Zach Diamond 0:03 Welcome to the modern classrooms project podcast. Each week, we bring you discussions with educators on how they use blended, self paced and mastery based learning to better serve their students. We believe teachers learn best from each other. So this is our way of lifting up the voices of leaders and innovators in our community. This is the modern classrooms project podcast. Toni Rose Deanon 0:28 Hello, and welcome to episode 186 of the modern classrooms project podcast. My name is Toni Rose Deanon they/them pronouns, a designated high person here at MCP, and I am joined today by a passionate edtech advocate. Margie Tiner, welcome, Margie. Margie Tiner 0:45 Yeah, thank you so much. I'm so happy to be here. Thanks for inviting me. Toni Rose Deanon 0:49 Yeah, I think I feel like you and I have been vibing for a couple of months now, which is really exciting. And so we continue having these different opportunities to collaborate with each other. And so again, thank you. Thank you. Thank you so much for saying yes to the podcast. And so before we get started, this is one of my favorite questions to ask folks what is bringing you joy currently. Margie Tiner 1:09 So right now, for me, it's just family time, we've been having some really good weather. So I'm having a lot of time outside with my kiddos. And then this weekend, it's a milestone birthday for my father in law. He turned 70 This month, we're having a big birthday party at Top Golf. So just excited. My nieces are going to be here. They live out of town, so I don't get to see them very often. So just family and fun. Toni Rose Deanon 1:32 Oh, how exciting. Margie, are you pretty good at Top Golf? Margie Tiner 1:36 No. So I have like this fear of being too close to the edge. So for context, my five year old is clumsy as the day is long. And I have a one year old niece and they're both the second children and my family and my sister in law's family. So they have no fear. No sense of danger. So it's mostly that like panicked mom mode of like, where's the kid? Where's the kid? Where's that kid? And then the golfing is like secondary. I love hanging out I love just playing Polo is more my speed. Toni Rose Deanon 2:09 Yeah, I was gonna say definitely played played. I played golf in high school. But I don't even think I could claim that I went to practices and I never went to any of like the actual matches or games or whatever they're called See, I don't even know what they're called. But that's hilarious. So thank you so much for sharing that piece with us. And so let's kind of get started. Tell us more a little, you know, tell us more about who you are. And then how you started your teaching journey. How did you get into edtech space? Anything that you'd like to share with us actually? Margie Tiner 2:38 Yeah, so I am a veteran teacher and Instructional Technology coach, I started in education, like, Let's pop in the wayback machine back to the late 80s, where you see the little tiny brunette pigtails, high top Converse sneakers with the rainbow shoe laces walking into my very first classroom and kindergarten for the very first time. I was the shy kid. I was the one who like I couldn't even go up to the counter at McDonald's and tell the lady I wanted a happy meal, please. Okay, that was me. And there was this fabulous magical woman, Mrs. Middleton, I will never forget her as long as I live. And she introduced me to my very first friends. And she swooped me up and sat me on her lap and just connected with me as this tiny little terrified human doing something new, and made me feel appreciated and valued and connected to new people all in one fell swoop. And then just proceeded the entire year long to have these magical experiences. And I knew from the very young age of five years old, like this is what I want to do with my life. I want to be a teacher. So like my entire school career, like I just knew, you know, some people go through life and they're like, Oh, what am I going to do? I don't know, what am I interested in? I have always known I was meant to be a teacher. So fast forward, past college. I got into teaching very early on while I was doing my master's degree. I was in high school special education, paying for my master's degree at the time. So I worked as like an ed tech pair. Sorry, as a tech paraprofessional, worked with an autistic kid work with some kids with special needs, had a fabulous time with that. And then after I got my master's degree, I went on to teaching I did that for many, many years in multiple states because my husband is former Navy so we moved around a lot. And then after the pandemic that year after we all came back into the classroom. That's really when I transitioned into Instructional Technology coaching because I had always had an interest in ed tech. Those kinds of things just drew me in it's something I was naturally curious about. And it's something I was good at and sometime during the pandemic When we were all, you know, trying to figure out what we were doing, I came to this realization like, wow, I really like teaching virtually. It's it wasn't a big thing for me to connect with my students even when we weren't face to face. And technology to me comes pretty easy. Because I'm, I'm not afraid to like, click around and figure things out on my own. So it wasn't a daunting task, because I was doing a lot of ad tech stuff in my classroom before the pandemic hit. So for me, it was almost like this natural transition to finding something new that I liked, and that I enjoyed, and just figuring out like, how do I help kids be successful with this. So I did some ad tech coaching for a while. And then I ended up getting offered a job at a fabulous company where I work now. And that is how you and I connected during my time as a teacher success champion at kami. Toni Rose Deanon 5:54 I love this so much, because I feel like our journey kind of align are very similar, right? Like, I also really enjoyed being in the virtual space when COVID hit. And that was like one of the big reasons why I decided to join modern classrooms as well is that like, Oh, I could work from home, I could work remotely. I mean, of course, I'm also super passionate about the instructional model. And I did implement it as well. It was just a perk to be like, I can continue working from home with my dogs right beside me and still impacting teaching and learning. Like, yes, please, stay less. I'm there, right. And so what a beautiful story as well of you being a five year old and having this adult just like care for you and appreciate you and love on you. And, and again, I'm sure our listeners are so tired of me saying this, but it only really takes that one person to change that trajectory of a child's life, right. And so if you think about it, like it was also my fifth grade teacher that impacted what I wanted to be when I grew up, it was because she created such a brave space for me in such a welcoming space for me as someone who's Brown in a, in a in a community that didn't have brown folks. And so I'm introducing you to literature and I was like, Yo, if she can create this space for me, I can create this space for all of the future brown kids as well. And so that to me, just like I was like, That's it fifth grade, I want to be a teacher. Right. And that was all I wanted to be. And so that was yeah, this is such a great conversation. This is something that I just learned about you, which is really cool. So thank you for sharing. Margie Tiner 7:30 Yeah, and thank you. That's such a beautiful story, right? How like, there's that one inspiring person that one spark in your life where just you realize like, wow, they can do it. I want to do that, too. How do I do that? And then even like during COVID, right, discovering new things. I still want to teach I still want to inspire people, but there's this whole new way to do it that I never considered before. That's awesome. Toni Rose Deanon 7:55 Yeah, yeah, no, I teachers are amazing. Like, teachers are just hands down the best some of the best people I know. So. Yeah, no, thank you. Thank you for that. Okay, so let's, let's shift gears a little bit. How did you learn about MCP? I know that you work for kami. Now, which listeners if you don't know anything about Kami, welcome. And you're welcome as well, right. It's kind of like, welcome to the space. And you're welcome. Because I know you're gonna be saying thank you. Because Kami is just like this wonderful tool that I utilize in my own classroom. And to see the upgrades and the new features now compared to when I was teaching back in like 2018. I'm like, holy cow that just like a huge difference. And so I know, Margie that you had reached out, I don't know, how did we even get connected? Like, I know, there was some reaching out. And then we were like, Oh, my gosh, we love each other. Can we continue working together? Margie Tiner 8:51 I want to say like, I'm sure I've seen you around the internet and on socials and stuff. But I I met with Samantha at St. Samantha and I connected and then that led to me meeting you virtually. And then we've seen each other at other events and we've co hosted things together and it's just been this magical journey. Toni Rose Deanon 9:12 Okay, yeah. Now I remember Yeah, I yeah, I absolutely love this part of my job, too. I mean, there's so many things to love about my job, right. And this is one of them is like being connected with former educators and educators as well, of just like how we're really like dismantling and disrupting what we knew before as far as teaching and learning is concerned, right? And so, I mean, I absolutely love the Kami team as well, because I feel like you've just like taken me in as one of your own and I just feel so loved as well. So like what your teacher did for you, Margie. You're now like passing that along, which is just such a beautiful thing, right? And so, okay, so kami is marketed towards a wide range of educators from those and elementary schools to high schools. I taught middle school so I know that that we definitely use it in middle school. Can you talk about the specific features of kami that that cater to the different needs of these educators across various grade levels? Margie Tiner 10:08 Sure. So for anybody who maybe is not familiar with the tool, kami is an edtech tool. And I like to call it the digital swiss army knife in my teaching tool belt. So kind of the backstory like here's my kami origin story, right? Like I'm some superhero or something ridiculous. But anyway. So I first heard about Kami, when I was teaching, right after the pandemic hit like that moment when they had sent everybody home, everybody's scrambling, we didn't know were we going back? Were we not going back? What's going on? out a friend go, Margie, you gotta try this PDF annotation tool I heard about. It was back when all the edtech companies were giving out tools for free, you know, for everybody, just to try to make those connections with students just to service them and continue learning and do everybody was trying to do whatever they could do, right? I'm not gonna lie. I was a hater. I was that skeptic. When I heard the word PDF annotator come out of my friend's mouth. I looked at them, like they had just grown six heads. And I was like, Are we even friends? Do you know me? Do you know you just said the word PDF to me. Hello. In the district that I came from, for context. We were not supposed to use PDFs. If you had the word PDF, our administrators read that as worksheet. And you were coming down to the office for a talk and a rewrite on your lesson plan. Right? So immediately wrote them off, because I heard those three little letters. Fast forward, after the pandemic, while still during the pandemic. But once we were back in the classroom, our district had actually bought into it and that we had this paid plan. And I was like, Oh, well, I guess if they're paying for it, I might as well take a look right? Like roadblocks. My own doing. I cut myself off from so many things that could have been so fabulous for me, because of my own short sightedness, right, like your own biases, just play in ways that you're like, you look back and you think, man, why did I do that to myself? So back to kami. So magical tool, right? It is curriculum agnostic, so it works with anything. When I first heard about it, like I said, I thought it was just for PDFs. And way back in the day. That's where it started. It started as a PDF annotation tool, but it has done nothing but grow. It's a 10 year old company. So they've been around for a while they know what they're doing. It works with Google things. It works with Microsoft, it works with PDFs of the curriculum that your district has spent the millions of dollars on, you can take a picture of the anchor chart you made this morning and hung on the wall. You can take anything, Slides, Sheets, Docs, jam boards, if you still got any of those laying around PowerPoints, like you name it, bring it into this digital environment of kami. And you get to level it up with tools that make it more interactive, more engaging, and just provide that voice and choice for students. It is dynamic, it has tools for everything under the sun that you can think of no matter what grade level or subject. It's chock full of accessibility features. So not just that special group of students that needs it. But things that make all your documents more accessible to all your learners. And the personalization in it. Like I just I can't compare it to any other tool, it has so many features that let you remix, and remake. And, for example, control features, the toolbar that you see, as a teacher, you get to fully customize your students experience for every assignment, and you can change it at any time throughout the lesson. So kami really does give you this pathway to take the things that you as the professional educator know are our best for your students and what they need in that real time moment. And provide a way to scaffold supports for your students, no matter what you're doing, or what subject or what grade level. And I can't think of any other tool that I've ever come across in my almost 20 years in education that does that. Toni Rose Deanon 14:19 I have to agree with you on so many things. And I'm still chuckling at the fact that you were like, Oh, I was a hater. Margie Tiner 14:27 I was I really was I just wrote it right off. I was like, nope, not for me. I don't need that. Toni Rose Deanon 14:35 Well, I mean, it makes sense, right? Because it was the PDF, the word PDF was kind of like a trigger for you. Right? Like it was kind of a trauma response for you be like, Oh, God, no, I can't because that means I would get on a performance improvement plan and we don't want that at all. And so I get that part. I get the response, right. I think for me, you know, back in the day back in the day like 2016, right or 2015 Back when folks would send like PDFs and then you would have to print it out. And then you have to sign it. So for me, I was just so frustrated. I didn't want to print anything out. I hated printing things out. And so when I found out about Cami, the PDF annotator, right, I was like, Oh, I bet. And so I kind of started using it for me first, and then I realized the power of it. Because there were a lot of tools and resources that were a PDF and back then again, there was no good way for you to save a PDF and turn it into a Word document or a Google doc right? And so it's like PDF, that's like a permanent thing. You can't change it. And that's it. And so for me, it was like, holy cow, how do I then provide a space for my students to really write things out or like write out, you know, annotate on the PDF at not having to print it out. And so that was when kami just became a big thing for me. And my in my classroom was like, oh, let's utilize Kami, right? Like, here's all the resources that we have. That's PDF, I can't do anything about it. But now we have kami to get get my students to just make it digitally. I like Margie, like when I tell you, I hated printing. And I think this also stems from like me working in Baltimore City where we didn't have a lot of resources. So I had to print everything. And then I had to pay for my own paper to print things. So I was like, oh, no, we're not printing not being moving forward. We're not printing anything at everything's gonna be digital. And I was really fortunate enough to be in schools that had carts of laptops, or one on one so that students could could do it digitally. Right. And so, yeah, Kami, I love kami. Because I was able to sign off paperwork, and just email it right back without having to print anything out. So it just really made my life easier as an educator, and then I shared it with students and students absolutely loved it. And so it's been actually a couple of years since I've used kami. Couple years, meaning like, gosh, I've been out of the classroom, and I was out 2021. So I haven't used it since then. So I'm like to getting in touch with you. And like, oh my gosh, how could them just like, how can adults just use this in general, right, like for instructional coaches, and for even like the educators that I work with, for all the professional development that I'm hosting? It's like, how can we utilize this, this tool to make it even that much more engaging for our learners, right? And so I appreciate this anecdote. I appreciate just like, oh, here are all the cool things that you can use. And yes, you can be a hater, and then all of a sudden be like, wait a minute, this is actually pretty cool. Margie Tiner 17:34 Right? Right. See, I should have been like you because I also came from a district. This makes me feel better that I wasn't alone, but also not better. Because I hate that for you. I also was in a district where I had to provide and buy my own paper. So like, I was pretty sure that something was just wrong with my school system, because it wasn't every school in the district. But it was the one I was in for whatever reasons. And I was like, nobody else is probably doing this. This is insanity. So I'm so glad that you were able to find a tool and like, embrace that. Right? Like don't have the mentality of Oh, that's not for me. Toni Rose Deanon 18:09 Yeah, I but I was also that educator though Margie not gonna lie that I like just embraced all the tech tools. And then I would create lesson plans based off of the tech tools rather than the standards. Because I was just so excited about these tech tools. I'm like, Oh, my gosh, how am I gonna, like make sure that I use these things. So if anything, like I went to like the way the other side of just like embracing everything, and then overwhelming my kids of just all the tech tools, and they're like, Yo, we can't, we can't keep up. Yeah, and even with like the paper aspect, right? It's wild to think of about just like some school, some teachers really have to provide so many things right. And, and in mind you like I taught sixth, seventh and eighth grade 126 students, and I had to like make copies of everything like that. It was just so not, it just wasn't good for my mental health and even like, my pockets financially. So it was just really, really interesting to just be like, because of that experience. I was like, I'm never again, like printing anything. And so when I went to the school, went to the school after that we had a lip. Well, we didn't have a limit of how much paper we could like print, right? But like, I rarely use that printer, because I just didn't want to be close to it at all. And so like Kami really provided this space of like, you know what, we have it digitally. And now I just got to teach my students how to utilize kami in the most effective way so that they're not wasting time, right. And so I really appreciate this this conversation because I'm like, Oh my gosh, that was also kind of like a trauma response. Margie Tiner 19:43 You carry as a teacher that you just don't even realize because so often. It's funny to think about because teachers are in such a human centered, caring profession, but sometimes you don't stop to pause to really consider how, as the adult in the room Often you're isolated, right? Like it's you and your students all day long, but you very rarely get to talk to your peers. Or at least most of the educators. I know, that's our shared experience. And there's just so much trauma to unpack sometimes. Toni Rose Deanon 20:14 Yeah, yeah. And so to just be able to, like, have conversations, and now laugh about it, right, like, because I'm sure I can remember, like, when I was in that school environment was literally crying every day because I was just like, I don't know what to do. Okay, so yeah, love. This is trauma bonding. Which is wild. Okay, so kami offers a variety of features beyond basic annotation, right, we talked about the PDF annotating, which was like the thing that got kami known for me anyway. And so can you discuss some of the more advanced features of kami and how they can be used to create a more engaging and interactive self paced mastery based learning experience for for students, and I know that you have already named some prior, but did you want to like just reiterate or just like, share other features other tools as well to to, to use with Kami. Margie Tiner 21:10 So in addition to the ones that I already mentioned, and just to reiterate things like feature control, where you can customize your students toolbar at any time on any assignment, things like our split and merge tool, so you can take any files that you're already teaching with, and combine them in different ways, split them apart, merge them together, split them apart, whatever you need to do with them to customize. There's also three big ones for me. One of them is our multimedia comment tool. With that one, you can insert text, audio, video, or even screen capture that works on other tabs outside of your kami document. So you can literally clone yourself, right? Like, you can leave your own voice or your own face, right inside of the document so that your students are not only making that connection with you, you've now empowered them if they needed to hear your directions again, or they need a reminder about what your expectations were, or they were absent, or they were on that like 10 minute marathon bathroom break and just didn't hear the instructions, they can go back and get the things that they need. You can use that as the teacher, you can turn it on for your students. So now they've got that built in voice and choice. So not only can I, you know, hand write and annotate on top of things, I can just talk it out, or I can record myself. So if I'm that budding YouTuber, I've got a method to show you what I know, if I'm the quiet kid that will never raise my hand in class. But I also have a hard time putting pen to paper or typing things out to get my thoughts out, I can just hit record audio, and then I don't have to worry about you or myself seeing my face on camera, I can just go and show you that I know what you've taught me, right. So empowering your students to just take that knowledge and really just elevate the things that you were already going to do in class anyway. And give them that voice and choice. It's one of my absolute favorites. We also have an add media tool. So I don't know if you saw this in the classroom before you left. But when I was in instructional technology coach, I saw a lot of YouTube videos being used, right? Like I'm sure that probably was a thing before COVID times, during COVID. I know a lot of educators relied heavily on YouTube. And now even after that behavior carries on right, some of those videos are fabulous, some of them not so much. But with Kami, you can bring those videos right in and instead of worrying about your kids being exposed to whatever commercial pops up, when you click the link, or the live chat or the ads or the other suggested videos, you can just embed the video right on your learning document, and you can trim it so you can get just the chunk of instruction that your students need. I love that. You can insert all sorts of other multimedia everything from pictures and videos. Kids can take pictures of handwritten work, they can record a video that embeds right on the document like the choices are endless, right? There's also on the teacher side of things. This is me selfishly putting my teacher hat on. You can watch all of your students working in real time. on one screen in kami. Where was that tool when I was teaching, right? Like I needed that heater and I blew him off, right? That didn't exist during the pandemic. But kami listens to teachers and they think about, you know, like, what are teachers saying? What challenges are they facing? And that's really where their focus lies, right? They have basically two main goals, which is part of why I love them so much. Their highest priority is always listening to teachers, and understanding the challenges that they face so that they can help come up with solutions so you can do what you do. Bye s teach students. So class view, imagine you've put up your assignment. And then you get your kids to work, right? Like, if you're Elementary, maybe you're working at a small group table, and your kids on the other side of the room are doing, hopefully, their independent assignment. If you would put it up as a cameo assignment, not only can you be working with the kids right in front of you, you can monitor everybody else from one screen. It's in real time. So if you see somebody across the room is off task, you can use any of those kami tools to give them some feedback, or support or scaffolded help in the moment. And it also passes back to your LMS. So things like Google Classroom, Schoology, Canvas, Microsoft Teams, when you've got the kami plan, it integrates right into those. And you can do all your grading from one screen. So like just thinking about how many cart loads of papers, I had to take home as a middle school teacher, right? Like, I feel you on that you've got hundreds of students. Even when I was in elementary school, my class, I think one of my biggest classes I had 36, one year, which was insane. But we'll say 25, right? Like, that's a nice average number. Well, 25 students, if you've got the four core subjects, just math, reading science and social studies, nevermind anything else, one assignment per day, in each of those four things, for 25 kids, that's 100 papers that day, right? Like, paper adds up, having time to grade those things adds up. camis got a solution for that. And it's digital. So it's portable, and it's fabulous. The other thing you can get with that, right now it's in beta in Google Classroom. It's not in the other integrations yet. But it's called insights. So you know how you always need that data to drive your instruction camis got auto grading questions, it's called the questions tool. And if you're using the questions tool, inside of class view, you can see if the students have answered right or wrong, before they even turn in the work. It's color coded. So it's easy to see at a glance. You can click the button, and you can see, what's the average? How did they do on each question. It'll even tear your groups into high, medium and low for you like right there instantaneously. And it updates as your students turn work in so you can see it before they're done. And after like, there's so many things, it just keeps getting better. Toni Rose Deanon 27:27 I feel like kami is just like an overall tool that you can use, right? Like it just basically covers so much because now I'm thinking even with that auto grading tool that you're talking about, I remember utilizing a different program just to be able to see my students as they answer the questions, right. And so that's that's kind of that's really exciting. Go ahead, Kami. I love this for kami. And, and so Okay, so I do have like, two follow up questions for you, Margie. When you when you were talking about bringing videos in, for example, YouTube videos, I love I love, love, love the fact that there's there are no ads. And, you know, our students don't get distracted. It's literally just a video. And so my question is, Do teachers have to download that video? Or can they just link it with a YouTube link, Margie Tiner 28:22 all you need is the YouTube URL. So if you don't already have the URL, when you click that tool to use it, there's also a text on the top of it, you can click to open youtube to go get the video. And that works for you know, videos that other content creators have made. Like for example, I used National Geographic for kids a lot in my classroom, when I was elementary for social studies, you can go pull those kinds of videos, or if you're making your own videos, and it's in some, you know, platform that you can't just get a link and easily use. Make yourself an unlisted private YouTube channel. Just make sure you set the settings so that you know when you share the link, you'll be able to pull up that video. And you could just insert your own videos from YouTube right there onto the page. Toni Rose Deanon 29:09 That makes it so much easier. You know, because sometimes it's like, oh, this space I can't download at all. Are there videos that I can't download from YouTube? Because it doesn't allow me to. So that's Oh my gosh, that's really really really cool. I love that. And then of course with Youtube, it doesn't have to be a public link Riley it could be unlisted as long as it's a YouTube link. Yes. So Margie Tiner 29:31 you don't have to put it out there for the world. It's basically like you're just using it for storage for you so that you can access it from wherever. Yeah, Toni Rose Deanon 29:39 yeah, no, that's really really dope. Another thing that I really liked too is when you first started talking about how students can also utilize the video part of it right like where there's an option for students who really love being in front of the camera and like you know how they have this like YouTube personality or an influencer like aspiration right? They have that option. But then for the students who like I can just think about my brother to is like, No, I don't want to be seen, you can hear me, but I don't want to be seen. And I will still talk to you, right. And so the audio part is also really, really, really helpful for some of our students who don't want to be in front of the screen. Because, again, this is just a lot of choice for students to showcase what they're learning. And I'm all about being able to talk it out, I always tell my students to if you can talk about it, you can be about it right? If you can, you can kind of just share how you've learned something or how you understand then you can also get someone else to understand the concept of the skill, you are good to go, that is amazing. I don't even care about you having to write it down, as long as you can talk about it. Right. And you understand the concept then for me, you've mastered that skill. And so that that's really, really great. I, I really love this, this like being able to watch your students the class view, and being able to just catch students as they get off tasks, because our students are gonna be off task, right? It's not a guarantee they will be 100% focused. I know for me, when I catch my students off task, I'll just be like, Hey, I see you watching Beyonce video. We're not doing that today. How about you do your work first, and then we can watch this video together, right? Like, don't leave me out of this fun time. Get your work done first. There was never a way to like, catch my student and like berate them, or like make them feel bad. Because as an adult, you know, I get distracted all the time. Like, as we're talking me and you I've already glanced at my phone like three times. And I'm like, No, we got to focus. So like, I get it, I get this whole, like, here's a class view to catch her students or not even really catch them, but to really just like, guide them and be like a reminder and remind them right, especially with someone like me, who's neurodivergent got ADHD pretty bad. And so like, my, you know, like, it's just a great way to be like, hey, alright, let's go back to what we were doing before I see what you do it, let's go back. So it's just kind of like a playful banter and also redirecting and like the nicest, kindest, positive way, right. And so, this is really great. And I like that your priorities, also all about listening to teachers, because again, right, you can't come up with solutions if you don't know what the problems are. And so and you don't know what the problems are, if you don't have conversations with educators who are doing the work. And so I really love and appreciate this, this part about CAMI as well. Okay, so then, again, you already kind of told us about this, like insights thing that's coming up. It's in beta testing on Google Classroom, which is so exciting. Looking ahead. Are there any other potential future developments for kami that you can share? Or you just like hush hush things are coming up, like what can you share about like this tool evolving to continue meet, to continue to meet the changing needs of educators and students? Because what we need today could be different, you know, different from what we need tomorrow, so and it because it changes so fast? Margie Tiner 33:01 Yeah, it does it right. Education is a rapidly changing landscape. Like even just think about where you were in your own personal teaching journey, like six months ago, compared to two years ago, compared to five years ago, if you've been in education that long, right? Like, it looks nothing like for the most part, things have just wildly shifted over that time period. So for Kenny, their focus is still the teachers, right? So on the roadmap this year, coming soon. It's all about saving teachers time, and boosting student engagement. And that is something I love because those are core values that kami so things they can do to make educators be able have an easier time doing what they love, connecting with students, helping them grow, helping them, you know, get prepared for things that we might not even imagine are going to exist in their future because things are changing so fast. So we've got some accessibility features coming up, that I'm really excited about. camis going to be getting a facelift to make things even more accessible and even easier to find. Hopefully, I was allowed to tell you that and that wasn't too hush hush so any my exact team if you're listening, sorry. But yeah, we've got that on the horizon. That questions tool that we know and love that has been in beta and being developed is getting even more features. It's going to help us save more time, more stuff with auto grading and more of our LMSs So again, just a lot of things to help teachers streamline their workflow and focus on that student engagement and showing what they know. Toni Rose Deanon 34:38 I really love this concept of a facelift or either just like hey, change is happening and change will always happen. So we're gonna like we're gonna go with the flow and see where the needs are and what the needs are so that we can continue again like you said, saving teachers time because that is so important time in is just such an important thing for everyone, honestly, right, and especially educators with everything that we're being tasked to do nowadays. And so really loving these two values that you have of saving teachers time and, and, and boosting engagement. That's really, really dope. And so, and I just again, I'm excited, I'm excited for all the things. I love the concept of making things even more accessible. And it's not just for folks who don't need those extra support is really for everyone who, who can use whatever who wants to use any of the features. Right. And so that's, that's really cool. Okay, so we also have another cool thing that CAMI just launched on Monday past Monday. So yeah, Margie, tell us more about it. Margie Tiner 35:51 Yeah, so our kami certified educators courses just got a brand new remake. So if you've been previously can be certified if you're Academy certified educator, go check out the new courses, they have been revamped with fresh content, fresh ideas, level one, and level two are both out, you can complete each one of those from start to finish in less than 30 minutes. So you can learn all about some of the great things I talked about today, like class view and how to use it, how to share things with your students, and timely topic for this time of year, how to use kami for assessments. That's level two. So anything from formative assessment to getting ready for those state level tests like now is the time bonus. If you are listening, and it is before June 1 of this year, camis also putting your name in the drawing if you do our kami certified educators course for $1,000 classroom makeover. So bonus like who doesn't want to be in the drawing for that right. And you can get one entry per level of kami certified that you complete. So definitely check those out. You can find them on the Kenny website. Toni Rose Deanon 37:02 And we can put that on the show notes too. Margie if you can drop it on the if we if you drop it in the document. Margie Tiner 37:08 Okay, it is kami app.com backslash certified. Toni Rose Deanon 37:14 Oh, that's easy peasy. Also, you got me at $1,000.30 minutes like done Margie Tiner 37:22 done and done, do that dirt bus duty. No, just kidding. Not really. Just kidding, amount of time. Toni Rose Deanon 37:30 But okay, so is this just for educators or can like instructional coaches and admin do this as well. Margie Tiner 37:38 So it is open for anybody. So instructional coaches, you want to see how to support your teachers, you want to see what the workflow looks like you want ideas for how you can help them implement it in the classroom. I'm going to highly recommend those two courses for you. Administrators if you want to see some of the amazing things it's going to allow your teachers and students to be able to do or to know what to expect when You're walking through the halls and you see your teachers using it. Definitely check those out. Toni Rose Deanon 38:04 I love a good course I was also that teacher Margie that collected all the badges yeah certified itself anything so this is cool. Margie Tiner 38:14 Yeah, and fresh new badges. So if you have the old level one and two, now you can get some new with Toni Rose Deanon 38:19 ayee look at kami doing it up Doing it up Love it. Love it to listeners definitely check that out. We love learning. So continue learning and get certified and then get $1,000 That's pretty freakin dope. If you asked me, So Margie, what do you what do you you as an individual you as a human being hope to see in the future? And what goals do you have? Margie Tiner 38:46 So for me, I am really looking forward to just like even more collaboration with different educators around the world. So since I've joined the kami team, I have gotten to connect with teachers just like all over the world, like not just in my state, not just in our country, but across the world in places. I some of them I've never even heard of before, right? So having these opportunities and these connections to find out like it really broadens your vision. You know, you get to connect with fabulous new friends and then you find out you've got these shared experiences, or you hear stories and you're just like, Wow, you guys do that. That never even crossed my mind. I would love to know more about that. So for me, I'm working on just kind of like thinking about building my own teacher brand and like how do I put not just myself as part of kami but like how do I put myself as a teacher out there and connect with more people and find out more amazing things because for me, I'm like the giant nerd I could talk about this stuff all day long, right? Like that shy little five year old who couldn't even order at the McDonald's counter. That's still me, right? Like I'm very introverted in a lot of ways. But you put me in a room full of fellow teachers, and you might have a hard time getting me to stop talking. So figuring out ways to connect, and just really going global with things. That's, that's kind of what's on my horizon. Toni Rose Deanon 40:10 Yeah, connection is so important, right? Because like you said, teaching can be really isolating, especially if you're the only one trying to do something different in your school. And so we really want to provide this community, right. And I think CAMI does such a great job of celebrating educators, as well as like, hey, you need this, we got you. And so that's why like, one of the reasons why modern classroom and Kami were just like, yo, let's like, get together, let's be in this long term relationship. Let's keep it going. And so that we can continue taking care of our educators, because our educators need that so much, right. And so I really just appreciate that that goal of like, connecting, and also, I wanted to point out, too, that CAMI is based out of New Zealand, right? Yeah. So they're based out of New Zealand. And again, like, I'm so grateful for you, and Mark is connecting me with Vanessa as well, who is, you know, the person for community engagement. So, I've been talking to Vanessa to have like, hey, how do you do this? How do you do that? So it's not just like me helping educators save time, right, and boost engagement, but it's also for my own professional development, because again, I need folks to have conversations with about what I'm supposed to be doing or what Margie Tiner 41:23 what are the opportunities and great things that I could do with this title? Yes, like, the peer connection, the collaboration, the mentorship, the fellowship, like that is such an important part of growing personally, professionally, like that's at the core of teaching, right being that that lifelong learner that applies in all aspects of your life. Toni Rose Deanon 41:45 Yeah. And another thing too, and I've said this to you, and Marcus as well, from the very get go, right, like when you to create a webinar for our mentors or expert mentors, you literally looked at our stuff on our website and like, personalize it so much, you got a tracker, you got like a lesson plan template. And you just made it so personalized, and easy that all of our mentors were like, holy, like, wow, this is all you could do. Like, I don't actually have to try to envision it myself. But you've utilized some of our tools already. And then just embedded kami and I think that in itself is just so magical and powerful. And like our mentors who have just been like, this is so dope. Now I can actually see how I can utilize kami in my modern classroom right? And I don't know if I can also I think I'm gonna share this Margie right like, you also kind of offered like, hey, for our teacher leaders or DMCEs or our mentors, you could definitely check out kami and all the features that come with it so that you can start just familiarizing yourself with the with the with the tool as well as having access to all of these cool things. And so y'all definitely if you are a DMCE already distinguished modern classroom educator or an export an expert mentor, and you have not heard that like we have this partnership with with Kami, please reach out to Margie. Margie will hook you up with all the goodies. And if you are not a DMCE or an expert to mentor just yet. Come on in. Like, let's go ahead and apply so that we could be in community with each other. You could get all of these perks, all of the things right. So again, so with that being said, Margie, how can our listeners connect with you? Margie Tiner 43:28 Yeah, so email is always great. You can reach me Margie dot Tyner at kami app.com Or look me up on any of the socials Instagram, Facebook, Twitter is at Tinerstechtips. Oh, Toni Rose Deanon 43:43 I love that so much. This is so so dope. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you so much, Margie. I always love spending time with you. This is just great. Margie Tiner 43:51 Yes, I can hang out with you all day. Thank you so much for having me on this show. Toni Rose Deanon 43:57 Yeah, and listeners. This is not the last time that you're gonna hear or see from me and Margie. So just a heads up on that we've got some really dope things, kind of, we're planning some more awesome things to do together. And so, listeners remember, you can always email us at podcast at modern classrooms.org And you can find the show notes for this episode at podcast at modern classrooms.org/186. We'll have this episode's transcript uploaded by Friday so be sure to check back to access those also we're asking our listeners to leave a review of this podcast has been helpful in supporting you to create a human centered learning environment through a blended self paced, mastery based model. It does help other folks find it. Thank you all for listening. Have a great week, and we'll be back next Sunday. Zach Diamond 44:46 Thank you so much for listening. You can find links to topics and tools we discussed in our show notes for this episode. And remember, you can learn more about our work at WWW dot modern classrooms.org And you can learn In the essentials of our muddle through our free course at Learn dot modern classrooms.org. You can follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram at modern class proj. That's p r o. J. We are so appreciative of all you do for students in schools. Have a great week, and we'll be back next Sunday with another episode of the modern classrooms project podcast.