Hello. You’re listening to the K-12 tech podcast, bringing you insights into the world of education technology. Stay tuned as we discuss the past, the present, and most importantly, the future of technology in our schools. Welcome to the K-12 Tech Podcast. Thanks for joining us again. My name is Sean. I’m with K-12 Tech. We’re also joined by Mike, who is also with K-12 tech, and we’re joined with Kim Nidy, CETL from North Canton City School Districts.
Kim is the tech director or director of technology currently, has been there for a long time and she’s got a lot of experience. And we’re just going to kind of talk today about how she got to where she’s at and things that have happened along the way and things that she’s putting into process for the school. So, Kim, I’ll give you the floor to introduce yourself and we’ll go from there.
Okay. All right. Thanks. Yes, I have been around a long time, so I actually graduated from North Canton schools back in the eighties. And so my husband graduated from here as well. And I have taught here almost all of my career. I was my first two years in Kansas City schools, and then I taught business management and all kinds of business classes and technology classes. I had three kids come through the system. My last one just graduated this past year. She’s off to Kent State in the fall, couple of weeks, ten days, something like that. So I’ve seen a lot as most people who have been almost 30 years in education. We’ve all seen things come and go and a lot of change. And so it’s been kind of a fun ride.
I again, I started off as a teacher, and then even in the classroom, though I was lucky, I had a computer lab. So when I started, when I taught, I was able to use technology with my students all the time. What was not great was that I had desktops, you know. And so when they left the room, they left the technology. And even back then, I knew it was just really critically important for our kids to be able to have technology with them all the time because learning doesn’t have to stop when a student walks out of your room or out of your building. Learning can happen anytime, anywhere. And that’s really when the 1-to-1 program started to come around.
So back in, I think 2008, I tried really, really hard. I was still a classroom teacher and I tried hard to give us a 1-to-1. And as we all know, one of the problems with a 1-to-1 is how do I get money to keep it going? Because I might get enough money to get it started. But then what do I do? You know, as those devices go end of life, how do we keep that going? So so in our case, we were lucky enough that we passed through a permanent improvement levy, and that is what funds our replacement cycles on these Chromebooks. Every year we have about a five-year replacement cycle on teacher devices and student Chromebooks. So we’re lucky that our community saw the value in that and passed that levy to keep us running. So, so that is. So then I transitioned down into here, but I was, you know, I saw the value way back when I was in the classroom. And I’m happy that we are where we are now.
And I think that would give you a different perspective as far as, you know, working with students directly and seeing where those maybe gaps need to be filled and where you can fill them with technology. Then moving into the technology side of things where you now have to keep those gaps filled for the students and the current teachers that are now using the technology on a regular basis. And I think that gives you a unique perspective from both sides of the road there that a lot of tech directors coming from either technology companies or networking companies probably, you know, didn’t necessarily have until they were working in a school and just learning what the students need versus you teaching the students with what you had and then looking at what you wanted.
Mm-hmm. So as far as that transition went, then, I mean, what kind of did you want to get into? Technology Director position? Did you just kind of fall into it because you knew your stuff and then they asked you to move into like, how did that transition go?
Yeah, it was interesting. So I never wanted to leave the classroom. I was again, I feel like I was really lucky. I taught classes that I loved teaching. They were you know, I had gotten to a point where I was teaching a career tech program. It was business management. So the students would take some initial courses and then as seniors they would run their own companies through the Junior Achievement Company program.
So every year it was really fun because there were startups, you know, and they would get up and running. But what I started to notice when I was doing that too, was that these kids were teaching themselves. I mean, if they had to make sales fliers for their company, for their business, if they didn’t know the software, they got a YouTube video, you know, or they Googled it and they taught themselves how to use it.
So, I mean, I felt like if we could just keep them going, if we could give them the tools that they needed, I mean, they could run with it rather than having to sit maybe even through a class to get them ready to learn how to do it. So anyway, I was in that position and loving it and we got and I told you that I had been trying to get a 1 to 1 in our school and successfully that route back in oh eight. So we ended up having a new superintendent come on board and he was here for about a year and then he approached me and asked if I was married to the classroom if I would consider leaving and coming into a district role which I honestly had never really considered and it was hard because I had such a close relationship with my students because they took a couple of years before they were seniors.
But I thought, you know, I’ve been doing this for like 20 years at the time. And I thought I kind of would like the challenge, you know, of the next part of my adventure here. So when, I made the decision to come downstairs, but I came down as an innovation specialist, which was a fun title, I thought. So I was actually still on a teacher contract, but I was an innovation specialist, and right, when I came down, was right when the straight-A grant was released when Ohio had an opportunity for a straight-A grant. So obviously I was pretty excited about that because it was all wrapped around innovation. So we wrote a grant very, very quickly.
You had about six weeks to get that thing written, and so we researched and we did ours all around actively running. So it was really about what do we need? We were already I think I mentioned we had already gotten the funding for our one, two, one, two startup. So we had kind of that piece in place. And then the next piece was, what about our classrooms? Do they function in a way that we can be flexible with the learning that’s happening in there? So we actually retrofitted grades five through 12 with active learning furniture. Everything moved, could be shifted around, moved out of the way instead of desks that you’re trying to drag across the carpet or the floor. And so we won. I mean, it was so exciting.
I still remember when we got the notification that we won, we were literally one of like 12 districts that won that first round. So we won just shy of $5 million. And we, like I said, it’s been a chunk of it on furniture. And then we put in some interactive projector technology and we changed our libraries to make them more inquiry-based and just really had a good time. Although I did develop an eye twitch from that because we had to spend that money from I think we had six months that that money had to be spent. And while it’s fun to spend $5 million, it was well, it was, it was a full go. So so that was my first two years. Then I moved into the director of instruction role for the district for two years. And I’ll tell you what I’ve really learned the most. You know, I thought I knew a lot about teaching and learning when I was in my classroom. But now that I’ve gotten out and I’ve seen it on a wider scale, and I think that we were, you know, we were so worried about do all do our teachers know, like this website and that website, like all these little techie tools, we spent all this time trying to show everybody all these techie tools that they could use, but we really forgot that technology is there to support teaching and learning.
It’s really about good pedagogy. It’s really about how are you working with students to engage them in learning, and do you have the tools that you need to do that? And so for me, that was like kind of how then I ended up sliding over. We had an opening for director of technology and quite honestly, I, I’ve been around so long, I just started doing some of the work I did because it needed done and we had all this stuff going on. And so now I have been in this role about five years and I was worried at first because to your point, I came from the education background and sometimes I would go to meetings and I ran the tech talk. I was like, I don’t know what they’re saying, but what I found out was and what my team that I work with kept telling me, Don’t worry, we know the technical stuff, you know?
So I have an awesome system administrator and I have two awesome tech guys and we’re a small but mighty department. But boy, we all each kind of have a niche and it’s okay, you know, it’s okay if you don’t have that absolute tech background because your team fills in those gaps, you know, to your point, talking about even those types of gaps. So I am the one who every time a teacher wants something that the tech team might go and I say, okay, let’s think about the learning that’s happening in the room and, you know, even if it’s a little difficult for us to maybe get it going for that teacher, is it best for kids? Is it best for that teacher in their ability to teach? And is it the best thing for kids? And if it is, then we’ll figure out how to get it done. So we so I think I’ve brought that viewpoint of the teacher into the tech department, which I am happy about, because again, that’s why we’re here. I mean, we’re here to support the learning that’s happening in the classroom.
Yeah, absolutely. And you’ve mentioned a few times now this active learning kind of structure that you’ve implemented at the school. Have you seen? So I feel like a lot of times with technology now, especially, that everyone essentially is 1 to 1 and was very heavily reliant upon technology during closures that I, I feel like a lot of teachers are now almost sitting back and just posting things online that the kids have to do and complete and read and almost removing themselves from the teacher role and a little bit of away. But this active learning environment sounds very much the opposite of that. So what kind of things? You know, you mentioned interactive projectors, you know, what are they doing on Chromebooks or how, you know, with desks that move around the classroom? How is that changing the learning experience from a students perspective.
In so many ways so and I hope I can they’re all floating through my ADHD brain right now. But I’m going to try to get them all out there because it’s exciting. So, okay, one other thing I should say is that we were also lucky about a year into rolling out our 1-to-1, we realized we need a way to organize this. I mean, teachers were like, if I get one more shared up Gmail, I’m jumping out the window so much. So we immediately started looking for a way to organize everything we were doing and we ended up going with school. So we have school as our learning management system. Now there’s a lot of, you know, Canvas or even Google classroom, but we ended up with school G We love it.
It made us really prepared for it. To your point, when closures happened, you know, we had our kids had devices and we already had a very, you know, trusted and rolled out system for that communication to happen. So so that was kind of key. But here’s some of the tangible things that have happened. So like we have a history teacher, a government teacher who is fantastic, right? And he wants to talk about how I think it was something where the cabinet was working through how were they going to handle bombing in World War Two when we made the decision to bomb Japan, you know, and so they get the kids, they put the classroom then in the shape of what that room would have looked like back then.
And they have those kids sit at that table and have those discussions. And, you know, he’s made the point that I don’t know if I could have done that before. You know, it’s so hard to move nonmovable friendly furniture. So it became active in the sense where they not only were learning about it but they were immersed in it. We have I’ve had a math teacher come to me and say, boy, I had a kid that I really didn’t know how he was going to do. But the ability for them to team and group up and turn and work together. I mean, she really believes that that made it so that he got that extra time and learning even from his peers and actually did well in the class.
So, you know, we’ve heard time over time how the furniture has really become a part of the learning. I think if I think at first they were like, wait a minute, you’re giving us furniture that kids can spend in or move, you know? And they were a little hesitant at first. But I think now if we tried to take it away from them, I don’t think it would go over well. So we just kept adding tools, but not a ton of tools. That’s the other thing I found out. We’re very streamlined, you know what I mean? And like the tools that our teachers have available because it really gets messy if you have three different things that do this and four different things that do this, we really try to focus on what are the tools that they need in the classroom, and let’s provide them and make sure they have them and make sure that they’re using them and they’re trained.
And so, you know, we have a video piece that we use. We use Screencast Fi, we use Cammy along with our LMS. And again, just trying to figure out how are they working with the students. So the furniture has been, I think really life-changing for how we are working with kids in the classroom, how we’re able to work with kids in the classroom.
Yeah, definitely. So kind of like Sean was saying, there was a lot there and I definitely want to unpack some of it. So you mentioned the straight-A grant. I’m not educated into what that is. Can you maybe describe what that is and maybe what the process was to apply for that?
Yeah, it was exciting for everybody because usually when there are grants out there, first of all, they’re not $5 million grants. You know what I mean? They’re like I mean, they’re much I mean, even if you get a big grant, it’s not anywhere near that amount. And also, grants are a lot structured on, you know, sometimes the demographics of your school or there’s just, you know, some things that you need to hit in order to be able to apply for it. What street it was it was wide open. It was hey, if you have an idea, you know if you have an innovative idea, apply and we’re going to judge it based on the innovation of the idea and also sustainability. I mean, they wanted things that were sustainable that they weren’t just going to pump $5 million into your district.
And then a few years from now, you know, what’s the impact, right, if some of this stuff is gone. So for us, the furniture was very sustainable. I mean, clearly, it’s been gosh, what, six-year it. Well, no more than that. It’s been eight years, you know, and we’re still going. So that furniture will last a very long time. But it was really exciting because it was really more about your idea, your implementation, and how you plan to sustain it than it was about anything else. It was so, so different than most of the grants that are available to districts out there. And I think they did like two years of it, two rounds of it. So we won in the first round and then they did two years of it. And I think then it and it didn’t really happen anymore. I’d love to see it come back. So this is my plug for who anyone might be listening that could make that happen because it was really exciting. A lot of good work, done it. A lot of districts all around the state, I guess I should say to one of the other things that we started that’s pretty unique because we had school as a learning management system.
There’s always a statewide technology conference at the Ohio Education Technology Conference, and we used to kind of get together with the school g rep for the state and we started to get to know each other like the directors of tech or the curriculum people. We just would go to kind of meetings that everybody that have this and we kind of got together and said, Hey, if we’re all using the same system, why couldn’t we streamline some of the things that we’re doing and work collaboratively? So about eight years ago, there were several districts that got together and started. It’s called the Ohio Blended Collaborative, and we were supposed to be in year one, but we ended up not being able to. So we’ve been in it since the second year. We just had the meeting at Westerville last week with like 120 teachers involved this year from all around the state from like 16 different districts.
And they go through learning about blended, personalized learning. We have coaches from connecting Ed, Sarah, and Stephanie that work with our teachers. There’s three we’ve we’ve morphed it a lot over the years. I mean, it was literally something we just kind of grew from, hey, could we and so now it is a three-year kind of a program. So you’re one they learn what you would expect in year one. They learn all about, you know, what is blended, personalized, learning how you structure lessons. And then year two, they take what they’ve learned in year one and they go on and create units in year two and you’re three. Now, we’ve developed a coaching program, so this is the first year of the coaching program with the intent is to train the coaches, to then go back and work within their districts and train more and more teachers up through this, this learning model.
And it’s exciting. I will add that it used to be many years ago teachers were afraid of blended learning because they heard it and they were like, Oh, they just want to take our jobs. I mean, what really what we know and especially I think the pandemic if it proved anything, you’ve got to have good teachers. I mean, good teachers are really, really important. So blended learning is not just throw a kid on a computer and walk away. It is blend your instruction, have the teacher plays a critical role. I mean, some of it is direct instruction. Some of it is collaborative work with, you know, among the kids. It’s deeper, it’s more engaging. And so we were excited about all the teachers. I think we’ve had over 500 teachers in the state now go through some iteration of Ohio blended collaborative and we’re just kind of growing it and growing it. So that’s pretty unique and something I’m really proud of, of being involved with.
And that that is unique because a lot of times, you know when we talk to people on this podcast, it’s generally tech directors that are coordinating with other tech directors in or the different technology conferences. And we don’t hear a lot about a tech director coordinating with a technology company to then coordinate with the teachers so that the teachers can then teach the students in a more well-rounded way or blended way as it would be.
Yeah. And you just don’t hear that happening a lot, especially with technology directors that didn’t come from a teaching background that would kind of probably seem new or maybe just not even like not on the top of their list of priorities within their district. So that’s really cool. You guys do that. I think that’s great and that’s been you said eight years now or.
Yeah, I think it’s been eight years. I wish I had the numbers in front of me, but I’m pretty sure it’s been eight years like 16. We had 16 districts together the last week, but we’ve had probably over 20 involved over the summer have come and gone and you know, for whatever reasons. But yeah, it’s just been really impactful and we’ve learned a lot together. I mean, you know, just again, it was like, could we what if how about you know, and you know, we just started kind of trying to figure out how we could leverage. And I’ll tell you how this has changed, too. I started out by saying it with people that use psychology, right? So then we had districts who use cameras who were like, wow, like we want to be involved in what you guys are doing.
And so we were like, Well, fine, we don’t want to be exclusive. So we brought in a couple of cameras districts, but then we realized it was a little bit difficult to try to share things between those two systems. So now this year is our first year that we’re going all with Google. So basically the thought is the creation that’s happening in Google, the sharing can happen between districts with Google. And then you can take that and put it in your element or in, you know, in school, in cameras, in Google classroom. So we want to see it grow. We don’t we didn’t intend to have it be exclusive to one elements. It was just how we got started because we were all together and we were all using that and we started dreaming about what we could do.
The whole point was to build this collaborative piece where these teachers get to get out of their own district or their own county and get to work with teachers all across the state. I mean, we’d love to see the model grow even further than that. It’s exciting. I mean, the excitement in the room last week, it was palpable. Like they were they love the opportunity to work with other teachers from other districts. So that was great. And I think to your point, I mentored somebody through Carson this past school year and he came from an I.T. background. And, you know, one of the first things I told him was really get to know your curriculum. People. I mean, whether that’s your assistant super or if you have a curriculum, whatever that department looks like in your district, you guys should be together because your planning should be wrapped around their goals, the district goals, the curriculum goals.
And those relationships are really important. And so I would give that advice to anyone. These, two I’m very proud of our assistant superintendent start. We have weekly connect meetings and it’s our assistant superintendent, our director of instruction, our gifted coordinator, special ed testing all of these folks we meet every Tuesday. And so we know what everybody is doing and we’re able to coordinate efforts, you know, because of that. So I feel like you’ve got to get out of those silos and you got to get together because the work is about the kids. So, you know, the silos don’t help breaking that down, and working together in teams is the best way to help your staff and your students, and the community. So.
Oh, 100%. And I think especially in the education world, the collaboration never stops. Right. I mean, you can have a meeting on Tuesday, but you might be talking to the same people again on Thursday because you would never know what happens in the school environment from minute to minute, not even day to day. Right. But you did also say so this whole thing kind of ballooned from being down to Otec and talking with school. I mean, so obviously great things come from conferences. Are there other groups or collaboratives that have come from not even just otec, just any even with the coastline conferences or any anything else, it’s come from those that have been really helpful in the district.
Yeah, I would say, you know, I mean, clearly, every district kind of has their own agenda who what they attend and why for me and there’s a lot of crossover or sometimes, you know, now that we’ve got to know each other, we’ll plan like, hey, you know, let’s go to let’s see, let’s meet on Tuesday at 5:00 because we’re all in one place at one time. So there’s some of that stuff that happens to where we started to get together in those ways. But there was a group that went we went to see last year, which is the Florida Educational Technology Conference, which has grown immensely, won’t be in Florida next year. It’s actually going to be in New Orleans, I think so. You know, we definitely have people go to see I’ve got to ask, which is more on the curriculum side.
So I think the more that you’re out there and meeting people and presenting, I mean, I really encourage people too. I always said you get out what you put in, right? So if you really want to get things from these conferences or whatever, you’ve got to get involved and meet people and present and do things like that. But I would say one of the things uniquely that came when you asked this question, the first thing that popped in my head was the pandemic. Again, like a terrible, horrible thing to go through. But my gosh, I mean, we do have some good things that have come from it. One of the things that started happening was that we started meeting the whole state. They started to meet like we had technology people, people that were interested in technology. We started monthly meetings back then or I think it was even weekly when we were in the thick of it.
But they would, you know, we would just all pop in a call and, hey, I’m having trouble with this. And then everybody would feed answers or help. Then it started to kind of morph into more of an agenda. And so and they still happen. So even though we are through the closures and that kind of traumatic stuff that we went through, we found much value in the fact that we could very easily jump on a call and meet together and help each other solve problems or come up with ideas. So there is one that I attend that’s more technology-based. There’s another one I attend that is more teaching and learning based, and I still attend them. I’ve gotten to know the people in them and learn. 21. It’s also a great conference that what’s coming up in the fall that’s coaching Ohio coaching and you just as you go, you meet people and you have contacts and we now have a new group like I want to say like a listserv almost groups.
I know that is through the state that people are joining and we’re growing that. And just the communication in just even the last five years has just gone through the roof. And I think that it’s just a great, great thing because we all are there. We’re all experiencing the same things. So why not put that power of working together, which is kind of back to what I said to you, I think even before we started recording, you know, we do not teach kids in a classroom the way that we work in a work environment that’s something that honestly if I could figure out the magic way to make that change. But at the K-through-12 level and at the college level, they are not doing authentic work. The or the way that the work is happening, the way we are doing in the workplace, I think that is the biggest problem that needs to change because I’m telling you, if kids engage in real-life work, you don’t have to beg them to get work done or study for a test or whatever.
That learning happens. And so that’s if I could ride out through my retirement. On making a small shift in that respect That would be a dream come true, because I think that is a real big disconnect in the difference between how we teach and how we work. Maybe I should write a book. I don’t know, real record a podcast. Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
But it does sound like you were doing that already somewhat when you were teaching with that business class. And the kids are making their own business, so it’s hard to bring them up.
They would try to skip classes, like to stay in my room because they were running their business, you know, like be like you guys, you got to go to class or you got to go home.
Right? Exactly. Yeah. And it’s funny how they will pick and choose where, where and who they want to be with. And it’s funny. Kids are funny, but so have you seen any of those? And I know it was a class. But have any of them actually continued going on past high school? That’s awesome.
Yeah. They so we’ve had a lot of them, I mean a lot of them go into business, a lot of them who thought they wanted to one thing in business and then because they were involved in it, they were like, I don’t know if I want to do this. Maybe I want to do marketing. So we had kids, you know, kind of get better information about what they did want to do moving forward. But, you know, some kids do that now. I don’t think I want to do business, you know, which is great, too, because you save time and money with that as well. But we’ve had a lot of kids go on to college. We’ve had some kids go on straight into the work world. It’s been all over the board. But what has happened recently since I have left the classroom there, there’s another teacher in there who is fantastic.
He lets me come up every once in a while. I’m a consultant 90 now, so I get to come up and beat them up about their product ideas and, you know, be the bad guy that comes in and gives feedback that maybe they don’t want to hear. But anyway, they start, they compete now. So we had just started this when I left the classroom, but they compete locally and then they actually compete nationally. And I mean, I’m super proud to say our students at Hoover High School in Little North Canton, Ohio, have won first place in the national competition in D.C. four of the last five years. I mean, isn’t it magic up there, but these kids are incorporating their businesses now and they are keeping selling their products. I mean, they have, you know, copyrightable. The word just totally left my brain. They are patents. They are getting patents on their products and they are incorporating what kids that don’t want to be involved in it and they are still running the businesses. So, yes, I mean, but again, it’s real. I mean, they create things out of nothing, and they you know, they have great success.
I mean, some of these kids are they’re bringing in tens of thousands of dollars in and they get to keep the money. They donate some and then they get paychecks. So they get paychecks based on their position in the company, based on their sales, based on their they have a bonus structure for their kind of participation. They have performance reviews. It is as close to real business as what you can make it be in a classroom. So they are engaged and learning and following through later. But we can do that in every classroom, I guess it is the important point. I was lucky because it was business, but honestly, you can do that kind of engaging work in any classroom.
So, you know, it’s all about looking at what are your standards, you know, and making sure you’re teaching those because clearly we have tests that we have to pass, but there are ways that you can take those standards and make that work authentic and engaging. And then kids don’t really have to memorize, you know, because they live it and learn it and know it.
So yeah, that’s awesome. I mean that I wish I took a class like that in high school. Me to go to school. That’d be great. Now with so since we’re talking about technology and to a technology director and almost a business management class or it is a business management class, do you see a lot of the products that the students are coming up with? Are they more technology-based like online things or gains or you know, technology-based things? Or are they like, you can hold it in your hand a product.
They are you can hold it in your hand product. But what they’re doing is using the technology around the product. So in other words, like we had a class, so they created a game, they created a financial literacy game and they designed the board and they had it produced, but they had to use technology. They had CorelDraw in there and they have the Adobe suite, but none of them walk in the door knowing how to use the software, you know what I mean? So they are teaching themselves how to use this in order to use it to create a product or to run the business. You know, some of them we have an engraver in there and they have to learn how to use the software to engrave on something. And so so it may not be because some of them don’t know how to create an app.
And actually one of the games that was created, they were looking at trying to get an app created. But that’s a little bit of a different level. We just didn’t have that ability. But the interesting part again is think about how much technology is involved in business. Generally speaking, record keeping, you know, using Excel for all the accounting purposes, they have to create an annual report. So they have to learn how to use the software to visually make a visually appealing 12-page annual report. They have to create a commercial, you know, so it’s all the marketing, all the social media. I mean, they’re using TOK, they’re using Instagram and Facebook for the old people. And but, you know, some of them have no idea how any of this works when they walk in the door.
And that’s again, that’s this piece I’m saying it’s not like when I was in school where that information was in this little container and I have it and now I’m going to give it to you. Information is everywhere. It’s accessible all the time in, you know, a gazillion different places. So that’s a really valuable skill set that a lot of kids need to learn or are learning is how to access information and on-demand about how to do something or, you know, whatever it might be. Yeah. That’s how technology sitting in that way as well.
Sure. And I think that’s something where I mean, that is real-world experience, right? I mean, I came from a teaching background as well. And now I’m and I’m working for a technology company. I didn’t have any business experience at all. But you need you have to learn how to learn things in order to continue on with a career of just life in general. Yeah, but what you mentioned about like learning how to use Adobe and the engraver and everything just reminded me of when I was teaching, I had an engineering teacher that would take those little tiny I forgot what they’re called, but they have them at every conference. This little baby robots that the kids have to put together. But he would open up all the boxes and remove a few of the parts.
And the kids would have to learn how to use the 3D printer to engineer those parts to replace the ones he removed. And I think I thought that was one of the coolest ideas I’ve ever heard from a teacher.
Absolutely. Don’t give him all the answers, right?
Yeah. As kids, students will find a thousand bits of information, except for maybe like what they’re supposed to actually be researching. So we have to physically or go online and find how to finish the task they’ve been given honestly, I think it’s probably more fun for the student, too, because it’s not just force feeding information down their throat and saying, hey, you know, in a week you have a test. So hopefully you remember this right?
And then you’ll forget it later. I mean, we want lifelong learning. I mean, but lifelong learning is, you know, I don’t know how to do this. I left this place and now I’m at this place and I have to learn how to do that. So how do I do it? And I think that that’s the fun part. I mean, and that’s the hard part for teachers. Okay, so I’ll come back around and put my teacher hat on. It is really hard to give up that kind of control in your classroom. I mean, it just is you know, we were programmed that we are in front of the room. And, you know, it’s really difficult to step back and let kids struggle or let kids have discourse and know how to weave through and manage that. It’s much easier. And I don’t want to say it like that because I don’t want it to sound like teachers are looking for the easier way out. It just is. I mean, it’s just factual that it’s easier to hand out a piece of paper, the same piece of paper to all the students, and do the same work and grade the same work.
It just is easier, but I think those teachers that kind of decide to step out and try the new, they like something new, a new way to work with their kids. That excitement kind of overruns, you know, the desire for the comfort zone. Right. So, like, when you see the spark of kids truly engaged in what they’re doing, I mean, you can’t do anything but get excited about that. So but it’s hard because we’re in these boxes, you know, we’re in these confines of these are the standards you have to teach and these are the tests that kids have to take. And yeah, it’s hard sometimes to break out of that. That’s why I said the change in education needs to be like from every level because you can’t, you know, then kids go to college and they’re back sitting in rows, taking notes.
So it has to be I mean, it has to be everywhere. But learning really should be organic. You know, we have a project years ago at the middle school when my kids came through and I have all three of my kids are gifted and ADHD, which is it’s really fun in my house anyway. They are not the best kids to sit in a row. Right, and do homework. And I mean, they just they’re just not wired like that. So we had they would go to DC and they would have to do a project, they would have to pick something like a monument or whatever to learn about that and then share with the rest makes total sense. Like we’re going to go to DC, so I’m going to talk about the Washington Monument.
You’re going to talk about the Lincoln Monument, and that’s how we’re going to learn about what we’re going to see. So my son starts to engage in this and he picks one thing, and then while he’s researching, he sees something else and he’s like, Ooh. And so he popped over here and then he went there. And I mean, the teacher ended up telling me, I think he ended up with a D because he never really got it done. But the teacher was like, he learned more than anyone I’ve ever known about Washington, D.C., because he just kept going and kept going and kept going. So, you know, what do we want? I mean, do we want that passion for learning and growing and or do we want here’s your project, you know, here’s your thing you have to complete?
I don’t know. You know, I think we need to start having these conversations because, you know, that’s how I mean, look at what the straight-A grant we knew nothing other than here’s a grant. And they wanted to know what’s something innovative you want to do, you know? And we sat down around the table and it was like, what’s something innovative we want to I mean, we had to work collaboratively and create something out of nothing. And that’s the kind of thing that we should be encouraging in our classrooms. I think that’s what made us such a creative nation all along feel like we’ve kind of unfortunately turned to go backwards rather than to keep moving forward. So so I’ll keep having these conversations with anyone that will listen, but.
So too, would you say that maybe one of the bigger challenges in education today is getting away from that packaged information that the state says you have to know this or you can’t graduate. So here’s a book or blending that with the like your son, the person that just starts learning all of this information and even though he maybe didn’t do the project correctly, still learned more than every other student. I mean, how do you?
How do you put that into a grade? Right. I mean, right? Like that I shouldn’t say it because it’s so controversial, but I think we should get rid of grades. I mean, I believe that you cannot define a student’s ability or intelligence by a grade point average. And we lose so many kids along the way. And I had them in my class. I mean, when I was in school, I know who those kids are, you know, and they went on to be super successful. They weren’t necessarily a model student because they didn’t conform to how we typically teach in a classroom. But they were brilliant, you know, and they went on to do great things.
So I just feel very strongly that we have to find a better way of teaching, but teaching more about learning and then just guiding kids through. I mean, are there things that they all need to know? Absolutely. So I’m not saying this should be a free for all, you know, whatever, but we just need to really start thinking about how do I mean, because a lot of our kids that don’t do well in school because of school, not because of them. You know, they’re bright, they’re interested. And they just don’t conform to that traditional K12 classroom. So and I know that we have career tech classes in place and more hands-on. And I just think that way we could be just doing so much more if we could break out of some of the confines. So I don’t know exactly what that looks like, but I’m interested in keeping learning about it all.
And I feel like unfortunately, that kind of also bleeds over into the, into the work world right? So if your boss asks you to complete a task by a certain time, in a certain way, and you don’t do it, then you’re not really doing your job. But if you have the ability to maybe find another way to do that, whatever they’re asking from you, then that’s the side of, well, you know, going down the rabbit hole in Washington, DC. That’s where that innovation and exploration comes from. But ultimately, you still have to.
Absolutely have deliverables.
Right?
Right.
And I wish I wish if I knew how to teach that, I 100% would. But it sounds like you have a pretty good idea of how to do it and the passion behind it. So.
Yeah, I don’t have all the answers and I know that sometimes I when I get going about what I do think, you know, again, it can be controversial because, you know, it goes against a lot of what we’re wired to do in K-12 education. I just know I’ve a lot of kids come through my classes. I’ve seen my own kids struggle in their own ways. And, you know, there are just some things that I think if we would just not do it the way we’ve always done it and have the conversations about what could we try, you know, how could we maybe do it better that, you know, it might be worth it and there’s got to be some way. You’re right. I mean, I can’t say that you can’t ever have a deadline or a way to review something that it’s made, you know.
But if you think about it, a lot of times we don’t even make things on our own. I mean, think about how our software has changed, whether you’re talking about Google or where your office 365 We work collaboratively now to create deliverables. So I mean, again, I just think there are things that we could be changing and tweaking to make learning more authentic. So that’s my goal.
I completely agree. Yeah. I mean, it’s I feel like that’s ultimately the goal for probably every school and that’s why vocational schools and things like that exist in the first place. And the technology’s changing those schools too. I mean, there’s 14-year-olds learning CAD design. I mean, it’s unreal. And it’s only going to go up from there. I know some schools are putting in like video game design classes or maybe that’s starting out as a club and it will become a class at some point. So this is very cool, but unfortunately, I still have to graduate with the grades that we have in place now.
So yeah, but you know, there’s lots of different options. I mean, I had my daughter graduated and started college and was like youth. And so she came to me and said, you know, I think, I think I want to be a cosmetologist. And I was like, I think you’d make a much better cosmetologist than an accountant, you know? So so she did. So she went and got her license. And she is loving life and isn’t that the goal? At the end of the day, it’s about getting a career or doing whatever it is. Might not be a career. You might be staying home with your kids, you know, like whatever it is, does it bring you joy?
Does it contribute to the community around you and does it bring you joy? That’s what I think. If we keep all that in mind as we bring kids through their education, I mean, that’s the end goal, right?
Yeah, 100%, I think. Oh, go ahead, Mike.
I was going to say, and I think it really does tie into that initial topic we discussed, which is just the innovative and just how we can make people enjoy life after school by giving them new ways to learn and turning them into lifelong learners. Kind of to piggyback off that by when I was in high school, I was in all advanced classes, dual credits, or multiple colleges. And then I to college for one year and dropped out and it just wasn’t for me. And I felt bad at the time because again, I’d spent so many hours studying late at night for all my AP exams and things like that. And I mean, I love where I’m at now. I’m with a great company and K-12 and I’m just enjoying life and enjoying what I do, and I really think that does play a big part.
So it does well, and a lot of kids have a lot of stress as they’re trying to go navigate through all those AP and dual credit and CCP. And I mean, there’s so much more stress, I think about when I came during the eighties. I mean, there just wasn’t any of the stress that these kids have nowadays, which, you know, is we didn’t even talk about mental health. You know, that’s a big part of this as well. So whether it’s technology or the technology side of things or at school or just anything, I mean, the kids have a lot more pressure these days than we ever did before. So. But again, Joy. Right. It’s all about joy. So you’re happy and so you’re successful, right?
I mean, and that’s the message that I think we need to let these kids know your path might change, you know, but as long as you, again, are successful, you know, you’re successful if you are happy and you are contributing in a positive way.
So yeah. And I think, you know, obviously, that is that’s the goal. That’s the American dream. That’s what we’re all here for. And it sounds like, you know, you’ve definitely got a passion for helping students reach that goal. And it seems like you probably feel like you’re reaching that goal yourself by how you speak about all of this and in the earlier end and what you can do to help those students get to that point as well. So I think that’s awesome. I just we could probably talk for another few hours, but if there is a PSA you want to put out there for any students or teachers looking to do something new in their classroom, go ahead and put it out there.
Okay. Well, obviously, I mean, that’s always a good one. If your district is not involved in Ohio blended collaborative, find out it’s I think our website is 0hi ob si.com. I think I can’t remember should know that I feel bad that I don’t know that but that there’s a lot of really great resources there. So I think it’s org o h Ohio ABC dot org is a good place with a lot of resources. So it just doesn’t have to even be this. It could be anything. Just look for ways to stretch yourself, watch some videos. There’s a lot of information out there online. Again, you get out what you put in. You know, when I was a classroom teacher, I was stressed and trying to get everything done and raise kids and grade papers.
But I did always put a little bit of time aside to grow individually and to learn new things. And so I feel like if you do that, you know, you will feel that benefit. But just look for ways to be more innovative. Think about how you could take a standard and how would you want to engage with it. I mean, think about that. Like, do you want to worksheet or would you rather find a different way to engage with that content? So your kids want that it doesn’t have to be this big giant endeavor. It could be little, teeny, tiny things along the way. As long as you’re moving forward, that’s all you need. So I guess that would be my announcement.
Yeah. I think we got to get you in as a keynote speaker at one of these conferences.
Yeah, ADHD. And I could never memorize the speech, so.
All you need to do is just have the same conversation with a group of people, and you’ll be fine. Yeah.
And I think you. I appreciate the opportunity to talk with you guys. You know, the other side of my job is managing all of these Chromebooks and everything. And we do I will say we do really appreciate the relationship we have with K-12 tech. So I was a little stressed out about how we were going to transition, and it’s been great. So it makes me able to do other things in my job when I’m not worried about the logistics of Chromebooks. So I’ll just say thank you for that.
Absolutely. And we’re here to help with whatever you guys need. But again, I thank you so much for taking some time out of your day today. I know it’s busy. I know it’s the beginning of the year coming up. So I really do appreciate you coming on and I hope we can get you on again. Thanks. All right. Thanks for joining us.
In Episode 33, Hope Davis, MA, CHC takes us on a journey from personal challenges to leading educational innovation at Teach Tech U. Discover how her experiences fueled a passion for transformative technology in education, shaping the future with Project LEAR. An inspiring conversation for anyone intrigued by the power of tech to change lives. […]
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With guest speaker Marsha Maxwell, PhD, CETL, join us for a reflective journey on the advancements of AI through the years, focusing on how we can further develop these technologies to bridge educational divides.
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