Conversations from ISTE Live with Thomas Riddle

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Hey, welcome to the integrate this edtech podcast
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of David burner and I am joined by award -winning
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educator featured in the timeless heroes documentary
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and assistant director at Roper Mountain Science
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Center Thomas real Thomas. Thanks for joining
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us Yeah, very excited to be here right and we
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were just talking to you. This is Your first
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time at ISTE, correct? Yes, it is. You've been
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associated with ASCD a little bit? Yeah, in the
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past I presented at ASCD many years ago when
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I was a young administrator. But first time at
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ISTE, excited to be here. Yeah, great. And you
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started off by going to, you were at Epcot, right?
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Yeah, we went to Magic Kingdom the first day
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and then we headed over to Epcot on Sunday and
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Animal Kingdom before that. We kind of did the
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park hopper thing. Two of my sons are down here
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with me. They're doing the parks while I'm at
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the conference now. Yeah. And one thing I didn't
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mention actually, too, is the Imaginary Education
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book. Yeah. And that connects you. Did you do
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the scavenger hunt at the... I did. With Toby?
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With Toby Fisher? Yes. Toby's got a great thing
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going on there. And yeah, I was there with them
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for a bit. I'd tap out a little bit early. I'd
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been at the parks since seven o 'clock that morning.
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Okay. So, but yeah, we did the meet up there
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from the book study that they did around my book.
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Yeah. Okay, is there anybody that, you know,
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we've been asking our guests, is there anybody
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that you've met with online only? I know besides
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us. Oh, you guys, first time in person is great.
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Yeah, is there anybody else that you're like,
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I was glad to finally meet that person. Yeah,
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Tina and Mantha and all these guys that were
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in our book chat. Rachel, these were folks I'd
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never met before in person. And then it's always
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cool to do that. Mary Alice Curran and I worked
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together for years and probably 10 years online
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before we finally met in person. That's always,
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always fun thing. Yeah. What is your experience
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at ISTE been like so far? Like first time being
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at this particular conference with the merger
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and all that. Yeah. Well, it's It's fascinating.
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I love being around the energy. I love being
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around the ideas. It's like drinking through
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a fire hose. I was telling someone on the elevator
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today, you know? That's a great way to put it.
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Yeah, it is. And if you come to my session today,
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you'll also... Drinking through a fire hose a
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lot to say a little bit of time, but that's the
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good thing I love the thing like this It's like
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going away to summer camp when you're a kid,
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you know You get all energized and everything
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But the most important thing is to take that
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energy back and what are you going to do with
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it? You know, you can come here we can sit around
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and say hey great job Love that but until we
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actually apply the things that we're talking
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about That's where the road meets the road and
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that's where the real impact happens Yeah, yeah,
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we actually, we had a group, we were talking
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about that last night too. You do, you definitely
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feel a sense of rejuvenation here and it does
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encourage you and inspire people I think to try
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to apply things to the things that they're doing
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in the classroom, right? You learn new ideas,
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you bring it to the classroom and that's where
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the change happens, right? That's it, but you
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have to do that next step, you know. Walt Disney
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used to say, you know, if you could dream it,
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you can do it. Some people say it's not attributed
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to him, but that's kind of attached to him. But
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Disney did say this. He said, how do you make
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something happen is to stop talking and start
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doing. And so a lot of times we come to places
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like this and we get energized, like you said,
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and we do a lot of talking, a lot of excitement.
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But when we get back, that's the real test. You
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know, it's time to stop talking and start doing.
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Let's jump in, roll our sleeves up and do the
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real work of transforming lives. Right, yeah,
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and transforming education, new name ISTE in
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the Society for Transforming Education, right?
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Transforming takes action, right? It does. Anything
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that's transformational is going to take action.
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But here's the thing too, you know, I would encourage
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everyone to take some time to reflect at the
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end of this conference or when you get back because
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I can't transform the lives of my students unless
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I'm transforming myself. I can't transform the
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work that I that you know the people around me
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Unless I'm doing the inner work myself, you know
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I can't give away that which I don't have and
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so if I'm wanting to My kids be more creative
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more imaginative and do these things when I have
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to do it kind of some self -reflection You say
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what how am I modeling that how do I do that
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myself? You know, I can't be a great leader unless
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I can lead myself Well, so it's something that
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I need to really check myself on it's like, okay.
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Let me start with me And then I can do it in
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others. It's like putting your oxygen mask on
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yourself first before you put someone else on
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the plane, right? So I have to be willing to
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be transformed and change myself before I can
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change the lives of others. Yeah, that's a great
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way to put it. And you mentioned the session
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that you're doing today. Yeah, right. So can
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you talk a little bit about the name of that
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session and what people can expect as they go
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to that session? What do you... hoping to achieve
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with that. Yeah, so it's based on a lot of the
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work in my book, Imagining Education is the name
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of the book, came out last fall. This session
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is called Reimagining Education, Transforming
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Learning Through Story, Space, and People. And
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we're going to hit on some of those main topics
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that I cover in the book about really four core
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pillars that I focus on. If you want to transform
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schools, then I think it comes down to, you know,
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what are the stories you're telling, being intentional
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about all of that? What are the spaces? How are
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we designing the spaces in which to tell those
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stories? What are the experiences that we're
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providing for students that fill those spaces?
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And then most importantly... How am I preparing
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and pouring into my teachers, my people? Whether
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it's a classroom teacher, how do I pour into
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my students? As a principal, as a leader, how
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am I pouring into my teachers? As a superintendent,
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how am I pouring into all of my entire district?
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So Walt used to say this, that you can create
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the biggest, greatest attractions, most beautiful
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buildings, but it's the people that make the
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magic. And it's the same thing here. So we're
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gonna be talking about those, kind of diving
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into those concepts today. Okay, and yeah, that's
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great. And hopefully we're going to try to make
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that session too and be part of that. I need
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some friendly faces in there, you know? Yeah,
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yeah. So that'll be good. And do you want to
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talk a little bit too just about the book, the
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connecting, the session connects to that. But
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what about the book? Can you give us a little
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bit more information about that? So the book
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was born out of a TEDx talk I gave about 15 years
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ago. I did it twice. picked up a lot of traction
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and got a lot of interest. So I said, you know,
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hey, one day I need to write a book about this
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and then kids life, all those things. And then
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I finally got around to it about 15 years later.
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But the book is based on the premise of one question
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of what if we design schools like Disney Designs
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theme parks? And this is not like a glorification
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of the Disney theme parks, although I'm a huge
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fan. It's how do we look at the work of world
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-class designers, experienced designers, the
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Imagineers? And what is it that they do that
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get people coming back time after time and creating
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wonderful memories there that people remember
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the rest of their lives. The more I went down
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the rabbit hole of how they do design, the more
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I realized they gave language to what I knew
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intuitively worked as a classroom teacher and
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as a principal. And so I began to play with these
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ideas of how do I apply these core design principles.
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two learning spaces and have had practice over
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the last 15 years doing that and has seen tremendous
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results with engagement. And that's what it's
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all about. Engagement is the foundation of everything
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else we do. So that's what the book's really
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about is how we dive into that and how do we
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use the resources that we have available to us,
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these tools. I walk in the vendor hall. It's
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all these amazing tools, but a tool is only as
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good as the person that uses it. And so, that's
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what a lot of the book is about. Yeah, and I
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really...I love to, like, when you were on a
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podcast, you talk about the story, right? The
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importance of story and connecting things that
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are familiar to things that are like stories
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that you...that are familiar to you and connecting
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those to, like, something like Indiana Jones.
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Oh, yeah, teaching the pop culture. Yeah, I love
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that. Yeah, so I taught world history for many
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years. I'm a social studies teacher by trade.
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Proud one. I love it. And football coach, same.
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I love it, man. Coaches can be some of the best
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teachers in the world, because we have to get
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immediate feedback. And that's a whole other
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thing. But yeah, story is important. And I had
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a lot of success teaching world mythology with
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Star Wars, because Lucas... developed that story
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around the concepts of the monomyth, Joseph Campbell's
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ideas about the universal hero, the hero with
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a thousand faces. And so I taught ancient history
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with Star Wars, with the original trilogy, and
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how we can introduce, I was introducing students
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to other, the stories of other cultures through
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teaching them. With a hook of Star Wars and it
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was very successful Indiana Jones the same way
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again It's it had I still remained in the classroom
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for any length of time after that I would have
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been using Harry Potter, you know Lord of the
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Rings when the movies came out Big fan. Oh, yeah.
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Yeah all that. Well, I mean seriously when I
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was in sixth grade my my sixth grade literature
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teacher miss Kovach Introduced me to the hobbit.
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We had to read The Hobbit and changed my life
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in terms of what's out there and in terms of
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literature, okay? And so that got me into Lord
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of the Rings after that, and then these epic
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heroes that I've always had a passion for going
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back to childhood. Yeah, yeah. I'm reading Lord
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of the Rings with my daughter right now. We're
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about halfway through the... Fellowship of the
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Ring. Okay. I thought you were going to say we're
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trying to slog through the dead marshes right
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now. Let me know how that goes. Call me and see
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how that goes. Yeah, I'll shoot you a message.
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Please do. So one last question for you, Thomas.
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What do you want to talk about just that you
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have coming up and things that, obviously you're
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here at ISTE, but what about after that, projects
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that you're working on, the Science Center, anything
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like that you want to talk about? Yeah, so my
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full -time gig is helping to lead world -class
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science center. If you ever come to Greenville,
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South Carolina, hit me up. Love to show you around.
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It's an incredible facility, 62 acres, owned
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by a school district. There were 100 ,000 square
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feet of learning space, outside trails. We have
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dinosaurs and we have sharks you can pet. The
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whole gamut. We build rockets and we build robots
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and we have a planetarium and all that. So those
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kind of things are exciting. That's my day job.
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Consulting with imagining education is something
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that's growing and picking up speed. So I do
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have some projects that I'm working on now. Can't
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talk about two of them. Wait, wait, and here
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back on one. I'm hoping I'll be able to announce
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that pretty soon. Another one I can announce
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later this fall. I've been working on that one
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since first of the year. incredible project.
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So yeah, it's what I really enjoy doing is helping
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people create these immersive spaces and experiences
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for learners of all ages. And both of these projects
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come to scratch that itch for me. So I do have
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the audio version of the book coming up. That's
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the next big thing. I've been in the studio recording
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that. And so that's going to be coming out. The
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goal is to have it out before the start of school.
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So end of August is when we... We plan on having
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that wrapped up. Okay, great. So make sure you
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follow Thomas on LinkedIn and everywhere else
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Instagram Yeah T riddle 21 on Instagram Thomas
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Earl the second. Yes, I'm Voldemort. Okay. Hi
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fans Tom riddle ha ha and an imagineering education
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or imagineering edu .com is my website where
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I blog and I have The old podcast episode has
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been so busy writing the book, didn't have time
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to get that going, but I'm going to get that
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back. Sure. And make sure you check out the podcast
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episode that we do with Thomas. Oh, man. So much
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fun. Yeah, it was a blast talking about so many
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great topics, including Indiana Jones and Star
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Wars and things like that. So make sure you follow
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Thomas. Make sure you follow to integrate this
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podcast. And Thomas, thanks. Oh, yeah. And hey,
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can I say one thing real quick? Yeah. If you
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guys ever want to get pumped up, you've got to
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listen to these guys playlist they put together
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of all of our walk up songs. Oh, my gosh. That
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was my jam. I had a big presentation the other
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day, a big pitch, and I was two hours on the
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road. I listened through everything. I was ready
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to go. I hit it going. So check them out on Spotify,
00:12:25.600 --> 00:12:28.179
too. That's awesome, yeah. Thanks.