Recently, my colleague Jacqui Tricarico down at the New Jersey Education Association Convention in Atlantic City sat down with two leaders from the NJEA, one of our longtime underwriters and an underwriter of public broadcasting, with Kevin Kelleher, who is the Executive Director of the New Jersey Education Association, and his colleague, Denise Graff Policastro, Deputy Executive Director.

They talked as part of our series, "Who Will Teach our Children?"

They talked about teacher burnout.

They talked about mental health, mental health issues, and also diversity, equity, and inclusion in our classrooms.

From AC, let's check out Jacqui.

- Joining me now is Denise Graff Policastro, who is the Deputy Executive Director of the NJEA; and Kevin Kelleher, the Executive Director of the NJEA.

Day 2 here at the Convention.

Thousands and thousands of educators are walking this Convention floor.

So much to see and do here.

For you, Denise, so far, what has been a highlight?

- I think the energy of Spike Lee yesterday and Governor Murphy.

- [Jacqui] Been hearing that a lot, yeah.

- That was tremendous.

Like, the excitement in the room, Governor Murphy having the ability to connect with so many of our members.

Spike Lee was tremendous.

Just so many people being so happy to be here was my highlight.

- Yeah, what about for you, Kevin?

- I think it's walking the floor every year.

It's the same.

It's the excitement of educators coming down, really believing in their profession and wanting to be here, walking the floor, trying to learn more to bring back to the classroom, to keep our schools where they are, which is number one in the nation.

- Yeah, being exposed to so much information here, so many things that maybe they didn't know anything about, to broaden their education, bring things back into the classroom like you had mentioned, Kevin.

And one theme that I've definitely been seeing throughout these past few days is mental health, and the mental health of our educators and how important that is with the different types of things that are up here, some therapy dogs, just talking and making mental health a conversation.

How important do you feel, Denise, that is this year, especially more than ever, to make sure that our educators and support staff professionals are being supported in that way?

- I think it's critical, and I think when you see our goat yoga and the therapy dogs, really, our educators are...

They're tired, and it's been a rough couple years and to have resources available to them.

We have a variety of resources through our research department, through everything that we touch at this point, which demonstrates we need you mentally healthy to be in the classroom.

Our kids need you.

It's critical this year.

- Yeah, and what about for you, Kevin, seeing that theme play out here in different ways?

- It's not just the educators.

it's the children in the classroom, right?

We've all just come out of the pandemic, right?

- So it's also bringing it back to the classroom, bringing the support back for the children in the classroom 'cause this really is all about the children, right?

But the mental health has to be there for the educator in order to be able to give the mental health to the child.

So it's really a two-pronged approach.

- Question I have for you, changing it up a little bit.

AI.

This is something we're seeing a lot about.

There's something here set up this year, the AI playground, and I think what it's, and you can tell me if I misunderstood here, a really a way for educators to understand how to use this in a positive way.

Because unfortunately, we are seeing AI used in not great ways.

We heard recently some things in the news about Westfield High School students using AI.

First, I wanna know about how we can incorporate AI in a positive, healthy way because it's not going anywhere, right?

(Jacqui laughing) So we need to make sure our educators are equipped with the tools to be able to use that, but also when it comes to minors, and should there be certain regulations that are in place through the state or federal level to really have some components ready to deal with situations, like we saw at Westfield High School?

What do you think, Kevin?

- Well, when AI...

I mean, it's so brand new.

But when I was in the classroom, Wikipedia came out and Wikipedia was like gonna be- - You're not dating yourself, Kevin, at all.

- No, but it was gonna be the...

It was gonna be the downfall of education, right?

And letting students- - Misinformation, possibly.

- Right, and getting on there, and educators learn to adjust and adapt.

And you see students in front of computers all day long, right?

They're using computers and our educators adapt to it.

And so I think AI, we're gonna have to learn a little bit more about it, and the pros and cons, and then educators are gonna have to adapt on how to use it.

So maybe we turn and say, instead of saying, "Write me a five-paragraph essay on blank," maybe we turn that and we say, "I just used AI to write a five-paragraph, but I made some changes in it.

Can you go through this and find the mistakes in there?"

I think we have to learn to adjust and see how it's gonna be used, but we're so brand new into the field right now.

I think we're all learning and trying to figure it out and how to do that.

- Yeah, how do you see educators navigating this new part of... Technology is always a rough patchy area, right?

So how do you see them, really?

- To me, AI is like the internet.

Like, in three years, in 10 years, our entire world will be different because of AI.

And I think as we are now, as Kevin said, learning, how can we start utilizing this?

Our conversation today will be very different than next year.

AI is here.

We have to figure it out for all of our age groups.

What does it look like in kindergarten?

Which is such a weird thought, but it's going to look differently in every single school.

We know we have to adapt in order to make this work.

- Definitely.

Well, within another theme present very much here at the Convention is diversity, equity, and inclusion.

How are we making sure that diversity, equity, inclusion, and just really making sure that empathy is a main focal point in our classrooms for our students?

There's so much going on in our world right now.

What do you see as a... Kevin?

(Jacqui laughing) - It's a place where our educators, our members, are leaning into the work.

It is about empathy, it is about everyone, it's about including everyone.

It's something that we're helping our educators with.

We're out there, we're giving them workshops on it, we're got the film festival, we're adjusting this Convention so that there is more diversity, equity, inclusion training here.

So we're going back to the classroom and bringing it there.

So NJEA is leaning in, leaning in pretty hard.

If you see some of the keynotes, if you see some of the film festivals, as you mentioned, and some of the workshops, we are trying to move in that direction and bring it back to our educators to bring it back into the classroom and make it more of a inclusive environment for all in the classroom.

Last question.

You're both coming up on a year in these positions.

Talk about what you see as the future of the NJEA and what you see down the pipeline in the next couple years, Kevin.

- We have the shortage, right?

I'm sure you've heard it from everyone you've interviewed- - We've talked about it a couple times.

- You probably have talked about it, right?

The world is changing.

It's interesting I got a call from my son, who, his job has now gone completely remote.

We never really had to work.

He was nine-to-five in an office, and now he's completely remote.

We're competing against trying to bring people into the education field, but we're also competing with a different environment that's out there.

And so we have to learn to adapt and adjust.

We have to attract good educators to come in to keep our schools number one in the nation.

And I think there's a couple things we're gonna have to do.

We're gonna have to start looking at salaries, we're gonna have to start looking at working conditions, we're gonna have to start treating our educators in a way that wants to promote them and bring them into the classroom.

And so, it's something we're gonna have to work on over the next couple of years 'cause we're seeing the shortage.

And in order to turn that tide and make it a different way, we're gonna have to change what we're doing.

- And what are some of the challenges that go along with that, what Kevin said, of what needs to be done, how can we actually implement that?

- I think we have to continue to work on respect for the profession.

And when we talk about our educators, we're not just talking about our teachers, we are talking about our bus drivers, our secretaries, our cafeteria workers, our security.

- Those ESPs that we like to call.

- Correct, our ESPs are critical.

And when we often talk in the communities about educators, our minds immediately go to a teacher.

But our organization is about everyone, everyone that is building that village for our children, and that includes everyone that the moment you walk into that bus in the morning, that bus driver is checking to make sure that student's okay.

And to remind all of our parents, our communities, that we need to do this, we need to do this together.

We need to make sure that we are showing a tremendous support for all educators in the building.

Wonderful.

Thank you, Kevin and Denise, for chatting with us a little bit here at the Convention Day 2.

Like I said, thousands of educators all around getting some more information, knowledge to bring that to their classrooms.

Thanks so much to the both of you.

- You're very welcome.

- Thank you.

- Thank you.

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