Episode 38: Zooming In on Literacy and SEL with Tre Hadrick
Tre’s Contact Info and Work:
Tre’s book Cheesesteak and Clippers
Transcription:
(transcribed by kayla.r.fainer@gmail.com)
Melissa Milner 00:09
Hi, this is Melissa Milner. Welcome to The Teacher As... podcast. The goal of this weekly podcast is to help you explore your passions and learn from others in education and beyond to better your teaching. The Teacher As... podcast will highlight innovative practices and uncommon parallels in education.
In this episode, I interviewed Tre Hadrick, who is a middle school counselor. He's been working with children for 16 years. He is an author and a TEDx speaker. Welcome to The Teacher As..., Tre Hadrick.
Tre Hadrick 00:41
Oh, thank you, Melissa. Thank you for having me. I'm very fortunate to share my insight about education and other topics with you today.
Melissa Milner 00:50
Yes, I'm very excited to hear your perspective and all your experience. First of all, before we even get into those details, just in general, what would you like The Teacher As... listeners to know about you?
Tre Hadrick 01:02
I care about the greater good of every child. And I want to see that all children are well equipped with the social emotional skills, as well as being able to read with literacy skills.
Melissa Milner 01:16
You're a middle school counselor. You're talking about social emotional skills. Are you able to spend a chunk of time working on that with students? Or are you able to be more proactive about issues? Or are you more just having to just put out fires all day long?
Tre Hadrick 01:33
I'd say both. It happens on both ends of the spectrum. As a middle school counselor, actually I am more in charge of our 7th and 8th grade as my duty. So it's more like a high school style school counselor. But there is a strong proactive approach to that, career readiness.
We prepare students for post high school graduation, entrepreneurship, career awareness, career preparation, and acquisition. As well as we talk about time management. We try to work on financial literacy as well for our students.
But then you also have, sometimes, your problems, peer issues. We have those type of household issues. So I have to put out those types of fires. So there definitely is some challenges that we face.
Melissa Milner 02:25
Do you have classes? Or is it more students come to you at certain times? How is that set up?
Tre Hadrick 02:32
Students do come to me, sometimes by request, often by appointment. I can pop into classes to speak to children in the class in general, depending on how that situation is. It varies on how things are going. And as with our new world of education post-COVID, I think that's going to change even more. So it'll be very interesting to see how it ends up being.
Melissa Milner 02:57
Yeah, that's a good point. You mentioned literacy. As a counselor, how are you also working on building literacy for the students at your school?
Tre Hadrick 03:06
So over the last year or so, as an educator in general, I fell in love more with the task of making sure all children can read. And I was exposed to the science of reading through some friends of mine, which is Teach My Kid to Read. It's a nonprofit out of New York, Marion Waldman and Faith Borkowsky.
And from that experience, I was able to learn about phonemic awareness, phonics, the 44 sounds of the alphabet. From there, I connect it to the counseling aspect. I know some of our children, when they can't read and write, their behaviors change, right? And we know how that looks in the classroom.
So as a counselor, now, from what I've learned over the last 13 months or so, it's just to really look your children in the beginning about their literacy and their education, when they come to you with a socio-emotional problem. And sometimes that's the foundation of it. I can't do work. I'm acting out in class. You realize a kid can't read, and say, okay, this is not as hard as we think, depending on how far along the child is in their academic career.
But the problem solving is more like, okay, let's get you some skill sets where you can compete in the classroom to be successful for yourself. Because if you can't read, everything else is really going to go downhill, right? And the work is more challenging. If we don't address that issue, it's putting a band-aid on a river. And it's just not gonna make a difference.
Melissa Milner 04:34
Right. Would you then be trying to teach that, or you're setting them up with an educator in the school that can teach them that?
Tre Hadrick 04:43
Yeah, I would set them up with an educator in the school. I don't know how far I would go in counselor stuff to teach that. Outside of my nine to five, I'm working on learning how to teach kids how to read. I created a character, Mr. Lit, as in literacy. And his whole mission is to promote the science of reading and reading in general and just trying to push the emphasis that all children deserve to learn how to read.
Melissa Milner 05:10
Yeah. So it's the overall philosophy of how important it is and how it affects their self esteem and their behaviors.
Tre Hadrick 05:17
Yes, ma'am. That's the challenge. And even myself, I'm also an adjunct professor at Villanova for their school counseling department. And in there, I speak to my students about that as well. I say, we have to talk about literacy, even as school counselors. We have to think about that. Because a lot of the problems that come about-- I know we talk about our academic issues through our ASCA model.
But when we talk about literacy, and especially for our younger students, and somebody told you they can't read, their behaviors just go left field. And then it's like, okay, let's work on that. And how do we get that intervention in place? It makes a difference.
Melissa Milner 05:53
That's great. I know, because I have the book-- speaking of reading, I know that you wrote a very adorable book. Do you want to talk about that?
Tre Hadrick 06:04
Oh, Cheesesteaks and Clippers. Oh, wow. Well, first, let me say thank you for purchasing the book.
Melissa Milner 06:09
You're welcome, you're welcome.
Tre Hadrick 06:11
Cheesesteaks and Clippers is the title of my first published children's book, where it speaks about a young boy in a barber shop. And it speaks about what he learned from his community. Ironically, he doesn't get a haircut throughout the book. But he learns so many amazing skill sets and tasks, just learning from the men in the barber shop, right? And he learns about it takes a village to help someone, or stand for something, or fall for anything, respecting women.
It's just a lot of things that he learns as a young boy. He never gets a haircut until the very, very end. But it just was a way for me to explain to the world my experiences as a child in the barber shop. Ironically, I did name the character after my son. It just was a good way to bring things together. And they always said if you can explain it in the world of a child, that means you understand it. And you can also teach a lot of others that same lesson.
Melissa Milner 07:13
Does Ernesto enjoy the book?
Tre Hadrick 07:15
Well, he loves the book. He loves the book. And some of the mannerisms actually are like him. Like when he's in the barber shop, he's quiet. He does observe a lot. So it's very similar.
Melissa Milner 07:24
That's awesome.
Tre Hadrick 07:25
But it was more me explaining my experiences through the eyes of a child.
Melissa Milner 07:30
I love-- the barber shop, I've seen it portrayed in movies. It is sort of its own little ecosystem. And I think it's just so electric when you see scenes in movies. And the book sort of captures that as well, just that it's its own little ecosystem/family.
Tre Hadrick 07:50
It is. And I think the experience, but also the power, right. In every community, I know as an educator, I think it's very important to connect with those small businesses, the mom and pops that are like lifelines and bloodlines to the community, and in the black and brown community, and even in caucasian.
But I know definitely, from my experience, as an African American male, in our community, the barber shop is a bloodline. It doesn't discriminate, right? You have all walks of life, from your pastors, to your businessmen, to your athletes, to your odd job co-workers, everybody.
Melissa Milner 08:28
And different generations, right?
Tre Hadrick 08:30
Generations, yes. And you learn to respect and understand in fellowship. And it just is an important experience that many overlook.
Melissa Milner 08:39
Yeah, it's so awesome. It's the simplest of things. It's a place you go to get your hair cut. But it's so much deeper than that.
Tre Hadrick 08:47
Oh, you learn to give up your seat to the elderly man in the barber shop. That just teaches-- and often, you'll hear, well, these children are single parent households and fatherless homes, a lot of things you hear about black kids. And honestly, some of the statistics are true. Not all of them are.
However, there are places like that that make up and take care of those situations, where the barber becomes the mentor or the father figure to a lot of children within the community. So, it’s just a powerful situation.
Melissa Milner 09:20
Very cool. Can you talk about your TEDx talk, your TED talk thing?
Tre Hadrick 09:27
Sure. So I did a TEDx speech at TEDx Norristown. I believe it was three years ago, 2018 if I'm not mistaken. But you can find it on YouTube. But it's called “The Seeds of Leadership.” And I spoke about leadership and using, I guess, the story of when someone plants the seeds for bamboo. And it takes time for bamboo to grow. And you plant the seeds and water the bamboo.
And year one, nothing's coming up. And year two, you might see a little leaf. But by year five, it's sprouting 50 feet in the air. And you're like, wow, how did that happen? But that's how I looked at leadership. It's the same thing. It takes time for it to grow. You just got to continue to water and continue to work at it.
During my speech, I broke down the word seeds into an acronym, which was sacrifice, equality, endgame, development, and strategy. Those are the five words for the seeds of leadership. And I just spoke about how important to me those five words are as a leader. But you don't have to be a leader in a business or in a school.
You can be a leader in your own personal space, in your own family, in your own community, your neighborhoods, your block, your whatever it might be. You can be a leader. And I think those five words, sacrifice, endgame, preparing with the end in mind, equality, which I'd sort of switch that now to equity, development and strategy. Those five words to me just make up and encompass everything.
Melissa Milner 11:02
Have there been any moments with students that you really think The Teacher As... listeners could learn from?
Tre Hadrick 11:08
Definitely. I have one in particular that always sticks out. I think two years ago, if I'm not mistaken on my timeline-- I've been blessed to be so busy, sometimes I forget how long things are. But I had a young man in my building who always spoke about trains. He was very knowledgeable. I think at the time, he was in fifth grade maybe, if not sixth grade.
But he always spoke about trains. And he just knew everything, like statistics that the average adult would never know. And he knew everything. I'm like, this is amazing. So with his parents' permission, I videotaped him one day, talking about trains. So he's going through, and I asked him questions. And I said, how big is this? How far is the rail? How long does it go? He can answer everything.
And I posted it on social media, because he never, at that point, rode a train before. I posted it on social media. And I said, I just want to give this kid a chance to go to-- I think he was on SEPTA, which is here locally in the Philadelphia area, our transportation. But I don't think he was ever on Amtrak. So I posted him on social media.
And there was an individual who was anonymous, in a positive way. And this individual paid for the young man and his mother to ride a train from Philadelphia to Washington DC.
Melissa Milner 12:33
Wow.
Tre Hadrick 12:34
Yeah, stay overnight, I believe one or two nights. And then they rode the train back. And to this day, it was really an anonymous person who contacted me, sent the tickets to the mother via email, met them at the hotel. It sounds crazy, but it's a true honest story.
Lady was there. I think she paid very quick and then just left. Because I'm not sure her occupation. Because when I met her through social media, her handle was an alias, as in Wonder Woman or something. She's just like, I'm here to help.
And I was really nervous. I'm not gonna lie. But it was an amazing experience. And I just took a leap of faith. And I said, sure. So the mom contacted-- they spoke. She sent the tickets. The young man and the mother went down to Philadelphia, got on Amtrak. It's amazing.
This lady took pictures. That's, to me, what education is about. It wasn't about A's and B's. It was about experience, exposure, and empowerment. And that child was able to be empowered from that experience. And it was all free, all from social media.
Melissa Milner 13:42
That's terrific. Oh my gosh. Related to this, and this might be the same thing, do you have a proudest moment in your work so far as an educator?
Tre Hadrick 13:52
This might sound biased. But during a time when I met Faith and Marion from Teach My Kid to Read, my son was struggling with reading himself. So he went through their-- they call it Train the Trainer program. But it's also like a tutoring program. He did some sessions with Faith Borkowsky with her Highfive Literacy and academic coaching, which is separate from Teach My Kid to Read.
But she basically rewired his brain with phonemic awareness and phonics. And I say that's my proudest moment, because I am an educator, even though I'm a father first. But when my son could read certain words on the page, it was one of those moments. When he told me before he had this training and this new way to think for reading, he said, the words on the page were like alphabet soup.
As an educator, whether it was my son or not, that was a proud moment. And then we also were able to eventually have another young man in our community get the same tutoring. And he's now on his path to being able to read. So that's like a really proud moment for me.
And it is recent. But I think it just sticks out. Because the more I learn about education, as much as I thought I'd know much, there's nothing more important than reading. Nothing.
Melissa Milner 15:13
Yes. A lot of educators, that's their passion. It's just opening up the whole world to be able to help a kid to read. That's amazing. What are you zooming in on right now in your work?
[ZOOMING IN SOUNDBITE]
Tre Hadrick 15:29
Just piggybacking on what we just said, honestly I'm truly zooming in on literacy and how correcting some of the ills of the way people look at dyslexia and illiteracy, and making sure children by third grade can read that can connect with counseling. So trying to really connect literacy and school counseling together is one of my focuses now. Because I just see the effects.
I see the school to prison pipeline. I see the behaviors, usually with children who can't read. It's just hand in hand. It's scary how similar the statistics are for some of the children who struggle, even the mental health, depression and suicide ideation. That's all in there.
So I just really think if we can hone in, as a country, regarding our literacy practices and really go by the science that allows children to have a better stronghold and grasp of reading, I think it's going to be a world of a difference. And it'll make our children more competitive for the ever changing world.
Melissa Milner 16:32
Yeah. It'll make it more equitable. Absolutely. Do you have a lot of diversity at your school?
Tre Hadrick 16:38
Yes, and no. So the word diversity to me means different, not just races, but difference in people. So I would say there’s a lot of diversity. There's a lot of different children, whether we were 100% white or 100% black or brown, there's diversity within just those groups of individuals in general, not just a racial breakdown different.
But racially, diversity wise, we're not. I would say we're more black and brown with maybe a 10% to 20% white population and other. So that's our breakdown. If we're saying something really diverse, it would be maybe be like 10, 10, 10, or 25, 25 25, truly diverse. But we're majority black and brown, a small population of white, Caucasian and Asian.
Melissa Milner 17:28
And are you urban or rural?
Tre Hadrick 17:30
So some people call it suburban, but I would say it's urban. IThe demographics and the economic challenges, it's very similar to being in a big city. So some people call it suburban urban. Some people just want to hold on to the suburban feeling so you don't have to say it's an urban environment. But it is a very urban environment.
The literacy challenges are affecting everyone in the country. And the more I've learned over the last year, the big difference is some people have financial resources to get outside help to help their children. And I was blessed to do that with my son.
But as I always tell people, that's not my mission to say, okay, well, my son can read. So I'm not worried about anybody else. I'm never like that. If we look at our economic challenges within this country, there's way more people on the moderate to low income side than there is on the high end.
So in my community where X percent - and I can't say the exact number off my head - are below the poverty line. I know they won't have a chance unless things are changed within the system.
Melissa Milner 18:41
Within the system, absolutely. And the system, unfortunately, was established to not allow for that equity.
Tre Hadrick 18:51
You're so true. And that's why I think even more in my path and my walk of life, I think it's so important. Because it was 200 plus years before black slaves at that time, before the word African American came, but the black slaves were allowed to read. It was illegal.
So I think if we talk about so many challenges in our country, George Floyd and all these issues that people talk about, we have to go back to our education system and really look at how we are producing individuals to serve society. When we look at that, that really tells you some of our ills. Because that's where it all starts.
Melissa Milner 19:32
Right. It sounds like you should be doing something with literacy. Is your passion now more for literacy or for counseling? Or can you really have an equal passion for both? What do you think?
Tre Hadrick 19:48
You can have an equal passion for both. Because I think coming out of this pandemic, we're gonna need a lot of mental health support for everybody. And I think that's important to make sure that we address it and to normalize mental health or some of the causes of mental health in a school building as our challenges with dyslexia and illiteracy. So I think you can definitely address both of them. You just have to want to do it, and be intentional with it, and not try to put a band-aid over it.
Melissa Milner 20:21
Right. How can people reach you if they want to learn more about what you do?
Tre Hadrick 20:26
So you can reach me on Twitter @mrlitedu, as well as on Instagram @mrlitedu. I'm on LinkedIn, Ernest Tre Hadrick III. Honestly, and I know this sounds sort of cliche, but you can Google my name. On there, there's a lot of articles. There's resources that can connect with me from there as well.
Melissa Milner 20:52
And you're on there as Ernest or Tre?
Tre Hadrick 20:55
On LinkedIn, I'm on there as Ernest Tre Hadrick. But like I said, there's just plenty of articles, different research, things that I've done. I've been fortunate. I don't know. I have a knack for ingenuity and creativity. And when I see something, I'm like, how do I bring about the discussion? Or what is the solution for this problem?
Melissa Milner 21:19
Awesome. Before I do the last question, is there anything else you were hoping to talk to the listeners about today?
Tre Hadrick 21:26
I would just want people to really understand that coming out of this pandemic, we need to really focus on education and the experience of education. Not just the straight A's of education, but making sure children are getting a holistic experience. I think one thing that was very unique during this time is a lot of parents were able to witness their children in school.
And I know some people agree with it or don't agree, but for years, some educators were not sending home homework. Because there was an understanding that some children don't have the support at home to do the homework. But now, when they were home and were exposed, parents were seeing some of the challenges that their children were going through in person.
So I think it woke up the masses to like, we need to really address education on a whole. And I think if we address education on a whole, we're able to fight some of the ills of society. A lot of people were virtual for the last year, and children weren't being suspended from school, no detentions from school. How do we keep that going?
Granted, I'm not saying virtual is the only method. But how do we keep that positive culture going of not saying, okay, you need to go home for three days because of an incident. What does that really prove?
Melissa Milner 22:44
You're taking that child away from the learning.
Tre Hadrick 22:47
You are.
Melissa Milner 22:47
And away from the opportunities. And at home, there may be major trauma and turmoil going on.
Tre Hadrick 22:54
We never ask the question-- I'm coming to a point in my life where I think if something has been going on for quite some time, like for example, this might sound funny, but 16 years old to drive a car, to get your license. Why did this start? Is that really the age that children are most mature to get behind the wheel?
Melissa Milner 23:16
It's terrifying.
Tre Hadrick 23:18
Correct. So you think about like, why, and you go back in history and try to see. Oh, so they chose 16, because kids were working. And it took them 45 minutes to walk to work. So they allow the age to come down, whatever it might be. I don't know if that's true. But we need to start looking at that. And why do we suspend after a fight at school?
And depending on-- I'm just saying this being honest. Depending on how bad and whatever the case may be, but what did three days-- where did the rule three days as the suspension come from? What does that really solve? Is that saying three days of social and emotional support to get back into the environment or three days away, as you said, from the education setting that really is just pushing you further behind?
So we're saying you're not allowed to learn more. That's not what it is. We need to help you with the social skill set that might be off.
Melissa Milner 24:06
Right, that's causing the fighting and causing-- exactly. So the three day suspension is, like you said, the band-aid that doesn't work. This is our last question, and this is something I'm very curious to hear your answer. What is your favorite movie, and why?
Tre Hadrick 24:26
Wow, my favorite movie. I have different movies that I like, just different reasons. Coming to America. But one movie that really sticks out is Men of Honor with Cuba Gooding Jr. and Robert DeNiro. That really sticks out because of the perseverance that Carl Bashir showed in that movie from becoming the first African American scuba-- what's it called, Navy divers, underwater scuba diver within our country.
But I think the perseverance he showed to get to that point-- I remember when they sliced his bag when he was trying to put the mechanism together underwater. And he was freezing. He was there for hours. And they said, this is crazy. He kept going. Then his leg got cut off. And then he had to go to rehabilitation.
And then he had to go in front of the board. I don't know the technical term, but he had to go in for them so that he could walk with the heavy suit on and everything. But to me, it was just a powerful movie. It taught me so much. I think that came out in 2000.
Melissa Milner 25:37
Yeah, it's an older one.
Tre Hadrick 25:39
It's an older movie. But it really just resonated with my soul that you just can't give up. And as much as I've had success in the past years and just basically in life in general, I've just been fortunate. Nothing that I've done different, just a little bit of hard work. But it just told me, even with the success, you're gonna have challenges.
And if you don't think you're gonna have challenges, you're not gonna be successful. I just learned that. And I'm not perfect, but I just try my best to do the best that I can do in making a difference, to leave my mark.
Melissa Milner 26:11
I'm gonna go back and watch that for sure. Because I remember enjoying that. All right, thank you so much for taking the time out. You're a very busy person. So I really appreciate it.
Tre Hadrick 26:23
Thank you for having me.
Melissa Milner 26:25
If you enjoyed this episode, and have not done so already, please hit the subscribe button for The Teacher As... podcast so you can get future episodes. I would love for you to leave a review and a rating, as well, if you have time. For my blog, transcripts of this episode and links to any resources mentioned, visit my website at www.theteacheras.com. You can reach me on Twitter and Instagram @melissabmilner. And I hope you check out The Teacher As... Facebook page for episode updates.
I am sending a special thanks to Linda and Lester Fleishman, my mom and dad, for being so supportive. They are the voices you hear in the Zooming In soundbite. And my dad composed and performed the background music you are listening to right now. My intro music was "Upbeat Party" by Scott Holmes.
So what are you zooming in on? I would love to hear from you. My hope is that we all share what we are doing in the classroom in order to teach, remind, affirm and inspire each other. Thanks for listening. And that's a wrap!