411 - EduGuardians, Assemble!

Welcome to another epic episode of Restart Recharge! This week, hosts Matthaeus Huelse and Katie Ritter are joined by the incredible EDU Guardians: Larisa Black, Aileen Wallace, Christie Cloud, and Alyssa Faubion (and Heather Brown). These educational superheroes share their origin story and the super tools that power their mission to unite and ignite the passion of educators worldwide.

Discover how the EDU Guardians evolved from a simple AI prompt into a thriving community of over 145 educators, each with a unique superhero persona. Learn about their innovative methods of connecting educators through trading cards, virtual meetups, and collaborative projects, all aimed at building a supportive and dynamic personal learning family (PLF).

Follow the EDU Guardians on their socials!
Twitter/X - @EduGuardian5
Instagram - @EduGuardian5
TikTok - @EduGuardian5

Join the EDU Guardians! Check out the details here:
EduGuardian5.com

Meet the EDU Guardians at ISTE!

June 24
Edge U Badges 10:30 AM
Quizizz - 2:45 PM
Book Creator 3:15
Figma - 3:30 PM

June 25
Quizizz Photo - 12:20 PM
Brisk+EG+Week of AI - 5-7PM

June 26
Curipod/BenQ - 11:00 AM

Coaches Camp
Professional development designed specifically for instructional coaches, like you!
Join us in Cincinnati - July 29th - 30th
or Virtually - July 22nd - 24th

Edge•U Badges
Edge•U is an anytime, anywhere professional learning platform made for teachers by teachers!

Chapters

• 0:00 [S4E11] EDU Guardians

Transcript

[00:00:00] Matthaeus Huelse: Calling all Instructional Coaches, Curriculum Specialists, Teachers on Special Assignment, or whatever they call you. I'm Matthaeus Huelse. 

[00:00:09] Katie Ritter: And I'm Katie Ritter. As Instructional Coaches, we are often responsible for our own professional learning and can sometimes feel pretty isolated in our role. 

[00:00:17] Matthaeus Huelse: That's why we're here, bridging the gap with a wealth of tips, tricks, and building a community of coaches.

[00:00:23] Katie Ritter: So hit the restart button with us. 

[00:00:25] Matthaeus Huelse: Recharge your coaching batteries. 

[00:00:26] Katie Ritter: And hopefully you'll leave feeling just a little bit less on your own coaching island.

[00:00:34] Matthaeus Huelse: Welcome to another epic episode of Restart Recharge today, we're assembling with the EDU Guardians, Education's mightiest heroes, to uncover their origin story, their legendary successes, and the super tools that power their mission. Ready to grab your cape, Katie? 

[00:00:55] Katie Ritter: I'm ready. 

[00:00:55] Matthaeus Huelse: All right. 

[00:00:56] Katie Ritter: I got it on. I got my tech t shirt Tuesday on.

[00:00:58] Matthaeus Huelse: Tech t shirt [00:01:00] tuesday. 

[00:01:00] Alyssa Faubion: talking about.

[00:01:01] Matthaeus Huelse: All right. I've always wanted to do this. So let's let's go now. Introduce yourselves. EDU Guardians. Assemble.

[00:01:08] Larisa Black: My name is Larisa Black. I'm an earth science teacher. I teach virtually. I'm also an AI literacy coach. And my you know, superhero name, my alias, is AILuminous. 

[00:01:23] Aileen Wallace: Right, I'll pick it up. I'm Aileen Wallace. I'm a high school teacher over in Scotland and my alias is the Curiosity Crusader.

[00:01:32] Christie Cloud: my name is Christie Cloud and I am a virtual social studies teacher in Georgia, and I also adjunct teaching instructional technology in the K 12 classroom. And my EDU Guardian alias is historical.

[00:01:50] Larisa Black: And then Heather Brown is not with us right now, but she'll, you know, she is a math interventionist, and she [00:02:00] shines as a K 5 math and STEAM teacher.

[00:02:04] And her avatar, or superhero, if you will, is Math Magician. 

[00:02:12] Alyssa Faubion: All right, big sis, and then last but not least, my name is Alyssa Faubion, and I am an instructional design coach, and my superhero name is, well, it's Farmer Fobbs. And so, a little bit about us is we are here to unite. Ignite Learning. That's our little, you know, slogan. And we're just a community here to just uplift educators and bring the energy to, to the community and the fire and the drive and the creativity through, throughout this community.

[00:02:46] So it's been a fun ride and we're here to talk with Matthaeus and Katie all about it. Can't wait to share.

[00:02:52] Katie Ritter: Awesome. Well, and for longtime listeners of the pod Alyssa was just with us a few episodes ago. So she's [00:03:00] coming back double pod this month. So we are super excited. You five, and again, Heather's not here. So thanks Larisa for introducing her until she's able to jump on. It's very hard to coordinate this many schedules to do a podcast recording when we've got global time zones and everything we're working with.

[00:03:17] So one, thank you all for, you know, being so flexible and being here. The five of you have just, I think you have truly united and ignited passion among educators on social media again. And I am just so excited to have you all here to give you, you know, this is one additional platform to, to tell your story and to connect with additional educators.

[00:03:40] So let's back up. And if we can. If you guys wouldn't mind giving us, like, a little bit more of the origin story. How did the five of you, who are quite literally, you know, all over the states and the world right? We've got Aileen joining us from across the [00:04:00] pond, so to speak. So, how did the five of you get connected?

[00:04:04] And how did you decide to say, hey, we need to do this thing and let's call it EdgeUGuardians? Will somebody give us a bit of a backstory there?

[00:04:13] Christie Cloud: I'll, I'll provide that if that works. I was sitting at home and honestly I think I should have probably been grading papers. But, you know, you get to that point where you've graded so many, you know, that your eyes start crossing and So, I was like, you know what, I need a break, and I was on social media, and Microsoft Designer had released a superhero prompt, and I was like, oh, what would I look like as a superhero?

[00:04:44] And so, I filled it out, and thought it was just like, the most adorable thing. And so, of course, then I was like, you know what? I need to tag my, and I always hate saying ex besties because it sounds like we're not friends anymore, but like my formerly Twitter besties, [00:05:00] I guess. And so Eileen and I had had discussed Curipod.

[00:05:06] We have a strong love of Curipod for over a year. And then I sort of knew Larisa through Eileen Larisa, excuse me. And, I'm very Southern, so Larisa just rolls off the tongue. I apologize. And so, Farmer Faubs, and Heather and I had done some presentations where we were at the same place.

[00:05:28] We were different presentations, but we were both presenting at the same time, so we kind of knew each other. So I just threw it on there. I was like, Hey guys, what would your superhero look like? And send it out and tag them. And they responded with their superheroes. And the next thing I knew, I was getting like DMs from, from teachers.

[00:05:44] And they were like, how, how do I become a superhero? And you can, is there an application process? And I was DMing these ladies. I was like, Guys, we're teachers. We don't have an application process. What, what do we do? And so we just kind of went out and was [00:06:00] like, Hey, everybody, join us. And we've just had so many people join us. And it's just been such a, a wonderful, positive, connected movement, in my opinion.

[00:06:10] Katie Ritter: I love that. Does anyone want to add on before I

[00:06:13] Larisa Black: Yeah, 

[00:06:13] I, 

[00:06:14] Katie Ritter: on my next

[00:06:15] Larisa Black: I was just gonna add real quick that, like, it expanded also at the levels of what we decided to do. So, like, we started with the designer prompt, right? And then it grew into, you know, Heather created a school aid chatbot where you could, you know, chat with it, talk about what your persona would be, like, who your superhero would be, what the name would be, your profile, your background, like, all of that.

[00:06:42] So now you're creating a whole new person that is, you know, this superhero, and, and that kind of just was so much fun and people were loving that. And then, you know, we all say, let's take it one step further, you know, this is not taking it far enough. [00:07:00] And we're like, What if there were trading cards? And that's one of the great things about this community.

[00:07:05] One person gets an idea, we all do it, and then somebody else gets another idea, and we're all on top of it, and we just love being, you know, special. Like, we have the,

[00:07:15] Alyssa Faubion: Well, today we're extra a little bit. So after the Microsoft Designer Superhero, then the Trading Cards and the School AI, then we create a book creator. So what better way to view all the superheroes than a comic book? And so with book creator, you can turn to pages. So it's really cool. So that's kind of like been our collection.

[00:07:34] So we went from five of us to 30 in a couple of days to now over 130 EDU Guardians that, you know, when they, when they create their superhero, they tag us and we put it, you know, the book creator. So that's like our official, like, you know, little book. So it's been fun.

[00:07:51] Katie Ritter: That's awesome. So like the, the superhero with the Microsoft design prompt, the putting in the book creator, the school AI [00:08:00] these are definitely all, I think, fun, outcomes or like steps along the process of joining this community, but talk to me a little bit more about that actual community, right?

[00:08:13] What are, what are some of the things that you all are doing to connect educators at a deeper level beyond just like, hey, make this fun AI superhero, which is like just the starting point. 

[00:08:27] Alyssa Faubion: Yeah, that's just that's just the tip of the iceberg. I think the community, we say, you know, everybody's heard of a PLN. And so we don't say PLN, we say PLF as in, you know, personal learning family. And so it's been really important to see how, like, at ISTE, we're going to have meetups and have this sense of belonging. We've heard people say, hey, we're going to ISTE and I never really had this group to like, you know, get to know people. And now I do. I have this sense of belonging. And also, like, I love getting on Twitter and, you know, [00:09:00] when I get home, it was like, you know, but as an educator, there's fun. Fire right now. And so they, we just love seeing the collaboration, the creativity. I'll let Eileen kind of showcase how, , she, she talked about a story about how, if one person doesn't know something, there's an EDU Guardian for that. So that's kind of a I'll let her touch on that.

[00:09:21] Aileen Wallace: We had a staff training session just last week in my school and I was showcasing Curipod at it and a couple of teachers were coming up asking from the maths department. Did I know any apps? And I know from speaking to Heather that it's quite difficult to get apps for maths. So as I'm standing there talking to this maths teacher, I'm busy tweeting, hey, any EDU Guardians know a maths app that somebody used?

[00:09:46] And quite genuinely, hand on heart, within 30 minutes, I was going back to that maths teacher going, right, I've got three apps here that people have said work. They're happy to get in touch with you. They'll put you in touch with the people at the company. Do you want to have a chat with them? [00:10:00] And they were just looking at me like, What? You know, I was like, no, genuinely, you put a call out and somebody out there will know something about it and say, yeah, I'll help you out. I've been stuck on loads of things because I'm really new to all this. And so you, you just put out a call saying I was trying to do whatever it was that Renee Dawson helped me out with something. And she was like, I'll jump on a call, you've got half an hour, you know, there's like six hours, five hours difference between us. And she's still prepared to jump on a call and help me through. And that's what everybody, it's that sense of community.

[00:10:31] It's that sense of helping each other out. And nobody's too early in their journey or too far along their journey to reach a handout and say, right, I'll help you. And it's just glorious.

[00:10:42] Katie Ritter: I love that. So it is glorious. That is a perfect word. And I love how, you know, when Alyssa was kind of downloading me on, 

[00:10:51] Matthaeus Huelse: That phrase again. 

[00:10:52] Katie Ritter: Matthaeus making fun of me. 

[00:10:54] Matthaeus Huelse: Who is downloading you? Go ahead. 

[00:10:56] Alyssa Faubion: I've never heard that one download. That's a new one. We gonna, we're gonna download that [00:11:00] one.

[00:11:00] Katie Ritter: Yeah, but it kind of fits in this context. Thank you for downloading me on what the EDU Guardians are and your guys kind of backstory and where this came from. You know, I shared with her. And I've shared it with people along my career, but I always say that I wouldn't be where I am in my career. And I said this years ago, I wouldn't be where I was in my career if it weren't for Twitter. Because when I first joined Twitter and I was an early tech coach, when it still was like, really, no one knew what it was. I still don't know that everyone fully understands what it is, but they really didn't know back then. Twitter was such a community for me to go and to not feel alone when maybe I did in my local context and it allowed me to like, share ideas, get ideas, like you're sharing Eileen, and so I, I've just noticed over the years, especially since COVID, it's kind of hurt my heart a little bit to see educators leaving this platform of being able to literally [00:12:00] reach out, reach your thumbs out, so to speak, I guess, on your phone and get responses from people all over the world who are willing to extend that hand and to help. And so seeing seeing the, Kind of the revival of that community and that excitement of educators being willing to do that.

[00:12:18] I know you are kind of just like a small you know, representation of that within like my own social media community. But it has just been really exciting to get to see that and to kind of be a part of that, just like even from the sidelines and watching you all and seeing educators get excited.

[00:12:37] So I just truly mean that. I think what you all are doing is really great. for the education community at a time when educators feel very alone and we need to, we need to remind people that this profession is exciting and rewarding and we don't have to do it alone. So, I think, I think what you all are doing to create that space is truly amazing. [00:13:00]

[00:13:00] Matthaeus Huelse: And it's not just the fact that I think you can reach out to that group and you can still find something useful. And we all have blind spots, we learn something different. But it's also building the confidence in other people that all of a sudden have something to offer. They realize, oh, hold on, I have something to offer here.

[00:13:13] And I think that's so great. That's, that's a really cool little comic book story. This is a great success story. Can I have, I'd love to hear another success story, something else that grew out of this, this community engagement.

[00:13:25] Coming from and I do teach in a virtual situation now where I feel like most of my colleagues are, are familiar with a lot of technology, but we are only in the 3rd year of our virtual program. So my first 20 years of teaching was in a brick and mortar school. And it was very, very lonely sometimes, and I think that that has been the most heartening thing for the community for me is to see when [00:14:00] people Post, you know, I feel like I found my people or my group because everyone doesn't have a situation where they're surrounded by teachers who want to try new things or like to integrate technology and it just builds a community feel not just to to reach out but just to have that support and know that other people there are like you, I guess.

[00:14:26] Katie Ritter: I love that. Larisa, did you have a story that you wanted to

[00:14:30] Larisa Black: Yeah, I mean, and this is just one of the many, but I will, some, I've done the website and I'll deal sometimes with the emails and I've gotten emails, you know, thanking us as the Edjuguardians for putting this together, for creating this community, and then I know we talk a lot about ISTE because ISTE is the thing that's coming up soon, right?

[00:14:50] And we're going to be there, well, at least four of us will be there, and we are excited to go to all of the things and attend and all that. Yeah. But there's a lot of our [00:15:00] Edjuguardians who are not going to be at ISTE. And so I had had an email come to me saying, well, With the trading cards, like, what if we're not there?

[00:15:09] Can we still do trading cards? And this is coming from someone who has a doctorate. And I'm like, I love this so much because we all have a child inside of us, right? Like we all need to have fun sometimes and do something that, you know, is just, Like it's related to education, but it's not something that like you have to do, right?

[00:15:30] Like you don't have to create a trading card, but it's just so much fun. And to be able to share that with other people in the network. So it like has this excitement of let's do the fun thing, and that leads to better, bigger things, I feel like. And just those emails alone make me realize How this really is important and it is expanding and it is something that we are creating that is powerful and it's not just the five of us.

[00:15:57] Like, you know, the five of us, we've got great chemistry, we work well [00:16:00] together, but it is the community that is powerful. It is all the people Being able to share, and it's not just us talking to at them, right? It's everyone talking together. So I think that's what makes us a little bit different than some other you know, PLNs or PLFs. 

[00:16:19] Katie Ritter: Agreed. And so just like from a logistical standpoint, if someone's listening to this podcast, maybe they haven't been very active on Twitter in a while. So they haven't seen kind of this, this craze going on. Talk to me about a little bit more specifically, like what are the trading cards? If somebody wants to go out, how do, how do we even find this?

[00:16:39] Right? Like I'm inspired. I want to create my EdgeU Guardian now, which by the way already did. 

[00:16:44] But. I want ,I wanna create my EDU Guardian. I know you said it's a Microsoft designer prompt, but like, where can I go to find this? To cr to find that prompt? You mentioned Christie, to get my EDU Guardian. Then what do I do to get my own trading card?

[00:16:59] Wow. Which 

[00:16:59] [00:17:00] Eileen!

[00:17:01] Yeah, we have to get this video clip and share that on socials. That's adorable. But like, where can I actually go and, and physically describe this for someone who is listening and hasn't actually seen these things on social media yet, if you would.

[00:17:14] Alyssa Faubion: So our biggest platform right now is definitely X. You can go there and you can really see how to become an EdgeU guardian. We have, 

[00:17:22] Katie Ritter: Where do I go? What's the 

[00:17:24] hashtag? 

[00:17:25] Alyssa Faubion: Well, the, the Twitter name is EdgeUGuardian5, 

[00:17:30] Katie Ritter: Okay. 

[00:17:31] Alyssa Faubion: at EdgeUGuardian5. And then we also have a website, EDUguardian5.com and we definitely, Encourage you to sign up for the newsletter because Christie does a fabulous job with the newsletter.

[00:17:45] Shout out to big sis Christie for doing the the newsletter and you can get all kinds of information all kinds of updates and all that stuff, but We are looking at pushing out like a one pager Just so that people kind of have everything all in one [00:18:00] place because really The biggest thing is the designer, right?

[00:18:03] That the Microsoft designer doesn't have to be just Microsoft designer. We've had Microsoft designer, we've had Adobe Firefly we've had Canva. So like, it is not just use that prompt in that, that ed tech tool. We, you know, it's anything and everything. And then you tweet that out to EDU Guardian 5, and then we add you to the, the book creator, but say our biggest platform right now is X or our website, EDU Guardian 

[00:18:28] 5. 

[00:18:28] Katie Ritter: So I go to your website, that's probably the best place to find, like, links to everything. But then in terms of, like, connection with the community, best place is x, for those 

[00:18:39] Alyssa Faubion: Thanks. 

[00:18:39] Katie Ritter: can't get over it, Twitter. 

[00:18:41] Larisa Black: Yeah, yeah. If you go to the website, there's a form you fill out. It says, you know, become an EDU Guardian. Fill out that form. We get that information out on our end. We only use it to like send out a newsletter or whatever, but you will get a welcome email, okay? So a welcome email will come out, and you will get the step by step [00:19:00] exactly how to become an EDU Guardian.

[00:19:02] You can do all the steps, you can do none of the steps, whatever you want to do. But, obviously, if you're signing up, you want to create your own. And then, you know, when you are following us on X, Twitter, whatever we've got some Instagram and TikTok as well that we're starting. But as you're following, then you get to be a part of that community.

[00:19:22] And that's, again, just the best thing about this, right?

[00:19:25] Katie Ritter: And the trading cards. Last, last piece of this question. What, what are these trading cards that you're talking about? 

[00:19:32] Larisa Black: Eileen, 

[00:19:33] Alyssa Faubion: Eileen. 

[00:19:33] Larisa Black: about it. You have them in your possession. .

[00:19:35] Aileen Wallace: So, who was it that gave us the prompt for it? 

[00:19:38] Alyssa Faubion: Ashley, I believe. 

[00:19:40] Aileen Wallace: Was an EDU Guardian that gave us the prompt for them. And it was kind of like, it's like the Pokemon thing. You know, you got to catch them all, you got to meet all of them. And then we thought, well, if you're meeting up with people, you want to remember who they are afterwards. So if you've got your trading card, then after ISTE or FETC, whatever, you can go, oh, hang on, I've got so and so's details. [00:20:00] So partly it's a fun way to, you know, Have a mess around with Canva or Adobe and see what you can do with it, which is, to me, that's what it was, because I'm only new to Canva, so I was like, oh, this is good, what can I do? Oh, I didn't know I could do that! And a part of it is actually the really serious, oh, I remember meeting them, they said to get in touch about whatever it was, and there you have it, either we're going to do a virtual version, For those of us who can't get to ISTE or, you know, the actual version. That you've got that person there and it's a connection to remember who they are and what you were speaking to them about. And who doesn't love a scrapbook? I mean, you know, stick them in there, collect them. 

[00:20:38] Katie Ritter: I love that. 

[00:20:39] Aileen Wallace: It's like Alisa Alisa, now I'm making up new names for the two of you. Like Larisa said, it's that bit of the child in you that, maybe you were too old to do Pokemon. But you know, it's, it's that bit of fun, it's that bit of joy that I, I think the EDU Guardians are giving a lot of people back.

[00:20:59] Christie Cloud: [00:21:00] And I think it's a perfect example really to highlight the involvement of the community because like Aileen said, Ashley did a, because I had a little Canva trading card and that's the thing about the community is like, they take it and they make it. So much better and we all looked at Ashley's and we were like this is phenomenal girl can we can we push yours out as a template and she's like of course and Kayla did our incredible Shields and logo and then Rachel keeps up with a phenomenal Wakelet that has everyone's stuff in it and and I think that that just really highlights So much is that the community has really bought in and they feel like it's theirs. And it's not just, you know, something that they are, involved with. It's something they contribute to and they're creating.

[00:21:54] Matthaeus Huelse: I will also fully admit that it took me a lot of time to actually think of all my [00:22:00] skills and I figured what would be my superpowers. That was a lot of fun reflection, actually, to have to like condense it down to yourself as a superhero power. 

[00:22:07] Katie Ritter: That's when I got overwhelmed. 

[00:22:09] Matthaeus Huelse: That was fun because you had to kind of reflect, like, what is my superpower?

[00:22:14] That was, that was really neat. And dear listeners, of course, all of the links, all of the important stuff is going to be in the episode description, so you can always find that there and you can immediately go and check it out. Join the EDU Guardians when you're ready. We're going to take a really quick breather.

[00:22:29] We're going to give it to our sponsors and then we will be right back with our superheroes and a couple more questions. 

[00:22:35] Marker

[00:22:35] Coaches Camp Promo: Calling all instructional coaches! Join Forward Edge for Coaches Camp in summer of 2024. Coaches Camp is packed with high quality professional development exclusively for you. Attendees will work with like minded coaches on creating strategies for building teacher relationships, executing coaching cycles, and building a culture of coaching and tech integration within their school district.

[00:22:58] There are two opportunities to [00:23:00] attend Coaches Camp in the summer of 2024. You can either join us virtually July 22nd through 24th. Or come to Cincinnati on July 29th and 30th. Please visit forward edge. net slash coach camp to reserve your spot today. 

[00:23:16] EdgeU Badges Promo: Looking for a program that reaches all teachers and learning new tools to integrate in their lessons? EduBadges is the answer! Edu is an anytime, anywhere badging program that is designed to take bite sized tools for instruction and teach teachers how to use them. Edu has received the ISTE Seal of Alignment for educator standards, and each badge in our expanding library is aligned to the ISTE standards and the SAMR model.

[00:23:40] Learn more about the program that teachers call addicting at forward edge. net backslash EduBadges.

[00:23:48] Katie Ritter: Welcome back to the Restart Recharge podcast. We are here with four of the five founding EDU Guardians. We have Alyssa Faubion. We have Eileen Wallace. We have Christie Cloud and we have Larisa [00:24:00] Black and then we are just missing Heather Brown from the pod. But shout out to her as being part of this tremendous group. So we are just kind of digging into all things that this, like, joyous community is bringing. And I'd like to get into just a little bit more of the day to day and then also some of your ISTE plans as well, too. So anyone who, is going to ISTE, or maybe are not at ISTE, folks.

[00:24:23] Everyone knows how to get in. So, talk to me a little bit more if I, so we talked about the Twitter handle at EdgeUGuardian5, but you all also have a hashtag that you use as well, correct? Can, what's, what's your hashtag for people to, just another way to connect with everyone kind of in this community, not just your, like, Twitter account that you manage

[00:24:44] Alyssa Faubion: It's hashtag EDU Guardian or hashtag EDU Guardians. 

[00:24:49] Katie Ritter: with s 

[00:24:49] Alyssa Faubion: we use 

[00:24:49] Katie Ritter: S. Okay. Got it. Okay. So that is a great, like, would you recommend that being a great way to connect with everyone else within the community?

[00:24:59] Alyssa Faubion: Yeah, [00:25:00] that or tag the Edge Guardian five or use a hashtag and we'll see both.

[00:25:04] Katie Ritter: Okay. Are there other ways that you all are connecting as a community?

[00:25:09] Alyssa Faubion: So once a month, which we just had our second one. It's called the EDU Guardian Exchange. I know on a Saturday before the countdown of ISTE two month, I texted the girls and I was like, Hey, y'all, like, it's two months until ISTE. What do y'all think about like a launch party? And, you know, I think it's funny because like when one person says something, like we're just all like, yeah, let's go.

[00:25:33] And so that's what happened. So with these girls, they were like, yeah, let's ride. Yeehaw. So we, we, two month 

[00:25:40] count. 

[00:25:40] Christie Cloud: said yeehaw.

[00:25:41] Alyssa Faubion: I thought y'all did. You 

[00:25:43] did. 

[00:25:44] I 

[00:25:44] did. 

[00:25:44] Katie Ritter: Faub's in.

[00:25:46] Alyssa Faubion: So we had the two month countdown, just a launch party. We just threw it together. And so we like to use, or I like to use a little, I always say, get figgy with it with a FigJam.

[00:25:56] And so it's just a great collaborative tech [00:26:00] tool that, You can just have fun with, you know, you can do a little Polaroid camera and you can just add things, and everybody can add their post its, and it's just like a fun way. So like, I don't know, we had like 40 people come to the launch party, and then we just had our second one, so we're calling them the EDU Guardian Exchange.

[00:26:18] So we're, we're gonna have them once a month now, and so that was the one month countdown, and it was a great time just to get to know everybody. You know, if you want to unmute your mic and, you know, comment. And have fun. Go ahead. We explored the, Katie, you would know this, the Emoji Kitchen. Katie loves the Emoji Kitchen. 

[00:26:39] Katie Ritter: I 

[00:26:39] just love 

[00:26:40] Alyssa Faubion: so true. And so we had them explore the Emoji Kitchen and Christie of course thought she was a princess and everything. And oh man, she just had too much fun with it down there. And so we were able to go through that and then we were able to go through our ISTE plans. And then, [00:27:00] we gave away 19 t shirts.

[00:27:02] We had several companies donate shirts, EdgeU badges being one of them. And so we had several, several shirts that we gave away just to, just to really help with the tech t shirt Tuesday that everybody likes to tweet on Tuesday.

[00:27:19] Katie Ritter: you. I was going to make you talk about that too. And if you'll 

[00:27:21] Alyssa Faubion: I knew that. 

[00:27:22] Katie Ritter: the day that we're recording and our episodes come out on Tuesday. So Matthaeus and I are both rocking t shirts over here. 

[00:27:28] Alyssa Faubion: We're rocking your tech t shirt Tuesday, and Katie already even tweeted it, so always exciting to see everybody's tech t shirt Tuesday. It doesn't have to be a t shirt, be a water bottle, a lanyard. We've seen so much different stuff, and you know, it's just been a little fun way, and then we had a little video today.

[00:27:45] It's not Taco Tuesday anymore. It's tech t shirt Tuesday. We've taken over Tuesday, so it's been fun. So I'm gonna dive into our first ISTE plan, and then I'll let The ladies jump into the next one. So our ISTE [00:28:00] plan is our first one is going to be at the Figma booth with a trading card exchange. And so we are asking that everybody keeps their trading card to themselves until about 3 30 on Monday, where we are just going to have.

[00:28:15] Everybody come to the Figma booth and exchange the trading cards and this includes companies. We are having individuals create their trading cards, but we are having several tech companies that are jumping on board and creating their mascot. EdgeU Badgers being one of them with the Badger. Jill has done a fabulous job. She, she's, she's, she's, she's been one of our biggest fans, so it's been really fun.

[00:28:40] Katie Ritter: Jill designed that, by the way. Drew him from scratch. 

[00:28:43] Alyssa Faubion: She did. 

[00:28:44] Katie Ritter: No AI involved in the making. 

[00:28:46] Alyssa Faubion: And then, we're also going to be able to have the virtual option where, you know, people at home can add their trading card to the FigJam live while we are there at the booth.

[00:28:57] So it's either live and exchanged in person [00:29:00] or virtually on the FigJam. So that's our first one. And then who's next? Christie? 

[00:29:06] Katie Ritter: Said that's 30 Monday at the Figma 

[00:29:09] booth. 

[00:29:09] Alyssa Faubion: on Monday, 3 30.

[00:29:11] Katie Ritter: Awesome.

[00:29:12] Alyssa Faubion: Yeah. All right, Christie.

[00:29:14] Christie Cloud: All right. So at 2. 45 on Monday you'll also be able to catch EDU Guardians at the quizzes booth. We're going to To show a few ways that we like to use quizzes because we have been helped out by so many fantastic companies, including you guys, and Quizzes actually made our inaugural shirt, the ISTE shirt. So, on Tuesday for our, ISTE Tag Tuesday we're all going to be at the Quizzes booth at 1220 for an EDU Guardian photo, and the EDU Guardian Quizzes shirt.

[00:29:59] Katie Ritter: [00:30:00] So, that was Monday at, you said, 2. 45 at the Quizzes booth

[00:30:04] Christie Cloud: Yeah, we'll all be 

[00:30:05] there. 

[00:30:06] Katie Ritter: little demos, and then Tuesday at, what time for the group photo? 

[00:30:11] Christie Cloud: 12 20 

[00:30:12] Katie Ritter: 12. 20. Okay. And is that just where, bring any t shirt? It will be like, t shirt overload, or

[00:30:19] Christie Cloud: will be the EDU Guardian t shirts. 

[00:30:21] The ISTE. 

[00:30:23] Katie Ritter: Okay, what if I don't have an EdgeU Guardian t shirt? Can I get one? Can I just like sit this photo out? What do I do?

[00:30:30] Alyssa Faubion: Oh no, you coming, katie? 

[00:30:31] Christie Cloud: Oh, you can totally get one.

[00:30:34] Katie Ritter: So where do I do that?

[00:30:36] Alyssa Faubion: She's gonna be like, Alyssa, order that for me.

[00:30:39] Katie Ritter: Oh, well, I want other people listening to know 

[00:30:42] Larisa Black: Yeah, definitely. 

[00:30:43] Christie Cloud: Absolutely. And the Quizzes store that you can go to online has an entire little prep for ISTE. EDU Guardians what, what would you call it, like a sub store? I mean, you can get stickers, you can get [00:31:00] notebooks, you can get, you know, But the t shirt that we're all going to have for, for that photo is there in a variety of options.

[00:31:06] Alyssa really likes the pink one, so I encourage everybody to look at the pink one. But yeah, we would love to give you that that link if you could add it in your show notes.

[00:31:18] Larisa Black: Yeah, you can also find it on the website. 

[00:31:20] Alyssa Faubion: If Katie 

[00:31:21] Larisa Black: website, 

[00:31:21] Alyssa Faubion: definitely be buying the pink one.

[00:31:24] Katie Ritter: know, you threw me off. I'm like, my ears perked up and I was also like, what? Alyssa doesn't like pink one, does she? 

[00:31:29] Alyssa Faubion: She heard pink, and then she'll probably even add some glitter to it, you know?

[00:31:33] Christie Cloud: Katie, we're going to get along so great,

[00:31:35] ISTE. Yes, yes, 

[00:31:38] Katie Ritter: Yeah. 

[00:31:39] Christie Cloud: yes. I found Alyssa these amazing boots and she will not wear them. And they are so pretty. Pink and sparkledy. Katie, I think you should talk her into them.

[00:31:50] Katie Ritter: I will. Larisa, what were you gonna say? 

[00:31:52] Larisa Black: I was just saying that if you want to go to a direct link for the quizzes shirt, you can just go to our website, . [00:32:00] EdgeUGuardian5. com. Click on where it says at the top ISTE conference information and that'll bring you to our calendar as well as our, like, where you can purchase the shirt. It, you'll click on the link, the link will take you to the quizzes shop. 

[00:32:15] Katie Ritter: Awesome. Anything else going on at ISTE that people should know about?

[00:32:20] Alyssa Faubion: We have a little on Wednesday, a little Kiripod plus BenQ. We're gonna be highlighting Curipod and their superpowers. Curipod was one of the major tools that kind of brought us all together. So they've asked us to, that's Eileen's, yep. We're gonna be showcasing Curipod plus BenQ on Wednesday morning, I believe at around 11.

[00:32:44] Christie Cloud: 11 to 12. What about five to seven on Tuesday?

[00:32:50] Does somebody want to chat about that? Well, I did quizzes, so I was trying to like, you know, give some, but yeah, from five to seven [00:33:00] Brisk is hosting a meetup for the week of AI as well as the Edge Guardians. So it'll be at the piano bar that is. Basically right across the road from the conference center. So definitely within walking distance. I think you can see it from the conference center. And from five to seven, they'll be hosting everyone from Week of AI as well as EduGuardian shirt. So leave them on after the photo op and then just hop right over to the Brisk Meetup at five.

[00:33:32] Katie Ritter: That's awesome. And then I think we're doing something as well at EdgeU badges, so I think it's more of a surprise, but there is, definitely something going on at the EdgeU badges booth. So, 

[00:33:43] Matthaeus Huelse: do I have to cut this now? Is this, is this surprise? 

[00:33:46] Katie Ritter: No, 

[00:33:47] Alyssa Faubion: surprise, Matthaeus. It's a surprise.

[00:33:50] Katie Ritter: a surprise. Oh, okay. 

[00:33:52] It's a, 

[00:33:53] Christie Cloud: likes to keep surprises

[00:33:54] Katie Ritter: I'ts a reveal at ISTE at the EdgeU Badges booth.

[00:33:59] Matthaeus Huelse: That's [00:34:00] exciting. 

[00:34:00] Katie Ritter: Yeah.

[00:34:00] Alyssa Faubion: That's all we can say, I guess.

[00:34:03] Katie Ritter: Do you know the day that that's happening? 

[00:34:05] Alyssa Faubion: It is happening on Monday at around 10. 30. 

[00:34:10] Katie Ritter: Monday 10 30, okay. 1030 AM. Okay, great. At my booth. Great. I'll be there.

[00:34:16] Alyssa Faubion: At your booth, be there.

[00:34:18] Matthaeus Huelse: Listeners, if you didn't grab a pen and paper to write this all down, that's our bad. We should have warned you ahead of time. Scroll back real quick, get your info, write it down, and then welcome back here. I think we are ready for our last question. Do you have more things you want to ask? 

[00:34:31] Katie Ritter: No, I think just I don't know, Aileen, if you have any, like, confirmed details. You mentioned you were, you were going to be doing a card exchange for folks not at ISTE. Is that just, like, more info to come?

[00:34:43] Aileen Wallace: That's the the fig jam that Alyssa's talking about, yeah. 

[00:34:47] Katie Ritter: Okay, got it. 

[00:34:48] Aileen Wallace: don't get to join the fun, so I'll, I'll be doing it virtually. 

[00:34:53] Katie Ritter: Well, we'll keep you in the loop with the hashtag. Yes, and we'll miss meeting you in person, of course. 

[00:34:59] Matthaeus Huelse: [00:35:00] Yeah, well, so we always end our episodes with three tips for our listeners. However, we have four people here. I don't know. How do you feel about everybody gets one tip? I know we're going to go on to four, Katie.

[00:35:10] Katie Ritter: That's okay. 

[00:35:11] Matthaeus Huelse: That's okay. We'll do four tips. 

[00:35:12] Katie Ritter: Top four tips. 

[00:35:13] Matthaeus Huelse: Yeah, superhero pieces 

[00:35:14] Alyssa Faubion: More 

[00:35:14] Matthaeus Huelse: advice. 

[00:35:16] Alyssa Faubion: Am I going 

[00:35:16] Larisa Black: Farmer Faubs first

[00:35:18] Aileen Wallace: you're going 

[00:35:19] Alyssa Faubion: Okay. My first piece of advice is definitely, you know, tiptoe into the X world. And as Katie said, it has been a big, a big push into her career and definitely ours, but it's become our PLF. Personal learning family, and it is a great opportunity to meet other people, whether it's virtually or in person and be able to support each other.

[00:35:45] It's been really cool to see people supporting each other through webinars, or the ISTE conferences or FET is going to be coming up. And so, just to be able to build that personal learning family is such an important piece [00:36:00] Of your, of your career, and so, that is my biggest top, top four tips.

[00:36:05] Katie Ritter: And on that, before we go into the other ones, what are each of your your, your individual Twitter handles? We know we got EdgyGuardians covered, but what are your individual Twitter handles for people to connect with you?

[00:36:17] Alyssa Faubion: You'll find me at FarmerFobz. 

[00:36:20] Larisa Black: You'll

[00:36:21] Katie Ritter: And then Larisa 

[00:36:22] Larisa Black: teachwise. ai. I

[00:36:25] Katie Ritter: and Eileen

[00:36:28] Aileen Wallace: AI with Aileen.

[00:36:30] Katie Ritter: and Christie. And then does someone have Heather's handy?

[00:36:38] Alyssa Faubion: She is brownie 

[00:36:40] bites. Head bites. 

[00:36:42] Katie Ritter: Brownies, EdBytes. Okay. Awesome. Thank you. Okay. Next tip. Let's go to Larisa.

[00:36:48] Larisa Black: would say don't be afraid to try new things, right? You've got a whole community backing you up. You can try, you know, a new ed tech tool, or maybe [00:37:00] a new way of teaching, or discussing things that you know, maybe you weren't ready to do that quite yet without someone else who's already gone before you and been, you know, using that platform. So just, you know, play and have fun with it. 

[00:37:16] Katie Ritter: I love that. Eileen, let's go to you next.

[00:37:18] Aileen Wallace: Instead of FOMO, have JOMO. Joy of missing out. So rather than, rather than seeing everything and thinking, Oh God, I need to be using all of these. Just choose one, just choose one platform, get to know it. then when you're ready, you move on to the next one.

[00:37:37] Matthaeus Huelse: I'm writing down Jomo. That is fantastic. 

[00:37:41] Katie Ritter: Yeah. Okay. I thank you for the news, for the new saying. And Christie,

[00:37:47] Christie Cloud: Okay, I will literally say that the three tips that I wrote down are three that they have covered. So I, I love going last. I love going last. Okay, [00:38:00] so I am going to build on Larisa's. And I, I do this with my students all the time is, is to fail forward. Like, don't be afraid of failure. I so often have teachers come to me and they're like, well, what if I do it and it doesn't work out the way I have planned? And I'm always like, are you kidding me? Your class like normally works out the way you planned because I teach middle school social studies and like, it never works out the way that I have it planned. And I think that some of my best learning for my students and for myself has happened when it didn't go the way that I planned it.

[00:38:40] So that, that would be my biggest piece of advice is just like, don't be scared of failure because it teaches the students to not be scared of failure as well. It's, it's all progress 

[00:38:51] will 

[00:38:52] Katie Ritter: I love that. Well, ladies again. 

[00:38:54] Larisa Black: Sorry, I was going to 

[00:38:55] Katie Ritter: ahead. 

[00:38:56] Larisa Black: I thought she was gonna say her fourth tip was to bring a glitter bomb with [00:39:00] her to to sprinkle all over Farmer Fobs. That's what I thought she was gonna say.

[00:39:05] Matthaeus Huelse: Oh, that'd be hilarious, I'd watch watch that.

[00:39:07] Oh it's happening, 

[00:39:09] Christie Cloud: Yes. 

[00:39:09] Alyssa Faubion: Matthaeus, whose team are you on?

[00:39:11] Matthaeus Huelse: Oh, the one where you end up covered in glitter, that's the team I'm on. 

[00:39:14] Katie Ritter: Yeah, obviously. That's 

[00:39:17] Christie Cloud: threw me under the bus for karaoke, so glitter is coming. Yes.

[00:39:23] Katie Ritter: love it. Well, ladies, again, thank you so much for being here, for finding the time, not only for this recording, but for giving back to the education community in such a way that is truly reinvigorating people with joy and excitement for getting back on social media and supporting one another. We need good teachers.

[00:39:40] We need good educators to stay in the profession. And you are, I think, a bigger part of that than you realize right now. So thank you so much. 

[00:39:48] Matthaeus Huelse: Yeah, absolutely agree with that. Thank you guys. And that was a great episode. Thank you so much for being here and talking to us. Listeners, if you want to learn more, all of the details, all of the, every individual event and every [00:40:00] last link will be in the episode description.

[00:40:01] You can find it on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and anywhere else you listen to podcasts. So thanks everybody for being here.

[00:40:10] Have a great rest of your day. 

[00:40:11] Larisa Black: Thanks. Bye. 

[00:40:14] Matthaeus Huelse: Thanks for spending time with us today. If you found this episode helpful, please share it with an educator friend. 

[00:40:22] Katie Ritter: And connect with us on social media at rrcoachcast to let us know what you thought of the episode and what topics you want us to discuss next. 

[00:40:31] Matthaeus Huelse: New episodes drop every other Tuesday. Be sure to subscribe to Restart Recharge wherever you listen to podcasts.

[00:40:37] Katie Ritter: So press the restart button, 

[00:40:39] Matthaeus Huelse: recharge your coaching batteries, and leave feeling equipped and inspired to coach fearlessly with the Restart Recharge podcast, 

[00:40:46] Katie Ritter: a Tech Coach Collective.