[Mary Wang]
Hi everyone, welcome to The Gator. And today we have Mr. Neudel to do a short little end of year podcast.
[Joshua Neudel]
Hi Mary, thanks for inviting me on today.
[Mary Wang]
Of course. So let's start with first a summary of how this year went for the upper school.
[Joshua Neudel]
So I thought it was a great year. We had, you know, a wonderful balance of strong academics and learning, great shows and performances in our theater, great athletics and some wonderful student events that happened throughout the year. And a lot of learning that just went beyond the classroom as well.
I was particularly impressed recently this past week with the senior project symposium and the work that all of those students did and the ways they figured, found ways to give back and to find things that they were interested in and explore those during their last four weeks of high school.
[Mary Wang]
Yeah, that's amazing. I totally agree, especially it reminds me of what you said in our last upper school assembly on Wednesday, that it really feels like COVID is a long time back and finally everything's going back on track.
[Joshua Neudel]
Yeah, I don't think it's in our shadow anymore. I think it's way behind us.
[Mary Wang]
Yeah, it feels like a long time.
[Joshua Neudel]
Yeah, sure.
[Mary Wang]
So moving on to the second question, what would you say is the best part that went for the upper school this year?
[Joshua Neudel]
You know, I think when I think about this year and obviously there was lots of great work that happened in the classrooms, like I said before and all the different things, but what I found the most exciting and wonderful this year was I think there was just a lot of learning with joy, right? And there was just like people enjoyed being in class and they enjoyed being in school. And I think that was something that kind of got lost during COVID.
I think during COVID people were appreciative of being in school, right? When some places were closed and they were appreciative of having a chance to learn and appreciative of things. But I think this year we went beyond that just like being happy to be there.
But I think people had smiles on their faces when they were creating, when they were learning, there was active debate and discussions, but it was always in like a respectful way around discourse and nobody ever was like sad about coming. I mean, I'm sure people were frustrated and anxious at times. But I think overall, like when you walked into a classroom, you could feel like a sense of joy for being there and to learn, which I think is really what epitomizes Brimmer.
[Mary Wang]
Yes, I agree. For my own experience, I rarely see a day where anyone walks into a classroom and says like, I really don't wanna be here. There's definitely moments that when people are stressed out, but that's just academics.
And I think Brimmer brings really like a great support system to that so that people never become too negative.
[Joshua Neudel]
They might say I have a lot of work and I don't wanna do the work sometimes, but I don't think they ever don't wanna not, they never wanna not be at school.
[Mary Wang]
Yes, and we all know that even though we say we don't wanna do the work, eventually we'll do it just because I think, yeah, the school and the classroom is really a great environment in encouraging that to happen, so that's awesome. So in retrospect, what would you say is something that the upper school hopes to improve in the coming years?
[Joshua Neudel]
Yeah, no, I think when I think about sort of this age that we're in right now with technology and AI, I think there's a lot around sort of one in which attachment to devices and screens that there's been a lot of research that's been coming out over the last year around sort of like how that may be impacting anxiety levels for teenagers. And we know that teenagers in general across the country and the world have much higher levels of anxiety than they did a decade ago or 20 years ago. And there's this seems to be this connection to social media and some other pieces in there.
So thinking about like, what can we do as a community to help create sort of a space at school that's not necessarily technology free, there are some schools that are going, trying to go free of phones and things like that, but allows people to have moments of disconnect. Like I think about upper school camp, how people turn in their phones and then they really are connected to each other and people end up appreciating like that time. And I think the other piece that I think is something that we need to sort of continue to do more work on is how AI impacts our lives and how it impacts school.
Going beyond just the idea of, what can I do like when it comes to like helping with my work, right? And there's clearly like, there's clearly academic integrity pieces that are connected to there. But we know that just in the last year, since that chat GPT came online and all the exponential growth that we've seen around it, that this is gonna become ubiquitous in our lives.
And it's gonna be really important that we understand how to use it, how to think critically, how to ask, how to know what data is good and what data is bad. And really think about all the skills that we're learning in classes to be able to understand how to put that to use because people's jobs are going to be directly impacted in the future at school, impacted in the future around what AI is gonna do. And so I think it's critical that as a school, we start to really continue to unlock what that looks like so that you're all prepared for what's coming ahead.
[Mary Wang]
Yes, that's very true. And I think it's very nice that we're thinking of how we should use AI and technology more to assist us and be our friends instead of letting it rule us and inhibit our abilities to think. It's, I would say a pretty ambiguous line in between, but I think we're really moving towards the better direction.
[Joshua Neudel]
I know I've done some really, as a parent, and also like testing things out as an educator, I've done some really fun things with my own child in terms of helping him create study packets or practice tests. So anytime he has a quiz or a test coming up, we put in all the key words and then we put in some really specific parameters into AI and then help us generate a study guide of practice questions and practice tests and quizzes so that he can get as much practice as he wants, which has really been, I think that's something that I want to encourage students to think about and think about how can they use it as a study tool and as their own personalized tutor. I think when you think about the amount of money that sometimes people put into tutoring, and this sort of brings an equity lens to that, if we can figure out the best way to teach kids how to use this as their own personal tutor, which I think is really the future of where we're gonna see AI in education going.
[Mary Wang]
Yeah, that's awesome. I know I have a friend who used AI. She's a debater, so she would put emotion or a topic to chat to me and ask them to think on the opposite sides that they're arguing for and then she would do rebuttals to these and see what they come up with.
[Joshua Neudel]
Did she do it on the app where you can do it with the voice?
[Mary Wang]
Yes.
[Joshua Neudel]
Yeah, I was playing around with that a few weeks ago. It's really cool because you can then ask it, where are the holes in my argument? And it'll say, oh, you might wanna consider doing X, Y, or Z.
I found that to be really, I was thinking about students that were preparing for seminars or preparing for debates, like how that could be a tool that they could help hone their arguments in really specific ways.
[Mary Wang]
Yes, it is quite mind-blowing. So moving on to the next question, what aspect are you most looking forward to for the upper school next year?
[Joshua Neudel]
I think I just want people to continue to grow and to continue to improve as a school. I don't like to sit still and just take things, oh, this was good, so we should just do it again. I'm always thinking about ways to iterate and improve and to pilot new ideas.
And so constantly looking at the feedback that students and faculty and parents are giving and self-assessing what we're doing and thinking about ways that we can continue to improve and to grow so that we're not just sort of being stagnant. And I think that's been, that's sort of like what I am most interested in. So I don't know exactly what those things are gonna be.
This year we rolled out a new schedule, which was a couple of years worth of work. I think we have some of this AI work and some other sort of aspects. So I think just continuing to find ways that we can continue to improve and to grow and to be like a high academic institution, but also at the same time is not being so serious about our academics that we can have fun and we can learn at the same time.
[Mary Wang]
Yes, that's awesome. So our final question is, now as summer is really quickly approaching.
[Joshua Neudel]
Yes, thank goodness. Yes, oh my gosh. We're all ready.
[Mary Wang]
We're all very ready, I'm sure. What is something I guess you would like to say to the students as they're going on their breaks?
[Joshua Neudel]
I guess I just think that people should use the summer to do anything that's gonna bring them some joy or satisfaction, right? Whether you're a camp person, you go work and you grew up going to summer camps, which I did. And then you wanna spend all your time outside, either working at summer camps or going hiking or going to lakes or beaches or whatnot, then I think you should go and do that.
Or if you're really interested in medical sciences and you found an internship and you're gonna spend all summer long in a lab, doing research and pipetting and all those things, then you know that that's gonna bring you some joy and help you relax, then you should go and do that or reading books. I just want people to take a break from formal parts of learning and then dive into something that interests them. So maybe there's a topic that they're really interested in and they go on and they do a Khan Academy class on that because they really wanna dig deep into our area.
They find an online class or something like that. I think it should be something that just makes you happy and brings you some joy.
[Mary Wang]
Yes, I totally agree. And I know I've heard from some of my peers that they're going on different internships or practicing in camps or something that they really love. So I'm sure that everyone will have a really eventful summer with some good rest.
[Joshua Neudel]
Maybe put your phone down for a few minutes and just look around wherever you are and just try to take in... We often wait to be amazed for big moments like we've reached the top of a mountain or we go to a place that we've never been before. We remark of like, oh, this is so amazing.
I was hearing someone talk about going to Japan and taking in the cherry blossoms and being amazed by it, but then getting back and realizing that there were lots of cherry blossoms here too and never really noticing it. So maybe just taking a moment to recognize the incredible things that are just around us here in our own communities.
[Mary Wang]
It's important to see the beauty in life.
[Joshua Neudel]
Absolutely, yeah.
[Mary Wang]
Thank you so much.
[Joshua Neudel]
Thank you, this was fun.
[Mary Wang]
Yes, I agree.
[Joshua Neudel]
Let's do it again.
[Mary Wang]
Yes.
[Joshua Neudel]
All right, well have a great day.
[Mary Wang]
Thank you.
