Announcer (00:01): Highlighting the amazing stories from inside the North Clackamas School district. This is the Proud To Be NCSD podcast hosted by longtime principal and current community relations director, Curtis Long.

Curtis Long (00:14): It's no secret that all North Clackamas school district teachers in their own unique way go above and beyond to engage and inspire their students. Some may arrive at school hours before the first bell so kids can get in a little extra practice before that final competition, especially at this time of the year. Some stay up late into the night to put the finishing touches on a student's college letter of recommendation. Others may take time out of their lunch period to join students sliding down slides on the playground. Then there's Ra, middle school language arts teacher, Lucas, who doesn't use textbooks or worksheets to teach his students how to properly placed punctuation in sentences. Instead, he does this

Lucas Dix rapping (01:00): For and nor, but or yet. So for and nor, but or yet. So like I could have said yes, but I said no. Put a hand in the air if you get it. Let's go. My,

Curtis Long (01:12): That's Mr. Dix himself wrapping about correctly construed commas as his shamrock students sing back up in a YouTube video that caught the eye of local and national news a few years back.

Lucas Dix rapping (01:23): Okay, we need a comma after the cities and states,

Curtis Long (01:26): But the dance isn't just a whimsical one-hit wonder for this rhyming Rao rapper. has also inspired his students with viral follow up raps about capital letters and parts of speech.

Lucas Dix rapping (01:36): Every time I speak, I use the speech. I'll make my sentences complete using part speech every time I speak. I use the part speech I make my sentences complete using parts of speech

Curtis Long (01:45): Keeping sixth, seventh, and eighth graders motivated about middle school every step of the way. Today on the Proud To Be NCSD podcast, meet the man behind the mic whose official role at Rowe is Media Arts and Journalism instructor. But unofficially he's the champion of creating a school culture where everyone feels welcome, included and celebrated pronouns.

Lucas Dix rapping (02:08): Everybody say, get in there to see In is the word it replaces instead of singing Seth.

Curtis Long (02:13): And here he is, the man behind the Comma Dance, the Capital Letters rap and the parts of speech rap Keeping Kids at Rowe coming back for more, it's Media Arts and Journalism instructor Lucas Dix. Lucas, thanks so much for taking time outta your day today. We're actually recording this at the end of a school day. How'd it go today at Rowe Middle School?

Lucas Dix (02:29): it was a classic day around middle school. There was, uh, there was some headaches and there was some really positive moments, but yeah, it was a day, it was a day in middle school in 2023.

Curtis Long (02:41): Now if people are checking the photo that goes along with this podcast, they'll see in a sweet headband you're rocking today and the outfit you're going with today, explain yourself.

Lucas Dix (02:49): We tried to do a lot of different things at Rowe Middle School and we have a, a large contingency of staff members who believe that as many positive activities as students can participate in the better. So I think this is our second Spirit week of the year and that's normally put together by my Shamrock News students. Spirit Weeks are really interesting because a lot of the kids wanna do stuff that they've seen on TikTok, like anything but a backpack day and people are bringing canoes to school. So it's, it's the thing that I always talk about, like it has to be fun, but it has to be middle school fun and it has to be appropriate fun, which for a lot of people isn't fun for like middle schoolers. So this week we're doing our second spear week of the year, and today was Retro Day and I think sixties were sixth graders. Seventh graders had to dress like seventies, eighth graders were eighties. And then they gave the staff the OTs, the two thousands. Thousands. Okay. Which like some of us, I graduated high school and college in two thousands. All right. Alright. So it was a little bit different, but some, some of the staff members were like, I was here in 2000. I'm wearing, I'm wearing the same t-shirt that I wore in two thousands. So it wasn't much of a stretch for us.

Curtis Long (03:47): I was already here at that time. I'm just wondering how the seventh graders pulled off the seventies today or the eighth graders pulled off the eighties. They, they don't know anything about that do they?

Lucas Dix (03:54): It's a tough one, man. The retro days normally don't go over too well. It stuff like pajama day really pops off. We had Beach Day yesterday that went really well. Twin days kind of go, well it's, it's a lot of hit or miss of just, it's not as, uh, celebrated or widely promoted as the high school level.

Curtis Long (04:10): OK I'm sure the big question lots of our listeners want to know after hearing that opening sequence, where do those song ideas come from?

Lucas Dix (04:16): When I was doing the parts of speech stuff and the grammar raps, that was back when I was teaching sixth grade and those all came from, I was doing my master's class and they wanted some way to instruct that wasn't just worksheets. And so I made the Comma dance song and then after that one kind of popped off a little bit and we got some recognition. Yeah, we got blogs and stuff like that. Then it just became a tradition of when I had my sixth grade class, I was like, all right, next year we'll do capital Letters. The year after that we did parts of speech and then I moved out of sixth grade. Okay. And then since then, which I actually think are even like the more impressive type of stuff we've been doing school songs based on a theme. So we had a song called We Got This and then we had a song called Rise Up and then Level Up and then Dream Big did not happen due to the Pandemic.

Lucas Dix (04:57): Right. And then one big team there was a song and then last year we did an Elevate song and this year's Dig Deep and those songs actually feature students rapping, students singing the Level Up song we did a few years back, we had a student make the beat. We had a student play guitar on the beat, student play bass. So it's a lot more, it's not so grammar based and it's not so like, Hey, here's how you use a proper parenthetical. It's like, no, this is our experience as a middle schooler and this is the kind of stuff that we wanna rap about and want to talk about. Once again, it's not necessarily the coolest stuff for a lot of, I have one of the kids who was on the song, we got This is now like he's a rapper now. That's his job. Whoa.

Lucas Dix (05:32): Which is really cool. But I, I wonder how often he goes and like shows his friends at like his rap shows and stuff like Hey, here's the school song I made in eighth grade about how we all got this and stuff. So it's a really cool experience. We're working on one right now. It, those are really interesting because it depends on how much you can find those kids. Yeah. The a couple years it's like, yo, I found five kids who come up and they're like, yo, I rap. And it's like, sweet. Now we have that and there's some years where kids are like, I'm a singer, singer, awesome. Oh you play guitar, cool. We'll incorporate it. And this year we haven't really had, I have one or two kids who are like, I wanna rap. So we're working on something right now for a song with them.

Curtis Long (06:05): So for you, you take what you have at school, the talent that comes forward to you and you work around that?

Lucas Dix (06:10): Yeah, we just figure it out and from there. Okay. So sometimes I rap eight bars, sometimes I gotta rap more than that. Sometimes we'll figure it out and it's a cool experience and I think the kids like it a lot. And some years it's been really unifying for us as a building because the music video that accompanies it is the people who are rapping and singing and playing instruments doing that. But then it's also spliced up with clips of kids from our Shamrock News. Sure. And sometimes it's a really awesome, beautiful encompassing thing of like these really positive things that we've done at RA Middle School throughout the year. And it can be a little nostalgic, especially for the eighth graders. Like, oh, what a great time I had this year. So that's one of my favorite aspects of it.

Curtis Long (06:46): And Lucas just talked about some of those cool songs. Let's take a listen to one of those right here

Lucas Dix rapping (06:49): Up here, flying Like a Crow. It's easy to get lost on these miles that we Rome ain't no dial in my tone. You call on there answering, pick each other up and climb like we stare, match the wrist. Go straight, elevate.

Curtis Long (07:09): All right. So impressive. What those Rowe Middle School students under Lucas's direction come up with. Let's go back to the command dance for a second. Take us through the process of putting that together. How long did it take to write that? And then how long does it take before you have a finished product in a video?

Lucas Dix (07:24): The comma dance was a really cool experience because I think I wrote the song and then I wrote some parts in for the kids to participate. Okay. For An Or But Yet So aspects. So then I brought that stuff into the, I brought a studio into the classroom and then they all did their parts. We had one microphone in the middle and the headphones in the middle. And then we kind of just wrapped along and then I sent that off to my homie who does like mixing and mastering stuff <laugh>. And he made it sound like good and great. But then when it came time to film the music video, we had different levels and different jobs for people. So some people's responsibility was filming and they learned how to use the camera. And some people, if you were a rapper and you were going to emulate the lyrics and mimic my voice, you were another job.

Lucas Dix (08:07): And then there were some other people who were in charge of like designing the props and making the signs. And then, then we also had a social media team whose job was to start emailing people and draft emails that were eventually gonna be sent out. Cause once the video was done, then their job was to like send it to KGW eight and all these different places. So everyone had their own gig. And it was the probably the first time where I realized like, this is a cool way to approach education where you get in, where you fit in. If I'm good at this, let me go do this. If I'm good at that, let me go do that instead of everybody having to do this and that. And I think I've taken that and kind of put that into my Shamrock News program as well.

Curtis Long (08:42): And we'll talk about that a little bit later. But I think people don't understand that you are not Rowe Middle School's music producer. No, no, no. You're a teacher there. So you're balancing all of this stuff along with five other classes that you're teaching throughout the day.

Lucas Dix (08:52): Yeah, absolutely. 1000%. So, and I think back in those days we used to just have a two week period where I taught language arts and literacy workshop. And then my language arts class would just be like, all right, we are going and we're just doing music video stuff for the next two weeks.

Curtis Long (09:07): Now obviously you know what you're doing behind the mic. Is this something you've done before? Do you have a music background?

Lucas Dix (09:13): I actually moved out to Oregon with my friend Gavin Sowens and we moved out here and we were doing like rapping stuff and I had my teaching degree and the weird kind of like uplifting, sad, depressing, melancholic story that goes along with this is in 2010 Gavin got diagnosed with cancer and he got his leg amputated. And then in 2012 he passed away. Oh. In April of 2012. But in March of 2012 I took on a long-term gig at Rowe Middle School. Okay. And so I finished the school year out and then at the end of the year the principal and assistant principal came up to me and were like, do you maybe wanna come back next year? And I was in this place of like, well I was playing shows and touring and then I was after that like coming back and just being a substitute teacher. And then so once Gavin passed I was like, I don't have anybody to go on tour with anymore. Right. I guess maybe I'll just try to take this job at Rowe Middle School. And I picked up a 0.8 job where I taught like three sections of digital citizenship in one section of literacy workshop and been there ever since.

Curtis Long (10:10): So you took a job at Rowe Middle School, lost your best friend a month later. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. And you've been at Rowe ever since

Lucas Dix (10:16): And I've been at Rowe ever since. Fun story. After I got the job at Rowe because I finally had health insurance cause I had the job. Okay. I went in to the doctor and I was like, yo, I just need you. Like gimme the full rundown. Okay. And I ended up getting diagnosed with skin cancer

Curtis Long (10:29): Oh my goodness.

Lucas Dix (10:29): Like two months after I got the Rowe job. That's why I, I dealt with that my entire first year.

Curtis Long (10:33): Did you have any suspicions about that? Or you just wanted a physical

Lucas Dix (10:36): No, I had one, like one mole that I was like Ah, that's a little weird. Yeah. And mom's beam Mom. My mom was just like, you should get that checked out. Yeah. And then two months later I was like, oh okay. So Rowe has saved my life in Wow. That way of, cuz I don't know if I would ever gone to the doctor if I didn't have the health insurance that the, the teaching position gave me. So it was a very wild year that that kicked off my teaching career.

Curtis Long (10:57): You sure did. Now you mentioned that you moved out to Oregon. Where'd you grow up? And also if someone had come to 13 year old Lucas and said, guess what, you're gonna be a middle school journalism instructor someday, what would you have told that person?

Lucas Dix (11:07): I grew up in Kenosha, Wisconsin.

Curtis Long (11:10): Okay. Wisconsin. So the Midwest.

Lucas Dix (11:10): Yeah, Midwest. And it's a, it's a city that's about 40 minutes south of Milwaukee and about 40 minutes north of Chicago. Right. And when people from Wisconsin tell you where they live, they hold their hand up and then they point on their hand like, oh I'm, I'm from right around here.

Curtis Long (11:23): Do you still get confused with the spelling of Milwaukee?

Lucas Dix (11:25): No, not at all. That ie. I know IE. Out here in EE back home. So I grew up in Wisconsin and I don't think I would've been too surprised had I found that out. I was big into journalism in middle school and high school. I was on like the school paper and also on top of that I was working with kids already. So my middle school, my high school jobs were, I was refereeing basketball games all weekend. So when I was 14 and in eighth grade I was refereeing kindergarten games and when I was 16 and 17 I was refereeing middle school AAU tournaments and stuff like that. So I always worked with kids in some capacity that were younger than me. So I don't think I would've been too surprised. I would've been disappointed that when 13 year old Lucas would've been like, oh you don't play in the NBA

Curtis Long (12:04): <laugh>

Lucas Dix (12:05): As most as a lot of 13, I don't wanna say most, but as a lot of 13 year old boys tend to be, that's like what do you wanna be when you grow up as like uh, just a basketball player or maybe a professional football player? Sure. Right. Or maybe baseball, I don't know, something one of those three.

Curtis Long (12:16): Well I've seen you play basketball before so I'm sure that wasn't too far fetched when you were 13 years old that was still on your radar.

Lucas Dix (12:21): Yeah, I could hoop a little bit. I got, I got a little bit of a jumper. Yep.

Curtis Long (12:24): I've seen that before. Uh, much to the dismay of the Rowe students who take on the staff during staff versus student games.

Lucas Dix (12:31): Yeah. And you know, the one thing that like, it's funny growing up because that's all I did in the summertime was I hooped and for a while after I didn't, didn't make the college basketball team, I got cut right at the end. My freshman year I got recruited to go play and then I got cut and then I just had these like basketball skills I've been honing and and harnessing my entire life. And I was like, I have all of these things and they are no benefit from me whatsoever. But once I started working at Route, I would go and you'd get some kid who was like a sixth grader or seventh grader and kind of cool and maybe necessarily not like getting along with teachers and stuff like that. And all of a sudden I'd just be like, oh you think you hoop, like let's go play basketball, let's go play.

Lucas Dix (13:04): And all of a sudden it was just like, oh this actually is benefiting me in some way cuz then they'll be like, yo, I kind of messed with Mr. Dix. He's got a jumper or he can dribble a little bit. And it, it has been a, a key to me being able to connect with some kids. Yeah. Even just, even now, I'm 37 now so I, I'm not jumping as high as I did when I was 27 and I started working at ra but I am still able to use that a little bit and I coach over at Milwaukee so I can use that relationship to really connect with some kids sometimes that other people don't necessarily have the way to connect them but it's not a transferrable skill. Right. When the math teacher's like, Hey how do you get along with so-and-so? And I'm like, I I hit a 30 footer in his face. Like if you can pull up from 30, that's cool, but if not 30 footer. I don't know how what to tell you about that.

Curtis Long (13:45): Isn't it amazing though? And I find this too, where I grew up just infatuated with public address announcers and radio announcers and you find yourself Now I didn't get into that path specifically but I use that. I mean just doing a podcast now and you having basketball skills that now you're utilizing in a middle school teaching setting, it's, it's amazing how things kind of go full circle for you where the, the things that you learn at a young age, you never know when they might pop up again.

Lucas Dix (14:07): I think that's a great point. And I think for me, I mean I, I like to rap when I was growing up I like to play basketball, I like to just do a lot of creative things and I've slowly, like I started as a language arts teacher and I've slowly were just morphed my job into being like, you're gonna let me play basketball and you're gonna let me make music videos and I'm gonna make videos every week for the Shamrock News and I'm gonna run events and I'm maybe do some rap songs with everybody And I just was able to to mold the position to meet my desires.

Curtis Long (14:34): And you're at Rowe Middle School now as a former principal, I talk to a lot of job candidates. There are lots who'll tell me they'll take any job, they'll teach kindergarten, they'll teach high school but they won't touch middle school. Why do you connect so well with middle schoolers?

Lucas Dix (14:47): For me, the reason why I feel comfortable with middle school is that my skillset does not lie in the development of like the younger kids.

Curtis Long (14:56): Like you're not going to hit 30 footers on a kindergartner

Lucas Dix (14:57): Yeah, yeah totally. They might not like it as much or they might not even know what's going on. Yeah. But as far as like language arts, I was good at the getting kids going and and appreciating poetry but I'm not good at the, here's how you sound out your words. Like that type of stuff was not my skillset. And then high school is so there's just a pressure with high school that I don't necessarily think fits my skillset either. Of like, Hey man, you're going from this into college. These grades are really massive and important and this GPA and so middle school for me is this this fun place to kind of, the kids are still young at heart where even like the coolest eighth graders, if you give them like a bracelet or a shock for being nice, they're kind of like oh that's really sweet.

Lucas Dix (15:35): Yeah. But they're also growing up and they're trying to find themselves and I think that is where my skillset is the hey you're starting to showcase that you like to read. Let's get you a bunch of different books. I've read all these, let's go, oh you're starting to showcase that you like to write, Hey I know some really good writers that you could go talk to. In fact you should go talk to this teacher over here. Cuz they do some really awesome writing stuff. And I think my skillset lies in the, you're trying to figure out who you are and what you like and I'm pretty good at helping you be like here's how we're gonna maximize that. And so I in my Shamrock news class all the time, we have kids who are like, I kind of like making videos like bet let's do this. Oh I kind of like making events sweet. You're gonna run the next dance <laugh>. And that kind of stuff is where I really enjoy, enjoy the middle school. I don't think I would ever go anywhere else. Yeah. I

Curtis Long (16:18): I want to expand on that a little bit cause I visited Rowe many times and every time I see you it seems like you're either working directly with students or playing directly with students. So I've seen you giving up your lunchtime to organize a staff versus students basketball tournament. Just recently you were outside at lunch having a water fight against students out on the tennis court. Are you just a large middle school kid who gets to be a kid on the job?

Lucas Dix (16:39): Yeah, I am kind of like a, a golden retriever a little bit like that. We're just, I like to play but I think a lot of that goes into just the philosophy that our, our teachers have to be honest, the the water fight thing or the water balloon wacky world day. Right. The way that that came out is we had a big staff long email, we've been having a water gun problem right at school. Kids bringing seventh graders, sixth graders, eighth graders are bringing 'em to school, teachers are turning around to write something on the board, they turn around and they're just like kids soaked with water. And so we're trying to figure out how to do it and I even in one of the emails was like came at it from a more punitive aspect of like hey we gotta do something about this.

Lucas Dix (17:10): Yeah. And our social worker basically came through and was like, obviously our kids are expressing this need to like have fun. Can we meet this need to have fun? And it actually catalyzed a bunch of really great conversations of like when a behavior is not meeting the expectations, how do you get that behavior to meet the expectations? Does an accountability and a consequence work does finding ways to meet the needs that that behavior is expressing works. And so we were all kind of like arguing like well what do we do? What do we do? And then one of my shrock new students came up and was like, yo, we're supposed to be 85 degrees next Friday. Can we get some water balloons? And I was like, you know what Mr. Harry was just talking about the fact that that's what you guys might need. And so I talked to Ms.

Lucas Dix (17:48): Doyle, our assistant principal and Ms. Doyle is fantastic in like the event planning aspect of things. And I was like, what do you think? And she was like, bet I got kitty pools. We'll get the water blasters, we'll get these water balloons and stuff. And so that whole day came together for me and my kids did a lot of the organizing. But the thing that made me want to do that day was the fact that our social worker was like, I think the kids need this play aspect. And it even went against what I want cuz I was very much in the like no they need some consequences. Accountability. Okay. But I'm willing to listen in that aspect. Yeah. So I was like sweet, I'll put some swim trunks on and go hang out and get wet. And it, it turned out to be a really fun day And I think that it changed my, even my perspective about that specific instance of like, yeah maybe they do need some more fun.

Lucas Dix (18:27): And we try to do that a lot at Rowe. We have our staffer students basketball and Thursday we did a staffer students soccer game. Mm-hmm. And we have a dance this Friday so we're doing a bunch of those kinds of things. And I think it really just kind of speaks to the fact that we have a lot of teachers who are like, let's have fun with these kids and let's give them a place to have fun. And I think that a lot of middle schoolers don't really have a place to have fun. It costs $30 to go to the movies. Yeah. They go walk around the mall and they got people following them cuz they're a pack of 15 year olds and they don't know what TikTok challenge they're gonna try and do. And so the school arou isn't really much of a neighborhood school. A lot of our kids live three and a half, four miles away if they're up on Johnson Creek. So they don't really have a lot of like spaces to play sometimes. And that's what we just try to provide them outside of that. So I think that we just try to give them that space to play

Curtis Long (19:12): And I think if you visit Rowe you see an immediate community feel there. Everyone looks out for each other. Everyone feels like they belong. I know that's what you strive for there.

Lucas Dix (19:20): Yeah and sometimes, you know, it takes some time because I would say most times at the beginning of the year there is a level of like the students don't almost have like a, we are, we ride for each other, but the teachers are the authority and we kind of combat that. And it takes us a long time sometimes to get to the place where, and no we are all on this same team and it's really beautiful. The frustrating thing is like when it's June and everyone's all on the same team, you're like, oh we got there. And then it's like,

Curtis Long (19:44): And then the year's over

Lucas Dix (19:44): And then the year's over and then it's like, all right, back to the drawing board. But it is one of the things that I really appreciate about Rowe. I think our track teams and all our sports teams and all of our kids when they are riding for each other, it's a really beautiful thing.

Curtis Long (19:56): Speaking of beautiful things, we've already learned how Mr. Dix connects with students outside the classroom. Whether lobbying water balloons at them during recess or draining 30 foot jump shots in the gym.

Lucas Dix (20:06): Yeah. I could hoop a little bit. I got, I got a little bit of a jumper

Curtis Long (20:08): Up next, learn how that connection becomes even stronger inside the classroom, especially with students. He leads on the school's weekly video news show, the Shamrock News.

Students (20:17): We'll be hosting our first ever students vs. staff three on three basketball tournament in the gym. During both lunches we'll be posted up in the main gym organizing student teams to go up against teachers. The teachers have only lost three times in the last three years.

Curtis Long (20:29): And what advice would he have for aspiring teachers who wanna make a difference in student lives?

Lucas Dix (20:34): To be authentic and to be your authentic self. And you might not hit like a 30 foot jump shot, but like if you really love playing the guitar, play the guitar. If you really love playing the drums, play the drums. If you're a great artist, showcase that aspect. And I think middle schoolers really appreciate that authenticity.

Curtis Long (20:50): More of our authentic conversation with the reflective Rowe rapper.

Lucas Dix rapping (20:54): Welcome to Wilbur D. Rowe Middle School where the teachers are great and every single kid is cool. Truly learn with the common goal. We are safe, respectful, and responsible...

Curtis Long (21:03): Right after this.

Commercial Announcer (21:04): Are you looking for a job right now? Looking to work in a fun and supportive environment with great pay and a rewarding career? The North Clackamas School District is hiring. We're currently filling full and part-time positions. You can work and make a difference in young lives and education as a classroom assistant or substitute teacher apply to work in one of our school cafeterias where our lunch staff serves up big smiles with great food every day. We're also looking to hire before and after school caretakers, custodians, and bus drivers in North Clackamas. We promise it won't take you long to learn why our employees say they're proud to be an NC s d Apply today on the North Kham school district website or call 5 0 3 3 5 3 6,000. That's 5 0 3 3 5 3 6,000.

Curtis Long (21:59): Let's talk about another of your leadership roles at Rowe. You've mentioned this a few times. You lead the school's weekly video news program. That's Shamrock News. We play episodes all the time on the district app. In fact, let's play a quick snippet from one right now.

Students (22:10): As I was saying, thanks to money left from our grant funds, we now have snacks again. We have enough snacks for every student to get one granola bar every day. You can get these granola bars in homeroom, so you should get one from your homeroom teacher.

Curtis Long (22:24): Alright. How do you get middle school kids to take on the weekly responsibilities of putting on a high quality show like that?

Lucas Dix (22:29): The one nice thing that we have now is a longevity and kind of a tradition. So we are at the place where I'm at the fourth sibling in the news program. So we have that tradition that we built on. And so there is that aspect of when the kids come in, I think they even sometimes start watching 'em in fifth grade. Sure. And so they come in and they're like, okay, what's this thing? And when they're sixth graders it's a little bit more like, wow, the whole school's watching this. And there's kind of that notoriety almost. So they're very interested in in that. It's always real interesting at the beginning of the year when the eighth graders are like, yo, the sixth graders are kind of creeping me out. They're coming up and being like, hi Chloe. And they're like, I don't even know who you are, why you know me.

Lucas Dix (23:05): But they, over the course of the years in sixth and seventh grade, they see us put the dances together. They see us filming the assemblies, they see us filming all the staffers, student sports things. They see us doing like our wacky Wilber D challenge, like the water balloons or the baby food eating. And they see all these things and you kind of get to see the freedom that my Shamrock News kids have and the responsibility. And I think a lot of kids really, even if they show no, if they're showing that school is not connecting with them and they're not connecting with school, even sometimes if you're just like, Hey man, you think you could help me organize my cameras? All of a sudden there's like a, the spying gets a little bit straighter and they're like, yes, absolutely. And it's like a badge. And so I think a lot of kids want those opportunities to help dictate the culture.

Lucas Dix (23:44): So when they, they come in and they're like, we're gonna do this. We're gonna do this this year. When we do our interviews in seventh grade, we interview the kids and we make them write an essay. Okay. And they get staff recommendations and there's a whole process. So I, I normally get about 70, 75 kids who apply and we keep anywhere from like 40 to 50. But a lot of those emails or a lot of those essays and a lot of those interviews they talk about like, I want a positive school culture. I want a place where bullying doesn't happen. I want a place where kids feel like they belong and have fun. So they come in with that part down like they're like, we are here to like make people laugh, entertain people and like have some fun with events. And then from there the difficult aspect is like I have to give them the embrace the cringe speech, which is like, none of y'all are cool, right?

Lucas Dix (24:24): I'm not cool, I'm a middle school teacher, y'all are middle schoolers. Nobody in here is cool in the sense that once you start trying to be cool on camera, you look very awkward and it's not fun. So you just have to go in there and if I need you to sell like hey, this is where you go get your free breakfast, I need you to sell it. Like it's a million dollar raffle. And so then the kids at the beginning of the year, you can see them kind of be like, so we have free breakfast Yeah. Every day at Rowe middle school. And by the end of the year the script is shorter and I just have bullet points for 'em. They're like, all right, this is what I do. And it's like free breakfast every morning at Rowe middle school and you can kind of watch them come out of their shell.

Lucas Dix (24:57): And a lot of that is just we have this embrace the cringe. Yeah. Like I need you to be cringey. And I know that it's not necessarily the most fun place and most comfortable place to be as a middle schooler. But I think once we take that expectation of cool away and they just get to be themselves, it's really positive for the school too. Cuz then you have all these different people on the news of different gender identities and sexual orientations and ethnicities and races and just personalities. And the goal is that someone in every single one of the classes is like, that's me. I don't necessarily fit in with everybody but I know that there's somewhere for me in this building because that person is just like me. And so that's our whole goal with it. And it's a lot to put on them.

Lucas Dix (25:34): I mean I gave them the speech when we introduced season 10 this year, but which was really cool this year is my season nine kids gave the speech, they're like, yo, this is a big responsibility. You are responsible for creating a culture at this school and you are responsible for creating a community and you need to really take that honor in a really, really serious fashion. And I was like, oh my gosh, I normally have to give this speech. You guys are doing it now. So that was cool. But they come in pretty ready to go. But I have to do the same thing right? Where by the end of the year in June, my kids are, they're key framing and they're doing all these different types of green screen special effects and they're able to do that. And then September comes and I'm like, okay, this is how you attach a lens to a camera body.

Lucas Dix (26:12): Make sure your microphone's on when you go to film. Yeah. And it's, I've described it before as by the end of the school year you find this treasure and you've got this treasure and you get like that last week of school to really appreciate and just kind of throw the coins in the air Scrooge McDuck style. Yeah. And then you have to close your eyes and spin around in a circle while someone else goes and hides it somewhere else. And then you spend the entire next year trying to go find the same treasure again. Yep. Yep. And you just do that year after year after year after year.

Curtis Long (26:38): And did you say that you have 75 kids who wanna be a part of that show?

Lucas Dix (26:42): We normally have about program about 75 apply and we keep about 45 or 50. And we're pretty strict about like the process of just, you know, we look for a certain gpa, we look for tardies, we look for these things because I can't have you be on the news being like, make sure that we're all getting to class on time if you're never in class on time. Right. Okay. But I don't necessarily want to completely exclude those other kids. Right. So they go into my media arts classes. Okay. Sometimes those kids are like, Hey, can I help out at the dance? So they come help with dance prep. Like we still want them to have a space to be able to be a part of the community and participate and contribute. But sometimes it's just not on the actual Shamrock News.

Curtis Long (27:15): You said that you coach at Milwaukie High, you get to be a part of the Milwaukie High School where your Rowe kids are going. How rewarding is it for you to see some of those Rowe kids who maybe struggled in the sixth grade and now they're flourishing in the high school and you get to see that?

Lucas Dix (27:27): Oh it's great. I, I love that. Just, uh, all the time when we have the last game of the year and it's the last varsity game and, and the seniors and the 12th graders are like, you know, they got the sniffles going, it's sure the season has ended. It's always great. Cause I'm gonna be like, I remember our first staff students basketball game where we played you and you were a sixth grader. And that's always real fun where I was like, you were five three and I was shooting threes on you and stuff and now you could put me in the post and dunk on me <laugh> and now I gotta like look up at you when I'm looking at you. So that's always a really beautiful aspect. Like I said, I grew up playing basketball and I, I really appreciate that aspect of community and I think that there is a lot of things that teams, especially basketball teams teach you that basketball remains to me like one of my favorite sports in the world. Just because I can go to any basketball court, meet four people I've never met before in my entire life. And after if we win like three or four games, I'm like, oh man, what's up dude? Like, Hey man, that was great. And I appreciate that aspect of community that you can develop just off playing some basketball.

Curtis Long (28:23): Well, you can hear it in your voice as you talk about your job. You always look like you're having the time of your life with your students. But we all know teaching is a tough job. It is a tough job. What advice would you have for aspiring teachers, especially those who are thinking about middle school?

Lucas Dix (28:36): I think the key for teaching middle school is to be authentic and to be your authentic self. And you might not hit like a 30 foot jump shot, but like if you really love playing the guitar, play the guitar. If you really love playing the drums, play the drums. If you're a great artist, showcase that aspect. And I think middle schoolers really appreciate that authenticity. I also think it's important to find your people within your building. And it's one of the things I like about Rowe is that we have people who look out for each other, but it's really nice to be able to share what's going on in your classroom and know that there's other people who are experiencing something similar. I was having a conversation the other day with one of our teachers that I'm good friends with and we were just kind of talking about how hard the year has been and just, man, I don't know what to do.

Lucas Dix (29:18): This has been really difficult. This behavior's been tough. I mean we have a large portion of our students live in poverty and then post pandemic and we have very high special education identification at our school. And it just makes this cocktail that sometimes the behaviors are really, really stressful and difficult for teachers to find the needs to mitigate those behaviors that aren't what we are necessarily want to see. And we were just talking about how stressed out we were and the substitute teacher like looked over and was like, thank you so much. I thought that I was the only one who was like stressed when I came to this school and was working. We were like, no dude. Everybody's feeling it. And I think that sometimes, oh, I've been doing this for 13 years. There have been times, there's one time every year where I like pull up a Google job and I'm like, oh sure. And I'm like, huh. Yeah.

Curtis Long (30:04): What would that take?

Lucas Dix (30:04): What would that, what would it take for me to do that? I've finally have hit the place where I'm like, I'm not going anywhere. I'm not doing anything else. But it's okay to have those thoughts and those feelings and it's okay to discuss those and it's okay to talk to other people about those things to approach teaching from a realistic aspect. And I've been to those teaching conferences, I've gotten to speak at those teaching conferences. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. And sometimes that's like every single day we come in and we are ready to just give it all up for the kids. And I'm like, I am. But like there are days where I come in and I'm not ready to do that and it's okay for me to not be ready to do that. And I think if you can kind of take some of that expectation and that seriousness away from it, you can get back to a place of like, here's my realistic expectations for this and how do I meet these realistic expectations?

Curtis Long (30:46): And I think there are district employees and teachers around the country who are listening to this podcast who just heard that and are applauding right now that

Lucas Dix (30:53): I hope so.

Curtis Long (30:54): And we need to recognize. Yeah, teaching is a tough job for sure. Well it's late afternoon as we record this. In fact, you sacrificed your daily prep period to join us, which we really appreciate. As we start to wrap things up, when that alarm goes off tomorrow morning, what gets you excited to get up and come to work each day

Lucas Dix (31:09): Tomorrow I will. It's six o'clock when that alarm goes off, I will go outside, feed my chickens, and then I will go and pick up like two or three kids on the way to Milwaukie when we do basketball workouts in the morning at six 30. So I like that. We got a nice little weight program that we're doing right now and it's fun to be in the weight room with like 15 other kids. We're playing basketball next year and everybody's just trying to do weighted step ups and we're back squatting and everyone's miserable. But at the same time we're also like, eh, you know, I feel a little, I've been feeling a little bit stronger over the last five weeks. So I like that aspect. And then once I get the lifting done, then it's, we got Shamrock News tomorrow morning, <laugh> Wednesdays.

Curtis Long (31:45): You're recording tomorrow morning?

Lucas Dix (31:46): No, no, we Okay. That's when, well the whole school will watch it, so, okay,

Curtis Long (31:49): So the episode comes out

Lucas Dix (31:51): One morning. Yeah. So yeah, my Wednesdays are, when the episode comes out, Tuesday nights, I'm normally at school till about 11, 11 30 putting the final touches on it.

Curtis Long (31:57): 11, 11 30 at night?

Lucas Dix (31:59): Yeah. So Tuesdays are crazy, man. So Tuesdays we start, the basketball workouts start at 6:30 AM and I get home about midnight. Ugh. And so I work with my, I work at the school where my wife works at and it'll, she'll leave at four and I'll be like, all right, see you tomorrow honey <laugh>.

Curtis Long (32:11): See you tomorrow.

Lucas Dix (32:12): But yeah, I, I like that. And I just being able to kind of do some really fun things with some kids who are working towards a goal really makes me happy and I'm always down to ride for that.

Curtis Long (32:22): And that just shows your dedication to this job and to this profession where you're at a different school in the morning, then getting to your own job, staying until 11, 11 30 at night. We can't let you go without sharing this excitement. And this kind of verifies that you're actually a finalist for a pretty amazing award coming up. Tell our listeners why they might see, see you on the local evening news in the next week or so.

Lucas Dix (32:42): Yeah I have been informed that I am a finalist for the On Point Community Credit Union Educator of the Year. So that's really exciting. I find out Thursday, May 25th, I think it's live on K G W eight

Curtis Long (32:55): Live on tv, so you're gonna be right there on camera. It's you and one other person right down to the finalists.

Lucas Dix (32:59): I'm trying to, I, I hit him up trying to be like, what, how is this work? Is it gonna be like the Grammys where we're both split screened and I don't know, when the other guy gets named, I have to practice my like, congratulations look and you know, and hide my disappointment or whatever. So it's a really big honor and I appreciate a former row teacher. Mr. Grand nominated me for the award and I thought that was really sweet of him. It's one of those things where I, I appreciate it and I appreciate all the recognition and people seeing the hard work. Like I said, those like long days. But I also think that it's, there are so many teachers who are doing awesome stuff that are just doing the eight to four. Yep. My wife is 10 times the teacher and like in the classroom than I am.

Lucas Dix (33:36): She is just like, those kids learn math and they learn science and they do all these really awesome things in a way that I couldn't do it, but I just, I just, I'm willing to go and put these extra hours in and I appreciate the appreciation for me and I appreciate that people are see it. But I also think that it's disappointing that teachers who are just like in the classroom doing their design job responsibilities, who are killing it, don't technically tend to win those awards because it goes to people who are willing to put those extra 15 hours a week in. And I think that both sides of those people really need to be given a lot of love cuz the job is not easy. Whether you're working, you're 40 or whether you're working 60.

Curtis Long (34:11): And you can tell by listening to Lucas, he's a pretty humble guy. Do the students even know about this yet? Has it been revealed to them? Did they know to watch the news next week?

Lucas Dix (34:19): Man, they, so I told Mr. Simpson our hall monitor and I was just kind of, I slid into his room and I was like, Hey, you know, I just found this out and they got me last Friday. Well I have my classroom and then I have a, a studio office that's like adjacent to it. That's how I got our green screen. And he told me, Hey, I got someone coming in for the BSU to film something, so can you make sure that this student comes out and films at 3 55? And I was like, yeah, sure. And then I was just about to leave that day. I was like, ah, it's 3 55. I had a sub today for my classes and stuff like that. I was just here doing the, the water event. I'm gonna go home and I'm gonna like beat the rush. And he was like, yo, yo, I need you real quick.

Lucas Dix (34:54): I need you real quick. And so the camera's broken and I was like, the camera's, no, no way. The camera broke and then I turned the corner and he had like the entire school was in the hallways and they were clapping for me and stuff like that. It was a really cool moment. It's not something that I would've ever asked for of course. But it was definitely something that I appreciated and it was, it was a lot of love it, it filled a big bucket, man. My bucket was definitely draining pretty heavily. And to see that, like I said, just to be reminded of how one big team everybody is and how everybody within the building from the janitors, the students, the librarians, secretaries, admin teachers, like we are all in this together. And that felt very unifying in that aspect. And seeing some kids who I was like, oh, I just yelled at you yesterday and you're giving me a high five.

Lucas Dix (35:34): Okay, we're good. You know, and yeah, that's great having that aspect of things. So yes, the students do know about it, they're giving me some love. But a teacher that was sub at our building on Friday actually came up to me and said that one student was like, Hey, this is really important. Everybody needs to give Mr. Dix love. He's up for a really important award. He's like the best teacher in this school other than Miss Welker <laugh>, who's my wife. So it was like, other than this one other, so, so some kids, I'm the second best teacher in my, in my house. Well you can't beat that. Yeah, you, you can't beat that. Right. So I'm gonna maybe educator of the year and for some people I'm second best out of best two best in my own house.

Curtis Long (36:09): Fantastic. What a great story. Anything else you want to add?

Lucas Dix (36:11): I think the only thing that I would like to add is that teaching has been very difficult over the last two or three years and it is still something that's very worthwhile. And if you're thinking about getting into education, I think that it is a very rewarding thing. I may go home stressed and there are some times where my wife and I go home and we are incredibly stressed and it's like, it seems like for three or four days all we've talked about is like how hard this job is, but it is also a very rewarding job. I don't think we've ever gone home and been like, wow, I contribute nothing. And that reward is really powerful and it's something that keeps me going. And I just know that like if you know a teacher, show 'em some love. If you are a family member of someone who goes to one of our schools, like volunteer to sign up, like we would've loved to have 15 families out at our water world day.

Lucas Dix (36:57): If you hoop and you're like, Hey, I want to go and participate in a staff or students basketball game, like the more we can bring our communities into our schools and into our classrooms and have people who are willing to volunteer and who are willing to chaperone dances and who are willing to have the conversations to help remind us all that it is one big team. I really think that's going to make everything so much more powerful for our students, for our staff members, for our families. And I just want to see us do that more. And I think that's something that we're working towards for next year for Rowe of just trying to get our community involved, get our local businesses, our churches, our food carts, all of these places. Because when these kids leave our middle school and our high school, they're going out into our community and we wanna live in a community that is like very accepting and the same way we talk about as school. Like it's a community where everyone belongs. We want that community for everybody outside of that. And I think the more that we can work with the families and the more that we can support our teachers and the more that our teachers can support our families, I think is really powerful.

Curtis Long (37:57): There he is Lucas teacher at Rowe Middle School up for a big award. Congratulations on being named for a finalist for the On Point Educator of the Year. Truly well deserved. And we'll be sure to keep our listeners updated on the final results. Either way, we're so proud of you and so thankful for all the daily positive impacts you make on Rouse students. The North Clackamas School district has five core values as part of its strategic plan, equity, relationships, integrity, empowerment and care. And Lucas, I think, is pretty clear that you embody every one of those in yourself and in Rowe Middle School students. Your commitment to kids truly makes us proud to be NCSD. Thanks so much for joining us today. Keep those creative raps coming and good luck with the upcoming On Point Educator of the Year Reveal, which will be live on the local news. Have you been practicing your acceptance speech?

Lucas Dix (38:39): I don't even know if I get one. <laugh>. I, I'm, I'm trying to decide if like, I don't know what I'm gonna do if I get accepted, I might just like thank my mom and dad and my wife and just move, keep it moving. <laugh>.

Curtis Long (38:49): That's a good strategy. There you have it folks. Lucas Dix Rowe Middle School. Thanks so much for joining us!

Lucas Dix (38:54): Thanks for having me, man. I appreciate it.

Curtis Long (38:57): Thanks for listening to the Proud To Be NCSD podcast. In North Clackamas. We know that education is a community effort and we're so thankful that you and your family are a part of our community. Until next time, remember, there are always great things to see wherever you go in N C S D.