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Conversations from ISTE Live with Thomas Riddle · Integrate This! Ed Tech Podcast

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