Connecting, Agile Classrooms, and Authentic Learning with Laura Williams

What's going on everybody? I hope this finds you striving and thriving and doing absolutely amazing. My name is Brian Martin. I'm a second grade teacher and host of the teaching champions podcast. And this week on the podcast, I'm joined by Laura Williams, and she's the founder of the authentic learning Alliance. She facilitates the I Will authentic learning network. She's a project manager of a statewide project board for pre K through 12 students across Iowa, serving the Iowa area educational agencies. And then this conversation. Listen, how Laura talks about the importance of connecting the school to the community. The Win win wins, agile scrums, the value of Scrum boards, the power of networking, and so much more. I hope you enjoy this conversation as much as I did. I am super excited today, because we have Laura Williams here with us, Laura, welcome to the teaching champions podcast. Awesome. Thanks for having me, Brian. There is so much that we're gonna learn today. And I've met you on Twitter and just seeing the posts that you put out, seeing what you're doing through the authentic learning alliance is something that I think all the listeners are going to be able to benefit from today. So if you could please would you share with us your journey and what brought you here? Yeah, awesome. So I would say that I do hang my hat on authentic learning. And my educational journey has kind of led me there. What I do for my day job is I'm a 21st Century Learning Specialist. And so I tried to find ways to connect students opportunities to help grow and develop those 21st century skills. So that's kind of like my bailiwick. But it's sort of manifested in so many ways. And so, as far as my journey, you know, I, I probably didn't think I was going to be an educator, I tried not to be my both my parents are, were educators. And so I was like, Well, I definitely don't want to be an educator, because I don't want to do what they did. And so I thought about, you know, it's funny, because like, when you're younger, like you're told, like, you could be like a doctor or a lawyer or a fireman. And I may only like, those are the like, go to catchphrase stereotypical jobs. But it turns out, there's like, a zillion other career pathways that you could go on. And so I didn't know that. And so I did waste some time and money trying to figure out what I wanted to do with myself, that I wanted to be pre med. So I went to school for pre med biology. Turns out, it wasn't so hard on the pre med, but I loved biology. I knew, and this is this kind of goes to the crux of authentic learning. I knew through immersion and experience that, you know, medicine was not, not for me, like that was not where I felt like I was thriving, or in my element. I wasn't as Pat. I mean, I love helping people. But there's other ways to help people than through, you know, medical science. So, I learned this because when you're pre med they make they don't make you they they invite you to volunteer at the hospital at the university. And so I did that. And then none of the roles really fit for me. And I ended up taking the patient's library job where I helped with tech Knology to bring like laptops to patients and help them use the laptops and read books to students or to patients that are younger. And like, I was just kind of funny, because it's like foreshadowing like, yeah, I am actually an educator, like I didn't try not to. And then I think another like, big piece of my journey is having the chance to live in another country for a couple of years and living learning and working. So I had to learn it was Costa Rica, I had to learn Spanish, I had to figure out cultural nuances and I had to, like start from scratch really, being a girl from Iowa, you know, rural community, like not really knowing what's out there. And so getting to that kind of meta level of like, there's a whole world out there of experiences and people and things and so I think that immersion is really important, not just not just going to another country and being immersed but like with anything that you want to learn about to be immersed in it is really critical to understanding what fits you and you know, what is a good fit for you? So, I ended up taking a teaching job at a bilingual school in Costa Rica. I was the grand gap. And I did not have a teaching license. It was a private school. I had a bachelor's degree and that was enough. And so I trial by fire, like I totally messed up. I, I actually taught the gamut. I had third graders, I had eighth graders, I had ninth graders like, like, very spread out, and I got to learn what I liked and what I didn't like. And likewise, I learned what, what was a good teacher move and what was a bad one because nobody I never had like training beforehand. So I think immersion is really important for figuring figuring yourself out figuring out what you want to do. So that kind of led me to my role as a science teacher in the classroom. I was that for about seven years. And then I took a job at our AEA area education agency here in Iowa, and I coach consults, I do professional learning opportunities, I even trained students in project management to get more authentic experiences. So that's kind of where I'm at Oh, and starting the authentic learning Alliance trying to connect educators across the globe with this kind of mindset and learning so little bit of my journey. That is a special journey. And it's amazing how many people don't start out to be teachers. Yes, there are some but I was the same way. Like, I didn't have teaching on my radar. Like you, I always wanted to serve to be around people to help people out. And I thought, you know, as a 18 year old male, like, I wanted to go into criminal justice. You watch the watch the TV shows, you still watch Steven Seagal and all those and I thought that's what it was all about. But just like you got into the medical profession a little bit, I dabbled in college with some criminal justice courses. And I figured out that wasn't for me. And it just led me, you know, a series other things led me to teach him. Now, I love how you said that merging, because that's important being able to have those experiences. And just really quick question off the cuff is interesting that you went down to Costa Rica, how old were you when you traveled down there? Well, I was, gosh, I was 21 When I first went, and I moved back. And so I was down there. till about cash 24, I want to say, and that's when I went back. And like after that, like, one year, I did not have a job. Like finding work was hard. And I did babysitting. And I got a job. And then that's when things kind of clicked for me. Like I love this I need to be I need to know what I'm doing. And so I came back at 24 and went back to school and did my Master's in teaching and got my licensure. So it was like a dual program. Like, if you're gonna go back, you might as well get a Master's if you're gonna put the time in. And so yeah, I was younger, for sure. And it was, it was fun. It was interesting. And but then you know, when you're that age, and you when you start to know what you want, you know, you start to make those moves those professional moves to get to where you want to be. That's a great adventure when you're young. Yes, yes. Awesome. We'll save some of those stories were different pocket knives. And really, like healthy people walked a lot and lots of fruit and vegetables. Like it's just a different lifestyle, kind of miss it. Like, I feel like sometimes we miss out on that. You know, like that kind of like, well, why don't we? i Well, we don't really have the weather to be walking year round. Like that's part of it. So I might need to consider my geography a little bit. But yeah, no, it was a really good time. No, I understand that yesterday. We had a field trip, then. We're out there in the morning at a state park and it's snowing on us. I'm not even November yet. So yeah, I understand the weather not being a, you know, helping out with that trick or treating in your snow suit. Unfortunately, yeah, yep. Awesome. Well, will you tell us a little bit about the authentic learning lines? Yeah, so. So what So really, I think it kind of boils down to like, well, what is authentic learning? Like we have all these educational catchphrases and buzzwords and, and I'm guilty, like, I have to hang my hat on some way to talk about this. And so authentic learning is kind of where I hang my hat. And so I'll try to define it for the listeners just to kind of give an idea of what the work entails. So I would, I would define authentic learning as real tasks where students own the work involving real research, real creation and ideally a tangible service or product to a real audience at completion and that sounds kind of like textbook definition he so I've kind of put together a simple like litmus test like, Hey, you probably are doing authentic learning in some in some ways, like this isn't necessary. really a new thing. I'm just working to expand it and bring in more opportunity to serve more students needs and passion areas. So here's the three questions I usually, you know, bring up when I'm coaching, our learners engaging in any of the following. are they connecting the experts to further their learning? In an experience or a project, like in a class like the typical like in your classroom? These are learning goals? are we connecting to experts to kind of like, figure out more about are you producing or creating a deliverable for someone beyond the classroom. So that really is that authentic work, like helping a business partner, design a logo for their business or something like that, like, there's an actual tangible thing that goes to someone who doesn't just, I hate to say this, it just doesn't go in the garbage. And I say that because I was a PBL teacher. I did project based learning in my science class, and I loved it, the kids loved it was so fun. And I felt like they were learning, I felt like they are engaged. But the soon as they got their grade, it went in the trash. Like a waste of time, and resources like that project, that beautiful thing that they created is now in my trash can and like that killed me. And so that's when I started questioning like, well, what can we do is a little more meaningful, like, little more like, tangible and deliverable. So that's, that's the second question like, are you creating, or producing something that goes beyond just the classroom? And then the final thing is, our students using or engaging in a real process that helps them develop skills and knowledge? So taking a real, like life's a real process. I mean, like, how do we do real work? Or how do we engage in real project management? Or, you know, how do the experts engage in this? Could we can we learn something from them and have kids go through that process to gain some skills that will benefit them beyond the classroom? So that's, those are kind of the three things that I think make something, you know, authentic learning experience? And I would say, and I always say it's like, it's basically PDL on steroids, because there's byproducts that go that transcend beyond, just like the learning targets in the classroom. That is kind of what it is. Now, in practice, you're probably like, Okay, that sounds good, or what is that? So some examples that I've seen that are really cool. And I'll give, I'll try to give a gamut of that. Because it looks differently in all grade levels, there's gonna be different scaffolding. You know, it might seem way more like authentic in high school, but that's because they actually get to go out and maybe they can drive on site, or they, you know, there's different skill sets that high schoolers might have versus like, you know, a second grader, my hat. So it is a there is some variants that great example in like elementary is that I've seen is, so you go out, you find a problem, right, and like kids get to help you solve the problem. So one of the problems in a community that is typical, is dangerous crosswalks. And so how have we fix that. And so a really cool idea that, and honestly, any community could do this. And it would require the students to research it out and figure out how they could do this. But creating like a 3d walkway. So like, using paint in such a visual way that it looks almost 3d, like pops out. So when drivers coming, they see the crosswalk. And so the project involves students, elementary students saying, Hey, this is a problem, how can we fix it, engaging in some research talking to experts talking to the city? Because they had to figure out well, how do we actually get this crosswalk painted this way? And how do we have permission? And so having them city operations to figure that out? Figuring out what kind of paint views figuring I mean, there's a lot of learning that has to go on in that to solve the problem. A lot of communication, you could intertwine, you know, language arts into that scenario, you could even tie in, like social studies, because you're learning like city operate. I mean, there's a lot of kind of interdisciplinary connections to that one. Yes. Even even like math, like, if you have to do shapes and measuring. And I mean, there's a, there's quite a bit of connections in there. So that's one example at the elementary level. I mean, it could even be middle or high. It just depends how you scaffold and what you focus on. Another really good one, and this is super innovative. I feel like a high school program here in Iowa, they they have a very much like authentic learning program. And so kids come and get core credit for essentially doing projects, passion projects, working with their partners to deliver upon these project goals. And they get coarsely, of course, credit for it. And so one of the projects that came out and it was like a science credential, you know, like, in high school, was working with an area business to make their warehouse more energy efficient. And so what ended up happening was the student was decided to take a drone with a thermal imaging camera and take pictures, aerial pictures of the warehouse to see where heat was being lost from the building. And then so they could take that evidence and bring it to their business partner and, and come up with like a proposal of like how they might make this warehouse more energy efficient. And so, so much like that's so enriching and like, the technical skills, you would develop the just the learning even thermodynamics, like I mean, there's a lot of connections, the engagement, you know, the kids, I can see them being fired up just using the drones flying over the factory, checking out the thermal images. Yeah, yeah, super cool. And, and they get to be the solution. Like, students, I think this mindset is like, really like, hey, we have all this time and talent and treasure, treasure in our buildings, like, could we tap into that, and help them be part of the solution, and it gives them ownership, it gives them pride, like, it's the buy in is the connection. And then by the way, they are also learning about careers. By the way, they're also developing 21st century skills. Oh, and by the way, they're networking. They're meeting people in the community, and oh, that's what that warehouse is for. We always drive by it, but we had no idea what was in there. So you're connecting to careers and ideas for their future. It's like, that's why I feel like it's like upping the ante. Like, it takes like, yeah, you could do a PBL. And that is a PDL. But like, let's, let's, let's take it to the next level. And, yeah, so that's, that's another example. And I would say for listeners, if they're, if you're like, Wow, this is compelling, like, I would love to see what a project could look like in my in my class. And my grade level, r i will project board can be found at WB L, that future ready iowa.gov forward slash listings, and all those project ideas will be on there. And if you go to the there's a drop down for project ideas, we asked PK 12, educators to submit and work with partners to come up with ideas of projects aligned to some Well, the national standards, but or keywords for content. So so you could find some good examples on there. And we call them taking bakes. So like you literally take and bake and it's all public facing. So yes, it's Iowa, but like, what I have found in my travels and journey, like most communities are pretty similar, like, you know, you still have the same challenges. So I think that a lot of these projects would transcend to like any community, rural or urban, I mean, it really, there's quite a few opportunities on there. So just some ideas of how you might get engaged with that. There are enough real problems. We shouldn't have to like, simulate or create hypotheticals, you know, like, let the community be thy curriculum, like, be part of that solution, and like making our communities better. That's kind of like my schpeel on that. No, and I love that and the ownership that the kids do when they go out in their community, and that they can see, you know, the fruits of their labor, that what they're doing inside the classroom extends beyond the classroom. And I love how you talked about like, it's more than just getting a job done. You're talking about building networking skills, communication skills, you're talking about going out into the community and seeing and understanding what's in your community. What are some of the businesses that are in your community? And that partnership between the community in the school, which is really cool, too? Yeah, yeah, I think it's a win. It's a win, win win, like kids are learning. Business partners are benefiting. Teachers are having fun, I'm not gonna lie, like the teachers I've worked with, once they start kind of drinking this Kool Aid. They're like, having so much fun, because they, you know, we're human beings. And we all have areas of interests that transcend our day job, right. Like, we all have passion areas. And so it's really cool to see students and teachers getting behind a project like together working together for a common goal. And so I think it's, I think it's really rejuvenating honestly, like, once I once I looked at learning like this, I could never look back. Like, why would I want to do like a sit and get thing that I don't think you know, 60% of the kids and actually does anything for you know, right, they lose engagement. Right, exactly. Awesome. Now, one thing that I believe is part of your authentic learning because I was going through your Twitter feed, and I didn't know much about this when I came to is this idea of Scrum. The scrum boards that you have out there. Could you explain to everybody what is the scrum board? Education? Yeah, what is this thing? How do I use it? How can I bring it into of the classroom. Yeah, so I love it. I, I was like, because of my authentic learning journeys and working with business partners, you start to learn about like industry practices. And because this is really PDL? Like how do we make PDL more authentic? Like project based learning? Like, how do real business people engage in projects. And so I started learning about different frameworks. You know, lean project management, agile scrum, project management, and I would say, so agile is kind of a just for the, for the listeners, if you've never heard it, it's more of a mindset on how to get work done and work with people. I kind of subscribe to there. So there's this thing called you can Google is modern, agile. And just to make it easier for teachers, I've kind of cling to this sort of way it's described is based on four things. And in my opinion, these four things, if you ran a school, a classroom or business, whatever, like with these four things in mind, you are gonna go so far, so fast, and people will just be happy to be there. So the four things are making safety a prerequisite. So I think Maslow's like, we got to have safe environment for our for our students, it makes it requisite deliver value continuously. And that, to me, resonates with personalized learning. Because not everything you do is going to add value to every single kid. And that's just the that's just the way of it and it kind of stinks, and we have these constraints. But if we can strive for delivering value continuously to all of our students, Are we better off for it? Make people Awesome? How cool is that? Like that's a tenant make people are like I'm here to make you awesome. You're here to make me awesome. So guess what, we're both gonna be awesome. Love it? No, it's really good. And then experiment and learn rapidly. I think that's what the classroom is for. We're here to experiment, learn rapidly take risks. It's okay, if we fail, we're gonna learn from the failure. We're gonna, we're gonna pivot we're gonna iterate. So iterations is a big part of Scrum, where you basically go through a sprint cycle, so I'm gonna drop some words like, what is she talking about? Basically, it's planning, doing, reviewing the work, and then retrospective on the process. Those four things, you do iteratively, we're gonna come back, we're going to plan we're going to do we're going to review we're going to retrospect on the process, like how did it go as a team, how did we function together and so that was iterations help kids get better and better, like at teamwork, or better and better at project work. And, and so, I love scrum for that reason. Now, not every if you if you Google Scrum, and like, look at the framework, you might be like, I can't really do all that in my classroom, like all the time, and that's fine. We actually call it scrum ish. We're kind of record were kind of scrambling over here. So we we call it scrum ish. And the big two things that teachers adopt, in when I go out and do these trainings. It's huge, like the listeners could take away from this is two sort of practices to engage in the first one is it's called a daily standup, you can call the check in you can call whatever you want. But it's, it's it's a time for students literally like coming together, and they share out what they have been working on. What do they plan on working on today? And what are my impediments or roadblocks to the work? So the teacher is listening to this Okay, so you got that done yesterday, you're going to work on this. So we're helping them set goals and be accountable and all those employability skills and and then we're also hearing the impediments so we are then the teachers are then the impediment crushers, like I heard you and it's sometimes it's nothing to do with school, it can be home life, like it's a time to connect with your kids on a deeper level and like understand where they're at. And so the daily standup is the one that a lot of teachers really like they like having that consistent like method of checking in with kids. Now, you might not be able to do it every day. Some some schools I work with do a weekly standup just to have that sort of time to check in. And do it anytime you want. And to really like I think we need to do a stand up right now we need to have a check in right now. The second sort of thing that I see teachers adopt after being like Agile Scrum trained is the scrum board. A scrum board is pretty simple. And I recommend especially for elementary and middle I think high school you could probably dabble into more of like the digital format but it's super powerful to have like sticky notes and have a physical board you could use like one of those Manila like folder like it could be a folder that you have, or it could be an actual like huge board like a chart paper even like right however you have a big and how much space you have. I know teachers use their whiteboards for now like for their for their kids to use the whiteboards but It's three columns to do doing and done. That's what a scrum board is to do doing and done. It helps the kids map out and plan like, this is what I need to do to be successful. And this is how I'm going to do it. And they and you chunk it, like, we're going to say, Okay, this week, I'm going to do these things. And we move that to the doing column. And then as you get things like, Okay, I'm gonna work on this one, you move it to the doing, this helps the teacher and the students visualize, like, who's working on what and when. And then when they're done, they move it to the Done column. So it's keeping the work visual, and it helps kit and like I've worked with all types of kids, all types of people even like it's something about being able to see it. And keep that focus allows us to be more successful in our project work. And it also is a great way to know like, Hey, Little Susie or little Johnny, they have not moved their post it note to the done pile what's going on, is there something I can help with so a scrum board can be implemented, I wager to say at almost any level in the in the younger grades, the teacher might be moving it and kind of like walking kids through like, Okay, we're gonna work on this right now. So like modeling it to the younger kids, my daughter is four and she, she grasps the concept of the to do list like these are our to do's, Mommy, I want to use this post it note, and we're going to do that. So even a four year old can navigate a scrum board. It's that simple. But then it can get more complex as you get into the older grades, like if you wanted to use like a digital Trello board to map out the work and assign tasks for the project to get done. Like, there's a whole gamut of project management tools out there. But that's a scrum board. And so it's just a way like to simplify this. It's just the way the manage the project is the way real businesses manage project work and communicate it to their stakeholders, and teammates. So I highly recommend it. It's changed the way I've done project based learning is super simple, is lightweight. And like I said, it allows for that sort of transparency in the work. No, I think that's great. I think it's powerful. I could use a scrum board right now, from my own personal life. But I think like you said, making it visual teaching the kids at a younger age, to really have that introspection, like what do I need to do? Where am I at in the process? And to be I need to process? Yes, yes. Because sometimes that's for myself, I've struggled with this throughout my life, is you just do the thing that's right in front of you. I'm not good at planning everything out, where but to be effective. To really understand what you need to accomplish a goal, you need to be able to do that. So teaching our kids from a young age planting that seed your daughter, she's going to be way ahead of the curve. She knows this project management extraordinaire. Yeah. And I think, you know, we don't always look at the business world and say, how, what can we take away from the business world? What are different areas that we can bring into teaching to teach our kids and it gets into, you know, you're talking about being that impediment Crusher, I think that is so huge, to be there to help those kids to, to crush those impediments. And that you also talked about that sprint cycle, the planning, the doing the reviewing the retrospect, having our kids teach it at the second grade level, like, they just want to be successful right away. You know, they're not used to having sometimes to work towards a goal and fail and fail and fail, but I understand that you're getting better each time. And, you know, talking about the business world, I take a lot like, I listen to Gary Vaynerchuk a lot. And some other people now obviously, Gary Vee if you don't know me, his language can get pretty risky. Sometimes they can't bring him you got to make it a little bit cleaner for the kids. But he's always talking about so Gary Vander Chuck, if you don't know, is super mega successful came from very little, but built himself up into a huge business leader. And one of the things that he says is, you know, sometimes asked, What do millionaires or billionaires do? You know, they don't obviously make mistakes. And I heard him talking one time he goes, That's the absolute wrong thing. He said, We make mistakes. We just make them faster and quicker than everybody else. And then we learn from them. So while everybody else is behind us trying to learn from that, that, you know, we've already made it and we learn from it and we're growing. So I always say with my kids, and I didn't come on When I heard it somewhere, somebody was talking, they said, you know, we say fail fast learn fast. So part of my, we have a monitoring class. And the first thing every morning that my kids say is, no, the first part of it is make mistakes, because I want to make mistakes. But then then we followed up, and we're like, I'll say fail fast. And they'll say, learn fast, because, you know, planting those seeds, because it's that process, like you talked about. Yeah, that's really good. I think that is huge. And even some adults I've worked with, like, just the idea of like, you know, we are iterating we're constantly learning and, and getting feedback from our environment from people like how bond, we're constantly getting feedback. And, and so then we iterate on it, like, oh, that didn't go. So even our class lesson like, well, that did not go good like that. You know, this week, I couldn't change that up. And so it's teaching kids that to like, and I love that you have that mantra in your class. I think that's awesome. That's very, that's very agile of you, Brian, I really like bringing little agile in this into the classroom. That's right, hey, I have to give her like a shout out just because I know teach if teachers are listening, and they're like, this is really cool. Some really good resources, if you Google or typing in is agile classrooms. I've had the privilege of working with John Miller. And he's developed so many really cool resources to implement planning to implement that, that he calls them learning sprints. Really good translate, like he he actually is a scrum trainer, I actually got my scrum master and my product owner from him. But so he teaches business and industry, but then he's translated it for education. And so he has free resources out there. And I use them all the time with teachers. So if you're looking for some good resources, that's a that's a good one to look up and subscribe to, to get those templates and things to like use with kids. Excellent. And thank you for sharing that. Now, you also talk about a lot of self discovery with our students that doing these programs can help them because you talked about it, you know, you want to go into pre med. Do you thought that was your path? And it was not until that you actually got in there dabbled in that, that you realize that pre med wasn't wasn't meant for you, but teaching wants? How does this help self discovery? And how does it help them build interest for future opportunities? Yeah, so the big like, I think I always tell people is like, it's important to know what you want. It's also important to know what you don't want, you're gonna know that as to like, try and experience it. But I think that's kind of the goal of authentic learning is to get as many opportunities as possible for students to kind of navigate that and build scaffolding around the world around them, like how do we navigate the world? How do we make decisions? You know, why would we jump into that? You know, have them? Have them? Ask those questions like teaching them to understand that. And this is something that took me a long time to understand that I'm going to admit to you this, like I was a, I was probably like, 20 years 21 when someone said something to me that really resonated. And it's, you know, you don't know what you don't know. And I think I beat myself up a lot of times in life, because I'm like, I don't understand that. And like, I blame myself, like, I'm not smart enough for I'm not like, why don't I know that? And it's not, I don't want to say it's like, there's no fault to be given. But the truth is, I never had the opportunity to learn that. Yes. And so once you understand that, once you really believe that, then that opens up your world, because you're like, I don't know that. But I could know that. I just need to ask the right people or I need to go experienced that I need to learn from others who have been there because chances are, I am not the first person to not understand a certain thing, or topic, or a job, or how something works. And so I think that's, I think that's really big is like to know that. And another thing I always say to people too, and like we talked about this, like teachers know this, but like apples don't fall far from trees, like we have that saying, and in so many times, it's like, Oh, that makes sense. Like, oh, you know, like, how many people do you know like, they actually do follow in their parents footsteps. I'm not against the I case in point. I try not to be an educator. But I was exposed to it. I was immersed in it at a young age like I for better for worse. I got comfortable with the idea. And so how do we get kids comfortable with new ideas, new propositions, how do we help them find where they are in their element and can find joy in living learning and working? You know, and that's cool. For adults, I know so many adults that are not happy in their roles. And I think we all deserve that. But I don't think we were taught to believe. I don't think we are taught to believe that we can do anything or be anything or do anything we want to do. I don't think I don't think people believe that. And I think we have to instill that into young learners, that it's attainable, there are action steps to get there. It's not going to be easy all the time. But if you really want it, these are some steps you can take. And so I really do think that that's part of that self discovery. And so if schools can help broker those experiences with area partnerships, I think that's a really good way to tackle that challenge. So no, I think you hit the nail on the head, as far as sometimes kids don't believe that they can do something or be something or they do, but the first time that they come and get hit hard with adversity, they don't have the plan. So it's helping them discover because whatever pathway you take, there's always going to be adversity, there's always going to be those mountains that we have to climb is about identifying what are the action steps? Who do I need to connect with? How can I better myself or learn to navigate that path so that I can become who I want to become? Yep. And what better way then to network and have been talked to people that have literally been there, you know, they navigate to and they can share their takeaways from their journey, you know, and that can help us chart our paths and be Wait, people are Wayfinders, you know, and they can reflect that to you. And I think I think that's really important. And so the more we can connect with these people outside of the classroom, or bring in, bring them in, you know, in then so easy anymore with Zoom, like for digital conferencing, like, it's so easy to get an expert to come in or share their knowledge. And so, you know, have kids develop questions like, hey, if we had this person, what do we need to know from them? Like, help train kids into that mindset? I guess? No, I think that is huge. planting that seed of reaching out to people who are experts, and not you know, that you can learn from, I guess, that is so impactful to me, because that's something that I've struggled with you people would think that you're you have a podcast so that you're that you have no problem or reaching out to people or connecting with these experts in all area. But it's really, for me, it's really stepping outside of my comfort zone. So I think the that I've learned so much and like being here and sharing this time with you, you know, I might have your daughter jump on later and show me how to set up a scrum board. That there's so much that we can learn if we don't hold ourselves back. Yes. And I That's true. I do think we like your biggest impediment is your is yourself. You know, you just got to decide, and you just gotta go for it, whatever it is, like whatever that thing is. So that mindset, we can plant that mindset at a young age like we kids, kids can leave us thinking, I really can't do that. You know, and I know the steps to take to get there. That would be that would be ideal. Yes, yes. One of my favorite quotes, and then it's from John Gordon. I don't know if you know, John Gordon. He's like a big author positivity guy. And he always talks about one of my favorite quotes, they says, you weed and feed feed and wheat, and no, so he's talking about like a lot with, you know, emotions, positivity, negativity, but I look at it, like little things like this. Planning seeds of networking, planning seeds of identifying, fail fast, learn fast, you know, planning those, weeding out those negative emotions, those emotions that hold us back that stop us from connecting with experts and everything. So I think like you said, it's just so important, like what we can do for the young kids. Now, as we wrap up here, two of my favorite questions that I love asking people because I love to read and I love podcasts. Do you have any book recommendations? Pacus recommendations? Yes. Well, okay, so I literally I just met I don't know if you listen to the doctor will show he is an entrepreneur and I find that very fascinating. And so I I started doing a little exploration and I found some really good nuggets from these, you know, people that have gone this path like enterpreneur and I think to like, in authentic learning Then you start to like, see how business works and how it might apply to students. And so I found some good nuggets in that to, like, help help further the cause with like authentic learning experiences. I tried to I don't have any names per se, but I always try to, like expand outside of, like educational podcast just because I'm trying to like, figure out well, what is best practice in this industry? You know, like, so exploring those ones on like, you know, are always good ones. So yeah, there's that. And then I told, told Dr. Murad named Robin, so I did that. And then the book that I the most recent book I've read, and I love it, like I have it right beside me, but it's so good. It's called Social chemistry, decoding the patterns of human connections. It's by Marissa king. But um, it really is insightful on like, I'm big on networking, like, how do you grow a network? How do you have meaningful relationships with people? How do you decode how, how do you decode people's behavioral patterns and, and things like that? And I don't know, I think it just has like a plethora of really good information for that. So I highly recommend Marissa King's book. So I don't know Marissa, but she's very good. She's on Twitter. You can follow her. But yeah, I love her love her work. I think it's really good. So that there you go. There's my little nuggets for the listeners. Perfect. I listened to the Dr. will show a couple of times. And like you said, it's good to expand what you listen to. And it helps you see the world I think in a little bit different way. And then that that nemorosa King bug was very interesting. I might have checked that one out. I think you'd like it, I think I think go for it. And if you do, let me know we can talk about it. This sounds good. Absolutely. Now what if if the listeners want to get in touch with you? What's the best way that they can connect? Yeah, so I think like, the easiest way is probably to just like you can get ahold of me on Twitter. It's at Mrs. Williams 21. Z. If you do want to email or you're interested in like learning more, my email is Laura le ura at authentic learning alliance.org. So I'd be happy to network with you, I'd be happy to help you. If you're like, start this. Why reinvent the wheel, we have tons of open ed resources on how to work with business partners, how to work, how to, you know, even the professional learning in our schools. What does that look like? How do you create a project board for your school? Just lots of those kinds of things, I'd be happy to, like help with and share resources for. Awesome. Now, as we wrap up, what is the one thing that you would like the listeners to walk away with today, when I knew that you were gonna ask us and like it really, like, there's so many things. And so, and we kind of talked about this, like every day, it could be something different, like you might have like this aha moment in your life. As a you know, as a lifelong learner, like, oh, this makes sense to me. I say right now, I think the biggest thing, the biggest asset we have is each other. I think connections are everything. And I think, tap into your networks and, you know, be inspired about what other people are doing and like really listen and learn and like figure out what's best for your students. Because I think that's what it's about is like creating awesome opportunities for our students. Don't be afraid to jump in and try something different. The the pay the payback, of these kinds of learning opportunities. It's good for the community, it's, it's, you know, the administrators are appreciative because it's good publicity, but you know, it's like, look what our school is doing, like kids are engaging in this, you know, help the local pumpkin patch, create a corn maze, or like, you know, help a local business that does not have capacity, help them with their social media. I mean, there's so many ways kids can contribute. And I think that's what it's about. It's about, it's about those connections and contribution, how can we contribute to our communities and make it a better place? And I would say no business has ever said no, they might say varying levels, like they may go all in, like in in the very first connection you make, but they are looking for those Win win wins. And it's good for like I said, it's good for kids, to expand their networks. It's good for teachers to expand their networks and to find joy in in these projects, and find that passion. I think that's really important and it helps grow the future talent pipeline. You know, like we there's a lot of places that are struggling finding workers. This can probably help with that problem and in essence, so and just to remember, these connections that lead to opportunities, actually can lead to changing trajectories for kids. For the better, and I think that's really important to remember. I love all that, that that communication, that connection, giving them the opportunities in that might change their directory. One one chance, one opportunity might change the course of a child's life. So how will you go? You know, like if you if I asked you what was your memory from school that you just like really resonate with you, like, people have a handful of things that really impacted them, this can be one of those things. 100%. So, Laura, I just want to thank you so much for being here, you have a special energy, you have a special light about you, you have so much wisdom to share. And this is just the beginning for you know, trust man that this is just the beginning. There's some great things for you with the authentic learning Alliance. Keep doing amazing things, my friend. Awesome. Thank you, Brian, I'm so happy to be here. Really good conversation. Yes, loved it. Thank you. Such a wonderful conversation with Laura, she dropped so many gems. Now, this is a teaching champion state where I share three of my favorite takeaways from this conversation. And the first gem that I love was how long we're really stressed that we should be teaching our students to learn from others. And that's not just about content knowledge, but really taking the time to analyze and break down the different processes that experts follow to look at the systems that they have in place, and ask ourselves, what can we learn from these systems? How might we be able to incorporate some of this into our own lives. And the second gen was all about the scrum boards, making those charts with the to do, doing and dunk columns, breaking down everything that needs to be done into chunks, making a visual representation of that, and then placing them in the different columns as you're working on them towards a goal. I look at this, and this is something in my own life that I should be doing. So it's definitely a great thing that we should be teaching our students. And the third gen is how Laura talked about the importance of getting our students into situations where they can experience different fields, and connect with different people outside of the school. As Laura talked about, connections can lead to opportunities. And these can lead to changing the trajectory of someone's life. A big thank you to Laura for dropping so many gems. Now hit me up on social media, and let me know what were some of your favorite takeaways from this conversation. And thank you to you for being here. For being part of the teaching champions community. We support we encourage we lift each other up. And if you think someone will benefit from this conversation, please share. And always remember, it doesn't matter if you're from rural America to urban America, to Canada to Spain to Bahrain. We're all on that same team. We're all on that same mission. And we're always better together. Keeping amazing my friends and as you go out into the week, May you step into your strength may step into shine. And let's build our champions up. Have a great week, everybody