EP 49 | Can Animals Get Kids to Read? [RELOADED]

SPEAKER_01 0:00

after every single one of our programs. So that's my favorite thing to hear.

SPEAKER_00 0:10

Welcome to the Voices United in Education podcast. Each week we showcase the teachers, administrators, and community members who go the extra mile to contribute to the success of every student in Escambia County. You'll meet the real people behind the titles and learn about the amazing resources to support every student's success. Getting kids to read is a challenge every parent and teacher can relate to. How do you pry the screen out of their hands and get them to be interested? Well my next guest has a whole zoo full of ideas. Okay, not a zoo exactly, but a furry family of options, for sure. He's the Animal Tales Director of Operation. Animal Tales offers ethical live educational animal programs for schools. And today he's going to share how animals can get kids to read and what kinds of programs are inspiring kids' future careers. Animal entrepreneur, wildlife liaison can calm a crowd of first graders with a single shush John Hamm.

SPEAKER_01 1:14

Hello.

SPEAKER_00 1:15

Thanks for being here.

SPEAKER_01 1:16

Thank you for having me.

SPEAKER_00 1:17

I can imagine uh a parent listening to this right now kind of tilting their head in suspicion like, okay, can animals really inspire my Fortnite addicted child to read?

SPEAKER_01 1:30

Video games are very addicting but on top of that seeing a live animal really changes that perspective.

SPEAKER_00 1:36

I know it's changed my perspective. Whenever I saw live animals as a kid it got me really interested. I broke my arm when I was little and we only had one chapter of or one book of the encyclopedia. And so I learned all about every animal starts with F. And it was yeah it got me got me to read. So I mean I don't disagree. I could see where some people might feel like live animal presentation is um like a treat, an entertainment for kids, not necessarily an educational medium. Can you tell me how these presentations reach kids in a way that say like digital media might not?

SPEAKER_01 2:16

The benefit of doing the live animals is that when kids see those animals it makes them excited. And it's not just kids, it's adults. Whenever I start a program my favorite thing is when I see an adult in the background and they're sitting there on their phone like, oh here's another another kid show and I start doing the program you see their eyes slowly lift up and everyone in the room is staring at you because they're all invested in that animal. Well for the kids that's inspirational for them because they see that and they want to know more about it. So after the programs they go out and they check out books whether it's on the internet or whether it's in the library they they always try to look up more information about those animals.

SPEAKER_00 2:51

Hey do you have specific uh stories that have come back from teachers or parents about their kids reading habits after your presentation?

SPEAKER_01 2:58

So my favorite one is the libraries every summer we do a summer library reading theme that matches the theme for the summer. And whenever we do that uh the libraries always have us there and they say after the programs they put out a couple animal books. All the animal books are gone after every single one of our programs. So that's my favorite thing to hear.

SPEAKER_00 3:17

That's really cool. So for the presentations is it the same the same presentation every time?

SPEAKER_01 3:23

Different. Every year we create a new program that goes along with the summer library reading theme.

SPEAKER_00 3:28

And what are the presentations? What do they include? How do they usually work?

SPEAKER_01 3:32

So all of our programs are about 45 to 50 minutes long. They include six exotic animals from around the world and we rotate those animals in and out each year to match the theme. So last year's theme was all about uh animal classifications. So we did animal science. So we did mammal, bird, reptile, amphibian, invertebrate and we talked about those different classifications.

SPEAKER_00 3:52

So that sounds very sciencey. So it's not just the birds or the animals the whoever they are coming on and doing a trick or following a command. You're I mean you're talking about what is that family genus species?

SPEAKER_01 4:05

We care we care about all the different types of animals. So a lot of people say oh yeah I love all animals and then I pull out a Madagascar hissing cockroach and I go, okay, maybe not that one.

unknown 4:12

Right.

SPEAKER_01 4:13

So our my our program this month actually is creepy critters. So it focuses on those animals that typically people are afraid of but have an importance. So the roaches are important for eating dead stuff. The uh spiders and the scorpions are great for eating the bugs because too many bugs are bad and so on.

SPEAKER_00 4:30

Oh that's really neat I could see where that would um increase like the connection and environmental ethic of the people who watch it realizing that that animal is not it's not just about that one animal. It's about the ecosystem that we all live in including those animals. Do you think that it's a stretch or maybe my my hope inside that good environmental ethic could also develop good citizens yes uh caring about animals can also transition to caring about people and back and forth.

SPEAKER_01 5:06

So learning about what happens to animals in the wild and the the effects that we're giving to them, that that caring towards them can carry over to other people.

SPEAKER_00 5:16

Well that's good to hear I was I was hoping that it wasn't just my imagination um you know my dirty hippie side is what I like to say where we all join hands and sing kumbaya. But seeing a perspective or feeling one regularly a perspective outside of yourself, I could see how that would make you a better citizen and a better steward of the environment including the animals around you. And now I've been to three of your presentations I think and you talk a lot about how humans you know should and shouldn't interact with animals and and even what animals don't make great pets is that something that is regularly in your educational segments or was that just happened to be the theme of when I saw your presentations?

SPEAKER_01 6:00

That's regular for me. Every presenter is a little bit different what they talk about. And our main focus is education and education spreads from this the not just the history of the animals but being around animals and having them as pets because that's the biggest interaction that people have is having animals a pet and what makes a good pet. And of course you need to read and research before every animal how long it's going to live, how big it's going to get how is it going to bite you, how much is it going to cost to keep there's so many factors into keeping an animal that a lot of people don't go into because they get the excitement of having an animal. And so I like to put that out there and I see the kids after the programs go to their parents and like you still want this animal and they go no it costs this and it lives this long and you can see the kids immediately go, oh yeah, this is not the best pet maybe until I'm older and I'm more responsible.

SPEAKER_00 6:46

That's I love that. Yeah I think there's a temptation to see the pets when they're little they're little baby animals and wanting them and and maybe biting off more than they can chew. And ultimately that goes to the parents. So this is yet another way I think your program helps.

SPEAKER_01 7:02

And I tell every parent that I say it's not their animal it's your animal and then you can give them some responsibilities.

SPEAKER_00 7:09

And it speaks to the ethics that are behind animal tales which leads me to my next question. Can you explain how animal tales is more ethical than say a typical live animal presentation program?

SPEAKER_01 7:24

Well nowadays things are getting a lot better. We had previous podcasts about uh certain venues and things as far as USDA fish and wildlife are getting more strict every single year. So every state regulation is getting more strict uh the guidelines on animal care is getting more strict so we're seeing less and less of those facilities that we don't really agree with and uh that's that's happening where I'm getting phone calls all the time saying hey we're looking for a petting zoo and I said well I'm not a petting zoo. Well do you know of one? There's not too many anymore because it's not as ethical anymore. So we're seeing a decrease in that and uh everybody's starting to be better about their programs and we always want to focus on that perfect blend of education and entertainment. We want people to learn but we still want per people to have fun. And at the same time we care about the animals. Whenever we go to do a program and somebody says hey can I touch that animal not only do we tell them no we can't touch the animal but we tell them why we can't touch the animal that animal's kind of like you do you like to be touched by strangers and most people go no and so same thing with these animals. They don't know who you are so when you touch them it would make them upset. And at the same time if I took thousands of people and let them touch you on the face would you like it?

SPEAKER_00 8:33

And they go no that's the same way these animals feel yeah I I think that's a good analogy minus the snake we always get to touch the snake.

SPEAKER_01 8:42

And the snake the thing about that is the snakes are very simplistic animals and we teach about this also is the where's my food? Where's my uh water where and that am I in danger? I don't care after that. And they're very simplistic. So that's why we do allow for a touch at the end of that. And the other benefit of that touch is to break down that fear of the animal we want to treat about respect for the animals and not fear. We should respect every single animal. If I go out in the wild and I see some animal I'm not going to go up and just grab it. I might take a picture and say hey that's cool I saw this animal today but I'm not going to go grab it. And that's why I try to put out there is to respect animals, not just to uh be afraid of them.

SPEAKER_00 9:19

I really like that because it respect in one department of your life isn't doesn't live in a container. So when you respect animals I believe that you also have a habit of respecting other people and people that are different than you, people that maybe they have a limb difference or that might alarm you. And so I could see where kids that might be alarmed by certain kinds of animals and they learn like, oh, I'm going to learn about this animal I'm going to approach this animal with curiosity and respect I would think that would carry over into their interactions with other students and other community members and hopefully teachers that I'm going to approach this with curiosity and respect and uh and and learn something.

SPEAKER_01 10:02

Exactly. And that's kind of how it worked for me. Um I was not the greatest student growing up I was a very C, B, D, even failed a class once bad student. But the thing that really changed for me was uh I went to Pine Forest High School for my junior year. And I had a teacher named Miss Abels and she was a marine biology teacher. And I just never really got stuck to school stuff. I just did I wasn't a school person. And this class I was really inspired because I loved it. I loved it so much that I didn't care. It wasn't work to me. I was just doing because I loved it. And so it was one of my first A's and then that year I actually got my first straight A's ever was my junior year. And then the second year I almost got straight A's but one one English teacher was not very nice to me. But either way this teacher uh she inspired me so much in so many ways and she saw that I really cared and she every year would do a trip to Key West it was actually Key Largo and it was a marine biology trip. So it was one week you get to go to the coral reefs you get to go to the mangroves and learn all about marine biology. And I really wanted to go but I told her I I could there's no way I could afford it. And she said well how about this? How about you making a payment every month for this amount for half of it and I'll pay the other half. And she covered the other half for me to be able to go. And so uh that enlightened more and I took that that hard work that I did in that class to get that straight A and carried it over to all my classes. And then in general in life it made me realize that if you just put that hard work into that one thing it will allow you to uh do great everywhere.

SPEAKER_00 11:36

Isn't that crazy how one teacher can make the difference one moment in time. Have you been presenting ever at Pine Forest?

SPEAKER_01 11:46

I have not made it over the Pine Forest yet um done a lot of schools in our county uh slowly but surely getting to everybody and it is my goal to get into every school in Escambia County. Does she know that you that she inspired you to work in she has not I I looked her up a while back seeing if I could find her and I didn't find her and so hopefully this makes it to her somebody that knew her uh then can pass on the message.

SPEAKER_00 12:09

Oh I think we can make that happen. That would be really special and maybe she can come to one of your presentations hopefully at Pine Forest wouldn't that be full circle.

SPEAKER_01 12:17

That would be cool.

SPEAKER_00 12:18

That would be so amazing. What is the response from educators um after your presentations? You said the the books in the library about animals tend to get scooped up what cut other kind of feedback have you gotten from teachers?

SPEAKER_01 12:33

So from teachers they try to recruit me they say Oh to be a teacher? Yeah would you would you like to be a teacher? I can say that I have so much respect for the teachers. I go in there and I give it my all for one hour and that's one hour. They do it all day every day and uh I just hope to help them out by getting these kids a little bit inspired that they go to their teachers and say I want to learn about this and they're able to say oh great I can take you in I can give you these books and they can give them the direction that they need to get where they need to go.

SPEAKER_00 13:01

Yeah yeah that's good and that's what every teacher wants. How do schools um arrange to have your program in their schools? How do they book your team and how do they pay for it?

SPEAKER_01 13:13

Uh so they can book us through our website they can contact me through uh AnimalTales it's animaleducation.com so it's e-d-z-o-o-c-a-t-i-o n dot com or you can just search Google Animal Tales Pensacola Florida and it will pop up. Uh you can go through our booking forms, you can call me or uh or email me any of those things.

SPEAKER_00 13:34

Okay that sounds awesome. And um I think I heard you mention uh another day something about local organizations paying for like rotary is that still happening as far as payments go payments come from every direction.

SPEAKER_01 13:45

So sometimes it's the school funds that pay for it because this is not an out-of-class experience um because it is educational it fits in with the curriculum and you can use it um towards that so it's not an out of class expense uh but even with that PTAs will help pay for it we work really well with the PTAs in the county um and then outside resources are are there uh we have rotaries that like to support programs I have private organizations that will support programs or schools I go to that hey blah blah blah vet clinic just paid for this program or whoever because they saw my program at a library and they wanted to have it in their school. There's so many programs that I've done that a parent, I do a birthday party and they go, oh, you really need to go our school I'm gonna pay for you to go and the parent will pay the price of the program for us to go. So there's there's funds out there for every school to be able to have the program.

SPEAKER_00 14:33

So it sounds like schools are pretty receptive especially because it fits within their existing curriculum. It's not something extra that they have to make space for it's just a matter of funding is that right exactly well that's really exciting. Well as we wrap up are there any final thoughts that you want to leave us with or any animal friend you want to introduce introduce us to I always like to bring an animal for everybody here.

SPEAKER_01 14:55

So we do have a kookaburra here today. It's called a laughing kookaburra they're from Australia and they're known for their very loud calls. Now in the wild they're known as the Bushman's alarm clock because they wake everybody up you're gonna hear some extra sounds here and that's gonna be me getting her out of her crate.

SPEAKER_00 15:09

So it's like uh the rooster of Australia.

SPEAKER_01 15:12

Exactly and this is Sydney and she's laughing kookaburra. Whoa she's just giving us a little laugh here she's looking at the studio and she's looking at these microphones and she's like I've I've never been in front of a microphone she's like 500 kids nope 500 kids no problem but uh a microphone I'm a little nervous so I'm gonna give her one more shot at it stand over here so she's just giving a little nice laugh there. Normally they do do a full call and I gotta she does it every single program and actually teach the kids how to do the call and how we do it in slow motion is woohoo ha ha and then we speed it up.

SPEAKER_00 16:01

Woo that is amazing I don't think there is a better way to end for breaking breaking everybody's speakers there. Well thank you so much John this is awesome thank you so much for having Voices United in Education is a production of Escambia County school district special thanks to Pine Forest High School for the recording studio facilities and hospitality