Podcasts about tcaps

Episode 5.11 Hello and Welcome to another potentially useful episode of the TCAPSLoop Podcast!! Joining me after using all her multi-versal edtech abilities to bend one hour of code into a full week, it's Danelle Brostrom and streaming in from an undisclosed location outside the Matrix, pulling all the TCAPS strings, it's Sophie Legault-Bradly!   Moment of Zen   The first step to expanding your reality is to discard the tendency to exclude things from possibility - E. E. Cummings   The Agenda Not since we had Thomas Paolacci on the pod have we had someone behind the scenes who is this essential to maintaining a school district. Sophie is TCAPS' Database Manager, think switchboard operator but with millions of connections to maintain at all times. She kindly lets us know how she makes the digital spaghetti that feeds the staff and students of our school district.     Tech Tool of the Week:  Screencastify   Thanks for listening and inspiring!

Episode 5.7 Hello and Welcome to another potentially useful episode of the TCAPSLoop Podcast!! Though autumn is her favorite time of the year because all the leaves turn from green to maize however after last weekend she may be feeling blue it's Stephi Luyt! Joining us on this, "Getting to Know You," is possibly the most important guest we've ever had…because she's my boss,it's TCAPS' Executive Director of Communications, Ginger Smith!       TCAPSLoop Moment of Zen The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place. - George Bernard Shaw   Tech Tool of the Week Teaching Books Bar code scanning for adding to your booklists.   Thanks for listening and inspiring.

Episode 5.6 Hello and Welcome to another potentially useful episode of the TCAPSLoop Podcast! I'm joined by TCAPS own Mentat, the Technollorgist, David Noller and special guest Mitch Heethuis, who directed TCAPS Credit Recovery Program this past summer. Mitch shares his insights on specially designed teacher created courses created on BrightspaceD2L, used for credit recovery.    Moment of Zen "The mystery of life isn't a problem to solve, but a reality to experience." - Frank Herbert, 'Dune'.   The Agenda What was the goal when you started planning for last summer's credit recovery courses? How did the COVID pandemic affect student success and/or participation in the summer courses? Who worked to develop these courses?  How effective were these courses?  Did you see a higher percentage of recovery in students in TCAPS built courses compared to other courses? Vice versa?  Can you talk about the variety of courses? Which courses were more difficult to implement with a technology-mediated experience? Did students prefer these over other available courses? (Edgenuity, etc.) How would you view the success of the summer? What needs to be different or be repeated? What important insights did you gain from last summer's experience? Thanks for listening and inspiring.  

    Episode 5.3 Hello and Welcome to another potentially useful episode of the TCAPSLoop Podcast!! The episode guest list includes a proud Wolverine, Stephie Luyt and joining us finally, an alum of the Library of Alexandria, HicksBo@tcaps.net, Mr. Bob Hicks!      Moment of Zen “Good company in a journey makes the way seem shorter. " - Izaak Walton     It was an honor to accompany Mr. Hicks for a short portion of his TCAPS journey and it's truly our pleasure to have him on the pod before he draw's this journey to its close. We are blessed to have him share his 30+ years of EdTech wisdom on the Pod.   And again, we'd like to apologize for the poor audio, we have our best people on it...well maybe not our best.  Follow Us On Twitter: @tcapsloop @stephieluyt Subscribe to the Podcast on Podbean, iTunes, Stitcher, Tune In, Downcast, Overcast, the Google Play Store, Spotify or wherever else you get your ear candy!  Thanks for listening and inspiring!  

Hello and Welcome another episode of the TCAPSTechLoop Podcast! It's a full podcast with Danelle Brostrom, David Noller, Heidi Skodack and Evan Obranovic all here to discuss the adoption and progression of the Learning Management System, Brightspace D2L. Before cutting into the meat of the show I’d like to announce the election results for this weeks Moment of Zen."Yesterday I was clever, so I wanted to change the world. Today I am wise, so I am changing myself." Pod Questions:What is a Learning Management System (LMS) and what will it do for our students and teachers? Where is TCAPS at with the roll out? What are some of the successes and hurdles so far? Where can you find help?Tech Tool of the Week: New York Times Whats Going On In This Graph?Tutorials and Updates:TCAPSTECH Help Site: Staff SupportTCAPS247.com for Student and Parent SupportTechNollerGist on Youtube with a bevy of tutorials 

Why is STEM so important in Michigan right now? Because Michigan businesses need STEM educated workers and currently those workers are not available. Businesses struggle to understand why it appears public education is not producing the workforce they need, while educators are attempting to teach kids collaboration, creative thinking and other 21st Century Skills, while navigating another legislative edict, state standards, and school district goals. Our guest Drea Weiner from MiSTEM is attempting to repair that disconnect, and helping to make education applicable to a real world setting by fitting STEM into the curriculum to meet the needs that businesses are desperately crying out for.Elementary is Engineering WorkshopNovember 26thTCAPS Sabin Data Center Acronym ListMiSTEM - Michigan Science, Technology, Engineering and Math NetworkTBAISD - Traverse Bay Intermediate School DistrictCHAREMISD - Charelvoix - Emmet Intermediate School DistrictELA - English Language ArtsREMC - Regional Education Materials CenterMETS - Michigan Education Technology SpecialistsEVR - Experience Verification RouteEIE - Elementary is EngineeringREMC RITS - REMC Instructional Technology SpecialistsSEL - Social Emotional LearningDigCit - Digital Citizenship  Full Transcript:Drea Weiner 0:02 I'm pretending like I know what I'm doing but I don't actually know what I'm doing most days.Larry Burden 0:11 The most important thing we can teach our kids is to recognize that everybody's just winging it.Drea Weiner 0:15 Because you need to integrate that with your content.Larry Burden 0:19 I want to do that. That looks like more fun.Larry Burden 0:26 It's Episode 97 of the EdTechLoop podcast. My name is Larry Burden and she's been attempting to 3D print snow tires for her Hyundai Elantra, it's Danelle Brostrom, and we are also joined by Northern Michigan Sensei of STEM, it's Drea Weiner. Multiple snow days have allowed for additional time to meditate on this week's moment of Zen.Moment of Zen 0:47 To appreciate the beauty of a snowflake. It is necessary to stand out in the cold.Larry Burden 0:52 After several field attempts to brave the icy roads we've decided to stay home and fabricate this week's meat of the show. STEM heats up in Northern Michigan.Danelle Brostrom 1:03 I wasn't ready for any of that Larry.Larry Burden 1:03 I worked really hard to come up with a title.Danelle Brostrom 1:03 It took you all week to write, didn't it?Larry Burden 1:04 So I worked...Larry Burden 1:10 Naw, about the last 15 minutes. Come on, there's no prep here. Okay, so thank you for joining us Drea, because I know your schedule is crazy. We've got tons of questions about what you do and what's happening with STEM in northern Michigan. I don't think we've actually covered a lot of STEM so far this year now so fill us in.Drea Weiner 1:34 First one in. So yeah, so I'm the Regional Director for the MiSTEM network, and the MiSTEM network is a statewide effort to make sure that there's a cross curricular look at science, technology, engineering and mathematics, are we teaching those areas, are we teaching them in an integrated way, are we teaching them in a way that prepare our students for life beyond school, are we teaching them in a way that's applicable to the workforce. So that's kind of MiSTEM network, in a nutshell. I can talk to you about that for like hours on end but we'll, we'll end on that particular note.Larry Burden 2:07 go ahead, you've got questions galore. Don't wait for me to just jump right in.Danelle Brostrom 2:11 No, I'm just curious about the connection with business, you know and typically in schools we think about how, how we're teaching these skills, kind of on our own. Can you talk to me about the connection with business, why is that important?Drea Weiner 2:22 So I would say that this is important because right now in Michigan, businesses do not want to engage, they do not want to invest in education. They do not understand the importance of engaging in education because they're having to do a lot of apprenticeships, a lot of workforce, work based learning within their own house because kids do not have the skill sets and which they need, and that's everything that's been expressed for me, like kids cannot problem solve, kids cannot critically think, they're not showing up on time, they don't have basic mathematics skills, they don't understand taxes which is, I don't know if I always fully understand taxes to be completely honest, but like having to sit down and explain, like here's the math on how you budget out your life because we do withhold your taxes from, from this end of things. So, from the business end of things they're just like we, we don't understand, you're not giving us what we need. Now from the educator side of things, here really like we're in charge of these kids from eight until three or whatever your school day is and like we're teaching your kids collaboration, and how to talk to each other, and here's the content that we're teaching in them, and here's like another legislative edict, and here's what our school districts coming from and, like, there's all these different components from a teacher's perspective over what they're having to do as well. And there's a disconnect between why a kid has to learn fractions in elementary school and like how that actually gets applied in the workforce, because Danielle you and I've worked with 3D printing and looking at decimal places, and so, for engineers when they're creating prototypes, if something's off by a fraction, you need to want to understand what that fraction is and two, understand like, if your material shrink by 1%, how do you change that to make sure that like, your materials don't shrink, and that your prototype is actually fitting when it's supposed to fit. And that's, and that's really the disconnect that we're trying to close with like how is your education applicable to a real world setting as well, and fitting that need that businesses are desperately crying out for because there are some people that will hire you for $60,000 on the floor in a manufacturing plant, and I'm pretty sure that's not the entry level of a teacher. So, like how do, we how do we make sure that kids can also get jobs, and stay in your communities, and be able to contribute to the economy. Once again, that's another like huge...Danelle Brostrom 4:46 But this is such an important thing but it's a large task Drea. How are you, how are you getting started with this and how is the MiSTEM network finding a place where they can connect businesses and educators.Drea Weiner 4:58 Yeah, so part of that is right now I'm doing a needs assessment of the whole region. So I covered TBAISD and I cover CHAREMISD. And so it's everything from looking at assessment scores, looking at what are the needs of the teachers have expressed to me, it's looking at the workforce data over what's projected to grow in the next 10 years. It's looking at, okay so if I'm going out and meeting with companies, what are the top five things coming up, like bubbling up through those conversations. Trying to figure out where these needs, and what's being discussed, and like how do those align. And it is a huge task, and I'm not in any way shape or form getting it right, right off the bat, but it's kind of one of those things that like how do I make sure that we're building in that iterative process of like, okay so, last year I've heard a lot of teachers needing like, I need help for supplies first because science is more expensive than an ELA project in your classroom. I need help. And I was just like, okay, I'll figure out how I can help you. Well, now that we're there, how do we, how do we move forward with like what is this cross curricular component look like, who's actually doing it in your classrooms, or who's, who's trying to do it but just needs help, who are the resources like yourself to reach out to, how do we get the workshops, like code.org and CS Fundamentals to the areas that need them. Like it's, a it's a lot and it requires a lot of people to bring to the table. It requires us to look at how we're currently using our resources, because my, my grant dollars and my dollars come from the state are meant to be generative and so, who else can I get to the table, in order to have an event or not even just an event, to have a program. And some of its, you know, here's how the ISD and I partner, because they are my fiscal. And here's how a business can come to the table and like, you know what I want an intern, and I'm like, great, which teachers have students that can actually, that are ready for an internship. Because that's part of it as well, the bringing people a table and let's talk about what these needs are saying.Danelle Brostrom 7:01 And you said there's a whole network throughout Michigan of people just like you so if listeners aren't local to the TBAISD or CHAREM area, they, how would they find their MiSTEM person so they could learn more about this.Drea Weiner 7:15 So I would go to michigan.gov/MiSTEM. You will be able to find your director there. And then part of its also reaching out to the other net, networks like REMC, like METS, the Math and Science Center Network etc.. Trying to figure out like, okay, so who are the, who are the people that I can connect with. I would start with the MiSTEM state site for, how do I connect with you.Danelle Brostrom 7:39 The workforce wants these specific set of skills. Why is STEM the vehicle to get our kids there.Drea Weiner 7:46 I would say, because it allows for a way that shows students how learning can be cross curricular and it shows how it can be applicable. So if you're working with, oh, I'm going to fall back on manufacturing because it's my experience. If a manufacturer for example wants an intern, they're going to go look for a student that has engineering experience, they're going to go look for a student that has solid science experience, they're going to look for a student whose teachers going to say, yeah, this kid shows up on time, apologizes when they don't show up on time, has the basic mathematics skills in order to push them forward, they asked for help, that was a huge one that's been coming up lately. You know, wide variety of my conversations of like, the kids, these kids know how to ask for help. And I would say STEM, like, a lot of the careers moving forward, are based in those four arenas. And like, more and more the workforce is working from home, you've got telecommuting going on. We actually have a really strong Computer Science Programmer base here in Traverse City that most people don't know about because they're all working from home. Yeah, if you're a homebody and you like to work from home and you've got solid, computer science skills like, people in New York City would rather hire someone from Traverse City than someone who lives in New York because it's a fraction of the price, and it's pretty competitive. Or go to the co-op if you do need to work with people. So that's another skill set that I don't think many teachers are aware of because most people don't realize, I won't say most people, I would say people who traditionally have to show up at a space for work, um, don't fully understand what it means to work from home. So if you're a kid that can't do an online course, like you have to have a lot of self regulation skills to be able to work from home. Because like, there are days where I work from home and it's great. I get to sit down and actually focus on what's going on. There are days where I'm just too distracted by how cute my cats are, and I have to go into the office because I will get nothing done. So that's, that's another example of the disconnect.Larry Burden 9:48 You mentioned teachers a lot.Drea Weiner 9:50 Yeah,Larry Burden 9:50 And a concern that I have, or a question that I have is, is it teachers to MiSTEM, or is it District to MiSTEM? It seems like we're asking a teacher to do a lot,Drea Weiner 10:04 Yeah,Larry Burden 10:04 without support from the District, and it's such a large thing that we're asking them to do, I mean we're basically asking them to to look at their curriculum and figure out ways to fit, fit STEM in. It doesn't seem like that should necessarily be the teachers, I mean, it really doesn't seem like it should be the teacher's job or all on the teacher. It seems like the District should be supporting the teacher in their curriculum to allow for something as important as STEM to be embedded in what they do every day. It should just be there. How are we having those conversations.Drea Weiner 10:39 Yeah, so I'm really, Yeah, I'm really glad that you brought that up because that is another layer of the MiSTEM network of looking at how do we talk with our district, districts. Because it should, in my opinion, it's got to be both. You have to have those gorilla educator teachers who, who are doing this regardless. Who's like, this look ,this work...Larry Burden 10:56 Pushing it forward.Drea Weiner 10:56 Pushing it forward, especially for an administrator who didn't teach that way. I've seen EVR I've been talking to people about CPM, Classroom Makers, over like a lot of that, students will show you their learning, how do you stop talking at the kids and help guide them through their learning. And that's an evolution from where some people were in the classroom you know maybe 20 years ago. And so, the, there's the flip side of that like okay, how does the district move forward with the research of what good learning looks like, and how do they support the teachers that way as well. And so that's a, that's another conversation and sometimes it's packing people up in the car and going to a school where they're doing that. And sometimes it's, you know, bringing people to the table or having business and education just sit at the same table and talk about what that means, and sometimes it's a district administrator, sometimes it's a principal, sometimes it's a teacher. So, yeah, that is a lot to ask teachers, and in no way shape or form do I expect every teacher to be like, yeah, let's go for this and like, if you don't have the support of your admin you're either one, not going to do it right, two not do it all, or three, do it but also have a really uphill battle.Larry Burden 12:09 The resources end up, I mean we've seen it so many times in the classroom, a teacher has a great idea, or wants to pursue this, and the energy, the time, the resources, run out, or they move.Drea Weiner 12:24 Yeah.Larry Burden 12:24 So something happens at this one school and it's getting some traction but then the teacher gets moved to x school and then...Drea Weiner 12:31 it's gone, because they take it to that school, yeah.Larry Burden 12:34 And it's hard to get any real traction if it's not, kind of, site or District based. And I've just seen it too many times where they have that STEM classroom, and it's dedicated, and it's all good and then next year it's a closet.Drea Weiner 12:49 Yeah, and I would say like from my vision, my personal one, I wouldn't say this is necessarily the whole MiSTEM networks vision, is that every teacher is comfortable with STEM. Like, long term, years down the road, like anyone is comfortable, like here's where, you know what we're going to do a literature and science lesson, and we're going to time together today, because I think everyone needs those skills, but until you have people from the administrative side of things and the teachers working together in that space, it's, it's going to be frustrating. And it's going, it's going to continue with teachers popping around and kids either getting it or not getting it depending on where that teacher, or helpful administrator is so.Larry Burden 13:29 So there's a thing that's happening that maybe administrators and teachers should maybe get involved in. Isn't there like a workshop coming up.Drea Weiner 13:35 Oh yeah, we've got our Elementary is Engineering Workshop, coming up pretty quickly here, which by the way you get a free Elementary is Engineering kit, if you decide to attend.Larry Burden 13:46 Plug away.Drea Weiner 13:47 Yeah.Drea Weiner 13:48 So Heidi Skodeck is the one who's running the workshop for us, and she's been fantastic in helping me plan this, and it's been a long time coming. And so, here's a way that, here's a program that looks at how do you apply engineering in an elementary classroom. It's all tied to a story about a something related to other solar ovens, or building bridges or, I think designing circuits. So if you, if you do circuits with your kiddos, or you, or if you've designed solar ovens with your kiddos before just here's another way that you can do it that's also ties back to some of your standards and, you know, Heidi Skodeck your STEM person is on board for this, so like you know you're going to get some level of support in addition to, you're going to walk away with, you get to choose from one of those three kits to have that go back in your classroom. And I know, that you guys have the materials in your Elementary Materials Center to check out more kits, if you decide that you really like Elementary is Engineering.Larry Burden 14:46 I think this is a great model for this. So we have the MiSTEM network partnering with our, a District administrator, working with district resources to support teachers.Drea Weiner 14:56 And MiSTEM resources as well, yeah.Larry Burden 14:58 Exactly.Drea Weiner 14:58 And that's kind of, that's kind of what this is supposed to do, is like, the one kit that you get to take home back and keep your classroom, like that's technically coming out of my funds. There'll be a sticker on it but overall I don't care. There's more resources back in your Elementary Material Center that you guys can just check out, and that you don't have to worry about how am I going to replenish this kit once I use all the consumables because you have the Center for that.Danelle Brostrom 15:18 I will say to, kudos for choosing that program because I think the Engineering is Elementary kit and their philosophy is phenomenal. It is top notch for kids, and I also think it's great for, you know you mentioned educators that have built solar ovens before and want something different, I think it's great for the educator who has no clue what they're doing and it's just excited about trying to help kids learn.Larry Burden 15:39 Yeah.Danelle Brostrom 15:39 It's very easy to get into.Drea Weiner 15:41 Yeah. And honestly, so how I'm structured is that there's me and then I have an advisory council from the local level. And I have an education subcommittee of that and so Heidi sits on that board, Annette Cole that's on that committee, but then Shelly VanderMeulan, who used to work in your Elementary Material Center sit's on it. Michael George sits on it. We've got someone from CHAREM and the NMLC group that sits on it. And then we've got a teacher from Greenspire who sits on it too. So here's our education resource within the committee and like they're the ones who actually self identified that because they recognize that we're not doing a lot of engineering or science at the elementary level, and they're just like you know what we've used this before and it's a pretty easy entry toward, that's not scary for teachers to use.Larry Burden 16:27 Give us the details for the Workshop.Drea Weiner 16:28 OK, so the Workshop, you can register on our MiSTEM page for the local one. So my local link is MiSTEM.tbaisd.org. And TBA my fiscal so, what, I service many organizations, but they are my fiscal so the their name gets in the URL right now. And so you go under, Educators, there's a whole resource for you, for you guys that lists out any workshops that's going to be popping up in the area. And you would go, the registration link is there. If you are struggling with your administrator for sub costs, what you would be able to do though is that we actually have a Teacher Professional Learning Scholarship that you can apply for, and be like, oh, okay, great, you know what, you're willing to cover my sub costs, great, if you're not from within TCAPS and, like, then you're starting to get the argument over, well the drive to Northport, we don't know if we can, like pay your gas, or your mileage, or what happens if a snowstorm happens. You can also apply for that, for that scholarship as well and we'll pay your mileage and whatnot. And that's not just for this workshop, that's for any workshop or conference. If you want to go to MACUL let us know, we're going to do a carpool down there, I'm sure. But like, that, that's what that scholarship is for is to make sure that you guys can attend this workshop. The workshop itself is November 26. We need you to register as soon as possible. It will be first come first serve so I'll let you guys know when it is full. I will feed you so you don't walk away hungry that day. The rest is all on Heidi. Like she's, she's going to be the one leading you guys through it.Danelle Brostrom 18:05 Now you also have many grants available right now.Drea Weiner 18:08 Yeah,Danelle Brostrom 18:08 Can you talk about those?Drea Weiner 18:09 This is my second year as Regional Director, and I spent a lot of time listening to educators both out and about in the community and also in their classroom. Listening to the different consultants both from within TCAPS, and within TBA, and listening to my fellow MiSTEM Directors. So what came up from all of those conversations was, we don't have the resources. How can we just try this if, like I don't want to spend $1,000 or $500 on additional materials like out of my own pocket. So we created a mini grant system where like, okay you've got an a, an idea of how you can bring STEM into your classroom, great. For the first tier, which is, I just want to try something, $500, I just want to try. Great, come, apply, we'll review it to make sure that you've actually thought it through. This is not meant for, oh, we're out of crayons in our classroom, or we're, like it's not meant to replenish anything, it's meant to actually be for a project of some kind.Larry Burden 19:09 I really think Ozobots are cool but I don't have a plan to do it.Drea Weiner 19:12 Yeah, something like that, or hey I really want to start a Blockables in my classroom, or I want a set of iPads, but I don't know what, you would do in fact have to think about what this is through. Or, like, once again, if you want to go to the EIE workshop and you'll find another one that you really want but maybe you're a little worried about like, when you're going to get your stuff. You can apply for this grant and get a whole nother kit to try. It's really meant to be like, think about what you want to try in your classroom. Here's some funds for this. It is meant for materials, not for just like hiring in a consultant or something like that to come into your classroom. It is that for materials for you to do. But like, that's what that's for. And then we have a second tier, which is $1,000, where if you're working in a team environment that includes business or the community that's, that's a little bit more meaningful, that's showing like, here's how it's a little bit more cross curricular, this is how we're bringing in the workforce component. Like, for example, if you're, if you've decided to code.org like all their resources for code.org are free, but you, there are programmers here in town who are very much aware that computer science is not necessarily being taught in our schools and they want it to because their kids are here in these schools, and they're just like you know what let's use Microbits in the classroom. But Microbits are $15 a pop not including the alligator clips and how do we, who's going to teach the kids the Python. Well then you can bring in, you can purchase all the stuff for the micro bits, you can bring in the community partner to help the kids with what your programming is going to be, but also Microbits has a free curriculum that's either tied to code.org their own thing, Project Lead the Way, I think there's one more I'm not entirely sure. But anyways, there's at least those three that you can apply to your classroom, but you do need some seed funding to purchase the materials for your class. And that's what the thousand dollar one is for, because we really want people talking to each other. We really want people reaching out to each other over like, what does this look like. And so those applications, which also can be found on our website, are due, November 27th, with the goal to have them announced in December, so you can do this right after the school, no the turn of the year, and give us your feedback and your evaluations before the end of the school year so you're not losing your mind. So that's, that's what the mini grants are for. And I...Larry Burden 21:34 You have all the resources.Drea Weiner 21:36 Not all of them but I'm trying, I'm trying pretty hard. Yeah, and so, and that came out of, that idea came out of actually another region, another MiSTEM region in the state was doing it, and they didn't reach 100% saturation, but it allowed for certain schools who typically either get forgotten or lost to explore how to do STEM in their classrooms. And once again, I'm not prescribing what you do, you do have to think it through, you do have to tie it to your standards, you do. And if you need help reaching out to a community member I've got people who can help you with that. There's that part as well, because I know, reaching out to community members can be scary. You still have to have a, have at least thought it through. Because if you give me an application that it looks like you're just purchasing classroom materials and that's it, I'm going to tell you no on that one, so.Danelle Brostrom 22:25 So what do you hope for in terms of the future of this program?Drea Weiner 22:28 Oh my gosh, so I hope for, oh, gosh,Larry Burden 22:32 World domination?Drea Weiner 22:33 World domination in STEM! Um, what I'm really hoping for is that teachers feel empowered by, well by their administrators, by the state, by community partners to try things out in their classroom, and to not feel the fear of how does this tie back into what I'm doing. Like you, you have people you can go out and ask questions to. I'm hoping that kids are thinking, like, maybe you ask the kids what they want to do. We want to work on an erosion project, or we want to go to the bay and count like how many birds have died from whatever bird flu is going on. Like, you know, how do you bring in the student voice to this. How do you have a full supportive community coming in saying this is how, these are our issues, please kids come solve this, because I think that's another component, or how do we expose kids to these type of careers that no one knows are going to be out there in 20 years.Larry Burden 23:31 It seems like, you know, I think STEM gets labeled or viewed sometimes as coding.Drea Weiner 23:36 Yeah,Larry Burden 23:37 It's coding, you know, and so...Drea Weiner 23:38 or it's FIRST Robotics and exclusively FIRST Robotics.Larry Burden 23:41 Exactly whereas, whereas really it's more about problem solving, it's taking, its taking learning and making it applicable.Drea Weiner 23:47 If you're talking about food chains, okay, let's talk about the invasive species that are found out in our bay. Let's talk about like, why is it important for the micro plastics, that from the 3D printers, how do we make sure that those do not wind up in our food chain and wind up in the fish that we also eat when we go fishin'. You know, how does that affect us? And, you know, we talk about food chains, we talk about food webs, we talk about, you know pollution on some level, what does that actually mean? That's what it's all about.Larry Burden 24:17 It's really, it's just good practice, it's good educational practice.Drea Weiner 24:20 Yeah.Larry Burden 24:21 We just have to maybe take that one, one extra step, that one courageous step away from what's, what's built into the curriculum we're getting from wherever we're getting our curriculum from, and going okay how can this be applied to something that our students care about.Drea Weiner 24:40 Yeah.Danelle Brostrom 24:41 And I love the State of Michigan is saying that this is valuable. They're, they're putting money behind it, they're not just giving us some other mandate that we have to do. They're saying this is important and we're going to give you people that will help guide you and make this happen, so it's fortunate.Drea Weiner 24:53 Yeah, Yeah. And I would also say that our Legis., a lot of my work is Legislator based. That's where some of my requirements come from, which a lot of those are listening to the businesses. And so I'm someone where if something doesn't make sense, a teacher can be like, Drea, here's my concern, this is what's popping up, and if it's something that is systemic, because let's face it, a lot of these issues are systemic, I get to go down to Lansing and advocate for what's going on. And the Executive Director of the program. Megan Schrauben, and she's the one who, like meets with the governor's office saying, okay here's where we're struggling with in STEM education, and you really need to listen to this. So that's, that's another piece of what I do like I don't get to spend the days in the classrooms with the kiddos and see like them doing it every day, most days. But I at least get to like take those stories with me and, and advocate.Larry Burden 25:48 So, Tech Tool of the Week!Techtool of the Week 25:52 Tech Tool of the Week, I want to talk about the STEM in Literature Project. Drea, Would you like to tell us a little bit about that.Drea Weiner 25:57 Oh sure, I'm gonna have to let everyone know that my hat is shifting here a little bit I'm not just the MiSTEM Regional Director for us. I'm also one of the REMC RITS members for us. And this,Larry Burden 26:11 I just want to stop really quick. We're going to have an acronym, like list, because you've thrown about seven of them out and they usually stop and go, and what does that mean, but we're just gonna let this go.Drea Weiner 26:24 Once again I work with Legislators so I like it doesn't, I have now like become so accustomed to them I don't even realize it using them anymore.Danelle Brostrom 26:32 That's okay.Drea Weiner 26:33 Yeah, SEL, that was a new one I had to teach one of my co workers this week it was great social emotional learning. All right. Yeah,Danelle Brostrom 26:40 STEM in Literature Project, tell us.Drea Weiner 26:42 Promoting STEM through Literature Project. Okay, so this came out of the REMC Classroom Makers Project. And I think the thought was a, first of all this, I do not own this project, one, it is a REMC project, and two, Judy Bowling, and Kerry Giuliano are the wonderful, masterful ladies throughout the state who came up with this project and have been promoting it at every single ed tech conferences this summer. And this year, they are doing full day workshops throughout the state of how do you apply this. Anyways, taking another step back, is that this came from the Classroom Makers Project where they're using all that Make philosophy in the classroom, and how do you, how do you give students time to actually ask questions and inquire, and through their own space by Making great. Some of the things that people were running into, teachers were running into throughout the state were like, that's great how does this tie in to my standards. That's great. We've got a third grade reading bill coming down the pipeline, we don't have time for this. Okay, well maybe it fits, you know, on the day before Thanksgiving where all the kids are squirrely but you know, I don't really see this as something that I can continuously have in my classroom. And so looking at the third grade reading bill, the feedback from the teachers, and like how does this tie into my classroom, how do I get my administrators on board. Those two wonderful ladies, Kerry and Judy, they actually went and like, okay let's go look at which books that are, for the most part, based on real people, and that have design thinking, and making in their story. And so they picked out all of these books, many of them are by people of color, or marginalized voices, or like people who suffer from autism. And, like, here are these stories that they also have created like a pseudo, like, I don't know if they're called key cards or it's like a pseudo lesson plan Danelle help me out a little.Danelle Brostrom 28:35 Yeah there's a lesson plan, and there's sample questions that you can use. There's also simple activities that you can connect with the maker kits that are waiting your MC for you to be checked out. Or if you read the book yourself you might come up with three other ideas on how you can use making to connect these. They're phenomenal books and the work that those ladies have done is top notch.Drea Weiner 28:54 Yeah, and they're free. So we have those books at REMC for you to check out. We have the list of materials that require, that go along with the lesson plans. Okay, so here we have these free materials for you to check out and actually go back and apply it in your classroom, we also, like they're K-12. I sat down with a secondary English consultant over at TBA, and I was like hey, so these are picture books, and usually when I think about picture books it's for elementary school but they're telling me this is K-12, this is notLarry Burden 29:23 You're in a safe place here.Drea Weiner 29:23 This is not my area of expertise, and then like I shared with her the website. I shared with her, here's a lesson plan, one of the lesson plans tied to one of the books. She immediately tied three different standards for sixth grade into the lesson plan. And so, that's kind of one of the things to, where if you guys are confused about how do I fit this in, like what does this look like in my classroom, like this is meant to be K-12 and like there are people here within TCAPS, there's here, there's people within TBA who are just like, let me, let me help you out.Danelle Brostrom 29:56 Um, but go to the website it's bit.ly/pstlmaker. And you can see the resources that are availableLarry Burden 30:03 My tagline, I've got this. And of course I have to throw the A in there because I love STEAM. Yeah, STEAM is Lit. No? Yeah, no? Okay, moving on.Danelle Brostrom 30:12 Rolling the eyes just a little Larry.Larry Burden 30:14 Tutorials and updates, I just wanted to throw out, um, you shared with me yesterday. Two days ago, your DigCit for Parents.Danelle Brostrom 30:22 Oh yeah,Larry Burden 30:23 Which I thought was awesome,Danelle Brostrom 30:25 and Stephie, I didn't do it on my own.Larry Burden 30:28 Well you shared it on your own.Danelle Brostrom 30:29 I had to give credit.Larry Burden 30:30 But the presentation is great, there's so much in there, and I have a feeling we're going to be doing a lot with that in the upcoming weeks because I think it's really important to be communicating some of those resources with our parents. It's just, it's just too important. In closing, follow us on Facebook and Twitter @TCAPSLoopDanelle Brostrom 30:48 @brostromdaDrea Weiner 30:49 @dreaweinerLarry Burden 30:49 Subscribe to the podcast on Podbean, iTunes, Stitcher, Tune-in, Downcast, Overcast, the Google Play Store or wherever else you get your ear candy. Leave review, we love the feedback. Thanks for listening and inspiring.Danelle Brostrom 31:03 Yes. This is why I love you.Transcribed by https://otter.ai

Last week we discussed COPPA and the thousands of data points children create just by living and using our personal devices. Students also create data points at school which we hope to use to support teachers in helping those students achieve at their very best. It comes in many forms. You have SAT data, mandated state reporting data, but you also have a kindergarten student identifying colors, that's data, too. It's everywhere. TechTool of the Week:Copyrighteous Podcast Full TranscriptLarry Burden 0:00 big theme that no one's gonna getLarry Burden 0:07 Think Twilight Zone, and then you lose faith in humanity.Andy Phillips 0:11 It sounds uplifting.Larry Burden 0:11 It's fun for me,Danelle Brostrom 0:12 it's very interesting.Andy Phillips 0:15 It's my favorite of all time.Larry Burden 0:22 It's Episode 94 of the EdTech Loop podcast. My name is Larry Burden and her midi-chlorian count is off the charts it's Danelle Brostrom, and also joining us, the TCAPS Yoda of data, Mr. Andy Phillips. We've learned to trust our feelings, which has revealed this week's moment of ZenMoment of Zen 0:40 Pass on what you have learned, strength, mastery, but weakness, folly, failure, also yes, failure.Larry Burden 0:50 Stay for some soup, you must, if you are to partake in this week's meat of the show, the light side of data. So, last week, last week's episode, we had, we had kind of a darker, maybe a little darker..Danelle Brostrom 1:05 It wasn't dark it was informative,Larry Burden 1:06 it was informative, but we kind of talked about data and how maybe the privacy of our children can be invaded and some of, some data points regarding them might be used for a less than helpful purpose in their life. We wanted to have, Mr. Phillips on here, Andy on to discuss what our school districts do with data that can really help them really achieve and grow in their learning. So with that being said, How are we using student data.Andy Phillips 1:40 First Larry, let me, let me say that I did listen to last week's podcast. Larry and I had a brief conversation last night at an organization outside of school. And we talked about, COPPA, which, which I learned about listening to the podcast. I also, it was awesome because I was picking up my kid from gymnastics, which is where I saw Larry, and to listen to the podcast and the amount of time it took me to get home, I listened to it I'm double speed.Danelle Brostrom 2:07 Nice.Larry Burden 2:08 Very high voices.Andy Phillips 2:10 It was awesome, yes. And because I know both of you have made it way more entertaining.Danelle Brostrom 2:13 It makes me talk even faster.Andy Phillips 2:16 And my daughter was freaked out by it to.Danelle Brostrom 2:17 Okay, I'm gonna do that.Andy Phillips 2:19 So I did listen to it and it was interesting that we call, to me that's, that's data. Yeah, I get it. And you guys talking about the thousands of data points that are out there just by basically living, not doing anything crazy high tech all the time, just living and using your personal devices creates all these data points. Well students have data points to and that's what we'll talk about today, I would assume is how we use student, like, assessment type data which comes in all sorts of forms. So how do we use it? It goes from school board reporting, state reporting, to the best use of data, which is teachers using it to help their students achieve at their very best. So that's a broad question, but that's a super, super broad answer that's how we use it, and it comes, you know, it's all sorts of forms. You have SAT data, which is college entrance and it's also mandated state reporting data, but you also have a kindergarten student identifying colors, that's data, too. Because of that student can identify colors and the teacher sees that, well, that student needs work on colors or patterns or shapes or whatever. So it's everywhere.Larry Burden 3:31 You just kind of have, you know, pretty much answer the second question, but I want to go a little bit deeper so the next question was what data is being collected? And you kind of did it broadly. On a district level and in the classroom level what are we, what are we targeting? What kind of data is targeted by the district? 'Cuz I think that's, as you said, we're always collecting data. Every teachers is in the classroom collecting data, it's called observation. What data are we then trying to track and really use? Because I think one of the neat things that we're doing, you know, the Blueprint to some extent is really going on here what data is useful, and then kind of focusing and tracking that. What kind of are some of those things that oh, this is what we really want to key in on?Andy Phillips 4:13 First of all, if it's not useful, and we don't have to do it, we shouldn't do it. That's, that's the bottom line Danelle's nodding.Danelle Brostrom 4:20 Write that down. Say that again for the people in the back.Andy Phillips 4:22 Right, and that's something that we have worked on with teams. And an example of that is we've taken away a lot of assessments for, that were required in the elementary world that we just weren't using and teachers weren't using. And if they were using they still have the option of, of doing it, right. From the district level, we use the summative data the most: MSTEP, PSAT, SAT, NWEA, and I'm excited with this new data tool that Danelle, and I went to a thing on OTUS which compiles these data points together. So, last week at Traverse Heights, when they had their half-day release-day, probably for the first time, maybe, maybe not for the first time ever, but the first, for the first time without doing hours and hours of laborious cutting and pasting, I was able to show a fifth grade teacher, here are your students last four NWEA scores along with their two last M-STEP scores. So that teacher can then narrow down, these are my real bubble students. Because this student was proficient in M-STEP math last year but not this year, and NWEA scores indicate that the student has a shot at being proficient on M-STEP. What does she do with that data, she's aware, that's the most important thing in my opinion. She's just aware so that she just holds that student to this higher standard knowing that, yeah, your track record says, you can do it and you'll be a needle mover for our school. The more local it can be the better. Anything is data. You said it, observations are data and oftentimes teachers don't remember that or recognize that as being as important as some of this other stuff. I think another theme I say all the time whenever I'm working with teachers is you always should have a reason for what you're doing, and there should be some sort of output. And the reason for what you're doing is usually, whatever the assessment is going to be, right? So whatever that is, you should be using it to gauge how closely, students are coming into whatever the learning target is. I had a Moment of Zen moment. I did a...Larry Burden 6:18 Only if it's a Yoda quote because that's what I was going withAndy Phillips 6:20 It's not YodaDanelle Brostrom 6:22 Listened to last weeks pod and has a Moment of Zen, you need to come back often.Andy Phillips 6:24 I've got a couple of them. Just because I, the Moments of Zen, make me laugh every time that I hear them. This is a good one. It's not Star Wars though, it's from Mark TwainMoment of Zen 6:37 Data is like garbage. Better know what you're going to do with it before you collect it.Andy Phillips 6:43 Are you going to put sound effects in thereLarry Burden 6:44 100% hundred percent. I might even change your voice, put you on half speed. Well, we have the data. We know how it's being collected. How are we communicating those findings with teachers? How are we making it useful? We have these, these points, these tools. We have the data, as you said, we want to know what we're going to do with it. So how are we communicating that?Andy Phillips 7:07 Yeah. The more the teacher can own the data, the better. but there are so many, so many different areas that that data is located. That sometimes...Larry Burden 7:18 Let's start at the district level and go down.Andy Phillips 7:19 It can be a roadblock. Okay, well I'm thinking of how do we get this data to teachers. So NWEA is a really good example. Many teachers, probably most teachers, maybe even all teachers are pretty savvy at manipulating the NWEA Data Warehouse website. So they go on and probably look at a quadrant report which is maybe the best thing that...Danelle Brostrom 7:38 I agree.Andy Phillips 7:38 teachers can look at as far as just like a balcony view. But teachers are doing that themselves. It's not like, I mean some principals might give teachers a copy of maybe they're quite a report, but it's all about the teacher being able to mine it. And then, you know, as far as other data points go. It's just a matter of how savvy teachers are themselves at mining into it. Like I'm thinking another really rich source of data is Think Central, because we do all sorts of assessments on Think Central. But if the teacher isn't savvy about how to get in there and do it, and really look at the results, you can see results by Common Core State Standards in Think Central, but it takes some clicks to get there and often that can be a roadblock.Larry Burden 8:20 I'm sorry to interrupt, what is Think Central?Andy Phillips 8:23 It's the online testing tool that's our big publishing company for elementary reading and math. It's where all the assessments are housed, and kids take the tests through Think Central. So unit tests, passage tests, those kinds of things.Larry Burden 8:42 So it's not all over the place. They're not having to search and...Andy Phillips 8:44 Right, but the more savvy you are. So Danelle can speak to this too because there are teachers out there that get just gobs of really good information, and so when it comes time for something like report cards. Teachers can pull these really great reports, by doing smart things from Think Central, but their, I would say more savvy at being able to use it. And it definitely has, just like everything else, a personality to it. And sometimes it doesn't always, you know, work like we want it to work and whatever. But if you're less savvy, you're just probably doing what the minimum requirements are, and then what happens is the data? Probably not much.Larry Burden 9:21 As a Tech Coach, what are you finding regarding Think Central and that usability, what questions are you being asked Danelle?Danelle Brostrom 9:28 I love that we're at the point where we're asking these questions, frankly. I love that education is at this point where we're saying, how am I going to use this data today to make changes to my instruction tomorrow. And if I'm not using the data let's get rid of it. And how do I question what I'm giving the kids to decide whether it's actually going to make a difference or not. Like, I love that we're at a point in education where we're doing that. Because the beginning of my career, we weren't. We were still just following what we were supposed to be doing. We weren't, we weren't giving it that extra piece of thought, and using the data in this way. So I love that we're here. I totally agree with Andy. I think it just depends on the teachers comfort level with using that data. We've, we've done a really good job at collecting it but I think that next piece, and this is the same everywhere, I think that next piece of actually how to use that data to change your instruction is where we're at. I think we're doing, we're making strides with that every day.Andy Phillips 10:18 One more thing to that I think is really important and relevant to this part of any kind of data conversation is that it shouldn't just be used, like for, for individual students, and individual student growth. And a lot of my work, probably my favorite part of my work, is when a teacher has a really good idea, and wants to try something in his or her classroom. You can use data to see if something is working or not. Instead of thinking how am I going to look at it today, to adjust for tomorrow. You can think of it, what do I want the data to show based on my hypothesis that this will be a needle mover for students. And so setting these goals then looking back, like holistically at, did this work. To either validate or to say you have to change what I thought wasn't going to work. That's another really powerful use of it, and that's another thing that wasn't really happening I don't think when we all started in this field. We would do something, and it basically sunsetted when the material got old or things ran its course. And we would maybe try something different and the only thing we had to prove anything might be MEAP scores or something like that. And even then, it was so, so in the past, whatever that data was that you can make..Larry Burden 11:33 The MEAP was always well behind and not useful.Andy Phillips 11:35 And the MSTEP continues to be. So we have all this data that's now in real time. But, I just wanted to put that in here that, that's another thing that teachers need to be empowered to use it for decision making for, for things that they, they think about. Just it's all over the place, when a teacher has an idea, and we can actually give it a shot and pilot something, the pilot comes along with, well what are the expectations, and if we don't meet those expectations we have to go back to either the way it was or rethink.Danelle Brostrom 12:02 I think it's exciting for teachers because I think things are more concrete. It's not just kind of like oh, it feels like it's, it's, it's okay it's working.Larry Burden 12:10 Driving down the road without headlights on.Danelle Brostrom 12:11 Yeah, it feels more concrete and it's exciting for students because it's definitely we're doing things that are making a difference.Larry Burden 12:17 What's the most striking or surprising piece of data that you've run into since you've been here?Andy Phillips 12:24 Larry that would have been a great way to give me a heads up on beforeDanelle Brostrom 12:25 Tough question, wow.Larry Burden 12:25 I thought about it.Andy Phillips 12:30 The most surprising thing to me was that, and continues to be that data is located in so many different places. And you really have to work to try to make sense of it for whatever different stakeholder group that you work with. Gosh, I'd say the most interesting thing and it probably was the same thing before I, before I came and will continue to be because it's like this, this big puzzle. It's really interesting to me that students who may be high achieving on one type of test, or are pretty high achieving like good AB students sometimes are not high achieving on some, like, like an M-STEP or like a PSAT. And so that's something that a lot of curriculum leaders at TCAPS are trying to really hone in on. Which is why I mentioned getting that data all compiled together so we can identify who those students are, and, and hopefully move the needle. But that continues to surprise me. So I just looked at a thing today, that I shared with someone that had a student who scored, like in the 80th percentile in the last iteration of NWEA math, but wasn't proficient on the last iteration of the M-STEP for that student, but was proficient on two years agos M-STEP. That's what's interesting to me. And, just to try to build more consistency in it for students, so that when it comes time to take that 11th grade SAT which is as high stakes as it gets. Because that's the thing that can get kids into college and financial assistance, and to make those more predictable. And, you know, if we can hone in on those types of students and really help them achieve proficiency that's going to be good for everybody.Larry Burden 14:06 How does the Blueprint help in that communication process, in that finding out what information, what data is useful? You know, that back and forth. It's funny, I hear a lot of your meetings, because you're right next door to my office and I hear some really good discussion about data, how has that...Andy Phillips 14:25 Do you hear the bad discussions?Larry Burden 14:25 I put the headphones on.Andy Phillips 14:25 Yeah, right.Larry Burden 14:29 How does that, that structure help that dialogue?Andy Phillips 14:32 Probably the most important thing we do with the Blueprint is something that is just really good practice whether your Blueprint District or not, but the Blueprint forces you to do it, is this thing called Performance Management. So every month the Instruction, Curriculum Instruction Team sits down basically with Principals, sometimes Assistant Principals, sometimes Teacher Leaders from each school, and we go over, basically the balcony view of data. And then Principals and those Teacher Leaders are prompted to have those same discussions with their building networks. Without something like the Blueprint, those things wouldn't be in place to do so regularly. And it just holds you to doing them regularly. And it forces you, and that's a, that's an okay word to use here, it forces you to pick some sort of data to discuss each month. And we have it all laid out. So like, the first month was M-STEP data, because it was September first time we've talked about it, since we came back from summertime. The next month was NWEA holistic proficiency data. This next month is going to be what we can mine out of Think Central. Getting local, talking about student grades with secondaries. But we're kind of forced to stick to the same timelines so that Principals know what to prepare for and so that you know we just don't going to be talking about when each month comes. That's a really powerful part of the Blueprint. It holds you to these things, and it makes you lay it out for the year so that you have something to follow.Larry Burden 15:54 Teaching students is really complex, and I know in the past, having been some of those meeting, meetings, involving curriculum, it can spiral very quickly into a ton of different topics, and it's really hard to manage a meeting and make sure that you have an outcome that's workable and actionable. It's been interesting to hear those, the meetings, involving the Blueprint, because it always seems like there's something actionable coming out of it that's data driven.Andy Phillips 16:20 Yep, when we're leading meetings, like we're having a social studies workbook committee that just, I'm organizing the agenda now and there's going to be data in that committee. We're going to put out there our struggling, 5th grade M-STEP Social Studies scores because that's the objective of that group. And that's, there's no reason not to make it the objective. There's no reason not to say that we're coming together, investing in teachers to make the work more robust for students because we think that'll move the needle with M-STEP scores. So yeah, even, even on stuff like that we're bringing data back into the conversation all the time.Larry Burden 16:53 To tie in what we talked about last week, we are collecting all this data, how are we keeping it safe? And we all look at Danelle?Andy Phillips 16:59 I learned about COPPA last night, at double speed, in my car so.Danelle Brostrom 17:07 Well I think currently all the places where we are keeping data we've negotiated the terms of those agreements with those companies so we're good with those. It's all of the random things that we just need to get ahold of.Larry Burden 17:19 The research has been done, and I think, I bring that up not to do a gotcha, I brought that up to, you know, if there are parents listening to this, to know that the main sources of data that we're using have been vetted.Danelle Brostrom 17:35 Yes,Larry Burden 17:35 You know, Danelle's read the,Danelle Brostrom 17:37 We got youLarry Burden 17:37 Terms, Danelle's read the policies. We're safe.Andy Phillips 17:40 Yeah, something that I found interesting coming to TCAPS is we did have a Danelle and we did have this big, fairly large Technology Department that does do all those things. And it took, it takes a minute to get used to all the people that you have to tell, or communicate with of things that you're doing going forward so that people like Danelle can make sure the privacy policy, policy is okay. And if it's not, you know, how can we work, either work through it, or make sure that we adjust whatever our agreement is so that it is ok. So those things do happen sometimes you have to be reminded Oh, you didn't tell so and so and you should have told them in the beginning. Getting better at that.Larry Burden 18:22 Well I think, I think we do have a bit of a Lone Ranger mentality sometimes in education. And, you know, we go off on our, our tangents. But the structures are there. The structure, structures are in place, not to put a lid on the creativity that's going on in the classroom, they're there to keep us safe in the classroom, and to support the teachers in doing what they could be doing. And making sure that, for instance the, the data that they're collecting from their students is safe and useful as you were saying earlier, you know if we're not using the data that's collected, we probably shouldn't be doing that assessment.Andy Phillips 18:57 Mark Twain said that.Larry Burden 19:01 With that, is there anything else Danelle?Danelle Brostrom 19:04 No.Larry Burden 19:04 All right. TechTool of the WeekAndy Phillips 19:08 Can ILarry Burden 19:08 I'm sorry, I'm sorryAndy Phillips 19:09 I prepared, I prepared, one more quote for this. This is a good Moment to Zen to.Moment of Zen 19:13 Data will talk to you if you willing to listen.Andy Phillips 19:16 By some guy named Jim Burgesson. And finally, I like this one too.Moment of Zen 19:22 If we have data let's look at data, if all we have our opinions. Let's go with mine.Andy Phillips 19:31 That's a good closing right?Danelle Brostrom 19:32 That should be one your business card.Larry Burden 19:33 Yes it should. TechTool of the Week. Beat that, follow that.Techtool of the Week 19:42 I can't. There is a new podcast out that I'm really enjoying it's called Copyrighteous, and it's by Diana Gill. And what she's doing is kind of awesome. They're called micro podcasts, and they are discussing responsible creativity for educators. So, leading on our privacy and COPPA discussion last week. Her first episode was just a short little five minute snippet where students want to know how to use music safely in a video project. Here's how to use music safely in this video project. I'm really interested to see where this podcast goes because I think anytime we can get those short snippets about digital citizenship and media literacy to our teachers, the better off we are. So keep an eye on this podcast they're doing some pretty cool stuff,Larry Burden 20:23 How long are they?Danelle Brostrom 20:24 five minutes, boom, here's your stuff here's what you need to know. So Copyrighteous.Larry Burden 20:28 Tutorials and updates, really, unbelievably, the TechNollerGist has no new tutorials this week which is the first time I think this year that he hasn't had at least two out. So, come on, come on, David, get busy.Andy Phillips 20:41 Maybe he should hold one back so he has one in the canDanelle Brostrom 20:42 Yeah David.Larry Burden 20:47 Last weekend three, to be honest, so I guess we'll give them a break this time. So really, I was just going to give another shout-out to the COPPA podcast last week I think it was really informative and it would benefit anybody to listen I do believe. So in closing, follow us on Facebook and Twitter @TCAPSLoopDanelle Brostrom 21:02 @BrostromdaAndy Phillips 21:04 @fishinspartyapLarry Burden 21:06 All right! Subscribe to the podcast on podbean, iTunes, Stitcher, Tune-in, Downcast, Overcast, the Google Play Store and Spotify or wherever else you get your ear candy. Leave a review, we love the feedback. Thanks for listening and inspiring.Andy Phillips 21:23 The next time if there's, if there's a focus for it, that would be lovely.Larry Burden 21:27 Sure.Transcribed by https://otter.aiMusic by Podington Bear

"The comic strip is no longer the comic strip. But in reality and illustrated novel. It is new and raw in form just now, but material for limitless intelligent development. And eventually, and inevitably, it will be a legitimate medium for the best writers and artists. It is already the embryo of a new art form." - Will Eisner Show Transcript:Stephie Luyt 0:01 I'm not fuming.Larry Burden 0:02 She's fuming.Stephie Luyt 0:02 I'm the opposite of fuming.Danelle Brostrom 0:04 Aww, that's more calming.Stephie Luyt 0:11 We just might ramble.Larry Burden 0:12 This is a safe space. If you haven't noticed through the years that this is a safe rambling space.Stephie Luyt 0:18 That's meaty.Larry Burden 0:24 It is Episode 92 of the EdTechLoop podcast. My name is Larry Burden and she has yet to reveal her secret identity. It's Danelle Brostrom. And also joining us, her spunky super sidekick Stephie Luyt. Up in the TCAPS tower we gaze over the troubled streets of TC pondering this week's moment of Zen.Moment of Zen 0:44 Grown ups are a strange breed. Their brains weigh close to three pounds. And that's not three pounds of cheery delight.Larry Burden 0:53 We've added sweet onions, garlic, tomatoes and potatoes but today's stew isn't completed until we add this week's meat of the show: Graphic Novels are Good, 'Nuff Said.Danelle Brostrom 1:04 Stephie, I'm so excited that you're here today.Larry Burden 1:06 She jumps in.Danelle Brostrom 1:07 I did jump inLarry Burden 1:08 That wasn't the quote.Danelle Brostrom 1:10 You told me to jump in.Larry Burden 1:11 That wasn't the quote. I had the quote.Danelle Brostrom 1:13 Oh, Larry.Danelle Brostrom 1:14 Edit!Larry Burden 1:15 We're gonna keep this goin'Stephie Luyt 1:16 Graphic novels are good. You like said it all.Larry Burden 1:21 I wanted to share this from Will Eisner.Stephie Luyt 1:23 Yes.Danelle Brostrom 1:24 OkLarry Burden 1:25 The comic strip is no longer the comic strip. But in reality and illustrated novel. It is new and raw in form just now, but material for limitless intelligent development. And eventually, and inevitably, it will be a legitimate medium for the best writers and artists. It is already the embryo of a new art form.Stephie Luyt 1:45 Excellent.Larry Burden 1:46 And go.Stephie Luyt 1:48 I'm glad we let you go past the rest.Danelle Brostrom 1:51 Stephie, you're always my "go to" about good books for kids. So you've got quite a few graphic novels there. Talk to me about graphic novels. Why are they all of a sudden, the thing to read for kids?Stephie Luyt 2:02 Okay, well, and can I just loop back a little bit to something Larry just said, because I think there's an interesting discussion to be had about comic strips versus graphic novels, you might find them in the same spot in the library. And they have so much in common because the story is told so visually and both but a comic strip is often told over many installations. Like if you think about a traditional comic strip it'd be in a newspaper.Larry Burden 2:29 It's serialized.Stephie Luyt 2:30 Yes. And a different way to think about a graphic novel is the whole story is usually told in a book or two. And sometimes there's a trilogy or whatnot of you know, it can be...Larry Burden 2:39 It's like a movie versus a TV show.Stephie Luyt 2:41 Excellent example. 'Nuff said. When we're thinking about, you know, graphic novels and comic strips and that art form, one of the reasons it's become so popular is because of the quality of what is being produced, and especially for kids, young readers, and middle grade and I was never aware of the extent of graphic novels that are available for adults too. I was surprised. I shouldn't be surprised. But that's not a medium that I was spending a lot of time reading. I was spending a lot of time and do spend a lot of time on children and Y.A.. But there's a whole world of adult graphic novels, not adult in theme but adult, geared toward adults. One really popular one that people may know and one that I am familiar with is now a Broadway play. It's called "Fun Home" by Alison Bechdel.Larry Burden 3:30 Saw it.Stephie Luyt 3:31 Oh, tell us about it.Larry Burden 3:32 It was fabulous. It was, saw it in Toronto. It was really literate, really interesting. I'm not going to break it down. But yeah, brought my, my children to it. It was really mature subject matter.Stephie Luyt 3:44 Yep.Larry Burden 3:45 I did not actually know that it was based off of a graphic novel, so.Stephie Luyt 3:48 Yeah, a graphic memoir that she described as a tragic comic,Larry Burden 3:52 difficult topics handled actually, pretty delicately.Stephie Luyt 3:55 And with a lot of humor. That's my, I mean, that's how the book is, I'm assuming.Larry Burden 4:00 Yeah, absolutely.Stephie Luyt 4:01 Content geared totally toward adults, all the way down to our littles. There are graphic novels that are just exploding and grabbing kids, because of the strength of the stories. The strength of the stories and the quality of the illustrations and the art. At the end of the day, anything in terms of books or narratives that we see in a TV show or anything like that, it all boils down to a story. And the stories that are being told are just really rich and really strong. And, you know, in terms of just looking at data from a hard data side, I mean, explosion in terms of $80 million in increased sales in graphic novels since 2017, according to one stat that I found. And it's where many of our most talented, I think authors and illustrators are working in that form right now. It's an exciting time, because there's so much there to hook kids. There's content and storylines in that format that would appeal to all readers. And readers of all ages and abilities.Danelle Brostrom 5:05 That was gonna be my next question. So if I have a low reader, or a high reader, I should look to graphic novels for them. It's not just one type of child.Stephie Luyt 5:13 Absolutely, Absolutely. And we've talked about this before with looking at books that would have, you know, themes for younger kids, but would have a high level of reading. Classics, and a lot of classics have been turned into graphic novels. And we were chatting yesterday about "A Wrinkle in Time," and how that is more accessible for some kids to start with the graphic novel before reading "A Wrinkle in Time." Or, I mean, "Anne of Green Gables," is a graphic novel. Lots and lots of books have been turned into that format, and are hooking readers, which is really what, that's the goal that we have. Like, get our kids reading, right book for the right reader.Larry Burden 5:17 All right, I want to know what you got?Stephie Luyt 5:55 So in front of us, there's kind of a stack of books as there tends to be. There were, just last week, a number of books, a number of graphic novels that were released, but they also were previewed this summer at a couple conferences. So I would say that one of the biggest that has just come out is "Guts," by Raina Telgemeier, who is well known for her other books, "Drama," "Smile," "Sisters," "Ghosts," and "Guts," is the story of the author's experience as a fourth grader and dealing with anxiety and stomach aches that came with her anxiety. And I've seen write ups about it as such an important work for kids who are struggling with those kinds of issues and being able to read about them in such an accessible, comfortable way. It's been written up a whole bunch recently, New York Times all sorts of places, and it's excellent. You've read it, I know you enjoyed it.Danelle Brostrom 6:49 Yeah, my whole family, we thought it was amazing. And even just that idea of some things, some things that I'm experiencing, are kind of like this main character, but they're a little bit different. So being able to talk about how you relate to that character is a really important skill for kids.Stephie Luyt 7:08 And I think that's something that if you've been exposed and reading in the genre, recently, the none of the books are shying away from issues that kids are dealing with. Like there, there's meaty, tough issues, and a lot of, a lot of books, not just graphic novels, but presented in a way that kids can identify with and you know, make meaning in their own life from the experiences of what they're seeing the characters go through. Plus, they're also fun and funny. I mean, the format is, lends itself to also a little bit of, you know, light humor too, and sometimes full on humor. I mean, they're just like "Fun Home," like it tackles tough issues, but that format helps make it comfortable.Larry Burden 7:48 A lot more accessible. Sometimes, especially with some of the tougher issues, It's good to have a, an accessible image, as opposed to the image that might be developed in your own head. It kind of gives you a safety net.Stephie Luyt 8:02 I think that's true.Larry Burden 8:02 So it's not quite as scary.Stephie Luyt 8:04 So highly recommend "Guts." Also "White Bird," by R.J. Palacio, whose name would be familiar if you're, have read the "Wonder," books. And this story is of Julian, so the character from "Wonder." It's Julian's grandmother's story. Julian is one of the characters who is one of the bullies in the book, in the main book. And this tells the backstory of his family. It's very powerful, because it's about the war and her experience in the war. The artwork is gorgeous. They were actually at ALA giving away prints of her art, and it was something that you would hang up, it's gorgeous. But telling that full spectrum of the "Wonder," story, which has been hugely popular, and anyone who's read "Wonder," would enjoy seeing this side of the story, in this perspective. And it's, there's heavy issues in it. But it's beautifully told.Larry Burden 9:01 We've talked about graphic novels before on the podcast, and forever graphic novels have gotten a bad rap. Why?Stephie Luyt 9:10 I mean, people say, you know, the, the argument is, it's not real reading, because it's in small chunks. And it's not written out in the same format. And it's, it looks different. And it has all those illustrations. And, it is real reading, and kids are digesting the story in the same way. And they are taking in the same content. And they are processing the artwork as part of the story, which is a whole 'nother set of skills. And it's telling the story in a, in another way. I believe anything that hooks kids and makes them want to read is real reading.Larry Burden 9:46 It's a narrative. You're, you're, you're teaching students, or kids to love, narrative and love storytelling.Stephie Luyt 9:53 And then this is just a creative way that's, that the story is being presented, you know, with art involved. And you know, I think before we had all of this amazing content in a graphic novel form, comic strips would have been what had gotten a bad rap. It's the same argument, though, like you're still, a story is being told, like you said in small episodes or increments, but the narrative and the arc of the story, and this, you know, the the plat, and the twists, and all those, all of those elements of a good story exist in that format. It's told in a different way,Larry Burden 10:26 The form doesn't really matter, the reason why books were printed the way books were printed, time in memoriam, is cost. The more words you can fit on a page, the cheaper the book is. It's publishable. We now have the opportunity to make picture books cheaply. So that's the reason why we're making picture books. It's still words, it's still narrative, it's still story. Why should we be stuck with an old world form, when we don't have to? Well, the question that I have is, why are authors choosing this format? Because it's available to them now. It's potentially a better way to tell a story. It just wasn't available to them. I remember as a, as a student, when I was young, and I was a struggling reader. There were just too many words on a page, I couldn't manage that amount of content. You know, and they're finding now that large print books are actually really helping kids because they can manage the content. Again, my escape was the graphic novel or the comic book, because there was really just less word, less words on the page. And I was able to get, get over a lot of those hurdles, in my reading, to the point where then I could go and read much richer texts. And I had fallen in love with the narrative, which is the important part for our kids. They'll read. They have to have those progressions, to the point where they can. They're not going to start with Tolstoy and Dostoevsky. They're just not.Stephie Luyt 12:01 Nor is anyone.Larry Burden 12:02 And it's not a competition,Stephie Luyt 12:04 Right?Larry Burden 12:04 So whatever gets them hooked, is the important thing. And I think we've talked about that,Stephie Luyt 12:09 Right? And the visual are very engaging, and pull kids into the narrative, before they even get into the story. So I think it's it's a win, win. Was it the art? Or was it the story that grabbed you as a reader when you were young?Larry Burden 12:24 Both.Stephie Luyt 12:24 Both.Larry Burden 12:25 Both. But I would say, you know, just like looking at an album cover, as you're going to the record store back in the day. You'd be like, oh, that's a cool album cover. I think I'm going to get it. And then you know, you listen to it, you might like it, you might not. The art was, was the entry point. The story is what kept you coming back?Stephie Luyt 12:42 Absolutely.Danelle Brostrom 12:43 Well, the goal should be to get kids to fall in love with reading. And part of getting kids to fall in love with reading is that they need to be able to see themselves in the story. And if you have a child who had issues, like we talked about "Guts," like with anxiety, typically you would have to look for a middle school or high school book. And that's not always going to have content in it that's appropriate for an elementary school kids. So I love how these graphic novels do tackle tough issues, and kids can actually see themselves in them, but it's done in a safe accessible way for kids.Stephie Luyt 13:17 Absolutely. And issues that are really mainstream that kids are, lots of kids are dealing with, anxiety and other issues like that, but kids are also dealing with friend concerns. And there's lots of books that are just focused on real experiences of what kids are having. And the range of so many experiences, so many different situations. And I feel like books are really expanding into all of those. You know, starting to pull stories from lots and lots of different perspectives. I mean, we've talked a lot about you know, windows and mirrors, and, and books of all forms, graphic included are getting more and more experiences, more and more perspectives, more, just more looks at all the different ways people are experiencing the world. And I think that is a win for all readers, and especially our kiddos.Larry Burden 14:04 Sure, what else we have?Stephie Luyt 14:06 There's a trilogy that's been very popular, and the most recent one is called, "Sonny Rolls the Dice," getting adjusted to middle school. Kind of those same issues, friend issues. This one makes me giggle because it's about Dungeons and Dragons. So it's back in like the heyday of Dungeons and Dragons, which apparently is having a huge comeback.Danelle Brostrom 14:24 What!Danelle Brostrom 14:26 And then, "The Babysitters Club," books that are really popular that Raina Telgemaier has, she has done a number of graphic novels that are the "Babysitters Club." Based on the novels that were by Ann Martin. But this is for younger readers, because it's the "Babysitters Little Sister," is the title that we're looking at. So it's for younger kids than Upper El, even. So that is what, as you look through graphic novels, you really do see that there are books geared toward all ages. And you know, the "Lunch Lady," series and "Zita, the Space Girl," and the "Bone," books. Those are young Elementary, and then moving all the way through. So much for Upper El and Middle, and then High School. And as we talked about, lots and lots of titles for adults as well. I mean, there's a really powerful trilogy of books called, "March." And it's based on the experience of John Lewis. And, I think it was up for a National Book Award. Maybe the first one in the series. But that's telling, from his perspective of being involved in the civil rights movement, and telling all that important history through this powerful graphic novel format. And again, it just highlights that the graphic novel format is touching on all sorts of story. That it's touching on fiction, and nonfiction and memoir. And it's so hard to hear that it's not real reading because of all of what it encompasses in that, in that format. So what we have to do, I think, is just spend, lock ourselves in for the rest of the day and just read graphic novels. Is that okay?Larry Burden 15:52 Oh, I'm in.Danelle Brostrom 15:52 Okay.Larry Burden 15:52 I'm 100% in, yeah,Stephie Luyt 15:55 And graphic novels are satisfying, because you can get through them a little more quickly. So you'll feel accomplished on your reading list.Larry Burden 16:01 There was some passion, in what you're saying.Stephie Luyt 16:04 They're so great. I just love that the options are out there for kids. And they're so, and not just graphic novels, but there's so much out there, especially right now for, for young readers. The quality of what's coming out. And it's awesome.Larry Burden 16:18 And I just thought about this because I'm reading a book, and as I'm going through, and like, "is this is a young adult book?" Like that was a bad thing. You know, I just in my head, How can we get that out of my head? Because I don't think I'm alone. In that, I'm an adult, I shouldn't be reading, whatever. I, really, and there's so much good content in the young adult section.Stephie Luyt 16:40 There's so much good content everywhere.Larry Burden 16:42 Well, Yeah.Stephie Luyt 16:43 My book group, which is almost all English teachers at one of the high schools, we just read a picture book for our book club. And it's the story of Margaret Wise Brown. So the, you know, "Goodnight Moon," and it's, it's this amazing picture book about her, and that was our book club book. So I don't know what to tell you accept that embrace it. If you love the book, read it and take the story and, who cares if it's a YA, who cares if it's a children's book? That's my not super helpful comment.Danelle Brostrom 17:15 Didn't "Harry Potter," kind of break that thought for a lot of people?Larry Burden 17:19 I think soDanelle Brostrom 17:20 I mean, aren't there are a lot of adults who gravitated to Harry Potter for the first time and went like, Whoa, there's actually good things in YA, I shouldn't dismiss that entire...Stephie Luyt 17:29 Middle grade. Yeah,Larry Burden 17:30 It's so, it's so simple in the sense that those books were thick.Stephie Luyt 17:34 Right?Larry Burden 17:35 So they must be literature,Stephie Luyt 17:36 right?Danelle Brostrom 17:37 It's true.Larry Burden 17:38 If a graphic novel was a little thicker, suddenly, that's literature.Stephie Luyt 17:43 So like, "Wonderstruck," or "Hugo Cabret."Larry Burden 17:46 Yeah, I was thinking, yes.Stephie Luyt 17:47 Those are almost all illustrations. And but, yes, a super thick book that would allay your, your feelings of...Larry Burden 17:54 Make it, make it hard cover andStephie Luyt 17:56 if it's heavy, but it doesn't have to be boring and old to make it real literature.Danelle Brostrom 18:01 Mic drop.Larry Burden 18:02 Techtool of the WeekDanelle Brostrom 18:06 Techtool of the Week, we...Larry Burden 18:08 That was so cute...Stephie Luyt 18:09 We sort of have one. I think our TechTool of the Week was to...Techtool of the Week 18:13 Just follow Colby Sharp. I can't always take a ton of Stephie's time to get good book recommendations. So...Stephie Luyt 18:20 Yes you can.Danelle Brostrom 18:20 be, being able to follow someone like Colby Sharp, who is in the classroom with kids. And reads how many books?Danelle Brostrom 18:27 A thousand books a year. Following someone like him. Because he's always sharing the stuff that's coming out, that's new, and that's really, really goodStephie Luyt 18:36 Yeah, the book you talked about it Wired just came out. It's called, "Maybe He Just Likes You." And it was the book, I think if I'm remembering how he phrased this, if you're going to read one book this year, that should be it, so.Larry Burden 18:47 Great follow on Twitter, for sure. Um, I just want to throw it out tutorials and updates. I have to be honest, we have so many pods out there right now. So many podcasts and stuff that's been thrown up on YouTube. I'm not going to hit them all. So I'm just going to say, go to Danelle's YouTube page, go to the TechNollerGist's YouTube page, which just there's so much content there. The TCAPSLoop YouTube Channel has something on it. We did actually put the Evan O'branevic podcast on there, or at least a snippet of it. So, it's alive. "It's Alive! Alive! Closing, follow us on Facebook and Twitter @TCAPSLoopDanelle Brostrom 19:26 @brostromdaStephie Luyt 19:27 @StephieLuytLarry Burden 19:28 Subscribe to the podcast on podbean, iTunes, Stitcher, Tune-in, downcast, overcast, the Google Play Store or wherever else you get your ear candy. Please leave review. We love the feedback. Thanks for listening and inspiring.Stephie Luyt 19:43 Okay, well, Are we still being recorded?

Liz Kolb, the originator of the Triple E Framework, visited us over the summer delivering this year's WiredTC keynote. The TechNollerGist gives his own practical take on the "Framework" and how best to apply it to your technology use in the classroom.  Show Transcript:Larry Burden 0:00 What is this app with the little things poking out of it?Larry Burden 0:05 Like, uh-oh, uh-oh something has gone amiss.Larry Burden 0:15 All right, here we go. It's Episode 12 of the TechNollerGist podcast. The number is still correct. I know you debate. I'm Larry Burden, and he's been actively developing a framework to avoid frameworks. It's the TechNollerGist, David Noller.David Noller 0:28 That's not inaccurate right there.Larry Burden 0:30 You are the agent of chaos.David Noller 0:33 I am an agent of chaos. That's great.Larry Burden 0:34 Today's topic, should he, should he choose to accept it? practical Ed Tech, with the Triple E Framework?David Noller 0:40 Yeah.Larry Burden 0:41 So Liz Kolb, the originator of the Triple E Framework visited us over the summer. Did a little WiredTC keynote, which I thought was fabulous. We kind of discussed it a little bit in an earlier EdTech Loop podcast regarding the fact that she just got right into it, and went into the research it was your professional, I'm a professional, let's talk about professional stuff.David Noller 1:04 Right, right.Larry Burden 1:05 Um, but for those of us that did not attend the keynote, what is the Triple E Framework?David Noller 1:12 So, I like to slow roll it in terms of just providing, like just the, the bare bones of the framework, right? Because I think in many ways, the framework reflects what has been good teaching all along. But highlights in a way that's, that's certainly useful for our teachers to know, and is great as a way to reflect on our practice. So the three big things of the framework are that we use, whatever resources we're using, whether it's a technology piece, a website, a tool, whatever it happens to be to engage, enhance, and extend learning. Those terms are pretty self explanatory. In terms of extending, we want to build a bridge to real world experience with the kids with the things we're doing with them. And if we can use a technology tool to do that, then we've met our duty to extend. We want to enhance the kids experience by helping them build to a more sophisticated understanding. And we do that through scaffolding. And that's where I keep coming back and saying, and that's always been good teaching. We've always tried to scaffold from simple to complex. But with some of the available tools we have, we can go higher than we could without those tools. When we're talking about paper and pencil, you can only go so far. If you can run a simulation, online, using these tools, we're taking this scaffold and we're building and higher.Larry Burden 2:43 I hadn't thought about this before. But not only are you creating, and I think we lose this sometimes when we talk about using technology, you're creating scaffolding that goes higher, you're also creating scaffolding underneath. Because there's foundational skills that you need to have developed in yourself and in the students to get to the stuff up high.David Noller 3:09 Sure. Sometimes we throw kids into the practice of the high stuff. And they learn those foundational things as they go. So the next time they encounter that tool, it's easier for them to use. There's no way around, you're going to have to use, you know, this library media research tool, the first time once. Once you've used it the first time once, then it's no longer the first time and you build those foundation, as you go through that process. When we do our senior research project in the spring. By the time they're seniors, they've used that library tool so many times that it's, I have to spend less time building the basement, and we can spend more time being intentional about our information gathering.Larry Burden 3:50 Do you find that there are students, or how much time do you spend making sure the foundation is set before you go on into the lesson?David Noller 4:00 I'm able to do it in a way that, I walk with them for the first few steps. I don't, I don't demo and then have them get in. We all get in together. We've already at that point thought about something that we're interested in finding more about. So we've already kind of set something that we're going to look for. So when we get into the tool, all we got to do now is figure out how to look for it. So while I'm putting in my search term they're putting in there's. I'm demonstrating it through the projector that's at the front of my room, but they're doing it for themselves. So when I asked them within this research tool to, to view the wheel of topics, and to be able to show how they can drill down to sub-topics and how they can use that to then get to specific resources. They're doing it with me. And not only are they learning the process, as they do it with me, they're being exposed to resources that they may very well use when it comes time to actually dig into the sources. They have the opportunity to both use the tool and discover meaningful content through the building of the foundation.Larry Burden 5:02 According to the Triple E Framework, this would be a usable tech tool.David Noller 5:06 Yeah.Larry Burden 5:07 When do you use it? When, when are you being mindful of, does this fit into, does this tool that I'm using fit into the Triple E Framework.David Noller 5:16 So, in terms of something new, that I'm, I'm trying for the first time, I'm going to be thinking about whether or not, is this something that engages students in a way that I can control time on task to make sure that they're engaged in the process the whole time. I've talked before about how one of the drawbacks of technology that happens is when a teacher says okay, I need you to do this. And then there's like half an hour. Too much time to get distracted, right? I'm gonna give you 30 minutes to do X, well, they're going to do X maybe, but they're also going to do Y, Z, Alpha, Beta, you know, etc. So I bear those kinds of lessons in mind about being intentional with time on task. And that's part of engagement.Larry Burden 5:58 That would be one of the E's.David Noller 6:00 About making sure that what I'm doing is part of a scaffolded process. And then the third thing, and this is the thing I've been thinking about most, is the extension part, I'm teaching creative writing. The first thing we did in the first week, well, the first thing, one of the things we did in our first week was establish a online portfolio that's they're going to be able to share with an authentic audience. Whether it's their parents or the whole world, orLarry Burden 6:23 You were talking about the last year.David Noller 6:24 I'm still working about that, right. But that's extending learning. Where the only way they're going to have that authentic audience is by using the technology tool that's available through this website creator. We're using Google Sites. And that's what we mean when we're talking about examining the, the technology tools that we use according to this framework. If the assignment extends, regardless of the technology tool, that's not what the frameworks really for. The framework is for looking, is this technology tool, useful as something that will extend the students learning? Then with extension, you know, we're talking about bridging to real world, we're talking about building critical skills that are real world skills. And when you have to put your work out there in front of an authentic audience who has the ability to comment and you have to manage that sort of feedback, personally, those are those soft skills about taking criticism and taking comment and being willing to share your work with others, because I mean, when we're in the world of work, or when the world of academia, someone's always looking over our shoulder. And so this is giving them a sort of...Larry Burden 7:31 Sharing doesn't mean scaring.David Noller 7:33 No, it doesn't always mean caring, either. But it does, it does mean that you have to have a kind of fortitude to, to manage whatever response you get.Larry Burden 7:45 That's how you use it. When a teacher is considering it, when should they be looking at, in their lesson planning?David Noller 7:54 Yeah,Larry Burden 7:54 You know, what, at what point in time should they be like, is this, or is this not something that I should be incorporating into?David Noller 8:01 I'd say it's step one. If you have a thought, hey, I'd like to use this website, this online tool, this simulation, whatever it happens to be, before you get into all the planning, and all the creation of assets that you're going to need to teach it, go through the framework? Does it, is it going to engage my students in a way that is going to keep their attention and time on task consistently? If "Yes," keep going? Is it going to enhance the students learning? Are they going to learn something more by, by doing it? One of the things that, that we've seen as a kind of negative example of that, are these academic games, these learning games, where after the kid does five or ten repetitions of learning, then they get to play a game as a reward. Sounds great. Except what we find is that those learners who are not the "Go-Get-Em," type will often just click through the answers, so they can play the game. So the game becomes an actual distraction from learning instead of being a motivation to learn. Because most of those, you don't have to get it right to get to the game, you just have to answer it.Larry Burden 9:12 Only, even if you do, even if you do have to get it right, you basically just created a multiple choice, you know, press and guess type of situation,David Noller 9:21 Right.Larry Burden 9:22 That's not really extending. Though the game is exciting, and interesting. The actual learning hasn't changed at all.David Noller 9:30 And if it's going to be a game, the the learning should come from the content of the game. Rather than, I answered five questions, now I get to play Space Invaders.Larry Burden 9:38 Yeah, we're big fans of gamifying here.David Noller 9:40 Oh, yeah,Larry Burden 9:41 We are big fans, huge fans.David Noller 9:43 I'm not a fan of traditional learning rewarded with games.Larry Burden 9:47 They don't have context.David Noller 9:48 I am a big fan of learning through games. And then the, the extension part. Is it giving you something to do that is taking the students beyond what they do in a traditional day? Is it taking them outside of the building? Is it taking them to real world, even soft skills of managing impulsivity or working with a team? Those kinds of things. So for me, it's from the beginning. If I'm gonna engage in this technology tool, It has to be intentional. And how do you make it intentional, you can follow this framework.Larry Burden 10:18 You're saying that, maybe not flipping through Twitter and going, ooh, Flippity! Though we like Flippity. Flippity is really cool. I don't really know it. I'm just going to throw it in there and...David Noller 10:29 Yeah,Larry Burden 10:30 see how it works?David Noller 10:31 Yeah, that's, that's been a challenge for us lately, is that there are so many great shiny baubles out there to play with on the internet, and sometimes we want to say, I gotta put this in front of my kids, they'll love it. But, you know, we've got the committee to review those things so we can make sure that we're protecting the kids privacy and their data and all that thing. So, part of being intentional about the, the Triple E Framework, we have to have as a corollary, also being intentional about data and privacy.Larry Burden 10:57 Absolutely. Well, and also you might...David Noller 11:00 Shout out Danelle.Larry Burden 11:01 Thank you for going through all those, all that fine print in terms of agreements, it's, it's wow. Is there anything else on the Triple E?David Noller 11:08 We can dig into all kinds of things. We can give examples. I will give you this as an example. And this will be my like, application outside of what I usually do. Kate Hansen teaches Spanish. And If you are I grew up in the decades before, a long time ago. I learned Spanish from worksheets and from repeat after me, and that's how we did it way back then, memorizing vocabulary. Ms. Hansen has been able to do engagement, enhancement, and extension, through things as simple as creating a running journal that the kids keep, where every time they write, they have to write 10% more than they did last time. So, it's a Google Doc, they do a word count to see what they did last time, and then with the new vocabulary and the new ways of speaking that they've been learning through comprehensive input method, they try to write a little more. And so, because they have that resource always available to them, they're always able to see what they've done. There's never a question of what did I do last time. In terms of like reflective learning, they're able to reflect every time they, they produce, they can reflect on what they did last time. She also has a as an extension piece. We have an exchange with a school in Leon, where the kids are pen pals, and even video pals with those students. And they send videos back and forth, they send notes back and forth, they talk about themselves. That's the kind of thing that it's not necessarily high tech. It's just a pen pal. But we're doing it through the internet, we're using the video capabilities across the internet. But it connects the students in a real meaningful, authentic way with a whole new audience. Native speakers of the language they're learning, and connects them in a way that, that builds those kind of soft skills of relationships and things too. SoLarry Burden 12:59 Enhancement, engagement,David Noller 13:01 ExtensionLarry Burden 13:02 Extension, bam, bam, bam,David Noller 13:03 She has accidentally become an expert in the Triple E Framework. But that's kind of what I mean about good teaching. She's taken the tools that were available, and before we even started talking about Triple E, would be somebody that we could hold up as an example of someone who fully engages in the principles of the Triple E framework, because she's a good teacher.Larry Burden 13:27 A good teacher will trip and fall into the Triple E Framework.David Noller 13:31 Yeah, I think so. With a little help from your friends, Maybe a shove. A gentle push.Larry Burden 13:38 If nothing else, Danelle to read those terms and policies.David Noller 13:39 That's right.Larry Burden 13:41 Before you use the tool.David Noller 13:42 The Triple E Framework, it's like if you're trying to decide what to use, If you've got a pancake use a spatula.Larry Burden 13:51 Thank you Uncle Buck.David Noller 13:51 You know, right. Don't use the snow shovel unless you're making a four foot wide pancake. If the tools right for the job, it's right for the job, Look at the Triple E Framework. Make sure it's doing the things we need it to do. But don't jump into using a technology tool just because it's technology. It has to fit that framework in order to make meaning with the student learning.Larry Burden 14:13 Love it. Absolutely love it. I don't know, it's early in the year. I don't know if you've got it yet. It's our favorite segment, "This Pods Getting Gamey."Larry Burden 14:19 Are you gamifying anything this year?David Noller 14:24 I did a thing.Larry Burden 14:27 You've done a lot of things, Most of them aren't appropriate for the podcast.David Noller 14:31 Wow! All right.Larry Burden 14:33 Tread lightly sir, tread lightly.David Noller 14:35 So, Sociology, you know, I did the monopoly thing I've done in the past. It's been successful to a degree here and there. It's been great. It's been okay. I wanted to do something simpler. And so I created a simple simulation where based on student choice, they had a list of half a dozen characteristics they could acquire. If they acquired two from that list they couldn't get any the other ones. I could see this being used, by the way, like a science class where you're designing a new species. What kind of, out of this six, what do you get? You get two. Okay, well, now you can't pick those. Once they pick those two characteristics for their society, whether it was advanced horse riding, or development of agriculture, or development of a market, that opened up another group of things that they could choose from in the next round. And they had to talk about, within the context of Structural Functionalism, this theory we're dealing with, what would help to create stability, and solidarity in their, in their society. Which roles had to be filled. In which direction were they going to go? One group went full warfare. They went, we want to develop weapons, we want to learn offensive strategy. They didn't take any food development. They didn't take any government. They didn't take any trading along the way. They could have specialized in inter-village trade, they didn't. All they did was war. The time it took to write this out was about 15 minutes, maybe. As I figured out the branches of these different skills and what they could open up, right. 15, 10, 15 minutes, super quick. And then the time came, and I turned to the group, the military group, I said, Who do you want to attack? Well, who's got the most money? They do. And how do I know that? Because I decided. They had a market, they had built a barn and a silo for storage. They developed their agriculture, they had a fence, okay, they are. We attack them. Well, they didn't know, the attacking group didn't know, that thee, that this rich group also invested in defensive warfare. And so there were losses on each side, but they were not conquered. And then immediately, one of my students says, "How about the rest of us form an alliance against them." And all of those principles that we'd been talking about in Structural Functionalism, about the roles that we take on in society, in order to create stability and protection. In order to have solidarity, so we have community within. All that stuff played out in the classroom, to the point where one group was literally shunned. And they were personally offended. Not just in the context of the game, but they're mad at their classmates for leaving them out, right? But, that was kind of the goal of the whole thing. So...Larry Burden 17:28 If you're not gonna play nice,David Noller 17:29 If you're not gonna play nice, you know, they're gonna kick sand or whatever, I don't know, what is it, they take their ball and go home. So, it was super simple, took me about 10 minutes to plan, maybe 15 max, and super effective. And it was paper and pencil, had nothing to do with technology, except for the fact that I typed out the rules on a Google Doc. But it was, it was a great way to engage kids in decision making, that demonstrated this theoretical framework, where at the end, they could all kind of give a A-Ha, I get it now.Larry Burden 18:03 More frameworks from you. This is getting weird.Larry Burden 18:06 But it's chaos, because you know, I had the rules, but I had to storytell the whole thing as we went. So...Larry Burden 18:11 Okay, well let it pass.David Noller 18:12 There's till some chaos.Larry Burden 18:14 Tutorials and updates. I just wanted to point out that we had a, Meet the Tech Director pod, on Tuesday. Dropped yesterday I do believe. It's a very good pod. He had things to say.David Noller 18:23 I will listen to those things.Larry Burden 18:25 They were good. They were good things. We actually are going to, actually be putting a piece of that, a snippet of that on YouTube. The TCAPSLoop YouTube channel is active.David Noller 18:34 All right.Larry Burden 18:34 Now speaking of active YouTube channels,David Noller 18:36 Yes,Larry Burden 18:37 The TechNollerGist has always got something going on, on YouTube. Have you dropped anything new?David Noller 18:41 There have been a couple recently. We're working on a project of, sort of like, TCAPS Tech 101, getting started kind of skills and things. So I've just put up a couple about, like real mundane stuff, like how to change your printer, how to access the TCAPS App Store for programs that are already installed on your device that you might need. Danielle just is working on one I think I linked it on on my page, because apparently I still things, but, on sort of the philosophy of technology integration in TCAPS. And then I also posted one about, where to find help in TCAPS when you have technology questions. There's our help desk extension 3-3325, there is on Google Drive, there's our team drive that has the tech toolbox. And then of course there's your educational technology coaches, Daniel Brostrom, and myself the TechNollerGist.Larry Burden 19:38 All right. In closing Follow us on Facebook and Twitter @tcapsloopDavid Noller 19:42 @TechNollerGist. What happened?Larry Burden 19:45 I don't know that you didn'tDavid Noller 19:46 I wasn't listening to what you said. I assumed I was supposed to say something.Larry Burden 19:49 You did exactly what you're supposed to do but you looked really confused doing it.David Noller 19:52 I went somewhere in my head. And I don't know quite where I went.Larry Burden 19:56 I don't know if I want to know where you went.David Noller 19:58 I was thinking of a joke. How many surrealists does it take to change a light bulb?Larry Burden 20:04 How many?David Noller 20:05 banana.Larry Burden 20:07 I was gonna say rhinoceros.David Noller 20:09 Close.Larry Burden 20:10 Subscribe to the podcast on iTunes, Stitcher, the Google Play Store and anywhere else you get your ear candy. Remember, you're never too old to play.David Noller 20:18 Play a game today, it's good for you.

It's episode 91 of the EdTechLoop podcast and we are joined by the new boss, not quite the same as the old boss, Evan O'Branovic. Danelle and I grilled the poor guy on almost every current issue involving educational technology during this marathon pod. Evan shares some great insights and a "yes we can," mindset to the pod and District. This is a packed show, enjoy! EdTechLoop on Youtube!Transcript: Larry Burden  0:00  good parenting skills. This guy, Danelle Brostrom  0:03  Come join us, in this small, sweaty office we call a studio Evan O'Branovic  0:14  so great  Larry Burden  0:15  It's back here really, It's safe. Larry Burden  0:18  I have no idea what I'm talking about now. Larry Burden  0:23  It's Episode 91 of the EdTech Loop podcast. My name is Larry Burden and she's worryingly started every morning for the last month standing atop her desk declaring Oh Captain, my captain. It's Danielle Brostrom. She doesn't get the reference again. And we are joined by the new boss, not quite the same as the old boss. It's Evan O'Bran...O'Branovic Evan O'Branovic  0:46  Obranovic Larry Burden  0:46  Obranovic, I got it right. Yeah.  Evan O'Branovic  0:48  Nailed it.  Moment of Zen  0:49  Thank you, Karen. He's here to deepen our understanding around what's new and educational technology. Though not nearly as deep as this week's Moment of Zen. The pessimist complains about the wind, the optimist expects it to change, the leader adjust the sails. Larry Burden  1:08  Though it may have been left unrefrigerated too long, and was surely about to turn, we finally have someone to cook this week's meat of the show. Meet the director. Larry Burden  1:19  Welcome to the district. Evan O'Branovic  1:20  Thank you.  Larry Burden  1:21  Before we get started, I'd like to take a moment and on behalf of the district make a blanket apology for Thomas, just in general, just in general. Besides that, what do you think so far.  Evan O'Branovic  1:33  I have been extremely impressed so far, coming in from a much smaller district. So, just the pure size and scope and sequence of everything that happens here is quite incredible.  Larry Burden  1:46  Overwhelming or more like well I can't wait to get my hands on all these...  Evan O'Branovic  1:50  Oh, both, yeah. Larry Burden  1:51  Cool toys. Evan O'Branovic  1:52  We've had plenty of overwhelming moments coming home, looking at my wife like, we're not in Aspen anymore. And then, but it's an extremely exciting opportunity as well so I think that's been kind of what saves those overwhelming moments is feeling like wow there's a lot that I can dig my hands into and the staff around me is incredible so it's been very exciting in that aspect.  Larry Burden  2:14  What brought you to Traverse City. Evan O'Branovic  2:15  Well, I grew up downstate. So I'm from Michigan, the mitten, you know, originally and went to Michigan State, go green,  Larry Burden  2:25  Go blue,  Evan O'Branovic  2:25  yeah, I know I found that division up here, which is always good. And then I graduated with my degree in elementary education, decided that Michigan was not the place for me and took off out west. Never been to Colorado before but decided that was my time and ended up landing kind of your dream gig in Aspen, Colorado teaching fourth grade. So I did that for six years, convinced my now wife, then girlfriend to come out with me. She's a teacher as well. And then I got my Masters in educational technology, was pursued by my old Tech Director to become a Tech Integrator, found that extremely exciting, rewarding kind of where I wanted to be. And then was always kind of on the lookout for grandiose opportunities to come back to the home state. And so, when I saw this come up, it was something that I had to at least throw my hat in the ring for. And surprisingly, they picked me, which was very exciting and, and then just kind of made the call home and told our parents that were making the move. And like I said before, kind of, for me, being such a big place in terms of just like the scope of how many schools, and the amount of students, and what all happens here. When I got a chance to speak with, you know, staff and see the team that's in place, my final interview was actually flying out here, and kind of checking everything out, it really made that, that size not seem like such an obstacle that I couldn't overcome and so it was really comforting and kind of made that decision for me to take you know a step out of my comfort zone and do something a little bit bigger than myself and so yeah. So far I'm very happy with this decision, but we're only a month and a half in. Danelle Brostrom  4:11  So what are the trends you see in technology? You know you've been in tech for a while, and, and Ed tech specifically for a while. What kinds of things do you see happening?  Evan O'Branovic  4:20  You know that's, that's been pretty interesting. From my perspective, I think what you'll find too is, is always that everyone has their two cents and what's tech shifting every so often and in multitude of directions, it's hard to really pinpoint it. And that's one of the exciting yet frustrating things about working with it to me. What I've noticed is mobile centric, meaning, just everything's got to be mobile to use. Can we use our phones, can we use tablets smaller devices. You know what, what in that mobile format can be applied to what we're trying to do because no one wants to waste time with, with computers anymore. In the sense of our big laptops, you know, which is pretty funny thinking how these things are, it's just, it's too heavy, I don't want to carry it with me. But I can have my phone. Can I do it on my phone? And I think our students, you know are the prime example of that. Teachers, were still in the transition but. So yeah, anything mobile, but then as we look at new devices, and you know the laptops, we're going to bring to the staff hopefully this year. It's what devices are touchscreen, which ones are small, and portable and easy to carry. Which ones can flip over into tablet mode. So those to me are just kind of, that's become the trend. What, what can get from point A to point B very easily. What can I pull out and work out on the fly. And so anything that drives to that point, I think is always, you know, kind of, you know, an excitement for people. They look at it, even if it may not be that great of a device, but if it's smaller, it's more mobile, it always will get a second look.  Evan O'Branovic  5:48  And then connectivity is big. Wi-Fi is water, at this point in our lives as we know. When the Wi-Fi went out last week, so.  Danelle Brostrom  5:57  Old fashion day is cool. Evan O'Branovic  5:58  Old fashion day is cool and everyone gets, you know, real worked up about it because it is like you turned off their water supply. And, and I had several people, when I was doing a school tour that morning when it happened go. Should we just have Wi-Fi days, should we should we not have school if the internet's not there. And I'm like, that has become the first thought right. Can we even do what we need to do if the Wi Fi is not accessible which I think most of us who are a little bit older and came into it as a transition period where like, like you said, it's old fashioned day. So yeah, to me, the connectivity is huge and that goes for a lot of different things too. So, you know, whether it's to the internet, or just, you know, in the classroom setting to me it's always finding interesting how people perceive how they're connecting, meaning to like a display to showcase their class, or to their other students. You know, are those devices easily connectable? Can I bring up a student's screen and show what they're doing? Can I put my screen very easily up on the projector, TV, SMART Board whatever it's going to be? But whatever it is, does it work really quickly and can I do it without really having to have any sort of learning curve? So any devices and tools we can find that do that more simply, I think are home runs.  Evan O'Branovic  7:10  And then simple as best. I think as things have become more complicated, the less clicks someone has to do, the less work. If I don't have to read a manual and it'll auto set up for me, if it'll connect to that display for me, if the Wi Fi runs by itself, I love it. If it doesn't, and it takes a little digging, you know, with this world everything needs to be faster, quicker, more on point then it just becomes an instant point of frustration for someone who may not be as apt to look into that, and so, you know, what's simplest. But that goes for the tools that the teachers and students are using to. How many clicks does a kid need to use to get into that, you know, curriculum device or whatever the teachers using. And what kind of information do they have to share? I think that's become a big thing to. Do I have to give an email, a password and home address? Forget it, I don't know that kind of time. But if I just need an email and a password great, let's knock it out of the park. Or what kind of information do I need to give, which is a good thing people are becoming more aware of, you know what they're sharing and who has access to that. But that becomes a huge roadblock. And then I think there's a huge piece, from parents, students, Old Guard Teachers, Administrators, of less is more. Too much screen time, too much time on the device, are they really being used purposefully, which I agree with to some point. And so it's really a thoughtful consideration, I think going back to that purpose for use. How are we using it, and just because we have computers and we slap our kids in front of them is that mean they're really learning? Are they doing anything innovative? That's definitely not always the case, and I think you're just seeing that from everybody. Now it comes in different forms. So you'll have, you know, parents are very apt on one side of just, usually it's screen time. How much screen time is my kid getting, and hopefully getting them to ask the right questions of, screen time can be a question but it's, is it purposeful time? If it is, then it's probably worth them sitting down for a little while and using that device. But if they're just kind of doing facts or simple things that can be done in old fashioned day, then, yeah, I think less is more. We don't need to use technology for technology's sake. So that to me has been just kind of a big pickup and something from my role back in Colorado to what I'm seeing here is just the justification and or just the thoughtful use of that technology so that it's being used purposely.  Danelle Brostrom  9:30  Fits right into the ISTE Standards and the Triple E Framework stuff that we're really trying to push in this district.  Evan O'Branovic  9:35  Absolutely.  Danelle Brostrom  9:36  Create over consume.  Evan O'Branovic  9:37  Yes, yes creation to me is, is absolutely key. It's something that I think often gets overlooked. And it's, because it's not easy. It's not easy to have anyone, whether it's from the teacher level all the way down to the student, really try and create something, or look at how they're, they're creating or thinking, you know, a little bit broader than just accomplishing a task. It's always about tying a lot of things together, and you know, that always takes work so. That's tough for teachers, but that's where you're going to get meaningful connections. That's where the learning is going to happen. That's where I think it becomes very easy to justify having your kids on a piece of technology, your students on a device. Because of what the end product is, and the fact that it wasn't just for one simple, you know, task. They didn't just practice math facts. They created, you know, a website explaining a multitude of math concepts that they work together with, but that's not easy. So it takes a lot of work and that's the hard part for sure.  Danelle Brostrom  10:33  And a lot of time.  Larry Burden  10:34  So with time. One of the things that we do struggle with, you know, the kids like the mobile devices, the teachers like the mobile devices, everybody likes mobile devices. Yet, I know we, we struggle at the secondary levels with, maybe, misuse. We want them to be creative. We don't want them to be distracted. How do we, I guess, navigate that balancing act?  Evan O'Branovic  10:55  Yeah, that's a tough one. I don't think there's a, there are necessarily a sure fast answer to, this is how you make sure all your. Larry Burden  11:02  Figure it all out. No one's, no one's.  Evan O'Branovic  11:04  Here's the button to press. That's what everyone wants. Which is always tough, you know. What button can I press? What, I feel like in that same, what app can I give my students so they can't do anything else? Right? What locks down the device? And to me, that's that's asking or approaching it from the wrong angle. So if we're worried about them, you know, we need to force them into this one spot, then, what the activity you're doing is not engaging enough. And that's a lot of ask for the teachers as well. So there's, I'm not trying to downplay what their job is, and that and how they're supposed to do that. But it's really, it starts with people like Danelle and that curriculum, the instructional side of how are you utilizing your mobile device, your laptops, your computers, any sort of technology, to be engaging with the students and making it purposeful. And I would hope in my experience, which has not been long, but with Danielle and David and our other team, our instructional team is, they have that opinion of, if it's not, then don't use it. And that's not to say you just throw it away in the garbage. But you really need to be like, it's okay to step away. I don't need to use this cool new thing all the time just for the sake of using it. So, it's going to take some work I think I'm changing just a mentality of a teacher, of the time, like Danielle mentioned, it would take to, you know, create something that's truly engaging, and how that would be implemented, and what that looks like. And then, you know, contingency plans. So, when it doesn't work, what are you going to do then? Because it's not going to work. I just always like to run under that assumption. It's gonna break. It's going to break probably in the middle of the most important part. And my favorite statement that I've had so far here in the district is, "oh yeah, we were working on that but then technology didn't work." And I'm like, Oh, well that's a bummer. I'm really disappointed that it didn't work. But that's a really broad term. So you know more specific is great but just, that's going to happen, you know, so I try and very kindly redirect that in the sense of, it absolutely it's just not going to work. We can't rely on it because, like I said, it's always changing, it's new things that we're trying to do are usually on the cutting edge, which is great. So you have to plan for a different way to approach it. And so that's kind of the way with that mobile device thing. It can become an absolute distraction and just detraction from what's happening in the classroom and so you either have to spend a lot of time, and I think even if you do, to plan something meaningful you might find that happening. And if that's happening, you need a parachute. How you going to bail out?  Larry Burden  13:39  What's your plan B?  Evan O'Branovic  13:40  What's your plan B?  Danelle Brostrom  13:41  I want to high five that answer because I think that I hear that on a weekly basis. How can I block my kids from YouTube? How can I keep my kids just on the one website that I want them to go on? And I think, like, as an adult, you have to learn how to balance all of this, and the phone, and just everything. And I think if we never K-12, talk to our kids about how to balance, and what that feels like, and that you struggle with it to. You just kind of send them off and then they don't know how to do it. I don't feel like you can lock everything down.  Evan O'Branovic  14:15  You can't lock everything down. And if that is your solution to everything then, again, I think just like you spoke to, you're not preparing them for the next level. And that's, you know, I think what everyone touts and everyone is truly deeply meaning to do so. You want to hopefully bring that conversation back around to them and be like, if we want to prepare them for college, no one's going to say, their professors not going, How can I lock them into this app, you can take all those quizzes with your friends next to you and multiple tabs open. So, is that really the goal, is that where we're moving towards? Because that puts a level of complication, onus on, you know, the people say, Thomas to crank things down in a way that becomes I just think unsustainable. You can't, you can't do it. And then again, it's one more thing to break. So you really have to be careful on that balance of, of how much control you want to have versus how much knowledge, skill set, practice you want to impart on those students and teachers to, to just do the tasks that they're trying to do or make meaningful ones, so that people just are naturally engaged in it. You don't have to keep refocusing them because chances are, unfortunately, that might not be the most best use of that time in that lesson. So having that reflection time is huge. And being able to, I guess, except that it was a dud. It's got to be okay I think especially in technology.  Larry Burden  15:40  You have to be willing to fail. The teacher has to be willing to fail. It's an opportunity to actually model that with a lesson. Sometimes I have, I have this great idea. Didn't work, let's...  Evan O'Branovic  15:51  Right,  Larry Burden  15:51  let's move on.  Evan O'Branovic  15:52  Yeah, because it will not work, it will, it will not work. Larry Burden  15:56  We would like to get to the point, we talked about this a lot, is, you know, the hope that technology just becomes a tool. It's not even "technology" anymore. It's just, you know, one of many tools. And we're going back to that engagement piece and locking everything down. It's like taking the head off a hammer. Suddenly, it's not a useful tool anymore. Yes. Yeah. The head is the part that's going to hurt you, as well. But if you can instruct the, the educator and the student on the proper use. That would be the more beneficial route to take as opposed to making it no longer tool,  Danelle Brostrom  16:30  And the task design, I think that's a big part of this. Have really engaging tasks that draw kids in. Rather than just the lower level recall kind of stuff. That's what's going to keep kids where they need to be.  Evan O'Branovic  16:41  They just need an emphasis on that, from the top on down of, I think like Daniel mentioned, the time that's involved in that. It's a lot. So to think that you can do that in a 30 minute prep period, it's just not going to happen and that's okay. So hopefully we can start to, you know, as this becomes an absolute ingrained part of what's happening, which I think it very well is terms of using technology within, you know, our teaching day. To really be thoughtful about how we're supporting those teachers and staff to do that. And what that really looks like, and what the best practice is. And I think everyone around you is figuring that out. So I don't think TCAPS is ahead or behind. I think it's a learning process, but you really need to have that at the forefront. And at the same piece, the reflection of, well that plan does not work, or that amount of time is not going to cut it, or what the realistic expectation if this is the only time you can provide, then what can we actually get done that we think is valuable to our students, you know on our staff. And I mean those are hard conversations but I think they need to happen.  Danelle Brostrom  17:47  Okay, I know that you love Google. Favorite Google tool and why? Evan O'Branovic  17:52  This is a good one. Um, I gotta go with a simple Google tool but one I've found the most fun in working with, you know, other teachers and students when I get a chance to get in there is Google Slides. I think it often gets overlooked. It's left as its PowerPoint. PowerPoint for Google I can share it with my students, great. I think there's a lot of little tips and tricks and hacks. Done a few presentations, you know, labeling it as such, with, that you can do with slides to really kind of change the dynamic of how you use it. So changing the page size, which is a super simple change in that, and it kind of changes the whole dynamic of what it's used. It becomes a magazine. You can print it out in eight and a half by eleven. Becomes a virtual, you know, publication where it looks like pages in a book that can be flipped through online. Adding different elements when you can put videos. My favorite thing to do, hopefully my friends back in Colorado, listen to this, I love GIFS. I love making GIFS. So, unfortunately not really funny, guess they're more, you know, educational training GIFS of how to do this that or the other. And so being able to make those short videos and then put them in a slideshow and so people can flip through as they deem necessary and go back and forth, has been my, was my go to in terms of any sort of instructional tool. And people seem to appreciate that far more than listening to my voice for three minutes droning on and on. Or being like, that two minutes, does that where he explained the part I already know? With the slideshow you can just flip back and forth and I just think it's fun to make GIFs. So, and then you get to put a funny one at the end. So I love that piece of slides, and just in general the some of the new adoptions they have with it. Using the, the speaker notes, letting the students be able to voice-to-text Danelle Brostrom  19:47  Huge Evan O'Branovic  19:48  into the speaker notes is big. When voice to type first came on a Google Docs so it was great tool for, you know, our students who couldn't type. And how are we going to get them so they would talk into the document. The document would write and then I'm trying to show a first grader how to copy and paste. And that's just, we're not using again, our time wisely. We're pulling the parachute very quickly. And so, Larry Burden  20:09  What is developmentally appropriate? Not that, it turns out.  Evan O'Branovic  20:12  Absolutely. And so, it's a go to. And I like it because it's easily accessible. It's one that already people are familiar with. So, when you can kind of show them some really fun ways to utilize it. That's me, tops it for now. Slides is my favorite.  Danelle Brostrom  20:27  Good answer. Evan O'Branovic  20:28  Choose your own adventures with slides. That's the best. create links to different pages, hide pages. All kids get a kick out of that especially when you let them make their own. Larry Burden  20:38  I'm excited to do that.  Danelle Brostrom  20:40  So give us some insight into a few things we can expect from our TCAPS Technology Department this year.  Evan O'Branovic  20:45  These are well thought out and ever changing. But what I'm hoping to bring here, and utilize the people and the resource that already here which I've mentioned are great. So a big thing for us is going to be some curriculum partnerships. So how are we working well with our curriculum folks to do all the things that we've just been rambling on about? Without these two departments, you know, working together, being on the same page, communicating better, it's not going to happen. And so I'm really hoping to and by all signs pointing right now, I mean, it's, it's starting to work. But it's a work in progress of just opening those doors, creating those open lines, making sure that as much as curriculum may be on the forefront for some of the things we're doing as technology and like that same mentality to be on the flip. So, is curriculum thinking about technology and because so many of pretty much all new curriculum products involve technology in some way. So, are they first thought to reach out and be like, how is this going to work, what do I not know that I can ask these folks about? I just really want that to be pretty seamless. I want us to work hand in hand. That goes along the lines with doing some other things to that we've already started, like overlaying ISTE Standards into the existing curriculum. So where does it fit in? So not that it's one more thing for teachers. Which we all know does not work and they don't have enough time for. But whereas it just already fitting? And so we can do that groundwork with Curriculum's blessing which we've gotten and then present that to our teachers and be like, see how this is already happening or, point out projects that I know many of them are probably working on and be like, you're doing it. And now you just know what to call it. And that, to me is big, and I think, not to be able to reference ISTE Standards for Students and then Teachers themselves is doing, you know, a big disservice to how technology is really going to work with education. so it's really important to me.  Evan O'Branovic  22:40  And then the buzzword STEM. So, we have a lot of STEM talk and what that action actually looks like and technology is right in that. So, to think that we're not going to be involved in some way, is just not a possibility. So just, how we can help support that. Because everyone's talking about STEM and my experience is everyone has different views of what that actually means. It's a good word to say again my experience someone can probably comment, call in and comment. Larry Burden  23:10  We can get it really confusing and throw STEAM in there and really have some conversations Evan O'Branovic  23:13  STEAM to. But just like I just, I think I said to Danielle, I think everyone says the word STEM and then in their head goes, please don't ask me specifically what I'm talking about, when I say STEM.  Danelle Brostrom  23:24  That's my next question for you Evan.  Evan O'Branovic  23:25  Yeah, so please don't. Please don't ask me that. I'll say it closer to the mic so that it's more clear. Please don't ask me. But yeah, so that one's an important one.  Evan O'Branovic  23:36  We want to look at our workflow. There's so much going on with technology the department's so big, you know, between the data team, the instructional team, the network people. How are we working smarter, not harder. I think a lot of those systems are already in place, or at least, you know, been talked about. And I'm hoping to just help kind of drive that ship, and make sure that it does become more efficient, and people feel like their work is valued. And that we're not redoing things that already have been done well. And so just kind of tying that all together. The libraries are another important one, working with Stephie a lot on just starting by what everything looks like. How the libraries are operating, and what our kind of dreams and hopes are for those spaces, and how we can really turn them into moving from an old library model, which, again, I think it's just a national trend of just books in a room, to where it truly becomes a dynamic learning space. And again, that's a buzz thing, kind of like STEM, you'll see a lot of people want to do that. So, but I actually do want to do it, as I know many other people in this district do. So how is that going to look? It's not going to be easy, but I think we have all the pieces in place to really make some changes there. So looking at the libraries is going to be huge.  Evan O'Branovic  24:52  Lastly, in instructional support. The one thing that shocked me about coming here was we have 1.6, 1.6 Danelle Brostrom  24:59  Small but mighty.  Evan O'Branovic  24:59  Danelle and Dave instructional team for 15 or 16, schools technically, probably 16 officially right? How many students 10,000 plus,  Danelle Brostrom  25:12  and staff  Evan O'Branovic  25:13  and staff  Danelle Brostrom  25:14  and support staff.  Evan O'Branovic  25:16  And support staff. Danelle Brostrom  25:16  and, and... Evan O'Branovic  25:18  so as impressed as I was about everything,  Larry Burden  25:22  That's why the podcast is only 20 minutes long. Evan O'Branovic  25:24  which I still am impressed. Just how we can help that. I'm coming from a district, to give myself away, very small, three schools. And I had two Tech Integrators, myself and another person for three schools, and we were jockeying to get a third. So we had seen, but I think that's hopefully a compliment to us the value of our position. And so we were hoping that to be most effective, we really needed one per school in order to help that staff, and, and touch base with all those people on a regular basis. And so now I'm coming to this place... Larry Burden  26:01  There's a lot of smiles in here. We are holding the laughing in. Evan O'Branovic  26:06  that is not very close to that. Which is unfortunate, and it's not the end of the world. And so I think, you know, looking at that, maximizing the time and the resources that Danelle, David and to an extent, Stephie, you have to really figure out how we can use that. And we've had some of those discussions. And then, you know, maybe down the road, If we can do a good job, which I think we will have showcasing that value of, is this a position we need to increase, bring into the fold, Really, you know, showcase how that can be helpful. If Danelle can see a building, or someone like a Danelle can see a building more than once every couple weeks in an ideal world which probably isn't even always plausible, You know, moon shot. Larry Burden  26:53  Live the the dream, Danelle Unknown Speaker  26:54  Moon shot Larry Burden  26:54  live the dream,  Evan O'Branovic  26:55  The new guy, you know, he has a lot of hopes and dreams and then he settles into the reality. But I try and hold on to them for as long as possible so that we can make it happen. Larry Burden  27:03  I didn't sound like you have, you've had a bedding in period at all. You basically jumped right into the fire. And,  Evan O'Branovic  27:08  yeah,  Larry Burden  27:08  it had been on the burner for a while. Evan O'Branovic  27:10  Yeah, there was no, just relaxing. I've been told a variety of different timelines I have as the new guy. It goes anywhere from three months to a year. Some I'm hoping I get the year to really adjust myself. We'll see if the three months people will hold me to that and see if I got everything locked in within about three months. But it's a lot is a lot happening. And I definitely come from the instructional side of things. So that's my strengths, which I really enjoy doing. And something that you know, gets me going and then I've been trying to pick up, though I had some experience with all the technical side of things. You know, that's where I lean heavily on the Thomases the Bills,  Larry Burden  27:48  So Sorry, Evan O'Branovic  27:49  All this  Evan O'Branovic  27:50  So, sorry. Evan O'Branovic  27:51  You know, have their, have their own quirks, but are a great group of guys. And so, you know, I just lean really heavily on them to be like, what do I need to know to best help you, support you? That's what I'm all about. How can I support all these people? Because, they all do their jobs really well. They don't need me to micromanage. So I'm trying to avoid that. That's the goal. Larry Burden  28:12  Well, it sounds like there's gonna be some pushing and asking that infrastructure to do some things that maybe it's not quite set up to do right now. And having a good understanding of that, allowing yourself some time to have a good understanding of that, so.  Evan O'Branovic  28:23  Yeah, we're working on a whole lotta "Yes," right now. So that's what I pitched at the beginning. Probably gonna over Yes. Meaning we'll say yes to a lot of things. And I'm sure we'll have to reel that back a little bit. But I'm hoping to that's all my vision of, of trying to build those relationships. Show people that we're here to support. But that goes in both ways, meaning and I want to say yes to our team internally to for ideas they have, suggestions on how to make things happen. And I think if we can do a little bit more of that and do it in a reasonable fashion that we can accomplish, we're really going to showcase the value. And then it becomes easier to get some of those high level big goals done. Like have more Tech Curriculum Coordinators and EdTech coaches. All those good things that I think are just as important as the infrastructure data side, which is also vitally important, but we, I want more of a balance.  Larry Burden  29:18  The goal is to have it unseen. And nobody asked questions about it. It just works. Now It's time to actually teach people the tool. Evan O'Branovic  29:24  Right. Now, what's the data center? No one knows. It's just that building over there that used to be an old  elementary. That's always fun to show people, though. People who don't have an awareness of what the data center here at TCAPS looks like. That is an incredible building and just operation from a school district standpoint. I've never seen anything like it. I'm sure they exist in other places. But I was blown away by that. And that, to me is a really exciting piece to have and to know it's already in place. So we're moving on past that.  Larry Burden  29:55  What else you got? Danelle Brostrom  29:55  Wanna play game?  Evan O'Branovic  29:57  I do.  Danelle Brostrom  29:57  Okay. Brand new segment on the pad. This is called, This or That. Rapid fire. You gotta answer, okay? Evan O'Branovic  30:04  So you're going to give you two options, and I just hit it with one or the other.  Danelle Brostrom  30:08  You got it, one or the other. Okay?  Evan O'Branovic  30:09  I can handle that.  Danelle Brostrom  30:10  First, Google Docs or Google Sheets?  Evan O'Branovic  30:13  Sheets.  Danelle Brostrom  30:14  Podcast or Radio?  Evan O'Branovic  30:16  Podcast.  Danelle Brostrom  30:17  Let's talk about devices, touchscreen or just use the mouse? Evan O'Branovic  30:21  touchscreen. Danelle Brostrom  30:22  Michigan State or U of M? Evan O'Branovic  30:23  Michigan State.  Danelle Brostrom  30:24  Work with the Tech Department or go rogue? Evan O'Branovic  30:29  Work with the Tech Department. Danelle Brostrom  30:31  text or call on the phone millennial?  Evan O'Branovic  30:33  Text all day.  Danelle Brostrom  30:35  Lucy or Rosie? Evan O'Branovic  30:39  Rosie. Danelle Brostrom  30:39  I didn't think you were going to answer. Larry Burden  30:39  I would not have answered that. Evan O'Branovic  30:47  Not becuase...Rosie doesn't get the love my first born Lucy does. So my wife does a very nice job of taking care of Lucy and giving her everything and anything she wants. And don't get me wrong, she gets anything she wants for me too. But I try and lean on Rosie a little bit. she's second child and she needs that love, so I try and be that, that support system for her.  Danelle Brostrom  31:07  Nice  Evan O'Branovic  31:08  So that's what I'm leaning on. So we split. You know right now we can still play man to man. And do not have to go zone. So yeah, I'd say my wife's got Lucy. And I got Rosie.  Danelle Brostrom  31:18  Love it.  Larry Burden  31:19  Tech Tool of the Week. Techtool of the Week  31:24  Tech Tool of the Week, Headspace is free for educators. This happened over the summer. Headspace is a meditation app. And it is also located on your computer. So you can use it either one. But they went free for educators, which is exciting because there's an entire section for kids. You know that we love using meditation to bring kids down after recess, to bring kids to a place of getting ready to take assessments, or just to a place of calm. And I think Headspace has some really good options for kids. There's a whole section where you can choose an age group and find really quick three to six minute meditations that are perfect for the classroom. So I'll put that link in the show notes. Larry Burden  32:00  They do a great job. That particular app does a great job of actually teaching the concepts of mindfulness in a way that's understandable and not to cosmic. Danelle Brostrom  32:08  The graphics are beautiful too. And it's just a really, really nice tool for educators.  Larry Burden  32:13  absolutely Danelle Brostrom  32:13  I like it even better than Calm. Evan O'Branovic  32:14  And they're doing full circle there. They're helping you maybe not want to be on your phone or an app with a phone or an app. So they're working themselves by being to good out of their own business but that's impressive. It's a good goal. Larry Burden  32:26  All right, um, tutorials and updates just wanted to point out that we have a TechNollerGist pod recording on Thursday should drop on Friday. Just in time for the weekend. So clear out the calendars for the weekend so you can listen to the pod. You'd mentioned earlier TCAPSLoop YouTube channel is not dead yet. There will be things to be put on TCAPSLoop YouTube channel, it just hasn't happened yet this year. We're still early, give it some time. In closing Follow us on Facebook and Twitter @tcapsloop,  Danelle Brostrom  32:52  @brostromda,  Evan O'Branovic  32:54  @evanobranovic  Larry Burden  32:55  Nice. Subscribe to the podcast on podbean, iTunes, Stitcher, Tune-in, Downcast, Overcast, the Google Play Store and Spotify. Leave a review, we love the feedback. Thank you for listening and inspiring. Larry Burden  33:08  Oh we're just gonna play that on a loop.

We know the elementary school media center is a safe, magical place for many kiddos to explore "Mirrors and Windows." We also know transitioning to Middle School can be pretty overwhelming at the start of the school year. We attempt to draw a Media Center Map for that new Middle School student who just forgot their locker combination, couldn’t find their 2nd hour class and is having a bad hair day (and now surprisingly cares)?Useful LinksTCAPS Online CatalogResearch in ContextEast Middle School Library Media Center Website   Show TranscriptMelissa Baumann  0:11  What do I need to know about a podcast? Larry Burden  0:13  If there's something that we don't want I go through and edit it. Larry Burden  0:16  Usually it's editing me. Larry Burden  0:20  It is episode eight of BiblioTech podcast, my name is Larry Burden and she's more than ready to delve into the awkward preteen phase, it's Stephie Luyt with our special guest, the better Baumann, Melissa Baumann,  Melissa Baumann  0:32  Appreciate that. Thank you.  Larry Burden  0:33  We know the elementary school Media Center is a safe magical place for many kiddos to explore mirrors and windows. We also know transitioning to middle school can be pretty overwhelming at the start of the school year. Can we draw a middle school map for our new middle school students who just forgot their locker combinations, couldn't find their second hour class and are having a bad hair day, and now surprisingly, actually care. So, you know, I was thinking about this and I was going way way back into my days in middle school which, you know, it's kind of hazy, and there's kind of a sepia tone. And I remember going from that elementary school library which is so safe and so comforting and you know is the place to go into middle school and already panicked about everything and then there's a huge space, and where do I start, where do I go. What does that look like for for a sixth grade student? Maybe this isn't the direction you're going but that was the first thing that I thought about.  Melissa Baumann  1:27  Well, one thing that I'm doing this year is focusing on the sixth grade students so that they feel more comfortable so I've spent the last couple weeks having orientation for the sixth grade classes I just finished up at West Middle School, all the students came down with their teacher we went over the policies and procedures and then I had a scavenger hunt that was created for them, and they worked with a partner to explore the different spaces of the library, to examine how the collection, collection is arranged. And then we'll follow it up with the online resources, during their second visits to the library which will happen in two weeks. So I hope that they feel more comfortable already.  Stephie Luyt  2:04  And those, you know the move from our elementary spaces, yes smaller space, let fewer kids but our middle school libraries are just as welcoming and just as friendly and working on those same things mirrors and windows and once our kiddos get acclimated with the schedule and find feel comfortable with their classes and all that the library is just another wonderful place with lots of amazing resources both middle schools. So we're excited to have our sixth graders up in the middle schools and really excited to have Melissa in the middle schools. Melissa is new with us last year into the middle school but if you want to just tell us a little bit about what worlds you came from.  Melissa Baumann  2:42  Sure, I am definitely very familiar with middle school. I spent seven years in Chicago teaching at the middle school level, then I took some time off and then when I came back, and was hired by TCAPS I was doing a little bit of elementary Spanish, and then made my way back to middle school, because that's where I feel happiest. So I spent seven years teaching Spanish at West Middle School and then when the position in the library opened up I was extremely intrigued by that and wanted something new. And now I'm working on my degree so I think it's been the perfect choice for me. Stephie Luyt  3:16  And Melissa is splitting time between both schools so kiddos will see her in both buildings east and west and. As well as our LMP's that are in both buildings who are there to help students with all sorts of check-out, check-in, book recommendations, anything. Those libraries are really top notch and functioning, really, with students needs first and doing an amazing job so.  Melissa Baumann  3:39  Absolutely. Stephie Luyt  3:40  We're thrilled. Melissa Baumann  3:40  Completely agree about that.  Larry Burden  3:41  So what are the, what are some of the differences between that elementary school library, and the middle school library? What can they expect that's maybe, maybe the same that will comfort them in, and what are some of the differences that might expand what they expect from a library. I think in terms of what would be the same, the access to all the literature and all the nonfiction and all the resources that kids would be looking for for their own exploration and interests and personal learning as well as in school learning. The logistics of how they visit the library has changed when they move into middle school they are much more individual focused in terms of they're going on their own time more often. Sometimes they're visiting with classes. But in elementary they're always for the most part accessing the library with their classes with exceptions they do go down a little bit, but I would say that they are more independent users with, and I would say that's the same for a lot of middle school, I mean they become more independent students, they're visiting classes you know, switching classes, making that switch. So it falls into that same sort of shift that they make in middle school. But I think all the things that they love about the library, are there, and even multiplied when they move up into the older grades.  Melissa Baumann  4:53  And I think that, especially the ELA teachers are committed to having those library visits with their students at the middle school, it just might not be as frequently. I think most of them are on a bi-weekly visit. But I have already started working with those teachers that have been coming in. And they do tend to bring their students in for maybe the first half of the period or the second half of the period so maybe a little bit shorter visit as well, when they come into the class but they are still committed to bringing their students down. Larry Burden  5:20  I have these questions so I'm just going to float them out there and feel free to say Larry I've got my own and I would like to actually throw those in there to. Larry Burden  5:27  So what are you guys doing to promote the middle school library?  Melissa Baumann  5:31  Yeah, that's a great question, um, the first thing that I noticed when I arrived on the scene last November was that there really wasn't an online presence for the library. So I followed the model of both of the high schools and worked with ReaAnn to create a web page for both East and West Middle Schools. It has access to the online catalog and the students can have access through the, to the databases. It has other great resources that are available on the web for them. And it also showcases what's coming up in the library so we're featuring the author visit that will be happening on the 30th at East Middle School, and at West Middle School we have a display going on to honor Banned Books Week,  Stephie Luyt  6:11  And it looks fabulous.  Melissa Baumann  6:12  Oh, thank you.  Stephie Luyt  6:13  Finding that online presence, is it in the cloud? Is it on the TCAPS web page?  Melissa Baumann  6:18  Right, so I wanted to make it as simple as possible for the students. So when they come to the cloud, they have a tile that they can access the online catalog specifically, or they have a tile that will take them to the web page for each Middle School. So it's, it's one click.  Stephie Luyt  6:34  I have a question just going back a little bit. When the kids are coming into the middle school and as we're talking about they're accessing the library sometimes more independently. When are the middle school libraries available for kids to use?  Melissa Baumann  6:45  Yeah, we covered this during orientation, and it's exciting because most of the sixth graders have already been utilizing the space, even though they didn't really know how to navigate the space. So pretty much around 7:15 in the morning, they're welcome to come in before school. Both libraries stay open for about 15 minutes after school, and then the students are welcome to come in during lunch, as long as there isn't a class that has the space checked out. They can stay for the entire time after they've been in the cafeteria, eating.  Stephie Luyt  7:13  So there's lots of access.  Melissa Baumann  7:14  Yes, and then of course, if a teacher independently wants to send a student down as long as they have a pass they're welcome to come in and use the space.  Stephie Luyt  7:22  And just because I know they'll be listeners who may not have been in our middle schools. This space can be used in lots of different ways but both sites have like, a really comfortable, like welcoming reading area, kind of like a bookstore. You know that feeling of some really neat comfortable chairs, some reading spaces, some learning spaces, some whole group learning, you know, there's this, this space accommodates lots of different needs, and I think there's a spot for everybody in the library. Melissa Baumann  7:48  I full y agree, yes.  Larry Burden  7:50  If you were marketing to a student right now. What would a student not expect going into a middle school library. If they have the traditional mindset of what a media center, a library is, you had mentioned one thing already, the kind of book storey type of feel.  Stephie Luyt  8:05  yeah,  Larry Burden  8:06  What else, what else would they be surprised, maybe, or would surprise them?  Melissa Baumann  8:09  I think many of the students during the orientations have expressed that they're just surprised at how many books there are. They're not, they're just not used to having a collection that's as large as what we have at the middle schools.  Stephie Luyt  8:21  Maybe they'd be surprised to find the number of PlayAways, that some of the sites have. The PlayAways are another format to listen to an audiobook. It's everything's right there it's kind of like an mp3 player, which is kind of a fun technology for, for as a little bit like, I would say almost vintage a little bit. Melissa Baumann  8:37  Yes. Stephie Luyt  8:38  It's kind of like a Walkman. That's not for the middle school kids to know what I'm talking about. But East in particular has a really large collection of PlayAways, which have been very popular with students. I think our students would be pleasantly surprised to find all of the extra activities that happen through the library. I know that the book clubs have been really popular. Lots of contests and reading motivation and the author visit. I mean there's, they would be surprised by all the activities that, and would fit different niches, and kinda like some maker activities, puzzles, all sorts of things that you can, you can explore in the libraries.  Melissa Baumann  9:16  Yeah, East Middle School, last year, purchased a button maker. So on Wednesday, students can come down to the library in the Maker Space area and create buttons. They're 50 cents each, but that's been extremely popular. The book groups, at West we call it a book group at East we call it a book club. But those have been extremely popular. So much so that this year at East we have to have three separate groups rather than just one that we had last year. So we're going to do those by grade level. And at West, I've already had quite a few entries, especially since I was advertising the Book, Book Group during the orientation, so many students signed up while they were in the library, and I feel that that's going to be extremely popular as well.  Stephie Luyt  9:58  I have peeked at some of those Book Group titles and they are some amazing books that were selected for those groups and it's pretty exciting. I have a question and it's kind of a just from like looking at your side of the day. Is there a typical day for you, at all? Melissa Baumann  10:15  I haven't found it Stephie Luyt  10:16  I didn't think so, no two days are the same, right?  Melissa Baumann  10:19  No, in fact, not at all. Maybe a little bit these past couple weeks because I've really been focusing on the orientations with the sixth graders but other than that, I would say no. I'm in the classroom a lot doing presentations on the databases. I'm doing book talks in the library for classes that come down that complement the unit that they're working on in their ELA class. I'm working on behind the scene projects like the web page and Overdrive. So, I, I pretty much just am doing whatever I need to do on a daily basis to tackle about 20 different things.  Larry Burden  10:53  How do we or do we tie what happens in the media center to the classroom. And I'm guessing the database, the databases are that answer. So how does that communication take place?  Melissa Baumann  11:04  Well, prior to last year, nobody really was using the databases because they weren't aware that they were available to them so. Larry Burden  11:11  That's a problem. Melissa Baumann  11:12  That's a problem. That's why I wanted to make sure that we knew what resources were available and we had an easy place for them to be, all be stored. So now that the, most of the teachers are aware, because I spent a lot of time in the history classes last year, the language arts classes, some of the sixth and seventh grade social studies classes. So I think that now there's just this general awareness of the database and people are hungry for it. So I spent a lot of time in the classroom because showing the students the tools that are available when they use the research database. And they are extremely slick, they're awesome. I mean they align with our Google Drive, they can take notes right in the database, they can highlight, they can send things directly to their Google Drive. So I think that most have been extremely impressed with how easy it makes the research process. And it's all vetted materials so students don't have to take those necessary steps when they're just doing a search online to prove the authenticity, check the author's credentials, and, which are steps that they're unfortunately not taking on their own. So I feel they are extremely happy to have somebody doing that job for them. Stephie Luyt  12:20  And then, and also you mentioned but integrating what choice books the kids are reading in alignment with their units for ELA.  Melissa Baumann  12:27  Right,  Stephie Luyt  12:27  So when they're making a choice book selection there's options that are given that have similar themes that complement what they're learning in ELA. So ELA is a main focus and, in terms of working with the library, but getting into all the other subject areas as well through the databases and through research projects that the kids are working on.  Larry Burden  12:45  So is the database available, just within the TCAPS network or does it kind of go with you with your Chromebook.  Melissa Baumann  12:53  Actually it's available. Two of the databases are funded by the district, and then I made the decision last year to purchase one specifically for the two middle school sites. And that one is called Research and Context, and it is designed for middle school students. So all of the content is very age appropriate, and the topics go along with the curriculum that is generally studied in the middle schools. So there's people, cultures, government, history, literature. It's just, there's a wide variety.  Larry Burden  13:22  We've talked about this on many of the EdTech Loop podcasts in the past and BiblioTech as well, curation is so important because when you have all that information out there, it's really is overwhelming. And as we were mentioning earlier in the open, middle school students don't need to be more overwhelmed. They're plenty, they're plenty overwhelmed so...  Melissa Baumann  13:42  Totally agree.  Larry Burden  13:43  To have a database that's, that sounds super user friendly and you guys have vetted it well. That's got it, just make their lives a little bit easier.  Stephie Luyt  13:53  It's a fabulous research... Melissa Baumann  13:54  You know I'd like to think that they know how, how wonderful of a gift it is but I don't think they really remember like doing the stacks of note cards where you had to put the author, and highlight, and organize them by topic. So unfortunately I just don't think they they realize what a gift it is.  Larry Burden  14:09  I think, I think it's not only a gift, they don't have that perspective...  Melissa Baumann  14:13  Right. Larry Burden  14:14  of that. But going into the online environment, and just doing research there where you have so much information and to not have some level of curation and vetting before you step into it, it stops people's research there, or their research is just poor because... Melissa Baumann  14:32  Right  Larry Burden  14:32  You know, they're going to sites that have maybe less than credible information. It really can send somebody down the wrong path.  Melissa Baumann  14:39  Right.  Larry Burden  14:40  Or stop them immediately to have some vetted research and curated research for them, where they can go and just kind of do a one stop shop, really simplifies that process.  Danelle Brostrom  14:52  Absolutely. Stephie Luyt  14:52  It takes out that whole element of, the need to doing all those steps, that making sure that the information is valid, and...  Melissa Baumann  15:00  I think the students are surprised, because one of my slides in my presentation is showing them the checklist of what they're supposed to be doing if they're going to do research just doing a Google search. And they're surprised to see how many steps they're supposed to be taking. And they fully admit, "I never do this, I never do this," and I, my follow-up is, okay, if you're not going to do that then, in order to be somebody who is doing good research, you need to rely on the database.  Stephie Luyt  15:26  You know, just being able to even know to access the database and to select the database so it's a good fit for your research and having those available to our kids. Like it's just setting them up for those research skills moving into high school, and then into college. And, and, and accessing the database which is so user friendly, but being able to access those tools so you're not having to do all of the, by hand making out, in writing out the way the resource needs to be cited and all of that. Like it, it really simplifies the process.  Larry Burden  15:55  Almost feel like we should have a different name the database for Middle School students. We're like, database, database, middle school kids going...  Stephie Luyt  16:03  Super Cool Research Tool.  Melissa Baumann  16:04  Yes, that looks like some of my students in my presentation. I can't say it's the most lively presentation to talk databases with middle school students, but I try to throw in some jokes when I can.  Larry Burden  16:14  I like the Super Cool Research Tool. Can we find some alliteration in there. Melissa Baumann  16:18  I'll try and work that into my next one.  Larry Burden  16:21  The other aspect of this, the other partner in this, is the parent, is the parents. Do they have access to that, that slide show? Are we sharing that information? So when the student actually does get home with their Chromebook, again, because that's the great thing about these, these tools, is they can bring it home. If the parent isn't there to prompt, necessarily, those students, that's that's a partner that we were missing. So, are we communicating with them on the database on the Super Cool Research Tool. Melissa Baumann  16:53  I think at this point, Most of the students would probably have that responsibility simply because they would be able to show their parents through the cloud, how they access those. I know that when I do the presentation, I'm always clear with the students that they can access this off site, they do not need to be on a TCAPS property. They might be prompted with a password, but it's clearly stated what that password is. And hopefully that their teachers are requiring them to do the research outside of school as well. And the parents would then come in contact with it. I don't think that we're necessarily putting anything out there directly to the parents at this time. But that would be a great, a great way to move in that direction.  Stephie Luyt  17:31  Share all of that with what's you know, all the resources and all the libraries. Melissa Baumann  17:34  I would assume that their daily updates or their weekly update communication with parents might include, we had a research presentation over the databases this week, and so forth. Stephie Luyt  17:44  Right, and if you know, if parents are accessing assignments in Powerschool and can see something like that coming up, they may prompt them to ask their student about, you know, what does this entail? And what are you using for research and hopefully, the students will remember that they have this great resource, and they're already using it at home to share. Larry Burden  18:01  The super cool research tool Melissa Baumann  18:03  That's the one. Stephie Luyt  18:03  Yes. Larry Burden  18:03  I'm patenting that by the way, it's trademarked. Stephie Luyt  18:03  Trademarked, yes Melissa Baumann  18:07  Yeah, I'm switching the title on my web page right now. Larry Burden  18:13  You need like a little character, an avatar. Stephie Luyt  18:17  I can see it. Melissa Baumann  18:17  Superhero. Larry Burden  18:17  I may have gone too far, I apologize. Stephie Luyt  18:17  My only other question was, I mean, you know, your days are very full and no, two days are the same. But are there any upcoming events or projects or anything that you're excited about or that you want to share? Melissa Baumann  18:29  Well, we do have the author visit that I mentioned that's taking place on September 30th at East Middle School. We were lucky enough to secure a couple of times in Peter Lerangis's afternoon. So he'll be coming and speaking to two different groups of students. We're going to host that in the library. Students were made aware of books that they could purchase, that they could get signed copies of his work any work, not just the one he's promoting, which will be coming out in October, which is Throwback. So I hope that that communication went out to the families and that students are making those purchases and can actually have a conversation with him when they go to get the book signed, following the presentation. So that's taking place on the 30th. The book clubs are gearing up. We have East Middle School, the preliminary meeting will be this week. And then West, we will be doing our first meeting mid October. We are looking at perhaps Girls Stolen, for the East Middle School selection for eighth grade. And for the selections that's West Middle School, I have to, I have to figure that out yet, because I just need to know what the numbers are to see how many we're going to have and how many copies I can secure, so.  Stephie Luyt  19:40  I know you have great choices.  Melissa Baumann  19:42  Yes. Oh, yes, I'm not gonna have any problem selecting a book. Larry Burden  19:45  Do you have a Tech Tool of the Week? Tech Tool of the Week  19:50  I would say our Tech Tool of the Week is the, the databases and specifically Research and Context that is Middle School specific and not subject specific. And that can be accessed on the cloud through the tile. And it is a resource for all subject areas in the middle school and very, as Melissa said, Middle School specific. So we'll include the link and more information about the Tech Tool of the Week in the show notes. Larry Burden  20:16  To close it out. Updates, Latest EdTech Loop podcast was out, I think Wednesday it dropped, on Parent Communication, which is kind of nice, that's why I brought up the parent communication thing. Stephie Luyt  20:28  Yeah, Perfect.  Larry Burden  20:28  We're recording a new one On Thursday. And then the TechNollergist has one I think next week as well. David Noller. He also dropped a tutorial on YouTube on the TechNollergist YouTube channel, TCAPS Communication Protocols. So, very district specific if you're interested in how a large district like ours or any small district communicates and manages keep all the craziness under control, we try, there's some good ideas there. So I think everybody use that. In closing Follow us on Facebook, Twitter @TCAPSLoop  Stephie Luyt  21:01  @StephieLuyt Larry Burden  21:04  Subscribe to the podcast on Podbean, iTunes, Stitcher, the Google Play Store, Spotify or wherever you listen to podcasts, leave reviews, love the feedback. Exercise your mind, read a book. Melissa Baumann  21:18  It was fun. 

The school year is about to begin and the EdTech Loop crew is about ready to get back into the studio. Though I considered attempting to convince Danelle to record a new podcast over the Labour Day weekend, I instead recognized that I value our friendship and decided one more Best Of Episode is a more promising and healthy option. So pop in the earbuds, lay back on the beach towel and soak up the sun one more time before the school bell rings and join our “Digital Parenting,” conversation and as always thanks for listening and inspiring!  Danelle Brostrom  3:27  So I turned my phone off so that way it didn't brrrrr in the middle instead of playing video games and just sit on the couch and veg. Why are you always recording Larry Burden  3:35  That will be the intro to the pod...and done. Oops. It is Episode 38 of the TCAPSLoopweekly podcast. My name is Larry Burden and she's convinced Al Bundy was actually a highly enlightened Cyborg. It's Daniel Brostrom.  Danelle Brostrom  4:08  I know the reference this week, Larry. Larry Burden  4:12  Oddly, I had to go farther back. Carl Sagan was actually farther back, but still I had to go pretty far back. So well. How you doing?  Danelle Brostrom  4:22  Okay. It was great  Larry Burden  4:23  doing the Olympics watching. Danelle Brostrom  4:25  Um, a little. We like curling. Larry Burden  4:26  Who doens't like curling. There was a tweet that I ran into on curling or how you watch how somebody watches curling, they had some explicit language, but it was pretty funny. It starts out the first minute, you're like, this is kind of boring. The 10th minute you're going you're like, ooh, he could have curled that stone a little bit better, maybe. The third one was like this highly like after like an hour and a half. You've got like this highly considered opinion on, you know, the tactics of curling. And by the end, you're just completely emotionally invested in it and screaming at the TV "Sweep!, Sweep!" Danelle Brostrom  5:04  accurate.  Larry Burden  5:04  It's pretty funny. curling is your sport, anything else? Danelle Brostrom  5:08  No, just curling. Larry Burden  5:13  high levels of athleticism, and curling. I did the opening ceremonies and I haven't really I haven't, I haven't, dove, dove in. Once you dive into the... with what I've learned is once you dive into the Olympics, you're you're into all the sports. But I haven't I haven't gone there yet, which is a bummer. We watched one curling match. Okay, that was that was quite, that was enough.  Danelle Brostrom  5:36  Close enough enough.  Larry Burden  5:37  I have a feeling sooner or later the figure skating is going to take over my household because I have a lot of girls, Danelle Brostrom  5:43  I do like the figure skating too. That is pretty cool. Larry Burden  5:45  Moving on, it's time, to get into the downward dog position, Your lotus position. clear your mind. It's our moment of Zen. Don't try to waste a lifetime by trying to banish all danger. Just spend a moment now and then to banish fear. Relatively apt, As we dig into the meat of the show, Parenting in the digital age. And I wanted to start by asking this question, we hit this topic, you have your email, do we want to do this? Again? We've kind of done this. I don't think we can do this enough.  Danelle Brostrom  6:26  I know.  Larry Burden  6:26  I really don't i don't think it's going away. I don't think it's gone away. So, why do we keep coming back to this? Danelle Brostrom  6:32  Well, it's really hard to parent, a digital kid, when you've never been a digital kid. You know, I when I grew up,  Larry Burden  6:39  The Wii doesn't count? Danelle Brostrom  6:40  No, the Wii doesn't help. When I grew up. We I mean, we didn't have computers. I mean, we had computers, but nothing, nothing like we do today, until I got into college. And then we were able to use things like the internet for research, you know. Things have changed so much. And they changed so quickly. And our kids know how to do it. And they're on top of it. And they've got ways to get around how we think we've controlled it. So, the more help we can give families and the more we can get families talking about this, I think the better off our kids are going to be. Larry Burden  7:13  Absolutely. So let's talk about this. You and Steffi are doing some presentations, and you dusted off an old Google slideshow. And I was going through it and Oh, wow. This is, you know, we've always talked, I think early on when we're having these discussions we were, finding it hard to find actionable things. Where this is, these are the things that parents, teachers can do. And I was going through the slideshow, and it was like, Oh, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. Um, the first one that hit me was make a plan. And If you want to give us some tips abroad, actually the slide show up, If you want to go through why making a plan is so important, because that I think that's, there's a reason why it's number one. Yeah, no, I think making a plan is important making that plan before you actually give your child that device. This isn't like, you know, if my kid wants a finger laying, I go to the store and I buy one, they give it to her, whatever. This this, this is this is the most powerful computer in the world, and they can have it and be connected to everything. 24/7, so making this plan before you give them that device is really important. So think about things like timing, How old should your kids be? And we talked about that, wait until eighth," pledge and another podcast that some families are choosing to wait until the eighth grade point. And then thinking about like, what kinds of activities are you okay with your kids doing online? What kinds of time limits are you going to set? Can kids use media during homework time? Or is that kind of a know you're 100% focused on homework, nothing else? So trying to come up with this, this plan? What are your non negotiables? What are the things that are definitely unacceptable to you and communicate those with your kids. They have to know, this is the line, you do not cross it. And you can consider using a contract such as the 18 point iPhone contract, which is really, really good. It goes through things like I own your phone, I have the right to look at it anytime I want. Things like that. And then having you and your child sign it. Again, that communication with your kid is key. Definitely a non negotiable in our house is going to be the device free dinners. There's a lot of really great Will Ferrell commercials, where they're all sitting around a table and all the kids are like, I Miss Daddy, I Miss Daddy, too. I miss Daddy the most and they're like all sad. And then all of a sudden, you see that Will Ferrell is actually at the table with them, but he's on his phone. And He's like, like, like, like, like, oh, sorry, just five minutes, like, like, like. So you can see that they've I mean, they're trying to put it in a funny way. But in a lot of our families, you know, those devices are taking over that dinner table. And there's so much conversation and bonding that is missed when people are distracted. So I know that's a non negotiable in our house. And that is in our plan that we've made before we give our child a device. Things like rule breaking, you know, decide what the consequences will be when they break the rules. And then kind of plan ahead. The, your kids are going to do some curious searches, we call them. How are you going to address that? How are you going to address explicit text? How having a plan for what you're going to say what you're going to do? Are they going to lose their device? Are they not? Is it going to be punishment elsewhere. And then just staying connected, you know, the more you can foster your relationship with your kids, the more they're going to come to you when they have problems and run into something and I say when because they're going to run into something they don't know how to handle. That's, that's being a kid. That goes back to the the failure podcast, that mindset, you know, the mistakes they're going to make with the digital device aren't necessarily bad, they're going to happen, it's going to happen. Being prepared for when it does happen, is showing good parenting skills. You know, having that plan is saying, okay, when this does happen, this is how we're going to react and not being surprised by it or taken aback or reacting out of fear. Danelle Brostrom  11:13  Yeah, we can't react out of fear. And we can't say, we can't say I'm never going to give my kid a device, or I'm never going to let them connect to the internet. Because that's not realistic, you have to come from a place of, kind of, understanding and recognizing and setting them up in a safe way. So that way when they fail, you're kind of there to help them. Catch them.  Larry Burden  11:33  You mentioned it earlier is the modeling.  Yeah,  Don't be Will Ferrell. And I think we get caught in that a lot. That is...with making a plan, modeling, good digital citizenship or behavior with your device or self control is so important. You know, getting back to the mindfulness thing, we talked about these topics, all these topics, and they all kind of dovetail together into being good stewards of digital, our digital lives. And then modeling, stewardship and good behavior with those devices. And it's not a, If you, if you allow yourself to live your life on your device, your device, and the people that create apps for your device will be more than happy to allow you to do that, they're not going to say, Oh, you really shouldn't be using my app. So it really is up to you to make the decision. And as an adult, you're much more capable, you should be much more capable of making that decision, than your, your students, your kids. So It's really, you know, very, very important for you to do that modeling so that when your kid gets in that situation, then go, this is the right way to interact with my device. Being up, out in front of it, so that they know what correct usage looks like.  Danelle Brostrom  13:04  Yeah, they're always watc hing us. And that's scary. But yeah, the whole idea of modeling. And I worry a lot about plugged-in parents. That's what, that's what Common Sense Media calls it. They did a great research project a couple years ago called plugged-in parents and some of the statistics that came from that. Things like parents spend more than nine hours a day with their screens. But 78% of parents believe they're good role models for their children. So we don't see how much time we spend on our screens. And one of the, so my husband I last night and doing some research for this, I made him go on his phone, and you can look and see. It's under "Settings," and then your "battery life." And you can see what your battery life has been spent on in the last 24 hours, in the last seven days. And I was like, look at this. Do you see how much time you spent on Twitter? He's like, Oh, That's not right. Like it is right? That is, that is right.  Larry Burden  14:06  Trust me. It's right.  Danelle Brostrom  14:07  It is right. So just, but that whole idea of being that, that, that model for balance and mindfulness and being with the people who you're with, but, but it's also it's you need to know, like, if we just go with, Oh, I'm fine, I think I'm fine. No, you need to see those hard numbers and see how long you're on Twitter and how long you're on Facebook. So you can say, Whoa, that is almost a full day of my life that I spend. No I didn't. But I didn't I swear. It's embarrassing. But, But you need to have, you need to see it to be able to recognize how much time we're spending, doing things like that  Larry Burden  14:48  Self reflection is a good thing.  Danelle Brostrom  14:50  Self reflection. That's what we call it. But you know, when when 41% of our teens and our kids are feeling that our, that their parents are distracted, their parents aren't there with them, when they're on their device, I think that's a problem. Larry Burden  15:04  Well, they'll find somebody to parent them, Danelle Brostrom  15:07  The device will parent them and media will parent them. Larry Burden  15:09  You're You're we were talking about the the wait until eighth pledge. And I think that's, I don't think that's a bad thing. I don't know...You were definitely swimming against the stream with that. You see a lot of the lot of the the iPads with with the with the babies with the kids with the, If it's not their phone, It's the parents phone. If it's not their iPad, It's their parents iPad. You know, allowing the device to be the parent, because we, we believe that we're very, very busy. And we're doing these things. And sometimes it's easier just to do that. That's another that's another role model. That's another modeling situation that you gotta gotta catch yourself, even though it is it is very easy. You hand a child an iPad and your, your parenting job is done. It'll come back later. But at that moment, it's you know, that situation is taken care of  Danelle Brostrom  16:13  Yeah but, as a parent, you have to think of the whole picture, like there are definitely times in Meijer where my kids are throwing stuff into the cart and messing with each other. And I'm like, here, you play Daniel Tiger, and here you read a book on the phone, just just, we just have to get through Meijer or, you know, we get home and I'm trying to make dinner and do all the things you need to do. And they're fighting, like here guys, go sit and watch Phineas and Ferb, I'm going to go in the kitchen and do dinner. Like, there are definitely times when that happens as a parent, that's just life. But there's also, we've made choices about what kinds of apps and games and TV shows we allow. And then we make choices on the amount of time, which is a lot smaller than it could be. Larry Burden  16:52  And if you have that plan beforehand, it's going to be a lot easier to make appropriate decisions. So when you do allow for digital device usage, because you have a plan, you're not just giving them the world. At that point in time. You're giving them what you feel as a parent is the appropriate amount of the world. So that, you know, you understand the sandbox that they're playing in.  Danelle Brostrom  17:18  For sure, for sure. That and that's another thing that we tell parents is to get, get in that sandbox, you know. Do, do random spot checks of their phone and kind of see, see what what's on there. Make sure that you're the filter for downloading apps, you know, they don't get to just download any apps without you. But get in there. And if they want to download Instagram, you get on Instagram first and see what you think about it and see, see how easy it is to get into trouble or how hard it is and, and then you decide as a parent, whether you want them to have that on their device or not. And, you know, if there's a new video game that they want to play, you know, media has really changed I think about, and like the 1950s, when everyone would kind of gather together around the tiny little TV and you would have conversations, like media was that shared experience. And most living rooms now everybody's kind of on their own device, and nobody's really doing that interacting. So getting in that game yourself. So your kids want to play the video game, pick up the controller and play with them and see, see, see what that just try to recreate that shared experience and be in the game with them and know that they're going to move. You know, if they're on, they're not on Facebook, because we're on Facebook, but if they are on Facebook, it's because they have a nice, perfect version of themselves on Facebook for you, and family. But they're actually on Instagram. So you moved to Instagram, and then they moved to Snapchat. So you move to Snapchat. Like you need to follow and keep up with them, which is a full time job in itself, but you need to do as best that you can do to stay in the game with them.  Larry Burden  18:54  And when you do see, your parenting radar goes off because you see a post that they have, or a comment that they have that isn't appropriate, or it doesn't seem quite right. It is then thier, they will fight you on this. But it is your responsibility and your prerogative to say you need to delete this. This is not appropriate and isn't is not representative of, of you as a person and will probably get you in some level of trouble down the road. But really it is your call. As a parent thing, going back to what you were said, you said about, It's your device, you paid for it. And even beyond that, you know, throwing out the, "I paid for it," you know, saying is if you saw your child doing something inappropriate outside of their digital life, you would call them out for it and there would be, you know, repercussions or a conversation. The same thing should should hold for their digital lives as well. So when you do see something, It's a great, it's a great teachable moment. Danelle Brostrom  20:00  For sure.  Larry Burden  20:01  You know, and those are in there, their digital life is not going to be stopping anytime soon. So it's just as important to call those moments out. If, If Little Johnny punches little Jill in the face, you're going to, obviously, there's going to be repercussions there. If little Jill snapchats inappropriate comments to little Johnny, the same holds true. There's damage done. We need to be able to look at those as equal situations and you know, treat them the same because they are the effects, you know, student you know, our kids very similarly. Danelle Brostrom  20:40  So we need to remember to be having those conversations with our kids that the internet is loud, and the internet is permanent. So everything that you do, like I can only work hands, all the mistakes that we made weren't videoed, they weren't out for everyone to see. We were able to fail and make those mistakes and kind of be sheltered. But it's not that way anymore, their digital footprint is out there and it's not going away. So those inappropriate comments that they do make, could very well follow them and could affect them in the future in and jobs, and colleges, and the ramifications are just ridiculously crazy for our kids. Larry Burden  21:17  And even there, there frame of reference is considerably smaller, you're telling them that they're going to, their text, or their Snapchat is going to affect their college career, it's probably gonna go right over their head, because I'm not really thinking about it. But letting them know that, that Snapchat was screenshot and though it was screenshot by a friend. You have a, you have a, you know, a bad day with that friend, and suddenly that screenshot is shared everywhere. And that's, you know, that's affecting them in the now and you will probably get there is much more likely to get their attention even though you're looking as a as a parent, you know, three, four or five 6, 10 years down the road. That's not where their field of vision is. So you, they might miss that point. It's not saying that that's not the important point. But whether or not they're going to be hearing that point. Eh, might not be close enough to home. Danelle Brostrom  22:19  Yep. And that's okay. And one of the things that we definitely advocate for are short, repeated conversations, your kids need your guidance. They might not seem like they ever want your guidance, but just that's okay. Just keep keep hitting them with that, you know, they might not be listening now. But it might come back later. And we talked about some different conversation ideas like talking with kids about what does it mean, when your friend doesn't answer right away? Because the kids think, Oh, my gosh, she didn't answer my text, she must hate me. And they go into these little spirals. But maybe she's out playing basketball with her dad, like it's okay that she doesn't answer right away. And the whole idea that behind every online interaction, there's a real person. We talked before about how tech companies use like, some streaks to get you addicted, I think it's important for kids to have that knowledge. How the media reinforces gender stereotypes, impact versus intent with some of the language that happens online. Even just finding examples of kind and unkind comments, you can go on any social media site and see that and talking with your kids about that kind of stuff. We just need to continue to have these conversations. And one of the resources that we share with families is the screenagers website, they have something called Tech Talk Tuesdays, and every single Tuesday, they email you different conversation topics that you can have with your kids at the dinner table. And it's amazing, because I never, I mean, this list is awesome. But I never, I never think about it in the moment. But then on Tuesday, I get that email and I'm like, Oh, okay. Tonight, we're going to talk about these six topics. And I've got three conversation starters. And it's, it's a perfect reminder, and it's a perfect shell of what I should be doing. Larry Burden  23:57  When we're going through this list. And you're you're mentioning resources, my thought was, this is not just for nerds.  Danelle Brostrom  24:15  Do you think thsi is just for nerds Larry? You are. I am!  Larry Burden  24:21  No, but, you know, I think a lot of times, you might think that, you know, doing these deep digital dives, that going to Common Sense Media, going to, what was the last one that you. Danelle Brostrom  24:36  The Screenagers Tech Talk Tuesday. Larry Burden  24:37  Tech Talk Tuesday, although I'm not, you know, that's not really my bag, you know, I'm not a I'm not a digital person, even though you're on your phone, checking Twitter, you know, 10-15 hours a day. Everybody is, everybody is a nerd now, certainly your kids, you know, the definition may have changed a little bit or a concept of it. We have to recognize that, that even though you're not coding, You are living a digital life. Everybody is living, living a digital life. So we have to be prepared for that. And we weren't taught in school, we weren't given the tools. You know, as parents, we were not given the tools, it wasn't part of our growing up process. You know, a lot of that a lot of the common sense stuff, m ost of the common sense stuff we received, just through growing up that was part of the process is kind of baked in the digital stuff was not. So we do need to kind of kind of backfill those resources, and it isn't going to necessarily be an, you know, obvious, because the playing fields changed. So we kind of have to relearn the rules or learn new rules. And check out those resources, even though it might not be your bag is probably a really wise thing to do.  Danelle Brostrom  26:00  For sure. Common Sense Media is one of my favorites. I love that. So, So ideally you should be having these conversations with. But with other parents, you should be talking to the parents of the kids in the houses where your your kid spends time. You know, my kid always has the best, my kid has the best friend, she spends time over there, I should be talking to her mom about media roles in their house. And we should just be having that conversation with the parents that are around us. But if we can't, or we don't feel like we have a parent group around us Common Sense, Media is great for that. Because there's a whole entire section on parent concerns. There's a whole entire section on parenting advice blog, so you can go on and you can get advice for how to deal with curious searches, or when to get your kid a cell phone or one the other day, it was just different things you can do to your own phone to help you be more in the moment. And I mean, there's the reviews and the ratings. And those are amazing, because you can go on and find reviews and ratings for any book, movie games, apps, any of that stuff, but the whole parenting section that you can join this online community and kind of lurk and see what's going on. And that you can have this group of knowledgeable parents around you as you go into the media digital battlefield. That's what it feels like sometimes, but it's just it's nice to have Common Sense Media in your bag. Larry Burden  27:21  I think sometimes our kids think it's a battlefield. Danelle Brostrom  27:22  It is a battlefield Larry Burden  27:25  Give them helmets. Go on out there, get into the trenches! Danelle Brostrom  27:28  It is.  Larry Burden  27:29  So You know, when I was thinking about this earlier, I thought less is more. But it's more better than none. I'm saying that as far as you know, less screen time is better, You know, but is more better than not isolating them from?  Danelle Brostrom  27:50  You can't isolate them from.  Larry Burden  27:52  I think that's what I was getting to. That ship has sailed.  Danelle Brostrom  27:56  Yeah.  Larry Burden  27:56  So at some point in time, they're going to live in the digital world. Unknown Speaker  28:02  Larry, I saw a statistic yesterday, from a research paper that 98% of our kids ages two and over have access to a device Larry Burden  28:11  ages 2, 2 and over Danelle Brostrom  28:14  They can barely talk but they have access to a device. That's sailed.  Larry Burden  28:18  Yeah. So you can't, do the ostrich you put your head in the sand. Danelle Brostrom  28:24  I want to. Larry Burden  28:26  and say this is going away? It's not. You can say that we don't live that type of lifestyle. You probably do. So, and your kids certainly are. So educate yourself. Yeah, make sure that you're educated and that you have, I loved what you said about you know, talk about this with your friends, with your fellow parents, it doesn't necessarily have to be doing a bunch of research online. You know, find your peers and talk with them about it. I think that's a great idea. Danelle Brostrom  28:58  Yeah. Because you can guarantee that they have the same concerns and the same frustrations and the same, "nobody knows what they're doing." That's like, that's like the secret of parenting that I found out recently. Nobody knows what they're doing. We're all just trying to figure it out as we go. But if I listened to like, what you know, and what you know, and what you know, and what, you know, I can kind of put it all together and, okay, I feel a little bit better, you know. Larry Burden  29:17  And you know, we when we talk about our own social media environments, we tend not to Facebook, Twitter, whatever might be a great resource. Or Instagram might be a great resource for asking those questions. Except we don't, we don't we don't we don't actually you tend to use that we tend to paint paint a pretty picture of our lives, Instead of asking the tough questions, that those spaces might actually be useful, that. Though I would argue that sometimes those spaces don't lead to the conversations you'd like to have on those topics. Danelle Brostrom  29:50  Now have it in person, have it around the coffee table? Just be with people?  Larry Burden  29:56  Absolutely. So what else you got? Danelle Brostrom  29:57  What else I got.   Larry Burden  29:57  There's a lot of slides. Danelle Brostrom  30:00  There's a lot of really good information on here. And I would like to link this up, but like, okay, so we talked before that I'm a nerd. And yes, I am a nerd. But there's a bunch of really, really good books out right now that I would recommend, "The Art of Screen Time," how your family can balance digital media and real life, "Unselfie," why empathetic kids succeed in an all about me world, "Irresistible." We talked about that before the rise of addictive technology and the business of keeping us hooked. "Social Media Wellness," helping teens and tweens thrive in an unbalanced digital world. And then you know, we, we've talked about it sometimes on the Loop weekly podcast. So keeping in tune with what we're doing. And then the Common Sense Media and the Screenagers website, Those are my, my, if you want to branch out and do other reading, That's where I would recommend going to. Larry Burden  30:48  Reading?  Danelle Brostrom  30:49  Reading. I read so many books. Yeah, Larry Burden  30:52  that's a good thing.  Danelle Brostrom  30:52  It's a good thing.  Larry Burden  30:53  All right, anything else, or we're gonna be over. This conversation could go on much longer. I don't think we got to a quarter of the slides.  Danelle Brostrom  31:03  Are you saying I have too many slides? Larry Burden  31:04  So again, going back to the email earlier, when you asked, "have we beaten this to death?"  No, no, there'll be a no! we could do this every week. And I don't think it'd be enough to be honest. But I am cutting you off. So Tech Tool of the Week,  Danelle Brostrom  31:24  Tech Tool of the Week, I want to share with you this really cool thing that my daughter got from the Public Library. I know some of our secondary schools at TCAPS and a couple of elementary schools have have these in their library, too. So this is called a Play Away. She's currently listening to Sarah Penny Packers novel called, "Packs." And This is the entire novel on this little device. So she plugs headphones into it. And she starts it and she can start and stop, she can play, She can change the speed of the reading, which I really like that kids that want to listen to a little faster, a little slower can have it. But what I like about this is it offers, it offers our kids access to novels that maybe they couldn't read themselves. We know that, that's why we give kids books on tape. But these are really, really cool. They're really tiny, they can fit in the pocket. She's listening to them in the car, this is the only way I can get her to do chores. because she'll put it on while she's doing things around the house. And my kid's a big reader, she walks into walls, let's be honest, she holds her book up and she walks into walls. Well, now she's listening. So she doesn't walk into walls all the time. So, we love Play Aways. But they have these for adults too. And I just think this is a really cool way to like I said, I'm a big reader, but I don't always have time to sit and physically read books, Play Aways are great for that. They're awesome. They have like I said they haven't for adults, but on the Public Library has quite a big selection. And our secondary schools have a selection as well. So... Larry Burden  32:51  Little updates, tutorials and updates. Actually, I haven't checked the tutorial situation. So I don't know if anybody's put anything on there. Wanted to let you know, we recorded a "Gamification" pod with the TechNollerGist, yesterday that was a lot of fun. Was in Traverse Heights last week and did a fun actually Danielle was there, did a fun Maker Space Launch Pad little video that's that's posted. If you want to get a maker space going and you're wondering, what does it look like? That's a it's a nice little one minute video to kind of give you a brief, brief glimpse. They haven't got the Tech Tool a playlist up yet, but still want to do that. So all your tech tools of the week will be in one spot. And I wanted to bring up something that maybe isn't tech focused, but I thought was really important. East Middle School did a documentary on opioid use. And it is, it's a hard watch. And it was put together by the middle school students. It was the digital media class over at East Middle School. And I highly advise any parent to to watch it and sit down with their kids and watch. It's about 15 minutes long. But we'll have the link to that in the show notes, show notes. It's you know, digital citizenship and digital literacy is very important. This is kind of another side that's as far as parenting goes. It's kind of an ugly truth that I think a lot of times we want to avoid, But it is a problem. So I highly recommend watching that. Danelle Brostrom  34:26  What class Larry did you say did that? Larry Burden  34:28  It's the digital media class. Danelle Brostrom  34:29  Awesome. They were trying to make...  TrojanTV  and community or something like that.  Larry Burden  34:34  Yeah, So I want to make the segue. Our Superintendent spoke about this at last night's board meeting, and he attempted to make a positive segue out of it. And it didn't work so I'm not even gonna try. So I'm just gonna say Follow us on Facebook and Twitter @TCAPSLoop Danelle Brostrom  34:54  @brostromda  Larry Burden  34:56  Check out the TCAPSloop blog at tcapsloop.tcaps.net. Subscribe to the podcast on iTunes, SoundCloud and the Google Play Store, leave a review. We love the feedback. Any advice that you have that you might want to share? Feel free to leave that to. So we'd love to have a conversation about this. What are you doing with your kids to help them deal with thier digital lives. Thanks for listening and inspiring. Danelle Brostrom  35:27  That was good. Larry Burden  35:28  That was good. 

It was Podcast moving day last week and the EdTechLoop Pod is happy to now be hosted by Podbean! However all the archived shows did not make it through the move so over the next few weeks before the school year begins I plan to post some of our most popular past episodes starting with the very first BiblioTech podcast featuring local writer and illustrator Brianne Farley. Please excuse the poor audio quality, we hadn’t dialed the studio or editing in yet but the interview is too good to not have on the feed. And as always, thanks for listening and inspiring.Please forgive the first attempt to transcribe the podcast. As always, we will strive to improve.0:00 - StephieThis is Brianne Farley, and she is an author and illustrator, and a local Traverse City Area Public Schools, alumni, we're gonna chat today. 0:37 - StephieWhat’s your background, your educational background and career, what your career path has been. And if you want to look, you know, in when I say educational background. Back in elementary school, the experiences you had an elementary school how those have carried along with you and how you ended up in the career that you're in. Okay. 1:02 - Brianne All right. Well, I started. Well when I moved up here to Traverse City when I was seven, and I started Old Mission, and we live actually right, my parents live right behind Old Mission. Yeah okay and that's like the world's best playground. I think when I did when I first did a visit at Old Mission with my book that's like, all I talked to the kids about was, I was like, tell me about your playground. Is it the coolest is the pond still haunted. and they're like, No, and I was like, It’s still haunted. 1:37 - BrianneAnd so I went to Old Mission and then, and then I went to the talented and gifted program at Central. And then, yeah and I went to East, Central High School, and  StephieWhen did you graduate? BrianneI graduated in ‘02. Yeah, I was the first class after the split. Okay, yeah.  StephieSo one year after split.  Brianneyeah yeah one year to split, and. 2:06 - Brianne And then I went to McAllister college actually on the recommendation of my principal, Mr. Townsend,  StephieMr Townsend Yeah, yeah,  BrianneFunny enough, he’s been my principal since elementary school. Interesting. He kept moving up as I graduated and so yeah he’s been my principal forever and then you say, also go to college here.  StephieAnd then he and he promoted your book for you. 2:35 - Brianne Yeah. Yeah, he's my publicist. 2:40 - Stephiehe's a great person  Briannehe is great. He's so great. Um, and then after McAllister, I  StephieWhat was your focus there.  BrianneOh I went there for English. I like knew that I wanted to be an editor. And so I went for English and I really loved, art, but I thought that for some reason I had this idea that if I made art my career I would hate it, like, like you said, like the pressure of having to make something that makes me not like it anymore. So I really loved reading I loved books as a total bookworm growing up and, and so I knew I wanted to be an editor and then I went off to New York after a year of college, and did an editorial internship and totally hated it. Yeah. I really hated it. And  StephieWhat do you think it was. Did you find it too technical or too, was it, work was mundane? BrianneI was at a very small publishing house. And so I think that having a little bit of a different view of what editing was then what I saw at this house and which actually is probably not very accurate it's like how other houses edit but, um, yeah it was like it was a little too mundane it was I thought that I was going to be like in the trenches with the writers like helping them like what if you used this other word here and, and that's not what it was at this house. 4:13 - StephieDid you have much contact with authors.  BrianneNo, no, no. Yeah, it ended up being this very I mean it was like an internship, they were like yeah like organize our computer. Like, this is what editing is. So then, I, I was an art minor and then I went down to Chicago and was working at the Art Institute there and was an administrative assistant.  StephieOkay, did you like that.  BrianneI really did yeah, that was a great job. The best part about it was that you could take classes for free at the School of the Art Institute. Yeah, so I started taking more classes and then I did a residency and, and then, was like why am I doing this is I should really, realy make that happen so I applied for grad school and went to SCAD for illustration and SCAD is the Savannah College of Art and Design. StephieGeorgia? BrianneGeorgia. Yeah.  StephieAnd your focus was the illustration, and had that been your interest? Would you say, Did you find that and trust when you're in Chicago? BrianneNo I, well, a little bit I had grown up loving Roald Dahl and Quinten Blake, and I'd actually went to his at TAG we had to write a speech every year about when I grow up, do they still do that? they should still do that because it tells you what you want to be when you grow up. ‘Cause that’s what I wrote my speech about. I was like, I want to be Roald Dahl and Quentin Blake. Although I guess the year before I said I wanted to be Benjamin Franklin and that didn't pan out. StephieThere’s still time 6:01 - Brianneto be a founding father. It could still happen. 6:06 - BrianneYeah, so I said that that's what I wanted to do so. I think that that kind of stuck with me. StephieAs an illustrator, do you focus in a certain medium, or you explain that, like, what, what would an illustrator, what would that look like, like what classes did you take? What kind of a focus in your art education, did you have? BrianneWell, um, I think I lucked out, knowing that I was interested in children's books going into it. Because I was able to kind of tailor my graduate experience toward children's books, and actually my first book was a homework assignment in grad school, I took a class called directed projects which is basically, it's like a directed free-for-all, like, you pick a project that you want to do over the course of the whole semester. And, and it has to be a series of some sort of some people that like branding, like they've made up a brewery and branding, like you know made several different kinds of beer labels or something and, and I picked a kids book and...  StephieAnd did that become Ike?  BrianneYeah that became “Ike’s Incredible Ink.” Yeah, do your homework kids. 7:30 - StephieSo, that was what year of school. How long have you been in?  BrianneThat, it's a two year program and that was the first quarter of my second year there.  StephieSo, from that homework assignment, how did they get from there to the published book?  BrianneGosh, like a combination of super hard work and crazy good luck. Like anything in life. I kind of hit the ground running with this project and got...I was able to finish the entire book in the whole in 10 weeks. And you were only supposed to do three interior spreads and a cover, and I was, I don't know crazy person was like I'll do all of it and, so, which ended up being great, because I had; so Peter Brown, who's a author, Illustrator, he was coming to SKAD to give a presentation, and at the same time I knew that my friend Ryan who I was in grad school with had a friend Pete who was coming to town, I didn't realize that these are the same person. And so I was sitting in the grad studio at SKAD doing my work working on Ike, and Pete and Ryan came in we were hanging out and talking and then my professor walked in and he was like, oh, Brianne I see you’ve met Peter Brown. He's like, you should have them look at your book, and I was like, Oh, (laughing) okay. And so he took a look at it and send it to his agent and the agent liked it and now here we are. And now Peter’s one of my closest friends so that worked out to, socially. 9:21 - StephieOkay, so what were some of the steps like so then agents said, I really like this. Then what? BrianneWell, that's the trick with kids books is that you. It's very rare that you get your book published without an agent. Without an agent your manuscript goes into the slush pile they call it which is like about as organized as it sounds, but with an agent, you have all these doors open where the agent is kind of the first gatekeeper and they kind of carry a stable of people that whose work they like. And then they will go into the publishing companies and either in person or by email kind of promote your work and say like this is something that we're working on. We think that it would be a good match for you so they'll kind of try to pair you up with a, with an editor. And then the editor is usually the one that does the acquiring till they find a manuscript that they like that can either. If you're an author illustrator they'll have some sample drawings with the manuscripts and this year, just an author, it won't have any illustrations with it. 10:28 - StephieSo from the time that it went to an agent and was selected, how long does it take typically or did it take for your book for your first book? BrianneUm, for my first book. It took about a year from, my agent is Paul Rodine, and it took about a year from when Paul picked it up to when Candlewick said hooray, we want your book. But it can go much faster than that. I don't, I don't know how long it takes us first books but yeah that's what happened with mine. StephieAnd then it was published how soon after that? 11:09 - BrianneUm, let's see well that was another funny one because that I had, you know, finished a book basically and then had to kind of go back to square one with their suggestions and revisions. But I think the whole process took maybe another, not quite another year altogether and then it takes another year to actually get public, come out into bookstores. So, like I finished this book “Secret Tree Fort” in April. Last April, and it comes out this coming April. Yeah. 11:50 - StephieAnd I can't wait to talk about that. 11:53 - BrianneFor Ike, having it published. So tell us about what it's like, it's in bookstores. Did you do a book tour? Did you get to talk with kids, I get to talk with kids. I didn't do a book tour that the publishing company sent me on or anything, I would, kind of, I'm going to get caught by the IRS telling you this but like, if I ever wanted to go on a trip I would call up a bookstore and be like, Hello, and just start writing off this trip. But yeah, it was great, bookstores are really happy to have you because you're free and you help sell their books and you're kind of like an hour long babysitter. And then schools are great too I am, I was able to do a bunch of school visits with TCAPS last spring, yeah, it was.  StephieThe weather was a little iffy, yeah. 12:52 - BrianneYeah, somewhere in there  StephieIt could have been arranged in November. BrianneCould be anytime. 12:59 - BrianneBut, yeah, it's wonderful , the kids provide a lot of good feedback and you get to see like what they respond to and what they're interested in. 13:10 - StephieDo you have any like best quotes from kids a lot along the way about your book or funny questions? 13:20 - BrianneWhen I first started, hats off to the  teachers, I like knew nothing about crowd control and like what questions you could ask kids and whatnot, like, like you can't just be like, How are you, because they'll be like, “I'm going to a birthday party and there's a swimming pool and…” And that was actually my very first reading as a kid raised his hand and said, “I'm going to a birthday party.” Anyway, let me see, at the end of the presentations I draw a rocket with the kids and I like to tell them that they can that I'm going to draw Ike inside of the rocket but that they can draw whoever they want and I had a little kid, tell me that they're putting their grandma in the rocket to the moon, like I'm going to send my grandmother to the moon. 14:08 - StephieWhat happened with that.  BrianneYeah, so they yeah this is some pretty some pretty great stuff. I've also been really blown away with the other end of things, kids being like, so how do I get an agent? What's the difference between self publishing a published book? Who are you?  StephieLike a little kid. I mean some of those.  BrianneSome of those questions came from like fifth graders but I was really impressed that they even... 14:38 - StephieWhen you're young, did you write for fun and to illustrate books for fun?  BrianneYeah, yeah. I actually, when I was in third grade. Our Old Mission did a program where you could write a book and the library would bind it and have like put a bar code on it and have it in the library and anybody could check it out. So that was really inspiring I got to do that.  StephieDo remember what you wrote for that book?  BrianneYeah, it was a book called, Trees are Homes, and I distinctly remember making the cover first and then kind, of just plowing my way through the rest of the book and the book kind of like taking a turn somewhere and then like not really being about that by the end. StephieBut cover was set. BrianneTrees are Homes, and it was like animals live in trees, so you should recycle, recycling's good, boy do I like paper, it just kinda like wandered. 15:37 - StephieDo you remember checking out friends books and like having friends check out your book. Do you remember having like...  BrianneI do remember. I do remember going into the library and checking to see if anyone had checked out my book. Yeah, it's like the first version of like social media, any likes? 15:58 - StephieWell, that must be an amazing experience, now to see, Ike, and to see, Secret Tree Fort.  BrianneYeah, it's crazy like it when, when Ike first came out, I was on a road trip and stopped at this Barnes and Noble in the middle of nowhere and found it. Yeah, and one of my good friends lives in Anchorage, and she sent me a photo of like in her local library, and I was like, “oh, thanks for donating that book to your library,” and she was like, “it was just here.” 16:31 - StephieSo “Secret Tree Fort,” comes out in April. Can you tell us a little bit about it?  BrianneSure, it's about, about two sisters and older sister just wants to read and the younger sister wants to the older sister to play with her.  StephieDoes this have any connection to your own life?  BrianneOh yeah, it's incredibly biographical. This is me never wanting to put down a book. And this is my younger sister, little toe head, her being very energetic and wanting to play and we actually we did play together as kids, and when we did play a lot of what we did was plan tree forts, or tree houses we would have drawings of like okay on the third floor will have the observation deck and then the slide will lead to the pool. And we'd be like dad. Let's do this. 17:27 - StephieDid you have a tree fort?  BrianneWe did, we did, it was a, it was a box in a tree but it did have a zip line. Yeah that's all you need. 17:37 - StephieYou just need a little, little bit of wood in a tree in your house. Yeah. Yeah. So illustration wise, did you use a similar sort of process when you were working on this book? BrianneNo, not at all. I did a lot of print-making at McAllister this great printmaking professor, and I somehow I didn't even know that print-making existed before I got there. And she kind of opened up this whole world they really fell in love with it and so I guess I think a lot of my work is informed by printmaking but maybe by different processes. So, the first book is about a blob of ink who can somehow get up and walk. And so it's about ink and paper and craft and like making things with their hands so I wanted it to be made with ink and paper so it's it's ink line work and collaged paper that's actually collaged digitally. And then this is also kind of made digitally, I drew the book with charcoal and pencil and different layers. Okay, different pieces of paper so like the outline will be a piece of paper and then like the texture will be on another piece of paper and then I scan it all into the computer and color it digitally, which is a total headache. I don't know why I work like that but…StephieWhat made you choose to do it that way does it give you more options.  19:11 - BrianneYeah, I think I really love getting the color right and the texture right is really important to me and I like it when the color and the format of the book kind of helps you tell the story. So, in this book, the younger sister is telling her older sister about this tree forth that she has that, you know, as she talks you kind of see the tree fruit in the background like growing floors and slides and the whale observation area. And, and I wanted to kind of, kind of interacting with an imaginary environment and I wanted there to be some visual cue that was like, “This isn't real.” “And this is real.” And so I made this real for myself that everything that was real would be very muted, and everything was imaginary you can be these technicolors, and the computer let you kind of set that up and play with it. 20:12 - StephieDid you enjoy that process? So, you know, very different from Ike. Did you enjoy doing it that way and was it a lesson to be learned would you do it that way again. 20:27 - BrianneI don't know, actually, it’s funny that you ask. I had a publisher contact me and asked me to submit a sample of work and I like can you make it just like how you made “Secret Tree Fort,” and I was like, ugh. Okay, maybe if I was a better artist I wouldn't need to do it that way but it's like, I need to fuss with it forever to be like, oh no I made this tree dark so then this tree has to be light so then this part has to be more colorful but I don't know if I do it again. It's definitely really fun to work like that it's kind of like how you build a screen print. Yeah, I like that. I love the look of it. Yeah, and I love the control but, boy is it time consuming. 21:20 - StephieWhat I’ve seen of it, it’s beautiful. So when this book comes out will it be the same thing when you visit schools again, and maybe get a few bookstores at some exotic locations? 21:31 - BrianneHopefully, yeah. Yeah, I love doing school visits it's really, really fun. Yeah, I love doing the school visits, it's kind of like the opposite of sitting alone and drawing. Standing up in front of an auditorium of eight year olds. 21:54 - StephieWhen you mentioned that, that being alone and working, I know that you've been involved with A26. And can you tell us a little bit about, first what that is and what you've done.  BrianneSure. A26 is an amazing organization and I know that you said that Front Street Writers is kind of a little bit near it. A26 was started by the writer Dave Eggers and legend has it that he wanted to start a tutoring program in San Francisco and bought a commercial space, and then was told that, because it was a commercial space and zoned commercially it had to sell something and it couldn't just be a tutoring center and so he was like great we sell pirate supplies. And so the front of the store sold pirate supplies in the back of the store… StephieI love that it happened that way. 22:50 - BrianneYeah, so then they were really surprised to find out the pirate supply section of the store kind of helped the kids, like it made it this like, very special space and it also helped take away the stigma like meeting after school homework assistance or like taking an extra writing class just for fun. I'm a big dork, that’s something I would do. And so, it helped with that and then also it was bringing in people from the neighborhood to be like, what is this place? And that led to people volunteering just because they like walked in to see what the Pirate Store was about. And then the revenue from selling like a tub of lard pays the rent on the stores. Yeah, so now it's nationwide and all of the stores had like a front and then there's a secret tutoring center in the background. So I think they want in Michigan, haven't been a robot repair shop.  StephieYeah, yeah, Seattle is time travelers. I think there's a Bigfoot one. What’s New York?.  BrianneIt’s the superhero supply store. I first got involved with the one in Chicago, which is the spy supply store.  StephieYeah, I just love to go in one. BrianneYeah, yeah, it's the one in Chicago so funny that it has the sign out in front, that's like, nothing to see here, nobody needs to come in, you don't need anything. And for a while I had to change it because it was like two effective people are like, Oh, yeah. 24:18 - StephieAnd so did you do workshops there?  BrianneYeah, yeah, I did a comic book writing workshop and autobiographical comic book ratings that was great. And also the one. Oh, we did block printing with character descriptions so I had the kids make black print of face, and they wrote a character description of it and then they all traded prints and then wrote a description of that someone else's portrait. It's really fun activity Yeah. StephieSo thinking about working with kids and, have you thought about, like, doing something more like that doing more workshops with kids is that an area that you might pursue?  BrianneYeah, yeah, hopefully. That's the great part about living here now is I have all this extra time I was, I was working. When I first moved to New York I was working for random houses, uh, well first as an administrative assistant and then there's a book designer. And then I left to do more illustration but came as rehired as a freelance designer so I was working there part time. And then, and now that I live here, I can have a little bit more time on my hands, because I’m not working at Random House. StephieSo right now are you do your projects in the pipeline that are working on? BrianneI do. I don't know what am I allowed to share. I'm working on getting my promotional plan ready for it Secret Tree Fort. You start kind of amping that up about three months out but you have to know what you're going to do before the three months are here. And, and then I signed up to do it I can tell you about this. I signed up to do a book called “Charlotte the Scientist is Squished,” and that's my first book that I’m just illustrating in not writing on hey yeah.  StephieSo where is that in the process? BrianneThat is signed up... StephieSorry to interrupt you. How did you get connected to that book? Did the author see your work?  BrianneNo, that's, um, gosh that's another book was like, yeah, and like, usually it happens this way but I don't, that’s not how it happened for me, usually an author submits their manuscript to a publishing company and then the editor buys the manuscript, and then the editor and the art director work together to find an illustrator. But in this case, my agent represents the author and, and I had told my agent that I wanted, I was like I'd really like to try illustrating somebody else's manuscript. And I said, we've got this manuscript do you want to illustrate it and we'll send it out to publishers that way and I like there's no guarantee, they like they might drop your illustrations, like, whatever. Yeah yeah so that's how I got connected. 27:29 - StephieSo, and that book will be coming out like I said a couple years away. BrianneThat'll be coming out in spring ‘17.  StephieOkay, I’m excited to see it. 27:42 - BrianneYeah, me too. It's on the manuscript is being edited right now and is with the author. And as soon as they finalize the manuscript then I get a hold of it. 27:55 - StephieWill you be working on that here? will you be back in New York? Or can you work anywhere? BrianneOh gosh, I don't know. Yeah, I can work anywhere. That's great anywhere that has Wi Fi and a flat surface.  28:11 - StephieBesides, what you've done in the book form,where else has your art appeared, what other format? Tell us about, tell us about your art, separate from books?  BrianneUm, well, I did a couple publications with, I did a drawing for McSweeney's, and for the New York Times, did one for them. So I've done a couple editorial pieces here and there, but I found that editorial is like, kind of this constant, you need to keep reminding our directors that you're around, and I just I love doing children's book so much that I'd rather spend my time doing that.  StephieThat's really your passion.  BrianneIt is it's so great, it's like it's like don't tell any other illustrators but it's like you get to, basically, you're like free rein you have like 32 pages to just go nuts, and with editorial it's really really fast turnaround and people make beautiful stuff. I really have a deep admiration for editorial illustrators but and I don't work that way very well. StephieBut it's gonna work, what you enjoy.  BrianneYeah. Yeah. can anybody see your art around town? 29:25 - BrianneOh, the Little Fleet. Yeah. That was the best job. Yeah, I did the mural at Little Fleet. 29:35 - StephieTell us about that process? BrianneYou introduced me to Allison. And Allison was so great. She actually, it was so funny because they had just moved here from Brooklyn, and I was living in Brooklyn, at the time, and she was like, oh yeah, she sent me a couple images of what she was interested in and she was like we want these free hand kind of line drawings on our wall, and I started sending her sketches and she's like, can you know, can you just come in and like, do crazy stuff all over the wall. It's like, Oh yeah, totally.  StephieAnd you did it. Tell us about like the actual process where people there?  BrianneOh yeah, they... I started at 11 in the morning so I got all set up before anybody came in, and then I just worked the whole day. And it was, yeah, there are people there and watching and luckily I was up on a ladder, with my back to everybody. I wasn’t too aware of anyone watching. That's pretty good. Yeah, and you're adorable daughter was there, StephieShe does love knowing there's. 30:47 - BrianeIt's their balloon. 30:50 - StephieDid you? It has it looked like watching it that that you had planned out where things would go because everything fits so nicely, like how much pre-planning...  BrianneSmoke and mirrors.  StephieDefinitely. It looks that way. But can you just like did you look at this face and you're able to just, I mean how much of that was planned ahead in your mind and how much of it, and I mean I like out of  the blue here.BrianneThey told me that they wanted some like goofy characters and I've actually painted my bathroom in New York with chalkboard paint and had been actually like the week that she contacted me had filled my bathroom wall with these like crazy characters, and I sent her a photo of it and she was like, yeah, that's what we want. That works out well. So I had a kind of a eight and a half by 11 piece of paper with just some doodles on it and like character ideas, but all the layout was done on the fly. It was fun, it was exhausting. I think the only thing I knew going into it was that I wanted to have all of the characters marching in one direction because I wanted them to be like a fleet. Yeah, and I wanted to put that there's a cherry with a face in it that I knew that I wanted to up there, but... StephieYou obviously such an eye and experience. Was it nerve racking to do in front of people? And maybe we're looking back to people but have you ever painted like in a public setting?  BrianneNo, no. You know, I think I would have been, you know, if someone had come up to me and said, will you draw my portrait that would have terrified me but the fact that she was like, draw these crazy characters that you love drawing. I think that made it fine.  Stephie Did you go back and change anything, or was it just as is. 32:56 - BrianneNo, Yeah, I think one girl I kind of made for myself was that I would get off the ladder as often as possible so that I could step back and look at it from a distance. I think that really helped. But for the most part if I, I kind of saw how things were fitting together as I was moving from left to right. But yeah, I think I did have a little freak out in the beginning, so I wasn't really sure about the paint. The paint was like going on the wall and was really weird way like I felt slimy and I was like this is terrible, like, no one told me that painting on a wall it feels different than drawing with the marker. 33:41 - StephieSo that was your first time painting, something like that, of that scale? 33:46 - BrianneYeah, but now I love it funny. Yeah, I would love to do it again. 34:03 - StephieOkay. So switching gears a little bit. I'd love to talk about books and libraries, in particular. I mean we touched a little bit on the book project that you did at Old Mission but what are some of the things you remember now that you're, you know, in your career and following your passion for what you're doing and looking back at you know school libraries, public libraries and books in general I know you're a big reader and always were. What are some of the experiences you remember, and in what ways do you think school libraries and libraries in particular impacted you? Or some of your memories?  BrianneGood question. I guess, I have really fond memories of my librarians feet, you know, she would kind of sit on like a big armchair and everyone would kind of like crowd around. I just, I remember I loved that, like intimacy of like being read to. Really wanting to know what happened next, like, I remember the librarian at Central reading us “The Giver” and just being like, oh, when I found out that it was color that had been missing I was like, “What!” stop everything. Being read to it's just so special and it really brings the books to life, and, and I found I was really surprised when I visited schools that told me that I was going to be presenting to first graders as well as fifth graders. It's like I hope this presentation works for all ages. And I was really surprised by how engaged the fifth graders were that they still love being read to and enjoy picture books and just get something totally different out of it.  StephieAbsolutely, yeah. picture books are, they hit  kids at all different levels. And some of them are really, and, and maybe not in particular yours but some are geared, really there's middle school kids and some projects that there are picture books that are at that level, I mean in the details well as, What's the subject and it's quite mature. It's always thought of as her very young children. The format is really not necessarily that way. BrianneYou know I really think that's a mistake, actually I find myself when I talk about books trying not to say, kids books. I tried to say picture books cuz i mean i think that a lot of them are for audiences of all ages and that, and that booksellers are making a mistake kind of pigeon holing what age range, they can present to.Have you ever seen this book? Death, Duck, and the Tulip by Wolf Elbrooke? I think it's his name. He's a German guy. European kids books, they're like crazy like boobs, and there's all kinds of stuff in there. They’re a little bit edgier. It’s about a duck that meets death, and they kind of hang out together and then at the end of the book the duck dies, and that’s whole book and it's like really beautiful and, and just kind of like, this is what happens. Sometimes things die. And so it's like, I think it would be good. And it really struck me, you know, a certain age. Yeah, that was really really powerful, yeah. A good thing for kids of all ages. StephieI don't think that kids stop needing to be or stuff enjoying to be read to. It's not, it doesn't end in fifth grade. Middle School, even when even High School, and the adults. Yeah, being read to is something that's pretty universal.  BrianneYeah, it's very soothing to be read to even as an adult, it's nice to have someone just read something out loud. And, and I think that you get you get access to, you know, like words that you might not normally hear read out loud, like you're like, Oh, it's not hors d'oeuvres? Yeah, I think, I think it's really important and I think, yeah, I think that there's I actually I find myself having a little bit of a hard time talking about like, like what my favorite picture books are because I'm like there’s the books that I love as a kid. And then there's the books that I love now, and I don't have, I don't have kids and so like I don't really know what it is that kids respond to and Charlotte who I work with at Smith and Jones studios she brought in this whole stack, she, she labeled them a post it notes and she's like these are good books. These are terrible books. 39:10 - StephieLike, what made those terrible? Was it content, they were boring was it…? BrianneYeah, I mean, I think some of it was. I mean picture books I such a hard audience because you're appealing to a very young child and the parent that has to read it one hundred times in a row. And so I think some of them were books for her kids love them and she was like, I never want to see these books again. Yeah, yeah, but so I don't have that, I don't know I don't have the input of actual little kids so I'm going off like this is a beautiful book. I'm touched by this book, I don't know if kids would actually like it. 39:47 - StephieSo the unfair question. What were some of your favorite books as now and as a kid, and not just picture books like what are some of your, you mentioned the Giver, just favorite books?  BrianneI think the first book I remember being just obsessed with was the BFG Roald Dahl, and I loved that book. And then I went and read everything of Roald Dahl’s that I could find. He's super talented and dark. I love that too. Yeah. And I think as a kid I really, I really liked Sneeches by Dr. Seuss and, oh, Just a Dream by Chris Van Alsberg. That probably inspired Trees are Homes. Protect your environment. And what else: Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, anything by Maurice Sendeck, the Little Bear books, and Where the Wild Things Are, Go Dog! Go! I recently re-read that and was like this book is brilliant. Yeah. And, and now...There's so much out there. Again, I'm like, I don't know if kids like these are not, but Greg Pizzoli is really great author, Illustrator. He just said a book about the “Watermelon Seed.” Okay, about a crocodile that follows a watermelon seed and Pool by, oh gosh, JHyeon Lee I think is her name and I think that that just one has a magical place in New York called the Society of illustrators and that's a museum slash art studio, that's just illustrations, And they hold, they do separate several competitions throughout the year but there's the original art show is just for children's books. And I think that that just won the original art show. It's a really cool space it's like this little converted townhouse, and it's kind of bright red door so you feel like you're kind of walking into a magical home. StephieWow, great, things like that are celebrated. What a wonderful spot to celebrate that kind of creativity. 42:16 - BrianneThat's the thing I miss most about Brooklyn is that a lot of my friends also wrote and illustrated book so they've also got some really beautiful books coming out. StephieAnd their titles, you can share? BrianneYeah. Um, let's see, Ruth Chan has her first book coming out which is, “Where's the Party,” which is about a cat that wants to throw a party but then all of his friends are busy. And it's based on her real cat Georgie. And let's see, my friend, Dasha Tolstikova has this really beautiful illustrated novel coming out I guess that's what you call it so it's long but it's not really a graphic novel, probably like a hundred pages, “A Year Without Mom.” And that's about when she grew up in Russia and her mom moved to America, and she stayed in Russia for another year and then followed her mom so it's about that year, she's 13.  StephieSo, like a middle grade, Middle School?  BrianneYeah, probably for like that same age group, 12-13. And she's also got a couple of picture books coming out “The Jacket.” She illustrated and that's like doing really, really well. It's a, it's a book about a girl who, I guess it's about a book, who, a girl buys the book and he's so happy to have someone who loves them. It’s so cute. 43:44 - StephieSo, yeah. Any other thoughts on experiences you remember, projects you did that standout related to books or illustration in school, other experiences in other schools or libraries that you remember? 44:00 - BrianneWell, each. And, and the librarians and I think I was really lucky to be in that talented and gifted program they have a lot of really great like kind of interactive projects where you are encouraged to write and, and draw, or they would maybe give you like several options of how to complete a project which I think is really great for kids learn and express themselves in different ways so you could either you know like, put on a play or like make a board game. I think that's always the one I chose like make some stuff with your hands, you could make, like, a little sculpture. I remember really loving my science classes, because I like making all the models.  StephieSure, yeah, it's interesting isn't it like even as a small, small young learner like those things that carry through, things that you love, you know, they might change, but some of those things stay. They are  what is important to you even as an adult. 45:11 - StephieWell, are there, anything is there anything I didn't ask you that you want to share. 45:17 - BrianneI can think of any. Any ideas?. 45:20 - LarryOkay, so the voice from the other side of the monitor. There, there are three questions I want to ask if you have the time. The first one I was fascinated by the conversation you guys had about picture, picture books, not being available, or is this something with the authors and publishers now making picture books for adults. First of all, was that their coffee table books, but not really because oftentimes, coffee table books don't contain a narrative. There more non-fiction. There might be a correlation between and especially for high school readers that correlation between picture books, and then read and students that have enjoyed picture books then graduating to graphic novels yeah I mentioned graphic novels and I wanted to know if you felt there was a connection there between the picture book and the graphic novel.  BrianneDefinitely, I think that and I think graphic novels are really filling a hole that's been present in, in the books that are available that that graphic novels aren't just like superhero graphic novels anymore that you can get like these really beautiful narratives that, I think that this is the first year that a graphic novel won, oh gosh, I'm going to get it wrong, some big literary prize was won by a graphic novel this year  StephieFor kids or adults?  BrianneFor kids it's like the Caldicot of, and I'm going to show you like such a dummy, I have to figure out what it is but it was like the Newbery, Yeah,  StephieEl Daffo, I think it was an honor.  BrianneWas it an honor?  StephieWe’ll have to crack this detail, definitely. 47:10 - BrianneIt's a great book, you should check it  StephieIt’s in our elementary libraries. 47:17 - BrianneBecause you can read it, like, I read it sitting in a cafe. You know the whole thing.  StephieOur libraries just received a donation from AAUW, for the book “Roller Girl.” BrianneI heard it’s wonderful. 47:30 - StephieYes, and it has wonderful messages for young girls. But it was. I'm guessing it was the first time we've had from that group, a graphic novel donated which, you know, there's so much more. Yeah, the quality of graphic novels, has come so far. But it really connects with kids all readers it really. Yeah, we've seen that really sparks kids who may or may not love to read and then it kind of ties, you know, good, kids who love to read anyway are drawn to it but sometimes you're reluctant readers of graphic novels less intimidating.  BrianneYeah, yeah. Another. I have friends who teach in the Bronx who say that the graphic novels are this like huge gateway for kids that like might not even feel comfortable reading or maybe like English language learners or... it’s a nice, nice I like that and I think it makes, it can make, like, difficult topics more accessible. I think that, like I'd rather read a history graphic novel than like read a history book. Yeah. 48:36 - StephieAnd the graphic novel “The Fun House” which is for adults. BrianneMaking so much. It's amazing so many ways right now which is funny because I taught that book in my autobiographical comic book writing class for A26. I mean, my friend Grace and I taught the class together and we just we photocopied, like one page out of a bunch of different books and showed kids like these are different styles of autobiographical comics.  StephieWell it, kinda as a segway but I think it's now on Broadway. It’s become a Play. And I think she has another graphic novel coming out.  49:15 - BrianneI know that she's like a regular comic, like a series. But I think that that kind of predates “Fun Home” but I don't know who the next book is. StephieWell and that was, you know, for, for example in “My Mom's” book we read, you know, it was the first time I think a lot of people were exposed to a graphic novel. It just it's come so, there's, there's just so much more at every level, and and that's an example of amazing illustrations, and amazing narrative as well.  BrianneYeah, I was really lucked into a great class, and that McAllister my first class was called superheroes. And it was English class that we studied graphic novels and then books about graphic novels, and books about superheroes, like Frankenstein and Orlando like these kind of like super human people in literature, but it was my, It was great, and it was my first exposure to, like, critical discussion about a graphic novel I think it was the first time I'd ever read a graphic novel. We read Watchmen. We read Dylan Horrocks, what is it called, “Hicksville,” it’s a great book. It's about New Zealand and they ended up studying abroad in New Zealand and then I came back and read it again was like, it's so cool because it's about the, I mean it's about a guy who loves comic books, but it's also about the, kind of mythology of New Zealand and, like, Captain Cook discovering New Zealand and his interaction with like the Maori people that were already in there legend of how New Zealand came to be and it's like you learn all this stuff. You don't even...  StephieYou have to go back through this tape and make a reading list. 51:03 - BrianneI spent way too much time with books. 51:11 - Stephiesomething else who said that. I'll remember. LarrySo I didn't realize that the graphic novel question was going to just.. BrianneI love graphic novels! And I don’t love them as much as most people do. I’m, like, no connoisseur, but I do know that they're like, I think they're incredibly under appreciated, and should just be like, thrown out like confetti. 51:34 - LarryAs an Illustrator there’s a whole other conversation about how you relate to, to not only the pictures, specifically as an artist but also how you would tell your stories in a picture book, as opposed to a graphic novel and vice versa. But those aren’t the questions that I want to ask is that much longer. I think, you know, the idea is kind of keep this under an hour, and we're getting close to it. So, what I wanted to maybe close with if Stephie doesn't have any more questions, are two questions. One is, what is the most important thing and putting you on the spot here and I recognize this, what is the most important thing you believe you learn from a teacher. 52:31 - BrianneI have no clue. Actually I guess cuz we're talking about like learning styles, because I think that's where that's kind of what we're going for with graphic novels was I like, that someone's learning style, I learned better with that. I also think it's important to do the learning style that you're not good at, and I, I, so when I was in, let's see, fourth, fifth and sixth grade so at TAG, we had to every week give a science report out loud in front of the entire class. And it's like, my deepest fear, like, like you would you rather be buried alive or give a report in front of class. And. And I think that that was incredibly helpful to kind of just like stand up there and just get used to it and like those communication skills are super helpful and every single part of your life going forward so I don't know if I'd say that they taught me to like face my fears or if they taught you that you can just like practice something and get good at it and, but. That persistence is more important than natural ability. 53:48 - StephieSo then when you have 250 first through fifth graders staring gymnasium.  BrianneOh yeah, I was terrible. My first couple of presentations I was like, BLLL Stephie Looked very polished to everyone, 54:03 - BrianneNot through natural ability, It was through like going home and being like, Okay, I need to redo my entire PowerPoint presentation. I think it's something that like is probably the most important part of a when kids go to those presentations is like seeing that there's a huge leap between where they are and like where they'll be as an adult, and that you can kind of be like, I was really bad at these things, and then you just do them a lot. And then you're good at them. Like I have friends were like, “your such a better drawer than I am,” and I'm like, “you're such a better lawyer than I am,” and they’re like, “I went to school for that,” and I'm like, “I did to.” It’s not magic, you just keep trying it. 54:51 - StephieAnd, and wanting to keep trying. Have the love for it. And that's, I mean the segue’s to but having kids, especially local like when you're talking to an Old Mission and when you talk to other schools in our district, for them to say she went, like, she sat here, she was in my school being a kid here, and then she's really doing the thing that I'm wanting to do. That is incredibly powerful for kids. BrianneYeah, and I actually don't remember this, I vaguely remember it but a cartoonist came to Old Mission when I went there, and I guess I came home from that author visit and my and told my mom that I wanted to be a cartoonist and was, like super inspired by it, yeah, vaguely remember this guy coming but, yeah, that's has a huge impact on me. Yeah, just like opening up the scope of, like, what you think is possible. StephieAnd I think the library is clear on that, yeah and experiences for kids. Bring the world in and through books to the world for kids.  BrianneIt opens you up to the things that you might not naturally seek out, like, I just went to our library on Woodmere the other day I was looking for books about Matisse and came home with a book about Danish chairs, because it was like sitting out on a table and I was like Oh, chairs! that’s what’s like, so magical about libraries is that you're like, you know, it's all just there. And you might kind of wander into something that you weren't looking for. And then the librarians are these like incredible gatekeepers who are just way smarter than I am. 56:37 - StephieBut that's what we hope the libraries are doing is opening up all these possibilities.  BrianneYeah, and that's something that like the internet can't replace. I visited an elementary school, where the librarian stands in the hallway, and she has like hand picked out books for certain kids and as she sees them walk by she would be like this book is yours. This is a really cool. I’m sure that they feel really special. StephieAnd knowing your readers, you know, connections. 57:11 - LarryOkay. So last question. And then ties in exactly you segueing your segue. What advice would you give a student interested in pursuing a career in publishing? So, you inspired one of those, one of those kids. BrianneI hope you like ramen noodles. You will not be rich. I guess, yeah, I guess what we've been talking about. Of course you have a natural interest in certain things but that, that persistence will get you way farther than any, like, ability you may have like out of the gate, and that, Neil Gaiman gave a speech that I think about all the time where he said that you only have to be two of three things, either have to be talented, pleasant to work with, or on time, you only have to be like, be only two to those. It's like if you're pleasant to work and on time then you don't have to be that talented. 58:17 - StephieSo true. 58:19 - BrianneYeah, you can. I think there's something, really something to be said for persistence and pleasantness. 

It's Staff Appreciation Week at Traverse City Area Public Schools, our home School District, and every year we attempt to get out into the buildings to allow staff the opportunity to show appreciation to other members of their school community. The episode is pretty TCAPS-centric but the spirit and gratitude to educators and support staff is universal. To anyone involved in educating our children, thanks for listening and inspiring. TechTool of the Week REGISTRATION IS NOW OPEN! Transcripts are still in the works...getting there.  Enjoy the show!A weekly podcast hosted by Danelle Brostrom and Larry Burden and a cast of thousands spreading the good word regarding Traverse City Area Public Schools, Public Education and Education Technology.Please subscribe to and rate our podcast on iTunes, or via email and join our conversation on twitter @tcapsloop or the tcapsloop facebook page and check out the what's new on the Loop. Music provided by Podington Bear

TCAPSLoop Weekly Episode 75...Get Tidy!iTunes    Google Play   Stitcher   Tune-In    RSSDanelle has brought dozens of specifically sized, color coordinated boxes into the studio in an attempt to get education organized, minimized and to rekindle our joy of learning.Things to get rid of because they don't bring joy:Trying every new shiny ball tech site that comes out (rationale: check privacy policies, does it help reach your learning goals, I personally LOVE sites that can be used for more than one thing).Saving all my teaching materials from a specific grade "just in case" I get put back in that grade (rationale: things change, new curriculum, etc...).Saying YES to everything (rationale: teachers are burned out; pick a few extra things that feed your soul and do those well).Homework (rationale: stress on families, and kids; let's make it intentional and stick to large outcomes we really want--reading every night, math flash cards--and have families do that instead of a random worksheet).Sit and "Git" PD (rationale: listening to and consuming new knowledge is good, but having time to work with the learning in a hands on manner is better; this is part of the rationale behind changing the format of this summer's WIRETC, check out this Awesome article to reference...)Reply All - Please. Just. Stop. This does NOT bring me joy. Awesome article on how to use Cc and Bcc.Things that bring joy:Parent Teacher Conferences (rationale: opportunity to see parents and connect with families to create a collaborative learning team for the student; parents could be in the classroom even more often).Collaboration time - there is never enough time to learn from your colleagues; let's do more of that. Twitter chats - opens doors to new learning and to my teaching tribe; see #2.Books - SO many great books about education, technology, and leadership out right now; but beware #2 from the first list. Using technology to bring kids faster, better feedback (Google Docs, Classroom....awesome article to reference) Again, let's do more of this.Announcing snowdays in a fun way. :) Thanks for the awesome meme smile TCAPS! :)METS Virtual RallyAll the Session are archived!Transcripts are still in the works...getting there.  Enjoy the show!A weekly podcast hosted by Danelle Brostrom and Larry Burden and a cast of thousands spreading the good word regarding Traverse City Area Public Schools, Public Education and Education Technology.Please subscribe to and rate our podcast on iTunes, or via email and join our conversation on twitter @tcapsloop or the tcapsloop facebook page and check out the what's new on the Loop.Music provided by Podington Bear

In the third episode of BP Symposium Dr. Chandler will Dive Deeper into the Performance Management Driver System. This segment explores the purpose and best practices for the use of the Blueprint Installation Timeline Tool (BITT) and the Building Performance Tool (BPT). In Becoming a Network of Disruptors he will expand on the Performance Management System as a Disruptor. Dr. Chandler identifies the eight ways the performance management driver system assists districts in disrupting the status quo. Today's special guest, Jame McCall, Associate Superintendent, Traverse City Area Public Schools. She will discuss the TCAPS plan for using professional learning to build capacity of its administrators to lead the process of systemic reconfiguration.