Jordan and Drew Baranowski (better known as Little Bear and Big Bear) discuss what having a sibling in the same workplace is like and what drew them to teaching English.

BLACK: Jordan

BLUE: Drew

What’s it like working at the same place as your brother?

It’s nice. Quite nice. Really nice. It is. Because we’re both good at what we do, we bounce ideas off each other and we have fun because we’re brothers. And sometimes we get into wrestling matches. Ostrich jousting. Yes! Ostrich jousting is fun. Except when the ostriches don’t want to play. Panhandling. There’s plenty of panhandling. That is a product of being a teacher though, even if we didn’t have a brother here, we’d still panhandle in general to make up for income disparity with the one percent. That’s my goal, really, is to be the first teacher in the one percent. You’re going to be the one percent teacher? Yeah. Actually I kind of want to be a part of that 100k club as a teacher. OK. Of course I’ll have to live to be 175 to do it. But when you’re 175, you’ll be paying so much for the home that you’re in. The home? Yeah, like, the nursing home. But if I’m 175, I don’t think it’ll get to that point. I mean, I’m getting into Ray Kurzweil territory where I’m going to be bionic. Oh yeah! You’ll probably just be an artificial intelligence that teaches. I will be artificial intelligence. I will be THE artificial intelligence. Is that what you have right now, artificial intelligence? I… think it’s pretty real. It sort of like, it looks like the real thing, but I bought it for $20 on the street corner in New York. Right next to the Gucci bags, and the Rolex watches. It’s like when you buy the fruit snacks, but with strawberry flavored preserves. *laughter* Can this just be the whole interview? Us just answering this one question. *laughter* But like we said, it’s nice. It’s nice. Very nice.

What got you both into teaching?

Teaching degree. I mean, that’s literally the answer. I had really good English teachers here actually, and that’s what made me want to do it. Me, too. I also had English teachers that I didn’t really agree with, and just teachers in general whose styles I didn’t think, to be honest, I was one of those kids, I had a lot of bouts of “This is a waste of my time.” You know, that mentality in a lot of class, so in a traditional success standpoint, I didn’t do that great, I had a 3.1 GPA, bottom of my class and stuff. I tell all my classes that, I don’t hide or anything. I don’t know, I never felt any instances, it just felt like it [was] hard for the sake of being hard, which I didn’t agree with. I wanted to actually think. That’s rigor. Right. That should be the fourth R. Right! Right! Rigor, Relevance, Relationships, Right!

What are your teaching styles?

Outstanding? Is that a good one? Can I go with that one. I’m going to go with “New school flavor for old school fools. My teaching gets you jumping like kangaroos….. Rules.” *laughter* Kangaroos? Kangarooools!  I’m just gonna say outstanding. But modest. Oh yeah! Humble! Humble, but… Modest and outstanding, “Moutstanding!’ No, that sounds like mouse. “Mouse standing! What? Mouse standing! You read those books with the mouse and the motorcycle, with the little ping pong ball helmet. “Roy S. Mouse, no Roy F….’ You can’t say that. Wha… no that’s his middle initial. Oh Smart! It was ‘S’ because he was smart. Oh, yeah. Ralph S. Mouse. Ralph S. It was Ralph. That’s the one. Roy was his cousin that never quite made it. Roy Stupid Mouse. *Laughter*

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