Embark on a transformative journey with Holly Nelson, media specialist at Kennedy Community School, as she reveals the secrets behind pioneering school libraries that spark a love for reading and foster innovation in today's tech-savvy students. Over three decades, Holly has seamlessly led the charge in integrating digital tools and evolving traditional computer labs into hubs of creativity. Our heartfelt conversation unwraps the layers of her experience, highlighting the pivotal role of media specialists in guiding young minds towards a blend of imagination and practical tech skills.
Remember the warmth of being read to, the suspense of a well-told story? Holly walks us through how this cherished tradition is getting a tech makeover, blending the nostalgic with the cutting-edge. She explores the enchanting synergy of technology and storytelling, from AI-enhanced experiences to the hands-on joy of physical books. This episode is a treasure trove for educators and parents alike, revealing how we can encourage children to not merely consume, but create and innovate through coding, robotics, and a myriad of digital tools, nurturing a generation of storytellers and tech pioneers.
Have a great podcast idea? Submit your idea to communications@isd742.org
Subscribe and thanks for listening!
Embark on a transformative journey with Holly Nelson, media specialist at Kennedy Community School, as she reveals the secrets behind pioneering school libraries that spark a love for reading and foster innovation in today's tech-savvy students. Over three decades, Holly has seamlessly led the charge in integrating digital tools and evolving traditional computer labs into hubs of creativity. Our heartfelt conversation unwraps the layers of her experience, highlighting the pivotal role of media specialists in guiding young minds towards a blend of imagination and practical tech skills.
Remember the warmth of being read to, the suspense of a well-told story? Holly walks us through how this cherished tradition is getting a tech makeover, blending the nostalgic with the cutting-edge. She explores the enchanting synergy of technology and storytelling, from AI-enhanced experiences to the hands-on joy of physical books. This episode is a treasure trove for educators and parents alike, revealing how we can encourage children to not merely consume, but create and innovate through coding, robotics, and a myriad of digital tools, nurturing a generation of storytellers and tech pioneers.
Have a great podcast idea? Submit your idea to communications@isd742.org
Subscribe and thanks for listening!
The 742 CoffeeCast is your ultimate destination for insightful conversations, thought-provoking ideas and innovative strategies in St Cloud Area School District. Your host is Director of Community Engagement and Communications, tammy DeLand. Grab a cup of coffee and join us. We are here today with Holly Nelson, who is a media specialist at Kennedy Community School, and we are so glad to have you with us today, welcome, thank you.
Speaker 2:I have been looking forward to today for a while and I'm always excited to share about what goes on in our schools. That's great, that's great.
Speaker 1:We've been waiting for you. We're very excited to talk today. Do you want to start just like with a brief overview of how long you've been at Kennedy, how long in the district, that sort of thing?
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely. I have a long history with St Claude School District 30 years so this is my 30th year.
Speaker 2:Congratulations 30 years. So this is my 30th year Congratulations, thank you and my 32nd year in education. So my first seven years were in special education and I was a learning disability teacher in St Cloud and then I moved into the third grade classroom position that I had the entire time teaching third grade at Kennedy. So I was at the old building and then moved over to the new building and continued teaching third grade and this is my ninth year in media.
Speaker 1:And so this question is going to seem very, very, maybe even silly, but definitely simple for you, but, honestly, for our listeners what is a media specialist? Does anyone out there?
Speaker 2:know and it's funny that you ask because I was just talking to someone earlier today because they weren't quite sure what to call me and so technically in Minnesota we are school librarians, slash media specialists, so we hold both titles because our profession has evolved with technology and so we have taken on that additional title, which is fun, and so we are licensed SLMS.
Speaker 1:More acronyms in the education world? Right, Just what we needed. So can you give us an example of all of the things that fall under your umbrella? We'll come back and talk about books, but we know that part. Things that fall under your umbrella. We'll come back and talk about books, but we know that part. What else falls under your umbrella?
Speaker 2:I guess we work really hard at making sure teachers and students have resources, and so those resources might be electronic resources and they may be digital type of tools like iPads, chromebooks, and then we get into the curriculum and any online resources. So anything that would help a teacher teach and a student learn we're in charge of, and so it's a pretty big job. So pretty much the one-to-one device management that gets students with their device in their hands and on a daily working basis. So when that goes awry they usually come to us, and that involves teacher devices as well. So that's the media piece. We used to manage computer labs. So that's been replaced by one-to-one devices, which is great, because the learning that can take place outside of the four walls of a school is all day now, not just when they're coming to the computer lab, so there's some amazing advantages. So those spaces now have been repurposed.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I wanted to talk about that too. Tell us about a makerspace.
Speaker 2:Well, makerspace would be, as someone may say, that it is kind of the messy room. But there is a lot of material in this room for creating and we know how students developmentally love to build things, whether it's with cardboard or whatever they can find. The hope is, and the dream is, that we will give students those opportunities to have that hands-on learning and have that ownership and the collaboration with others in a space like that and having the engineering design process being a big part of what we do. Through that building process. We have been able to have two spaces in our school, that one being the maker space and then one being the innovation lab. That has been just a highlight of my time at Kennedy being able to transform those two spaces that used to be computer labs into something very purposeful, and I think that's what media specialists as school librarians, have really found their niche in offering these additional spaces for schools, and it's kind of fallen underneath our title Very Much.
Speaker 1:Wanted Because you're describing manipulatives, but also having an environment that allows, encourages but allows imagination to take hold. It's pretty exciting. I was lucky enough to be out at Kennedy. I remember the day that you launched for One. District One Book this year, and you had the child-sized hamster tunnels and we started laughing because you brought out all the Zuzu pets. From what? When was that? Early 90s? Yes, so your job title the middle name is almost creativity or innovation. Right, because you're dreaming this up.
Speaker 2:Yes, and I don't know any other job where you can just kind of play and be surrounded by books all day long. So sign me up right, it's a perfect fit for you. I just have always had that creative desire inside to create and do things with kids and to bring that love of books and love of learning and just remembering that they're kids, just remembering that they're kids. They want to come into a space that probably wasn't or isn't anymore a traditional type of library setting that I grew up, the library was my favorite place to go as a child and I wanted to create a space with that same feeling. And I think that our society is different than it was when I was growing up and to realize that students need and have different needs and wants than probably what we had from a library, and so that fun, loving kind of feeling that you get from a library where everybody is welcome.
Speaker 1:And talk a little bit about that connection, because obviously it's so much fun you know having hamster tunnels that you can, and you even said you climbed through one. That's obviously fun. But talk about the connection between creating that environment and the spark for a child to read.
Speaker 2:I think that any time you can pull kids in and think outside of the box with their imagination, they then feel encouraged to think that way as well. So pulling the tunnels and stretching them out in the library and trying to make a human hamster cage for Humphrey for the month demonstrates, like models to them, that even when you're old like me, you can still be creative and share that and celebrate that. When they come into the library it's not just about finding a book, it's about a place where you feel I'm a kid and they recognize that I'm a kid. This is going to be a fun place to hang out.
Speaker 2:And it all really started my first year that I started in the media center nine years ago. The first book was Mr Popper's Penguin, and I turned to the media para and I said you may think I might be a little bit crazy, but I want to build an igloo out of milk jugs for the book. And are you in? And she said okay, and it happened to just be a really good friend of mine as well. So I said thanks for always jumping into the crazy world of my imagination.
Speaker 1:And you built it, didn't you we?
Speaker 2:did, we did, and it's one of my favorite memories. And of course, then I had to continue that by building quite the structure. It was a rocket and I built it out of egg cartons and yeah. So every year it's something and it was really fun. This year I was worried about it being too simple, but I've learned that simple can still be really, really fun if you think like a child.
Speaker 1:Speaking as a former English teacher, tell me about kids and books. Right now we hear so much about oh you know, they're just wired into technology. Nobody reads anymore. That's a narrative, right. That's kind of on a loop. Is that what you see? No, I don't.
Speaker 2:I really see children wanting to physically hold a book and there's a lot of research that shows that physical involvement of turning a page, tracking on a page, looking at the pictures and the artistry that has gone into illustrations of books has really been phenomenal and I've watched it change over my lifetime, and I know that because every once in a while I find a little gem that's hidden from my weeding that has been missed, and you look at it and you think, wow, that is just not the style anymore. It's so vibrant and the printing presses that have been involved with producing literature in the print form is just is phenomenal.
Speaker 1:That's so reassuring Like I said, as a former English teacher and a reader myself, to hear that no kids are, and that's certainly been my experiments with children. Give a child a book and they are going to turn those pages, they are going to, you know, look for that language and look for that art. But you are also so innovative, even when it comes to books, and I don't know if you know that. I know this, but I am going to go to. How are you using AI, artificial intelligence, to bring kids into reading?
Speaker 2:Well, there is an app that I'm in love with called Novel Effect. What it does is it takes that experience to the listener. On another level, I love to tell stories. I grew up with a dad telling stories.
Speaker 1:Me too.
Speaker 2:And we have Buck the Bear story in our family telling stories, and we have Buck the Bear story in our family and my dad, whenever we were in the car, was here comes the next chapter of Buck the Bear. No matter where we drove, buck the Bear story came out. But we didn't have electronic devices. I had a Walkman with tapes and we listened to music. I love listening to my dad tell stories and so and I love reading out loud to children especially, and when I saw the technology piece, not as a barrier but an opportunity to embrace what is available for technology, modeling it in a way of something very useful for kids to connect with the literature that I'm reading out loud.
Speaker 2:Our students, I think, are very inundated with a lot of technology. I love technology. That's the other half of my job, that's right, and I love that. But there's a place and a time for that and I do talk to them. There are times that I will read a book on my Kindle and it's mostly because I'm traveling and I don't want this huge heavy book. But I tell them how much I enjoy holding a book. I love the smell of the book and one of my most fond memories of being a media specialist was actually happened this fall and it was the first time that this particular class was coming into library. And this little girl said I just love the smell of this place.
Speaker 1:Oh, that's great.
Speaker 2:And I just thought well, I'm glad it smells good to you.
Speaker 2:You always wonder you know you're in a school full of children, wonders the smells. But I said I know it's my favorite smell too of a new book, and so I try to remember that because there is that emotional connection that you can have to the printed book, but also the need for having that technology. I sometimes correlate it to driving, that I prefer having my phone on the dash with the GPS versus the map, and I show them a map. This is how we got around.
Speaker 2:And they're like what, and they were flabbergasted Like that's got to be dangerous. Looking at a map while you're driving. I said, well, yeah, similar to looking at your phone, probably too. Just, you know, embracing that and not being afraid. And I've never been afraid of technology and I do think that is also something that you get from your parents.
Speaker 2:At times my dad was a huge technology buff, like we had the first, you know, atari Pong game and the VCR. We got a VCR and I grew up in northern Minnesota and the only place you could rent VCR tapes was in Roseville, minnesota. So we would go to the cities to get a ton of VCR tapes and then a couple weeks later bring them back. So I know that that love of technology, you know, is kind of instilled because I watched my dad enjoy it, so that may be a part of it.
Speaker 2:I did really embrace it with the books, the AI. It listens to my voice and when I read the book it has voice recognition software and it will generate the sound that correlates with the word and it will bring the story alive. And I love to do voices and I've told the students that a lot of times. I'm going to have my little speaker and I have this little miniature audio pet speaker and it's a unicorn and its name is Uni and they often will ask where's Uni? And I said, well, you get Mrs Nelson today for the sound effects, because not all books are in there, but this app has absolutely expanded its repertoire of what's available. Now I will pick a book that will be engaging but could really use those extra sound effects, and that's what I read today was Tap the Magic Tree.
Speaker 1:Just to describe this. So you're reading the text, but AI is supplementing with voices Like are they other characters?
Speaker 2:Yes, sometimes there can be other voices, like today, certain words that I would say would trigger sounds of a bird.
Speaker 1:Okay, sure.
Speaker 2:This book was highly interactive. Where you're tapping the book and the kids would pretend to tap the book with me, the sounds would come. It was a very simple book that became very magical.
Speaker 1:I was just going to say magic, right?
Speaker 2:And it all ties in. Every book that I choose has a purpose and I usually tie it into my computer science standards because I can relate a lot of what happens in the structures of stories to computer science and some people think what are you talking about? But kids understand stories.
Speaker 2:Sure, if you can start at that basic level and you can explain how things all around us relate to the language of machines. This is a huge part of their life and it will only continue to become more and more so we have to embrace that and learn with them.
Speaker 1:And this is really a perfect segue, because I really wanted to ask you today another. Another little birdie told me all about your coding program, so that technology side of your job description has really come in handy. Tell me about this program. It sounds so exciting. How did it come about? What's up with it?
Speaker 2:What's really been a passion of mine. My view about technology and children is we often are consumers of technology and we know that children are way more creative than that. We know that we don't stand in front of them and just deliver information. We know that's not how children learn developmentally. Often I wonder why college students sit through hours and hours of lectures how we did it they have not gotten the memo yet.
Speaker 2:Up there at higher ed, they can learn a lot from us. But anyways, I know that kids want to be engaged with things and when I look at what they're exposed to all day long, it's a lot of electronics. So let's use that interest and really engage them and become creators and become innovators. They're going to make a difference in their own life and other people's lives with that type of thinking. A lot of times it's misunderstood that oh, you just do robots.
Speaker 2:And the forefront of my thinking and my lessons and the things that I do with students is purely on the aspect of building problem solvers, developing critical thinking skills and really thinking outside of the box and then also being a collaborator of information. And that has to start at a really young age and we know that kindergartners coming into our schools, you know they like to talk and they like to be with their friends. Yeah, let's use those, those childlike desires, to our benefit for teaching them to be really creators, designers of our world. Designer versus consumer. I like that, I love technology and I do consume a lot of technology myself. I love creating. I know when I get on like today, I just was excited because I'm looking to do a lesson next week with the very impatient caterpillar book, which is hilarious by the way, and how am I going to incorporate that with our technology?
Speaker 1:And that's how young you start, right? Oh yeah, you start with babies. Yeah, I mean, that's amazing.
Speaker 2:And what I've watched them do today will blow your mind. They really are smart. They really can do some pretty complex things. They're problem solving, they're critical thinking. Today, the way they connected the story, the story was tap a magic tree. What happens is the discussion of the book of the cycle, the life cycle of a tree, and I'm like that's a pattern. They're like yes. And then I say, like in math, when you do patterns, do you do A B patterns? They're like, yeah, now we do A, b, c patterns. And I said, well, the life cycle of a tree is like that. It has these set things that it does. And then we talked about how the tree will have its leaves, it'll get its blossoms, and that's what they're learning in kindergarten.
Speaker 1:Layering In their classroom, layering of learning, yeah, just that constant.
Speaker 2:And then, when we're all done, I said now this happens with all apple trees, so how could we code that? Nature has coded them to do this? And I said that is like when we're computer coding, when we're working in the innovation lab, and we're coding a machine and we leave out something and it doesn't work, we have to debug it. They're like, oh yeah, the whole concept of the story and weaving that literature piece into the technology and the understanding brings it to that level of picturing something, being able to really critically think about that. So we get into the innovation lab then today, after that, and we do loops. If you know much about computer science, loops is a repeated pattern. So instead of repeating a direction forward, backwards, turn right. That would be something that we could repeat many, many times. So we wouldn't want to do that same code over and over and over again, writing all of that out.
Speaker 2:We would do it one time and put it into. If this happens, we're gonna do this this many times and they understand that. It amazes me that they are learning loops of computer science in kindergarten, and so my whole hope is that we build that capacity.
Speaker 2:My kindergartners from last year now are first graders and they use a different tool and it's a mouse that we code, and that mouse then we take then the next level, and so really understanding those computer science standards is important. I'm constantly looking at, ok, what's the next level, what skill are we going to build? Because I don't. I'm not a computer scientist. I mean, I've had to learn with them and I think that is so meets my needs, because I am always a learner and teachers are learners all the time, and it satisfies my desire for that continual learning. So I'm excited because then, when we get to second grade and this is a new robot this year and it's the Indy that is the robot, gene Voight and I said to them last spring I said are you willing to go down this crazy road with me?
Speaker 2:And they said okay, and they kind of they blindly go into it because I think they trust me that I'm not going to, you know, do something that is not going to have great purpose. It's been just really amazing experience to watch these kids go from kindergarten, first grade to second grade and see what they do.
Speaker 2:And their excitement is amazing.
Speaker 1:You know, listening to you and all those multiple hats that you wear, I mean I could almost put the CTE hat on you, Because listening to you and this process and the layering of learning, as we call it a cohort, as the children go on, that is very purposeful toward our college and career goals. Also, and again we're talking about five and six-year-olds If you ask average five or six-year-old oh, what do you want to be? Is Cody or what comes up now, Like that's not the normal answer. But look at what you're doing. You're building a foundation. Do you ever think about?
Speaker 2:that I do a lot actually because I want kids to be those critical thinkers, I want them to be the problem solvers and I want them to take that into whatever profession.
Speaker 2:I do not have my forefront goal to be producing computer scientists, right? Sure, yeah, that would be a fun result of what we're doing, because we need them. I tell the kids too, a lot of times and teachers will hear me say this when they come into the innovation lab all jobs use this critical thinking skill Absolutely, and I tell them that one of the main things is to be able to collaborate with each other to get along. And so today my objective wasn't even necessarily the coding today and that skill that's a great result but collaborating with each other. One was in charge of the robot, one was in charge of the iPad, and then it was deciding what the code was going to be. And so that very structured approach to it where all kids know that their input is going to be included and that they have a job when they're doing it, and then they're having fun. They don't even realize, yeah.
Speaker 1:Right, yeah, right, but I tell them, electricians need to be problem solvers. What you're describing is complex thinking which is going to get them anywhere and in any situation we recently had. I don't know if you were able to hear it or not, but we recently had three young women from tech who do the morning show and they were absolutely delightful and I asked them because they did a very good job of not just talking about their exciting projects but talking about process and they talked about the hard parts, they talked about editing. They all agreed, oh, editing right.
Speaker 1:Any of us who've done this work we know that's like three, four times the amount of work to actually do the recording. But so I asked them, because they all were really, really thoughtful about the process. I asked them. I said so, tell me about your future, what are you going to be? And you know, not one of those young women is interested in a broadcasting career, in production not one of them. But they were very self-aware that the skills that they were learning doing the Tech Morning Show, video editing, interviewing, collaborating as a team to put out a story One of the young women did a documentary on her own. They were very aware that, no matter what they chose to be, this was going to help them and I was really blown away by that. And that's exactly what you're describing, but with much younger kids.
Speaker 2:Yeah, definitely. They will hear me say many, many times if you ask them when do you learn the most? And they said when you make mistakes and you fail. And that really is the truth. Computer science requires a lot of perseverance and critical thinking, requires that really kind of stick to it kind of attitude and working out a problem. And we do have students that really have they feel very uncomfortable with mistakes and failure.
Speaker 1:I was just going to ask tell me about confidence now, Huge.
Speaker 2:I can't tell you anything that is better than watching a student solve a problem with their code, realizing that it took them a long time and just encouraging them. Say, do you feel frustrated? And I will model that. I will say I'm frustrated right now because I can't figure this out and sometimes we have to walk away. So they know, if they get into a situation where they're frustrated and they can't follow the cold way where they're going to be safe, kind and responsible, they have an opportunity to just go outside of the innovation lab, sit in a chair and just come back when they're ready. And I said that's okay, that's part of being a human and frustration is an emotion, and that's the smart choice it is, and anger and frustration, but then it's what we do with all of that.
Speaker 2:You may experience that, but you're going. What we do with all of that. You may experience that, but you're going to remember how you solved that problem for a very long time. And I love having the approach to have them teaching others and so being with students. That needs a little bit of their own mentoring and that they are able to do that and share that and that's confidence building. It is.
Speaker 1:Yeah, to be able to help, to be able to teach someone else yeah.
Speaker 2:It's pretty amazing.
Speaker 1:Holly, I'm wondering we're so lucky I'm listening to you and we're just so lucky you're here. I'm listening to you and I'm just wondering a little bit more about your story how you got from that third grade classroom. How did you get here?
Speaker 2:Well, you know, it's interesting because it started. The computer science piece started probably about 10 years ago, but really it goes back a really long time ago. I remember being a third grade teacher at the old Kennedy ago. I remember being a third grade teacher at the old Kennedy and I wanted a way for kids to direct their own learning, being their director per se. I never wanted, or I would never fall into that thinking of well, you only have one computer, what can you do? I'm like, well, look at what Apple was built on one computer in a garage. So you're only limited by the limitations you create. So I would embrace every opportunity that I could. And so the web quest then moved on to podcasts. We had a podcast of third graders that then they shared that with families through email, and that was a long time ago. That was probably in.
Speaker 2:Well, it was before we moved into the new building and the kids loved it. And when we got into the new building and those smart boards blew my mind because if anybody knew how my classroom looked in the old building, I made my own smart board and they thought, what is she doing? And I had a projector that wasn't being used. It was a portable projector, which in itself was amazing. And Dwayne Hagen. I remember Dwayne.
Speaker 1:Oh, I love Dwayne.
Speaker 2:It was kind of my mentor and I said, dwayne, I have a crazy idea again. And I'm sure whenever I came into his office he's like, oh, I think I got to go get more coffee or something. Here she comes with another crazy idea. But he just was really good at encouraging and I still communicate with him and he said, yeah, if nobody's using that projector, let's put it on a cart. And I had purchased with my own money the MacBook Pro, the first one that came out, and it weighed a lot. I'm just telling you it is. They've really improved, I'm just saying. And I turned every story in the Wonders curriculum into a keynote. Oh my gosh, every single story was a keynote presentation and I had hyperlinks. Nobody really knew what that was.
Speaker 1:I do I remember and I had hyperlinks. Nobody really knew what that was. I do I remember and I put hyperlinks into that. Did you use Hyperstudio?
Speaker 2:Do you remember that? Oh yeah, hyperstudio. Yeah, it's crazy, I forgot about that one.
Speaker 1:Early animation yeah.
Speaker 2:I just wanted to interact with kids and have all of those resources in one place immediately, and so I projected that onto the pull down screen, which was in front of a chalkboard.
Speaker 2:So it had every oxymoron that you could. I mean oh, you're killing me, that's hilarious. Chalkboard and chalk, and then we had a screen, but then we had this makeshift. So it was this conglomerate of crazy ideas that I was always looking for something new, and I think that's what made it very natural for me to move into the media world. The school library.
Speaker 1:It doesn't sound like it was a very big jump.
Speaker 2:It was not and it just like fell into my lap at. You know, there's just there's. We all are on this journey that we don't always know what roads and it just they work out. And Chris Erickson was a great help at the beginning too.
Speaker 1:When was he a media?
Speaker 2:specialist. He was a media specialist, yep, and then Paul Olson, and Paul was great and us as a group is fun. I wish we had more time together, because we have. We all have so many amazing things too. I by no means am the only person that's got the corner market on fun ideas in 742 with media specialists, so moving into that new building just really jump-started my love of technology and probably my most memorable last type of technology thing that I did with my third graders was I used augmented reality, if you know much about augmented reality, where you superimpose like a video action on top of a still type of shot, and so I would take a picture of the students and videotape them explaining their life if they lived in a snow globe. When the parents came to conferences, I had an iPad and I had one iPad Just one.
Speaker 2:And it was an iPad that I bought. They're standing at their child's locker. They scan this picture of their child looking like they're in a snow globe. Because I went in to the media center and I said, can I borrow one of your really big windows? And I turned it into a snow globe. I took, made the kids go outside and took a picture of them inside the library, so it looked like they were in a snow globe and I was like, again, knowing my crazy ideas, they were okay with it. But the parents then scanned that with the AR app and all of a sudden the screen lit up with their child telling them a story. And it's just so.
Speaker 1:It's just so fun, it's just it was one iPad, and so engaging, just so engaging. You know, there there's another element, as I'm listening to you, that I think is of critical importance. I hear your ideas spool out, and that's curiosity. Talk about curiosity students have.
Speaker 2:They're just bursting with curiosity. That's childhood, and unfortunately, as adults we become less and less curious. That's why I think probably why I love being with kids, because sometimes I feel maybe a little bit too curious as an adult, but then I have an outlet though, so that's my favorite part of my job is just watching kids and figuring out what they like to learn about. I went into this crazy adventure a couple years ago when I started the Girls who Code, and it really started with the Super Bowl commercial of Girls who Code, and I had read about the woman that started this in New York City that she was able to get a Super Bowl commercial as a nonprofit blew my mind. She's innovative. She has figured out how to get this ad. I want to know what she's all about, and the more and more that I read about her, the more and more that I understand about computer science.
Speaker 2:There is a group, mentor group, that is, a cohort that meets during the school year that you apply for. It's called Code Savvy, and Code Savvy is a nonprofit organization that pays off of computer science for all, which is a national organization. The Code Savvy brings teachers voluntarily together on Saturdays throughout the school year and we explore computer science. We explore how we incorporate, integrate computational thinking into what we're doing with students and this group has grown and grown and grown and the leader and the founder of that is Andrea Vesquez and she is now works for the Department of Education as our computer science person Well that that feels good, doesn't it yeah, and.
Speaker 2:Andrea is amazing and so she has taken this grassroots movement and just really knows how important it is to the state of Minnesota. Students that we need this, really excited for the standards because I know how important they are and the reason why I chose the Girls who Code is there is just very little female representation. That is in the computer science world and I explained to students, girls and adults when they ask why not boys and I said that's mostly who's in computer science. And adults, when they ask why not boys and I said that's mostly who's in computer science, they don't really need encouragement and I know growing up not seeing females in certain professions.
Speaker 1:It just makes a difference. We know it.
Speaker 2:And I know that in our literature you need to be able to see yourself in a book and that's our job as school librarians is to make sure that we have literature. We're all students when they walk in that library. It's our job to make sure that they can see themselves in a book. It goes for the same for professions. To think back, there were no female physicians. My dad was a physician and there were no female physicians. They were secretaries in his office or nurses.
Speaker 1:I was going to say, or if you were interested in medicine, you could be a nurse, Right right and it just wasn't a common thing.
Speaker 2:And now I look now and wow, my youngest, she's 20 and she goes. I'm going to be a PA mom and they love science and I love science and that curiosity of why does that happen? I want to know more and I've got so many childhood stories of myself and my children of how curiosity has really once in a while gotten the best of us. But has been just you old and I know my oldest who's in the medical field. He came home in fifth grade and they dissected eyeballs. He explained to me that is the coolest thing I've ever seen in my life.
Speaker 1:And.
Speaker 2:I got to do something like that. We really do have an incredible job to spark that curiosity and I think I see so much of that when I deal with the computer science piece. Because of that curiosity and then just that love of learning. You're always a learner and I want kids to remember that, I guess, and see the leadership skills that come with the girls who code. Some of my students have expressed this strong desire to teach others and I'm thinking you could be a teacher someday. They love to go in and share what they're doing and teach their friends in class.
Speaker 2:We've been doing that for the last two years and it's not even just the computer science. We have VR headsets that haven't really gone off the charger a whole lot. I'm like, okay, what can I do? Because it's a great tool. All of these pieces of technology are tools and how we can integrate them and have it be very purposeful, and I thought it can be kind of scary for teachers technology because we have so much that we have to do and how do you really truly integrate that is, don't do more, just do it differently.
Speaker 1:Going back to curiosity, I think technology becomes that two-sided coin right. Because technology is so prevalent now, technology can actually squelch curiosity right After a while.
Speaker 2:I believe so.
Speaker 1:And so the intentionality that you're describing, that's the difference, and reminding kids that they're kids and oh yeah, you want to know why. Right, and you're right, that's an innate thing.
Speaker 2:Right. They just crave that. They crave that need to create. It's not surprising that an app like TikTok exploded because you consume. But they get tired of that. They want to create and what do they do?
Speaker 2:It's for better and worse, they create, and so let's take that passion and have it purposeful Use that. Giving kids a voice is such a great tool for older students. They want to be heard and they want to have a say. There's just so many tools and I think the more tools we have in our toolbox and some are more scary than others One of the challenges of my job sometimes is I know how awesome it is and I feel comfortable with that. I also feel comfortable with things not going exactly how we plan them. We get into a lesson and I'm okay with not knowing all of it.
Speaker 1:That's a vulnerability. Right Like that you're okay with it is key because you have to be willing to be able to stub your toe and not have things go right sometimes.
Speaker 2:So I really want teachers to know that we don't expect them to be perfect when we're using these tools and to reach out and ask for help or even you know, let me lead the way and you hop on for the ride. And I think that's what I've seen happening in the last two, three years with some of the things that I've done. Kennedy is a great environment to have. Some of our older students will come at times Like today. We had two upper level grade students come and help out the second graders today and they're learning right alongside them.
Speaker 1:And I bet they love it.
Speaker 2:They do. And then they see those kids in the hallway and they're like that gives them a purpose to be good role models. They're looking up to me. I have this relationship with them. It's all about those relationships. I have, in my opinion, the best job, because I get them from kindergarten all the way to eighth grade, and it's that maybe not as once they get to eighth grade are they always that they become teenagers. We know We've been around long enough to know they aren't the same little kindergartner that wanted to give you a hug, goodbye. But they still have that little glimmer in their eye where they know like, yeah, this is a cool place.
Speaker 1:I'm really glad you went in this direction, because before having you in today, I rewatched a video that we did quite a few years ago, and you did a video for us about being a media specialist.
Speaker 2:I forgot about that.
Speaker 1:And I was listening before you came and you talk in that video about being a part of this really special Kennedy community. What is it that you think helps make Kennedy such a special place to learn and to teach you?
Speaker 2:know that K-8 feel we see students for a lot longer. There's different perspectives that are shared. When you have elementary and secondary, they see how students start out and we get to see where they end up, because they often leave elementary school and we don't get to have those relationships down the road. Secondary is a big leap Yep, it is, and I think that at times can be very challenging for us but also be a blessing at the same time.
Speaker 2:I've watched a lot of teachers come and go and I've watched some of my very best friends retire and say, oh, I miss them. And then you get this new teacher and I talked to one of them today and I said, hey, do you want to do this with me? And you kind of look for the ones that are okay to be guinea pigs with you. I'm like, do you want to do this with me? And you kind of look for the ones that are okay to be guinea pigs with you. I'm like, do you want to build like a virtual field trip for your students, since you're not going on one this year? And she's like, yeah, because she lit up. And I'm like, oh, I love those 22 and 23-year-olds.
Speaker 2:That's right, come into my maker's face, come, come. I feel like a wizard, follow me. But I do. I get really, I get excited. I get people say nobody's going into teaching and I say, well, I think you said that to the wrong person. I said because my daughter's 23 and she's student teaching right now and you ask her what do you want to do?
Speaker 2:She goes I just want to be with second or third graders, and is it a hard job? Absolutely. She'll call me and I can tell in her voice this was a challenging day today, wasn't it? She goes, yep, but I can be there for her. She can call and tell me. This is what happened. We'll be a little emotional together. I'm kind of an emotional person, if anybody, if you know me, and I'll say that's right, tomorrow's a new day. People say everything you need to learn, you learn in kindergarten, my first year of teaching. Everything you need to learn, you learn in your first year of what to do and what not to do. And my first year of teaching, I was an EBD teacher in a K-12 school in a very rural area of Minnesota, so you were everything.
Speaker 2:I was everything to everybody. And so I tell her you're going to have those days, don't throw in the towel and make sure you have good work-life balance. And she has some fabulous hobbies and she loves what she has in store for her and she's so ready and teaching changes and people say, oh, it's so difficult. But you know what Kids are kids they're curious. You love that piece of the job. Then you'll be around for a really long time if you can keep that love of learning and that curiosity and be able to see that in kids. And we wouldn't be here without the teachers we had. So it's a very honorable profession. It's a very difficult profession but it is just so worth it and I'm glad that.
Speaker 1:I don't think you could imagine doing anything else.
Speaker 2:No, no Because.
Speaker 1:I may be reading audio. There you go.
Speaker 2:Audio books. I told you, yes, this microphone is really impressive. This is this has got me renewed again.
Speaker 1:Well, there you go, you've got your, you've got your second wave in retirement.
Speaker 2:I think so. I think so. You know, you just never stop learning, no matter how old you are. And I picked up. I had a health event in November and decided that I needed something to do in the evening relaxing. And I picked up embroidery and I thought, well, I'm not going to go find who's going to teach me how to do it. Of course you do.
Speaker 1:Do you know how I knew to fill that in my daughter?
Speaker 2:My daughter taught herself to knit on YouTube there you go and again I think about what our kids can learn now from technology. It's just, it's amazing that I have this hobby that I'm so passionate about now, and there's no fear.
Speaker 1:No, I can't imagine myself. You're much fear. No, like I can't imagine myself. You're much braver than I am. I can't imagine myself sitting down with a youth. I would be so intimidated. And yeah, same same thing. There's no fear. No, there is, I can learn in my living room.
Speaker 2:It's amazing and I think we we forget about these kids. You know I call them kids. They're in their 20s. You know that they have that at their disposal. None of them. All the kids that we've lived, that are living right now in schools, have never They've never been without it.
Speaker 2:They haven't, and so we may think, oh, in the olden days, or we can't live backwards, we have to live, live forward, and even when it's scary. I just know that when my husband and our oldest daughter can YouTube how to fix the boat motor last summer and pull it out of the water and put in a different little piece in the lower unit and they figured it out on YouTube. There's a lot of hope out there.
Speaker 1:That's right. A lot of hope. Well, holly, I thank you for all you do and thanks for coming today, and this is our very special gift for all of us. We have a very Isn't that cute? It's so cute. Do you have a great podcast idea? Submit your idea to communications at isd742.org, and thank you for listening to 742 CoffeeCast, the best place to stay informed and be inspired by St Cloud Area School District. Thank you.