBZ since the mid nineties. I have my own show on Saturday nights, heard at ten o'clock, but periodically, when Dan needs to be away from the microphone, I get a call for my boss to come in and do said night, and I'll be here obviously for the rest of tonight, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday of this week. Let's go to Michigan and speak to my buddy Matt. Who's called in Matt. Do they have schools in Detroit?
Sometimes? I wonder That was one of my tactics. I was wondering. I was wondering if you guys in Boston, Well, I mean with the weather, you certainly do. But nowadays one of my daughters is so frustrated because both her and or husband worked and they have so many snow days. You know that it seems like I'm taking how could they call school offer this a little bit of snow? When I went, I tell the truth, I never recall having snow days. Well, back in our day, we have a.
Rule in Massachusetts that a school year must consist of one hundred and eighty days. That's ironclad rule. And somehow with school vacations in December, in February, and in April a week at a time, and the holidays that crop up in the year. We hit that one hundred and eighty mark consistently every year, and the winters have been much kinder over the past I'll say.
Three or four years.
But every now and then we get the types of storms that will cancel school.
And you know, what are you going to do?
But my point is that these days that they call our schools in Michigan, it's unbelievably, you know, a small amount of precipitation. I can't believe in My daughter feels the same ways. I just don't understand it, and you know, but I always tell my kids, and they find it hard to believe. In the twelve years that I went to school, I never rode a school bus, not once, and I walked everywhere that I had to go in one of the walks.
You know.
My other elementary school years were half to three quarters of a mile. But I never rode a school bus in all my years.
And I'm the same way whenever my high school years I took the tea. I was fortunate enough for my elementary school years that my mother dropped me off at school. Walking to a friend's house where I would stay from school closing to when my mother got off of work was easily just a block and a half.
We made it happen. We made it work.
I do hear the frustration. I do hear the frustration of people when school is canceled. I know out here we cancel not only for snow days, but we cancel for days when it's too hot, days when it's too cold. So I get it. And having school start two hours late is not helpful to parents who have to work,
and having school be released early is not helpful. I know all of those things, and I know the frustration of working parents, And you know, I think overall, this is a topic that's bigger than just school, and it has to do with the economy and the fact that we live in a society with two working parents. And you know, school is set up as as a daycare place for the students to be. They're there to learn, but they're also there because mom and dad are at work,
and you know that. You know, in the nineteen fifties, that's not the way it was. And even I went to school in the seventies and my mom didn't work. My dad worked, and my mom stayed home. Even when she had four kids in school, she was there waiting for each of us when we got home from school and put us, you know, off to school. And we didn't ever have any other babysitters. Yeah, exactly, My kids were different. I worked, my husband worked, and that's what
we had to do. And that's what most families have to do today. So I think it is an overall that's that's a problem. It's an economic problem as well as a school problem.
By the way, you Matt, Matt, Matt, hold on, Matt, this is Terry. Terry, this is Matt, and I just wanted to introduce the two of you to one another.
Well, I appreciate that.
Okay.
Uh, you know, Terry, you brought up an interesting another point, you know, besides the snow, the heat. I went to a parochial grade school to where I had to wear a suit and a shirt and a tie every day, and we didn't have air conditioning. And I mean, even if they opened up the windows a little bit, it was still awfu hot in May and the early part of June, because as we used to get out the seventh sordes of June and it was hot and we couldn't loosen the tie or anything. It was I didn't
even think about that. That's a that's another right, No.
I mean, I remember sitting in elementary school. I remember sitting in high school and it being very hot and not having air conditioning. And that's just the way it was. That that is just simply the way it was. And that's you know, that is not the way it is for kids today. All the way around.
I had a couple of couple other issues.
Uh.
I had my questions and comments. Works up for Allison, uh so all positive. Of course, let me say.
This Terry was supposed to be on Wednesday, the first star of Nightside. I will call Allison's agent tomorrow and see if I can slide her in then. So watch this space and we'll find out if I am able to get Alison and grim On, and if it will be the eight to nine o'clock hour of night Side on Wednesday.
Well, I'll be listening during the rest of the week. That creates another problem. I also enjoy speaking with Bradley, So I have to make a choice that appears if you get Alison on Wednesday, to leave between her and.
Bradley pick one. I will.
Bradley, I'm sorry, but anyway, I had one more question for Jerry if I.
Really quick, I'm almost out of time, real quick.
All right, gifts for I have a granddaughter that's in approaching the fourth grade, I'm sorry, the second grade, and a grandson this in the first grade. I always at this age I'm looking for gifts. Do you have anything off the top of your head that might be a good choice for kids of that age?
Well, I personally I love giving books to two kids and starting first and second grade. I would look at something they call transitional reader readers, and those could be anything from like a Junie B. Jones book to Magic Treehouse series. I love the Magic Treehouse series. It takes them on a lot of different adventures. It's not really a boy or girl kind of book. It's it has a boy and a girl in it, so it's it's just there's a lot of adventures that can happen there.
And Cam Janssen, Cam r c Am Cam Jansen is another. Those are other good books.
That I like.
Get it. There are a lot of new series that are coming out and I hate to do.
This, guys, Okay, I've got to hit news in literally fifteen seconds.
So Matt, thank you for call.
Terry, thank you, thank you for being available on such short notice.
And you know how important you are to the show.
It works, It works.
Works, Thank you.
All right, we'll speak to you later and everybody else, the Winnakers, Bill and Bo will be joining us after these messages and news here on BZ.
Will you hear night
Side time and temperature nine fifty eight seventy five degrees