Dani and Jared Fawson (Homeroom Super Sub) sit down with Kelly Dumont from the Canyons School District to chat about personal growth as an educator. They share insights into how to stay relevant as a teacher, the importance of constantly learning, and how to pay it forward.
Dani and Jared Fawson (Homeroom Super Sub) sit down with Kelly Dumont from the Canyons School District to chat about personal growth as an educator. They share insights into how to stay relevant as a teacher, the importance of constantly learning, and how to pay it forward.
Well, I hope we can do that for you. All right, let's get started.
All right, let's go.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
All right, I just heard the bell. Welcome to UEN Homeroom. Today, we are going to be talking about the power of personal growth and we have our UEN Homeroom substitute teacher here-- our favorite substitute teacher. You've subbed for me. And now, you're subbing for Jared Covili. Jared Fawson, welcome.
Very happy to be here.
Thanks for filling in for us. We super appreciate you. So when it comes to personal growth, what are your thoughts on this? You're someone I know that's always learning.
Well, I think that that's a key thing in being a teacher is the idea that you need to be the lead learner in your classroom. And so I've always really kind of jumped all over that and whether it's trying to figure out new technologies that I can use in class or just understand the content a little bit better.
Sure.
You know, that's just always kind of been my MO is to just learn as much as I can.
Absolutely. So what's your favorite PD or the favorite class that you've taken? What's changed your life? When you think about that, is it a conference?
You know, I will tell you, I really think that the first UCET conference that I went to back when it was at Jordan High School, that really kind of changed everything for me because I realized there was a lot of like-minded educators out there that were all over the state, that were fantastic, that had a lot of great ideas, and they were willing to share. And then I kind of joined this network of, you know, these like-minded individuals. And it really opened doors that I didn't even know existed.
Just out of curiosity, what year was your first UCET?
I don't know.
I was going to say, what if it was my first year too?
It could have been.
It might have been. I remember it being at Jordan High. All right, so we have an awesome guest. Jared, would you do us the pleasure of introducing our guest?
Absolutely. All right, so we're here with Kelly Dumont, who's going to be our guest today. And let's give you his background. Kelly Dumont is an education technology specialist for Canyons District in Sandy, Utah. He has worked in that capacity for the last 10 years. Previously, he worked as a curriculum technology specialist and taught fifth and sixth grade in Jordan School District.
His job is to help teachers and students learn to use technology more effectively in the classroom. He blogs and podcasts at theeducationalmac.com. He's a past president of UCET. He's presented at the UCET conference for the past 16 years. And he's an Apple Distinguished Educator, as well as a Google Certified teacher. And I think, Kelly, the unofficial title that you have is the godfather of educational technology here.
I've heard that. I've also heard the old fart of educational technology, so whichever.
We'll go for godfather.
Yeah, I think that sounds a little better. But welcome, Kelly. It's so great to have you here.
Thanks for having me.
OK, Kelly, it is the time that you are most excited about. You need to take some questions from our live student studio audience. Are you prepared?
Fire away.
OK, question one.
What is your favorite ice cream?
Wow, my favorite kind of ice cream. You know, I kind of go through phases. Right now, I would say kind of a mint Oreo is my favorite.
That's a good one.
I like it. Yeah, that's definitely a favorite at our house. OK, question two.
When you go to the zoo, what animal will you see first?
The first animal I want to go see is the elephants. Just the size and the massiveness, they stand out. Elephants to me have always seemed regal and just so impressive, and so I like to go see the elephants first thing.
The baby elephant that's there is pretty cute. It's at our Hogle Zoo anyway. It's been a baby for a long time, I think. Do elephants grow super slow? Is that a thing?
Yeah, yeah. As big as they get, that's surprising, but they do.
Yeah, OK. And our third question.
What is your favorite holiday?
Oh, my favorite holiday is Christmas. It's probably a lot of people's favorite. But when I was young, I'll be honest, I loved getting presents.
Who doesn't like a good present?
I couldn't wait for Christmas. And today, I love Christmas because I like giving presents and I like surprising people. So that's kind of why it's my favorite because I get to surprise people with gifts they may not be expecting.
All good answers. All right, I feel like we know Kelly a little bit better. So now, we can get started with our interview. All right, Kelly, we're so glad to have you here. And we kind of want your opinion on the power of personal growth. That's our topic. And so as an educator, why is it important to model personal growth?
Well, that's what we want our students to do. We're in education to help our students grow. And we need to be the models of that ourselves. And so I don't think if we're not growing, if we're not trying to grow professionally, try different things, do different things, we really can't expect our students to do that.
I love that answer. I love that you've related it back to students because that's really why we're all here as educators. Jared, when you were in the classroom, I know that you modeled personal and professional growth through doing Genius Hour. Do you want to talk about that really quickly?
Yeah, one of my own personal projects is I wanted to learn how to optimally swing the golf club.
I love it.
And so I had my own Genius Hour project that I was doing at the same time. But then with my students there, we're in a geography class, and so I pretty much opened it up to them and said, hey, you can come up with anything as long as you can tie back to geography, which really is just about anything.
Absolutely.
And that's what we did in the class. And I was able to kind of show them what I had learned about the golf swing, and then they showed me what they learned about more relevant topics to what we were doing in class.
But I bet that was a great opportunity for them to see you as a learner because really, teachers are just lead learners in the class. They're not dictators or lecturers all the time. So I think that's a great, great opportunity that you had there.
Yeah, so I agree. It was fun to do. And you know, I really enjoyed it. I think doing Genius Hour like that is a great way to learn with the students. So Kelly, you know, you've been involved in educational technology for quite a while now. What are some of the big changes that you've seen in this timespan?
Really, I don't know how to talk about it without the technology itself. When I started teaching going on 30 years ago now, I actually brought my own computer to use at first. So that made it one of eight in the building. We had one lab of seven computers in the building that no one really knew how to use. Where we fast forward, now, we've got devices hopefully in every classroom in our districts or in our state even.
And I think really one of the biggest changes I've seen has just been in the last few years with the implementation of the Digital Teaching and Learning program. I think that's moved us forward as much as anything has before that.
Right. And you know, I remember like 10 years ago when laptop labs were becoming a little more common in class. And then, you know, soon after, we got the iPads. And then, you know, this was getting in the class, but nobody really knew what to do with it. And so how do you see the role of the educational technology specialist, how that has kind of evolved?
We kind of went from kind of one-shot, drive by trainings for teachers. We'd have a tool in mind maybe or they'd have a tool they wanted to learn. And so we'd drop by, kind of show them how to use it, and then we might get back to them two or three months later or not. Now, we have and I think most districts have a specific plan of how they're training teachers to use technology in the classroom with their students. And it's not just drive by. It's something that we can go back and we can spend more time with teachers. We have more personnel to be able to spend more time and can kind of do a patterned and a sequential training, rather than just one-off every once in a while.
Well, and to me, it seems like the role of ed techs has almost gone from a break/fix person to almost another coach to have for teachers to utilize in that way.
Exactly right. In fact just this year in Canyons, we've kind of restructured our team and our personnel and team, we're actually calling them educational technology coaches now.
Cool.
And that's their sole focus is to go and work with teachers and actually coach teachers-- go through coaching cycles with teachers.
So how do you determine, like, what topics you're going to cover with teachers? Do they have much say in that or you just kind of see what's up and coming and go with it?
You know, we've focused most of our trainings around our Digital Teaching and Learning plan, which involved the implementing-- or not implementing, but increasing the use of Google Docs or Google Apps, whatever we call them now.
We know what you mean.
That's always a change, right? And in our district, we're using Nearpod heavily, and then also Canvas. And so we've built most of our training around those items because that's what we want our teachers to get really invested in and using.
I love that it all goes back to the plan. And I think that makes teachers feel really nice and secure that there is a vision. It's just not doing it for the sake of doing it. When it comes to technology certifications, you have gone through quite a few programs, right? You're an Apple Distinguished Educator, as well as a Google Certified educator. What do you see as the benefit in going above and beyond and doing those kinds of things, Kelly?
The benefit is making connections all across the country and across the globe, really. I've had the opportunity to work with teachers from all over the world and learn from teachers all over the world, and teachers that are much brighter than I am certainly or at least have different perspectives on things. And that's really been the strongest piece of it for me is learning from different people, and gaining from their wisdom as well, and being part of a community.
So this idea of a personal learning network, where you have these connections that you made, when teachers don't quite understand what that is, what do you do to help get them on board with that idea?
You know, we try to have them start locally. So we try to promote things like Utah Ed Chat Wednesday nights, 9:00 o'clock.
Past your bedtime, but-- I mean, it's past my bedtime.
Yeah, past mine too.
But it's worth it for one night a week, right?
Yeah. But getting involved in things like that, and even just local things-- different wide things. You know, we've been running an endorsement program for several years and kind of tried to build cohorts around that to give people an opportunity to build a network that way, and then expand that out. But it's easier for people, I think, to start locally, and then kind of branch out. And as they learn more people as they branch out, and then they can go wider and wider.
Absolutely. I think when I was a teacher, my PLN really consisted of my fourth grade team, right? And then it kind of expanded as I did the [INAUDIBLE] certification. And then when I got on Twitter, it was just like the world of teachers. But I don't think you necessarily have to be on Twitter. It might be, you know, like you said, your local teams. It could be using Pinterest and the people you connect with there, that sort of thing.
Yeah, I agree. I mean, we've done the last few years, some cohorts based around teaching some of our elementary teachers Canvas. So we started with some fifth grade cohorts. So almost all our fifth grade is trained now. And out of that, one of our fifth grade teachers actually built a Facebook group that is very active. We have a lot of our fifth grade teachers involved in that group. And we pulled that down to fourth grade, at least for the training in that. And even in other disciplines, our science team does training at grade level. So all the teachers at that grade level in the district kind of get the same training and kind of can build that camaraderie that way as well.
I love the idea of the Facebook group. What kind of questions and answers do you see happening in there?
I just see a lot of resource sharing.
I love it.
A teacher will make something or develop something and share it out to the group or people can ask questions like, how would I do this? And almost immediately, somebody will come on and give them an answer, or say at least look for this resource, or contact this person. They know how to do that really well.
That's amazing. That sometimes was the hardest part of finding an answer was I don't even know who to ask the question. So if someone else can either give you the answer or at least be like, hey, call Kelly because Kelly knows everything, that's what you want.
Well, and I think one of the things that you bring up here is we've talked about Facebook and Twitter briefly as ways to kind of expand your learning network. And I think, like, to the general public, they might just post a picture of what they had for lunch. Whereas like educators, we're sharing resources, and ideas, and things that are going on in our community, and how this looks nationwide.
And you know, I've got to say, like, when I first got on Twitter and really kind of expanded my horizons there, the thought was always, well, look at how many followers Kelly Dumont has. Like, that guy is so connected. And I was always just so impressed with you just seem to know everybody, and are involved in so many great things, and have been such a big support and example here in the state. And you just do a lot of great things.
Well, thank you. Yeah, I've had a lot of opportunities. I've had the opportunity to attend ISTE even way back when it was NECC for several years, and really developed a lot of connections there as well. But even today, I find that I don't follow people so much as much anymore, but I follow hashtags. So I find hashtags that kind of resonate with me, and I follow those hashtags. And then I'll get followers and start following people based on that hashtag because they're posting around that hashtag a lot.
Not to put you on the spot, but what are your top hashtags that you like to follow right now?
#fortheloveoflearning.
OK, is it number four?
No, just F-O-R.
Regular four, OK.
Spelled out.
Yeah. #everyonecancreate. And that's kind of built around the Apple Everyone Can Create curriculum that they've just recently come out with, but goes beyond that as well. #creativity is one of my favorites because I believe strongly that we need to be giving students more opportunities to be creative instead of quelling them in our classrooms.
I love it. Thank you. Thank you for sharing those. I'm going to put those into my TweetDeck today. All right, so why do you think it's so important for teachers to connect in order to stay relevant and to continue to get new ideas?
Wow. Our society is becoming more global and more connected all the time. And one of the biggest skills that our students need is collaboration. And I'll admit when I first started teaching 40 years ago, that was a pretty foreign idea. We all got to the school in the morning, went into our rooms, got our students in, and shut the door, both literally and physically. We might do some teaming things with our team at our grade level, but beyond that, not much of anything.
But our students need experiences beyond that now. And we, as teachers, need experiences beyond that too. You can just learn so much from others that are out there. And again, you don't even have to know them personally to connect with them to begin with, and then you get to know them. And it just offers a breadth of experience that we never had access to before. And it's so important for our students, again, to learn those skills and know how to make connections appropriately.
You know, I think you're modeling effective use of technology because when we just had the iPad in the class and we were just kind of substituting a worksheet for doing it, you know, on the iPad, like, OK, that has its place in learning how to do something, but as far as, like, elevating what you can do with technology and connecting with people globally, as well as locally, that's such a fantastic model for not just students that you're working with, but other teachers as well.
What I like about being able to connect with people online is that I get to choose who I follow. I can decide if someone is super interesting to me and follow their tweets or if someone ends up to be not interesting to me, I can unfollow and it's not going to hurt anybody's feelings. But it's almost professional development that I get to choose and pinpoint exactly what I'm looking for. And it doesn't have to be in real time. Like you said with the hashtags, I can go back, and search a hashtag, and find just what I'm looking for. And that may have been posted weeks ago.
Yeah. Yeah, exactly right. It's that everything is so open now that we need to keep our classroom doors open and again, not just for our students, but for ourselves as well.
Absolutely. That can be a big part of teacher burnout, which we're seeing a lot of unfortunately. All right, Kelly, beyond this topic, is there anything that you want to share with us? We know you're retiring soon, so I know that's probably at the front of your mind.
Imparting words of wisdom or departing words of wisdom.
I like it.
You know, just remember-- I think the big key is to remember why you got into education to begin with. None of us have done it for the money, at least I don't think so.
Wait, what?
Very, very few of us anyway have done it for the money. But we do it because we love the opportunity to touch others' lives. And I guess that's what I would leave with anybody is to keep doing that. Keep touching other's lives and doing the best you can to help move them along and help them grow and develop to be the best they can be because I think that's what we want. You know, with our own kids, we want them to be better versions of ourselves, I think. And I feel that way with my school kids and with teachers I work with too. My goals hopefully make them better versions of me.
That's awesome.
Well, and I think that that is very profound wisdom for everybody, but one of the things I like best about it is I think you really live that. You know, you're a great example of your own personal growth, and making these connections, and remembering why you got into education.
Thank you.
Kelly, thanks so much. Thank you for being on our podcast today.
You're welcome. Thank you for having me.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
So Dani, do you want to give our audience a tech tip today?
I mean, do we have to?
Well, I mean, this is a podcast kind of about technology.
I'm tired. Do you have a tech tip for today?
I mean, I guess if I have to, I can come up with one.
I mean-- all right, I guess I'll do the lazy teacher tech tip, since you're a guest.
Are you going to be able to handle it?
I think I can handle it today a little bit. Just kidding. I have one prepared that I'm super excited to share with you. So I'm going to share with you doodle.com.
What's doodle.com?
Doodle helps you schedule meetings because this is probably one of my biggest pet peeves is when people try and schedule something, and then, you know, there's like 16 people on an email thread, and everyone's replying all because teachers and pretty much anyone in education, I swear, are the busiest people in the whole world.
Right.
So what Doodle allows you to do, you can create an account or you don't have to. But you go to doodle.com, you say what you're trying to schedule, where you're trying to schedule it, and then you put in all of the times that you're available to host this meeting. And then you send out one email with a link, and then everyone else that's on there goes in and says, yes, I can come at this time or no, I cannot. And you can even give them the option to say, yes, I will if I absolutely have to, but it's not the best time for me. And then you pick the best time for the meeting.
And then everybody else can kind of see why that got picked.
Yes, exactly. So many fewer complaints and so many fewer emails. So I love Doodle polls. I even use it for book club or when I'm trying to get my friends together because scheduling is just too hard. I give up.
So do you have to have an account? Is this something that's free?
It's totally free. Even if you sign up for an account, which you don't have to, it's still free. So it's free or it's free.
So it's free?
Yeah.
Well, that's a great lazy tech tip then.
Right? Yeah. Use it in your schools. Quit replying all or use it in your personal life. I hope it saves your life.
Fantastic.
All right, thanks.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
How awesome is Kelly Dumont?
Well, you know, I really think that the godfather of educational technology fits. He came up with his other moniker, but I think he is the godfather.
Totally. So incredible. And I love his wisdom at the end there about remember why you got into education. I always found that when I was having a down time, a rough school year, whatever it was, just kind of going back to why are you here? You're here for the kids and you're here to help people. And I just loved that.
Yeah. And you won't find a better example of personal growth than Kelly. I mean, like, we had that big list of everything that he had done. And you know, when I first got into the educational technology world, like, it was always, well, you look at what Kelly Dumont is doing. And you know, he was the example, still is. Just a fantastic person. I'm so glad we got to talk to him.
Yeah, I agree. I agree.
[MUSIC PLAYING]All right, Jared, I heard the bell. But guess what? This is a different Jared. We have a substitute Jared today. How do you feel about being the substitute teacher in the homeroom?
Well, you know, I've done it before. I'm not necessarily OK with being a substitute, but I am happy to be here. Subs never get treated well, but I was treated well last time, so I'm happy to be here.
Well, I hope we can do that for you. All right, let's get started.
All right, let's go.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
All right, I just heard the bell. Welcome to UEN Homeroom. Today, we are going to be talking about the power of personal growth and we have our UEN Homeroom substitute teacher here-- our favorite substitute teacher. You've subbed for me. And now, you're subbing for Jared Covili. Jared Fawson, welcome.
Very happy to be here.
Thanks for filling in for us. We super appreciate you. So when it comes to personal growth, what are your thoughts on this? You're someone I know that's always learning.
Well, I think that that's a key thing in being a teacher is the idea that you need to be the lead learner in your classroom. And so I've always really kind of jumped all over that and whether it's trying to figure out new technologies that I can use in class or just understand the content a little bit better.
Sure.
You know, that's just always kind of been my MO is to just learn as much as I can.
Absolutely. So what's your favorite PD or the favorite class that you've taken? What's changed your life? When you think about that, is it a conference?
You know, I will tell you, I really think that the first UCET conference that I went to back when it was at Jordan High School, that really kind of changed everything for me because I realized there was a lot of like-minded educators out there that were all over the state, that were fantastic, that had a lot of great ideas, and they were willing to share. And then I kind of joined this network of, you know, these like-minded individuals. And it really opened doors that I didn't even know existed.
Just out of curiosity, what year was your first UCET?
I don't know.
I was going to say, what if it was my first year too?
It could have been.
It might have been. I remember it being at Jordan High. All right, so we have an awesome guest. Jared, would you do us the pleasure of introducing our guest?
Absolutely. All right, so we're here with Kelly Dumont, who's going to be our guest today. And let's give you his background. Kelly Dumont is an education technology specialist for Canyons District in Sandy, Utah. He has worked in that capacity for the last 10 years. Previously, he worked as a curriculum technology specialist and taught fifth and sixth grade in Jordan School District.
His job is to help teachers and students learn to use technology more effectively in the classroom. He blogs and podcasts at theeducationalmac.com. He's a past president of UCET. He's presented at the UCET conference for the past 16 years. And he's an Apple Distinguished Educator, as well as a Google Certified teacher. And I think, Kelly, the unofficial title that you have is the godfather of educational technology here.
I've heard that. I've also heard the old fart of educational technology, so whichever.
We'll go for godfather.
Yeah, I think that sounds a little better. But welcome, Kelly. It's so great to have you here.
Thanks for having me.
OK, Kelly, it is the time that you are most excited about. You need to take some questions from our live student studio audience. Are you prepared?
Fire away.
OK, question one.
What is your favorite ice cream?
Wow, my favorite kind of ice cream. You know, I kind of go through phases. Right now, I would say kind of a mint Oreo is my favorite.
That's a good one.
I like it. Yeah, that's definitely a favorite at our house. OK, question two.
When you go to the zoo, what animal will you see first?
The first animal I want to go see is the elephants. Just the size and the massiveness, they stand out. Elephants to me have always seemed regal and just so impressive, and so I like to go see the elephants first thing.
The baby elephant that's there is pretty cute. It's at our Hogle Zoo anyway. It's been a baby for a long time, I think. Do elephants grow super slow? Is that a thing?
Yeah, yeah. As big as they get, that's surprising, but they do.
Yeah, OK. And our third question.
What is your favorite holiday?
Oh, my favorite holiday is Christmas. It's probably a lot of people's favorite. But when I was young, I'll be honest, I loved getting presents.
Who doesn't like a good present?
I couldn't wait for Christmas. And today, I love Christmas because I like giving presents and I like surprising people. So that's kind of why it's my favorite because I get to surprise people with gifts they may not be expecting.
All good answers. All right, I feel like we know Kelly a little bit better. So now, we can get started with our interview. All right, Kelly, we're so glad to have you here. And we kind of want your opinion on the power of personal growth. That's our topic. And so as an educator, why is it important to model personal growth?
Well, that's what we want our students to do. We're in education to help our students grow. And we need to be the models of that ourselves. And so I don't think if we're not growing, if we're not trying to grow professionally, try different things, do different things, we really can't expect our students to do that.
I love that answer. I love that you've related it back to students because that's really why we're all here as educators. Jared, when you were in the classroom, I know that you modeled personal and professional growth through doing Genius Hour. Do you want to talk about that really quickly?
Yeah, one of my own personal projects is I wanted to learn how to optimally swing the golf club.
I love it.
And so I had my own Genius Hour project that I was doing at the same time. But then with my students there, we're in a geography class, and so I pretty much opened it up to them and said, hey, you can come up with anything as long as you can tie back to geography, which really is just about anything.
Absolutely.
And that's what we did in the class. And I was able to kind of show them what I had learned about the golf swing, and then they showed me what they learned about more relevant topics to what we were doing in class.
But I bet that was a great opportunity for them to see you as a learner because really, teachers are just lead learners in the class. They're not dictators or lecturers all the time. So I think that's a great, great opportunity that you had there.
Yeah, so I agree. It was fun to do. And you know, I really enjoyed it. I think doing Genius Hour like that is a great way to learn with the students. So Kelly, you know, you've been involved in educational technology for quite a while now. What are some of the big changes that you've seen in this timespan?
Really, I don't know how to talk about it without the technology itself. When I started teaching going on 30 years ago now, I actually brought my own computer to use at first. So that made it one of eight in the building. We had one lab of seven computers in the building that no one really knew how to use. Where we fast forward, now, we've got devices hopefully in every classroom in our districts or in our state even.
And I think really one of the biggest changes I've seen has just been in the last few years with the implementation of the Digital Teaching and Learning program. I think that's moved us forward as much as anything has before that.
Right. And you know, I remember like 10 years ago when laptop labs were becoming a little more common in class. And then, you know, soon after, we got the iPads. And then, you know, this was getting in the class, but nobody really knew what to do with it. And so how do you see the role of the educational technology specialist, how that has kind of evolved?
We kind of went from kind of one-shot, drive by trainings for teachers. We'd have a tool in mind maybe or they'd have a tool they wanted to learn. And so we'd drop by, kind of show them how to use it, and then we might get back to them two or three months later or not. Now, we have and I think most districts have a specific plan of how they're training teachers to use technology in the classroom with their students. And it's not just drive by. It's something that we can go back and we can spend more time with teachers. We have more personnel to be able to spend more time and can kind of do a patterned and a sequential training, rather than just one-off every once in a while.
Well, and to me, it seems like the role of ed techs has almost gone from a break/fix person to almost another coach to have for teachers to utilize in that way.
Exactly right. In fact just this year in Canyons, we've kind of restructured our team and our personnel and team, we're actually calling them educational technology coaches now.
Cool.
And that's their sole focus is to go and work with teachers and actually coach teachers-- go through coaching cycles with teachers.
So how do you determine, like, what topics you're going to cover with teachers? Do they have much say in that or you just kind of see what's up and coming and go with it?
You know, we've focused most of our trainings around our Digital Teaching and Learning plan, which involved the implementing-- or not implementing, but increasing the use of Google Docs or Google Apps, whatever we call them now.
We know what you mean.
That's always a change, right? And in our district, we're using Nearpod heavily, and then also Canvas. And so we've built most of our training around those items because that's what we want our teachers to get really invested in and using.
I love that it all goes back to the plan. And I think that makes teachers feel really nice and secure that there is a vision. It's just not doing it for the sake of doing it. When it comes to technology certifications, you have gone through quite a few programs, right? You're an Apple Distinguished Educator, as well as a Google Certified educator. What do you see as the benefit in going above and beyond and doing those kinds of things, Kelly?
The benefit is making connections all across the country and across the globe, really. I've had the opportunity to work with teachers from all over the world and learn from teachers all over the world, and teachers that are much brighter than I am certainly or at least have different perspectives on things. And that's really been the strongest piece of it for me is learning from different people, and gaining from their wisdom as well, and being part of a community.
So this idea of a personal learning network, where you have these connections that you made, when teachers don't quite understand what that is, what do you do to help get them on board with that idea?
You know, we try to have them start locally. So we try to promote things like Utah Ed Chat Wednesday nights, 9:00 o'clock.
Past your bedtime, but-- I mean, it's past my bedtime.
Yeah, past mine too.
But it's worth it for one night a week, right?
Yeah. But getting involved in things like that, and even just local things-- different wide things. You know, we've been running an endorsement program for several years and kind of tried to build cohorts around that to give people an opportunity to build a network that way, and then expand that out. But it's easier for people, I think, to start locally, and then kind of branch out. And as they learn more people as they branch out, and then they can go wider and wider.
Absolutely. I think when I was a teacher, my PLN really consisted of my fourth grade team, right? And then it kind of expanded as I did the [INAUDIBLE] certification. And then when I got on Twitter, it was just like the world of teachers. But I don't think you necessarily have to be on Twitter. It might be, you know, like you said, your local teams. It could be using Pinterest and the people you connect with there, that sort of thing
Yeah, I agree. I mean, we've done the last few years, some cohorts based around teaching some of our elementary teachers Canvas. So we started with some fifth grade cohorts. So almost all our fifth grade is trained now. And out of that, one of our fifth grade teachers actually built a Facebook group that is very active. We have a lot of our fifth grade teachers involved in that group. And we pulled that down to fourth grade, at least for the training in that. And even in other disciplines, our science team does training at grade level. So all the teachers at that grade level in the district kind of get the same training and kind of can build that camaraderie that way as well.
I love the idea of the Facebook group. What kind of questions and answers do you see happening in there?
I just see a lot of resource sharing.
I love it.
A teacher will make something or develop something and share it out to the group or people can ask questions like, how would I do this? And almost immediately, somebody will come on and give them an answer, or say at least look for this resource, or contact this person. They know how to do that really well.
That's amazing. That sometimes was the hardest part of finding an answer was I don't even know who to ask the question. So if someone else can either give you the answer or at least be like, hey, call Kelly because Kelly knows everything, that's what you want.
Well, and I think one of the things that you bring up here is we've talked about Facebook and Twitter briefly as ways to kind of expand your learning network. And I think, like, to the general public, they might just post a picture of what they had for lunch. Whereas like educators, we're sharing resources, and ideas, and things that are going on in our community, and how this looks nationwide
And you know, I've got to say, like, when I first got on Twitter and really kind of expanded my horizons there, the thought was always, well, look at how many followers Kelly Dumont has. Like, that guy is so connected. And I was always just so impressed with you just seem to know everybody, and are involved in so many great things, and have been such a big support and example here in the state. And you just do a lot of great things.
Well, thank you. Yeah, I've had a lot of opportunities. I've had the opportunity to attend ISTE even way back when it was NECC for several years, and really developed a lot of connections there as well. But even today, I find that I don't follow people so much as much anymore, but I follow hashtags. So I find hashtags that kind of resonate with me, and I follow those hashtags. And then I'll get followers and start following people based on that hashtag because they're posting around that hashtag a lot.
Not to put you on the spot, but what are your top hashtags that you like to follow right now?
#fortheloveoflearning.
OK, is it number four?
No, just F-O-R.
Regular four, OK.
Spelled out.
Yeah. #everyonecancreate. And that's kind of built around the Apple Everyone Can Create curriculum that they've just recently come out with, but goes beyond that as well. #creativity is one of my favorites because I believe strongly that we need to be giving students more opportunities to be creative instead of quelling them in our classrooms.
I love it. Thank you. Thank you for sharing those. I'm going to put those into my TweetDeck today. All right, so why do you think it's so important for teachers to connect in order to stay relevant and to continue to get new ideas?
Wow. Our society is becoming more global and more connected all the time. And one of the biggest skills that our students need is collaboration. And I'll admit when I first started teaching 40 years ago, that was a pretty foreign idea. We all got to the school in the morning, went into our rooms, got our students in, and shut the door, both literally and physically. We might do some teaming things with our team at our grade level, but beyond that, not much of anything.
But our students need experiences beyond that now. And we, as teachers, need experiences beyond that too. You can just learn so much from others that are out there. And again, you don't even have to know them personally to connect with them to begin with, and then you get to know them. And it just offers a breadth of experience that we never had access to before. And it's so important for our students, again, to learn those skills and know how to make connections appropriately.
You know, I think you're modeling effective use of technology because when we just had the iPad in the class and we were just kind of substituting a worksheet for doing it, you know, on the iPad, like, OK, that has its place in learning how to do something, but as far as, like, elevating what you can do with technology and connecting with people globally, as well as locally, that's such a fantastic model for not just students that you're working with, but other teachers as well.
What I like about being able to connect with people online is that I get to choose who I follow. I can decide if someone is super interesting to me and follow their tweets or if someone ends up to be not interesting to me, I can unfollow and it's not going to hurt anybody's feelings. But it's almost professional development that I get to choose and pinpoint exactly what I'm looking for. And it doesn't have to be in real time. Like you said with the hashtags, I can go back, and search a hashtag, and find just what I'm looking for. And that may have been posted weeks ago.
Yeah. Yeah, exactly right. It's that everything is so open now that we need to keep our classroom doors open and again, not just for our students, but for ourselves as well.
Absolutely. That can be a big part of teacher burnout, which we're seeing a lot of unfortunately. All right, Kelly, beyond this topic, is there anything that you want to share with us? We know you're retiring soon, so I know that's probably at the front of your mind.
Imparting words of wisdom or departing words of wisdom.
I like it.
You know, just remember-- I think the big key is to remember why you got into education to begin with. None of us have done it for the money, at least I don't think so.
Wait, what?
Very, very few of us anyway have done it for the money. But we do it because we love the opportunity to touch others' lives. And I guess that's what I would leave with anybody is to keep doing that. Keep touching other's lives and doing the best you can to help move them along and help them grow and develop to be the best they can be because I think that's what we want. You know, with our own kids, we want them to be better versions of ourselves, I think. And I feel that way with my school kids and with teachers I work with too. My goals hopefully make them better versions of me.
That's awesome.
Well, and I think that that is very profound wisdom for everybody, but one of the things I like best about it is I think you really live that. You know, you're a great example of your own personal growth, and making these connections, and remembering why you got into education.
Thank you.
Kelly, thanks so much. Thank you for being on our podcast today.
You're welcome. Thank you for having me.
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So Dani, do you want to give our audience a tech tip today?
I mean, do we have to?
Well, I mean, this is a podcast kind of about technology.
I'm tired. Do you have a tech tip for today?
I mean, I guess if I have to, I can come up with one.
I mean-- all right, I guess I'll do the lazy teacher tech tip, since you're a guest.
Are you going to be able to handle it?
I think I can handle it today a little bit. Just kidding. I have one prepared that I'm super excited to share with you. So I'm going to share with you doodle.com.
What's doodle.com?
Doodle helps you schedule meetings because this is probably one of my biggest pet peeves is when people try and schedule something, and then, you know, there's like 16 people on an email thread, and everyone's replying all because teachers and pretty much anyone in education, I swear, are the busiest people in the whole world.
Right.
So what Doodle allows you to do, you can create an account or you don't have to. But you go to doodle.com, you say what you're trying to schedule, where you're trying to schedule it, and then you put in all of the times that you're available to host this meeting. And then you send out one email with a link, and then everyone else that's on there goes in and says, yes, I can come at this time or no, I cannot. And you can even give them the option to say, yes, I will if I absolutely have to, but it's not the best time for me. And then you pick the best time for the meeting.
And then everybody else can kind of see why that got picked.
Yes, exactly. So many fewer complaints and so many fewer emails. So I love Doodle polls. I even use it for book club or when I'm trying to get my friends together because scheduling is just too hard. I give up.
So do you have to have an account? Is this something that's free?
It's totally free. Even if you sign up for an account, which you don't have to, it's still free. So it's free or it's free.
So it's free?
Yeah.
Well, that's a great lazy tech tip then.
Right? Yeah. Use it in your schools. Quit replying all or use it in your personal life. I hope it saves your life.
Fantastic.
All right, thanks.
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How awesome is Kelly Dumont?
Well, you know, I really think that the godfather of educational technology fits. He came up with his other moniker, but I think he is the godfather.
Totally. So incredible. And I love his wisdom at the end there about remember why you got into education. I always found that when I was having a down time, a rough school year, whatever it was, just kind of going back to why are you here? You're here for the kids and you're here to help people. And I just loved that.
Yeah. And you won't find a better example of personal growth than Kelly. I mean, like, we had that big list of everything that he had done. And you know, when I first got into the educational technology world, like, it was always, well, you look at what Kelly Dumont is doing. And you know, he was the example, still is. Just a fantastic person. I'm so glad we got to talk to him.
Yeah, I agree. I agree.
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