ChangED
ChangED is an educator based podcast for Pennsylvania teachers to learn more about the PA STEELS Standards and science in general. It is hosted by Andrew Kuhn and Patrice Semicek.
ChangED
Brain Food- Why Curiosity Is Your Superpower
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What happens when we prioritize knowing answers over asking questions? How does curiosity shape not just learning, but creativity, cultural competence, and emotional wellbeing? These profound questions drive our fascinating conversation with education expert Genein Letford, who brings her unique journey from special education student with a speech impediment to innovative educator and keynote speaker.
The heart of our discussion centers on curiosity as the foundation for meaningful learning. "If creativity is a driver of innovation, curiosity is a driver of creativity," Letford notes, describing curiosity as a muscle that needs consistent exercise during formative years. By celebrating questions and modeling the joy of discovery, we prepare students for a world where asking profound questions becomes more valuable than memorizing facts. Don't miss Genein Letford's keynote presentation at the MCIU Steels Expo on May 20th, where she'll expand on these ideas—and maybe even share her musical talents!
Want to send us a show idea or just say hi? Email us at: thechangedpodcast@gmail.com!
Introduction to Janine Lefford
Speaker 1We feel very fortunate that we've had the opportunity to meet you. We've seen you keynote and we've had lots of great conversations, which it's unfortunate that we don't have a headset and microphone on every time that we talk, because you have so much wisdom to share and great stories and experiences that really tie everything together when we're talking. But we are beyond excited that you are coming from the state of Arizona, traveling all the way out here to the state of Pennsylvania to be with us for our 2025 MCIU Steels Expo, and that you are going to be keynoting for us, opening it up, starting off the whole show, so that we can start up on the right tone and the right foot and really get us in that mindset of how curiosity is so impactful for us as not just educators but as human beings. Well, I can tell before we go any further, from the way that Patrice is looking at me like I have forgotten something. Yeah, maybe we should introduce ourselves, probably should. Yeah, how far back do you want me to go? You?
Speaker 2want me to go?
Speaker 1welcome back I think people are sad when you don't do the ridiculous intro. Yeah, all of our fan mail says we didn't get the welcome back. Well, how can they know when to turn the volume down? Welcome back sweet moses to change it change it we are your hosts for this educational podcast that is also bringing you to me like I don't even know what you are.
Speaker 1the montgomery county intermediate unit steals expo at the end of this month. I'm your host, andrew coon, a project consultant for montgomery county intermediate unit, and here with me is patrice semacek, also a project consultant from the mont County Intermediate Unit, and the one doing all the work for the expo. Yeah, good luck editing this. When I'm starting or as we've already talked about, with our four minute introduction, without even saying the person's name we have here with us, it's not really four minutes, is it? It felt like four minutes. There's a lot of me talking.
Speaker 1Yep minutes, is it? It felt like four minutes. There's a lot of me talking, yep, well, winding it up, winding up the pitch, with the batter ready to swing. Can I please say who it is? Janae lefford. We are so thrilled and excited to have you here. Would you please, or is that good? Then we can go from there, do you please?
Speaker 2well, I was trying to tee it back up, would you please?
Speaker 1because I think at that point we'll have to edit out this little bit of the end, I think. At that point I feel like we will need to see how ridiculous you are it switches over to her being. You know that she started her talking. Well, me asking her to tell her introduce yourself to ChangeEd. Nation. This is something else. I wonder if you wouldn't mind just introducing yourself to our listeners, to our ChangeEd Nation, so they have an idea of who is Janine Litford.
Teaching Through Integrated Arts Approach
Speaker 2Well, I'm one of you, right, I'm not really an outsider coming in. I was a teacher, classroom teacher, the child of a classroom teacher. My mother did 30 years high school biology and just seeing her be a part of people's aha moments was very enlightening for me. I wanted a chance to have my life be a part of that. So I went into education, got my credential at California State University, northridge in Southern California, got my credential at California State University, northridge in Southern California, and I just knew that number one for me, the most critical part of life is the beginning of life. That's where the foundation is built, right, we know the first five years is very important, but then that five through 12. So I wanted to really target in that elementary time and I taught third grade for a few years and then the principal gave me an opportunity to teach the arts program, the music program, even though I didn't have a music credential. I had a general ed credential which includes the arts, right, and? But it was a wonderful, wonderful challenge because I'm coming in knowing the standards of general ed. You know math, history, ela, but I taught music, so you know how when you're a general ed teacher, you can teach the subject, like math, and you bring in the arts underneath it. Right, and people do it in different ways, but I was teaching music and bringing in the other standards underneath it.
Speaker 2So, hey, we're playing Beethoven on the recorder, we're learning how to read music, but let's connect this to fractions as well. Right, your whole note, your half note, your quarter note, your 16th note, or we're looking at the life of Beethoven, why we play his music. But let's look at some of the struggles he went through. How did he? He turned that around and reframe that.
Speaker 2So I was always making those connections to other areas of the curriculum, because that's how the brain learns. The brain doesn't really separate it. We do, but the brain doesn't separate it, it's just all smashed in there, all at the same time. Right, and that was the beginning of what you see. Now the work that I'm really championing and pioneering is the importance of creative thinking. What does that look like all the way to the neurological level, at the brain level? How does culture influence our creativity and how does a culture influence our perception of our own creative potential? And how do we automatically perceive, unconsciously or consciously, the creative potential of others, especially our students, like what's going on there, and so that's why I'm doing what I'm doing today.
Speaker 1We mentioned before that we've seen you keynote and it was very impressive the way that you did did things and both Patricia and I present a lot, and we walked away from it like wow, some of what you did was there were simple things, that were complex things, but they were also just innovative and thought through and very intentional and very well done, as you're sharing who you are and your experience, your life experience. The thing that's really sticking out to me is that piece where, at the end, you sing a song and I was I mean, I was blown away. The courage to do that. Now, knowing that as part of your background and who you are, makes sense. The only audience I ever sing for is other people who are on the highway, who can't hear me because I'm belting out a song and I'm hitting every note correctly because all I can do is hear the actual singer in the car.
Personal Journey and Finding Voice
Speaker 1But I love how you're talking about that connection and really that everything is integrated all the time. It's not like you take one time and you say, ok, now I'm going to sing, this is all I'm going to do is sing, or I'm going to do this. You're taking in all those components and there's a lot to music. Music you can feel it, you can hear it and there's a lot of emotion that's tied to it. So I love this integrated approach that you're talking about, and how has that experience really impacted where you are now? You're an author, you're a speaker. You know you do a lot of work with a lot of individuals and organizations and I'm wondering how that experience has impacted where you are now.
Speaker 2Well, my life experience has. I grew up a special education student. I have a stutter speech impediment, so I dealt with that. But through that and after, through some serious reflection time, I realized how important certain aspects really helped me come into being. So like the arts were key because, neurologically speaking, people who stutter for some reason they don't stutter when they sing, Like the brain is using a different part.
Speaker 2You know, of course there's overlapping areas of language and music and we talk about the research with that and why, and that's why music is so critical for building the skills to, for reading and language development. But I knew that music was critical in helping me find my voice until I can actually find my speaking voice. But even movement, you know, when you see me on stage I'm not like standing in one place behind a podium, right, you know there's intentional, there's every there's, there's intentional reasons for everything I do. But movement helps me speak more fluent, but it also helps me speak, you know, with nonverbal communication. And then, of course, you know theater. My mother put my twin I have a twin sister in theater class and so that really helped me just present with emotion, present with awareness of myself, right, and with interoception, but also with the audience and everything. And so this is another reason why I advocate for artistic integration at every level, at every stage, in every part of the curriculum, because it brings out the essence of the journey that our students are going through with their interaction with the curriculum and it deepens understanding and it layers understanding. Right, You're able to shift and have perspective shifting around the content and around your connection to the content, because the brain is constantly saying, okay, well, why is this important to me and where is this connected to in my lived experience? Right, that the brain's constantly trying to make sense of the data coming in. And so the arts were a critical part of me making sense of where my place was in the world.
Speaker 2And you know, and my sister, you know, I keynoted at the gifted conference, the national one and then the state one, and that's where I met you. But I wasn't in the gifted program. You know, my twin was, my little sister was, my baby brother was, and they're doing great things, you know. But that you know, that was a part of my identity journey. You know, like what does it really mean to be gifted? So support our gifted students who are being identified that way, but also supporting the gifts and other students who have gifts in other areas, because you would look at me and not say that I'm not gifted, right, I'm gifted in where, what I'm great in, but, but, but still, I ran the gifted program at my elementary school. So really looking at what does it mean to be gifted in different areas and in different developmental parts of life, Right?
Understanding Curiosity and Brain Development
Speaker 1Yeah, you know, our theme for the expo this year is curiosity, and we want to empower educators to live into curiosity. I think a lot of things have taught us to as human beings, that we need to know the right answer versus being curious, and we see curiosity really as a gateway into learning, a gateway into being scientific and instead of saying I know the answer, how do I look into the answer? So I'm curious from a neurological standpoint, how does curiosity play into how the brain works and develops? And is that something natural, that we want to know the answer versus being curious, or is curiosity innately within us?
Speaker 2Oh yes, Love it, Love it. I believe we were born curious because if you look at an infant and you don't have to teach it, you know. Here's your first step on being curious.
Speaker 2Like they just go right there they're touching everything and they're very sensorial for a reason. So we need to get that part back. For those of you of us had that have let let that go. Another thing is, you know there's old script that says seek right, that term comes up seek, but seek means to be curious. To be curious about your curiosity can have diversity. Some people are don't ask questions at all, but some people are asking questions like well, how did that come to be? Well, what was the origination of of this? Or does that person know this over here? Or what was that date when this happened? Does that have any connection with this? You know, those are your thinkers and those are.
Speaker 2If you look at the top, business, people, people, they have that, that kaleidoscope, curiosity, if you can say, right, they're looking at it from so many things and as teachers we really want to develop it because that's the driving force. And I say if, if creativity is a driver of innovation, curiosity is a driver of creativity. And we also need to be aware of curiosity affects other areas. Curiosity affects your cultural competence. So if I meet you on the street because you're externally different demographics from me, my brain may not automatically say friend, right, or let me go towards this person, right? Whereas if I see someone who's a woman or a person of African descent, I may be just unconsciously drawn to them because of those reasons, right? So for me to reach out to you and start a conversation or start a friendship, I have to be curious, you know, of like hey, what's this guy about? Or look at his bow tie, I wonder where that's stemming from. Or he has a shirt that says da, da, da, da da. I wonder why he chose. You know, it's the curiosity that breeds connection, and I think it's a curiosity that's going to help us be have a solution with some of these, these issues that we're going about through life. Okay, well, why are they thinking that way? And and what's the motivation behind that action?
Curiosity as Foundation for Creativity
Speaker 2Curiosity is connected to our mental, emotional health. You know. They say that if you are, let's, let's say there's a food addiction, right, and just binging and everything. But I heard a neuroscientist who does this work talk about this. He was like one of the avenues to get to a solution or to get healing is to stop like okay, well, why am I eating these two whole pizzas? Is it because I'm hungry or is it because I'm trying to mask something deeper, right. And so just stopping and being like, am I even enjoying this, right, or is it because of this issue that's even unrelated to food, right? Right. And so he was saying if people would just stop and be curious, then they can start to start to unravel and get to the bottom of things. So curiosity drives creativity, curiosity drives cultural connections you know across and cultural competency, and curiosity drives our healing for mental and emotional health.
Speaker 1So, janine, I am curious will you be singing at our keynote at the expo?
Speaker 2You have to show up to find out, so hopefully I will see you all there.
Embracing Questions in Education
Speaker 1I love that you did that. I think this is a very timely conversation for all of us in Montgomery County that we can. How do we embrace and how do we help build the background of curiosity but also a possibility for our students. Being able, being allowed to be curious is a very important thing, and we found ourselves in a society where knowing is King, knowing is the most important, but curiosity, I think, is actually more important. But it, you know, it's almost like that blocker that stops us. While I don't know the answer, I'm not going to even say, well, I don't know the answer. I'm not going to even say that I don't know what we're talking about because I have no idea what the answer is. But really that stops the learning. That's where the learning happens. It brings your hand and be like I'm not the only one, but I have no idea what we're talking about, and then usually you find out. No one else knows, everyone's just nodding right, like it actually is. The weather raises his hand what, what?
Speaker 1yeah why are we doing this?
Speaker 2I'm always like yeah, I don't know and so I'll I'll speak to that really quick, because that's something that we need to be mindful of is are we squashing curiosity without even knowing it? You know the, the person who's in the authority position, and whether it be a parent, caretaker or a teacher or leader or boss or manager is our responses, and reactions to things are critical, right? So if my son says, well, why are we doing it this way? If I just say because I said so, and then you know, and a lot of times when you're busy, you're hurrying, you know because I, you know, cause I said it, that's the way it is I had to really think, well, what am I doing in that moment he is curious about? So why is the routine this way and not that way? And I just shut him down without any response, right? And so am I raising a child who will get into the workforce and not feel confident in questioning authority, right? And not feel confident in needing to know the historical reasons for certain procedures. So that's something to be aware of. And then another and I write about this in the book that I even have a whole chapter on just curiosity is. It's a muscle, and you're right.
Speaker 2Someone, someone, one of you said it earlier, is the culture cultivating a culture of curiosity, right? Am I allowing my students to to ask questions? And, like you said, am I okay with not knowing? And that's a huge thing for some of the teachers. I've had a lot of students come to me and said, yeah, my teacher totally shut me down because they didn't want to look like they didn't know, and so this is crucial, because it's the curiosity muscle that's going to help our kids survive in this world of AI and everything. So if we shut that down without even knowing it or sometimes do know it and still shutting it down, and they and then I celebrate curiosity.
Speaker 2When a student or my son says something like you know what? That's an amazing question. I actually don't know. Let's you know? What are ways that you can find that out? Because I want my son to know that I'm not the only source of information. There's multiple places to to gather data and then how to synthesize that data and come to your own conclusion. So, once again, these zero through 12 years. If you squash this stuff during that time, it's so hard to get it back. It's so hard to get it back. That's why we really need to be careful during these developmental times.
Speaker 1Janine, we are looking forward to seeing you in person, so excited. At the Steeles Expo on Tuesday, may 20th, and I know that I speak for all of our listeners to say they can't wait to see whether or not you're going to sing, and that's the keynote. Thank you so much. Thank you for your time and for your wisdom. We appreciate you spending the time with us. Thank you so much.