July 14, 2025 • 39 mins
In this episode of Ed Up Learning and Development, host Holly Owens speaks with Cedric Scott Jr., an educator and edtech influencer, about his journey from a background in chemistry to becoming a leader in the education space. They discuss Cedric's mission to improve STEM education for underserved communities, the importance of representation in the classroom, and the role of AI in education. Cedric shares insights on how to leverage strengths for career transitions and emphasizes the significance of human connection in an increasingly tech-driven world.
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Episode Transcript
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(00:01):
Hi everyone, welcome back to another amazing episode of Ed Up
Learning and Development. I'm your host, Holly Owens, and
today's conversation is packed with inspiration, insight and
actionable advice. I'm thrilled to be joined by
Cedric Scott Junior, an educator, Ed tech influencer and
(00:21):
all around powerhouse in the learning space.
Cedric has one of those incredible journeys, from a
background in chemistry to becoming an instructional coach
and now making ways in the Ed tech world.
In this episode, we talk about his mission to improve STEM
education for underserved communities, the importance of
representation in the classroom,and how financial literacy can
(00:43):
be a game changer in education. We also get into the role of AI
in the classroom and why no matter what, how advanced a tech
gets, human connection still matters the most.
Plus, if you're a teacher thinking about making a shift
into a new role, Cedric shares some real talk and practical
(01:04):
tips on how to leverage your strengths and build meaningful
network. This is one of those episodes
that will leave you fired up andfull of ideas.
Let's dive in. Hi, we're ispring, an
international team of e-learningenthusiasts who help more than
60,000 clients across the globe succeed with better online
(01:28):
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(01:49):
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(02:12):
to learn more about us, downloadour resources, and connect.
Hello everyone, and welcome to another amazing episode of Ed Up
Learning and Development. My name is Holly Owens and I'm
your host, and I'm super excitedabout this episode because this
guest and I should have talked way sooner than what we're
talking now, but we're finally doing it.
(02:34):
We're finally doing it. So please welcome Cedric Scott
Junior to the episode. Cedric, welcome in.
Thank you, Hollywood. Yeah.
And I know we, we've, we've had this conversation.
We're like, yeah, well, let's weeven.
Even lived in the same area. Exactly.
But you know it, it happened when it was supposed to.
So I'm just grateful to be here.Thank you so much for inviting
(02:55):
me on and happy to have this conversation with you.
Me too. I'm really excited and I know
you're pretty. I want to say you're you're
definitely an influencer out there on LinkedIn world and I
follow you and all your the different work that you're doing
that's so inspirational. But for the people that are
listening right now who haven't met you before, tell us about
your journey. How did you get into all these
(03:15):
different endeavors that you're you're you're doing of?
Course, Yeah. So originally I started out
actually in science. My background, bachelor's
degree, earliest career pathway and trajectory actually was in
chemistry. So I got my degree at Virginia
State University, shouts to the HBC US, and I got my degree in
(03:38):
chemistry. And then from there, I actually
returned back home to my hometown of Pittsburgh, PA,
worked briefly in chemical industry, and then I decided to
pivot into education. I always knew that I would do
something in that, that space teaching.
I'd always been, you know, supporting a lot of different
people with learning, you know, growing up as one of six
(04:01):
children, have 4 younger siblings.
So helping with homework and that type of thing was, was
always there. And then just being helpful and
being mindful about other people, their progression and,
and just how I could be of support and service.
So pivoted into teaching, which landed me in Washington DC,
which was awesome and in a lot of different capacities. 1 is
(04:23):
because I got that experience, of course, going into schools
and engaging with youth directly.
Started out originally teaching in 3rd grade, primarily in math
and science, which was really fun.
I had a really good time. And at the same time, you know,
I was fortunate to actually meetmy wife, who is also a teacher.
(04:45):
So yeah, that that all just really panned out really well,
which then led to kind of Fast forward to now actually, I guess
thinking more so about 2020 whenthe pandemic hit.
And that was the same time that my son was born.
And that was when I had basically made the decision to
pivot once again. Up until that point I had been a
(05:06):
teacher in different capacities,mostly in elementary and work my
way into being an instructional coach.
And then my last school based role, I was actually an
assistant principal at an elementary school.
And when I. You've done it.
All. I've done a lot.
I've done a lot. Do you?
Feel, I feel old. Do you feel old when you start
talking about your journey? I'm like, I can't believe that
(05:27):
I've done all this, but that's this is amazing.
Keep going. I've I've felt old since I was
10. We'll dig into that.
But yeah, yeah. So, yeah, with my wife and I
and, you know, knowing that our son is coming into the world, I
really just wanted to be presentand really be there and then and
everything kind of shut down. And that's when he was born late
(05:49):
March 2020. And then from there, I was able
to make the shift again, more sointo the Ed tech or kind of
education industry space, began working in curriculum and
product and things like that, which allowed me also to work
fully remote. And happy to say that I've been
fortunate enough to be fully remote ever since my son came
(06:10):
into the world. You know he just turned 5 this
year. Oh, what a fun age.
Yeah, so it's it's been great being able to be here.
I can do is commute in the morning, grab him to, you know,
pre-K he's going to be starting kindergarten.
And then also just being able tosupport and be here, be present
for my wife as well, who also isstill teaching, but she's doing
so remotely, which is great. And yeah, with creating all of
(06:34):
this other stuff, I guess the, Ithink the creative aspect of
being an educator overall is, issomewhat overshadowed often, I
think in a lot of folks who might be hearing this or, you
know, watching this episode probably attest to that.
And what I found was that havingmore time and just kind of like
(06:56):
space and opportunity to tinker,I began creating and thinking
about what are the disparities in what I saw as a student, but
also as an educator in the school system myself, right?
Lack of representation, history,you know, even things like
financial literacy. So I started creating and
producing based off of that. And then also gauging support
(07:19):
from, you know, others outside of even the school system
itself. Thinking about what's happening
in the home school world, you know, what types of things that
can I put in place that could really be of benefit long term?
And thinking really just outsideof myself and even my own
family, but really looking at community and and consideration
(07:41):
for our future and our youth. Yeah, gosh, I you're so
inspirational. I, I, you know, I love your
stuff. You just and you like
constantly, you know, like reinvent things or you just take
it and you just make it something better.
All the different things that you're doing.
But I want to talk about all your different initiatives.
So tell us a little bit about you were mentioning before we
(08:03):
started the episode the SEM 1000.
You've rented 2 books. You said a black AI media.
Tell us about the things that you're doing and how like you're
helping education systems, especially like, you know,
underserved communities, people that aren't organized, like
you're saying about the representation, which is so
important nowadays, especially with DEI programs being cut by
(08:27):
the current administration. So talk to us about that.
Yeah. Well, I'll preface it by saying
that, you know, I had to anchor everything away and, and the way
that I did what that was primarily thinking about my own
reflection, upbringing, experiences and what kind of
shaped and molded me. And one of those major
(08:49):
influences, like many other people, you know, where was my
family and more specifically, thinking about my mom, right?
If I'd be remiss if I didn't, you know, shout her out.
And with that, one of the thingsthat, you know, one of the
things I had to create was a scholarship and like a
scholarship fund in memory of her because unfortunately, I
(09:10):
mentioned that, you know, I mentioned that I agree.
No, no, no, it's fine. It's so ridiculous now.
But no, it's, I mentioned that like, you know, I, I haven't,
I've, I've felt old ever since Iwas 10.
And part of that is due to I lost my mom when I was 10 years
old. Well, you know, my family,
right? I mentioned myself, five
siblings and that upbringing in my father being, you know, an
(09:33):
amazing person, amazing man and doing all the work, every
everything that he had to do to keep us moving, which I can
never give him enough praise andlove for that.
But when I think about it, my mom was one who really instilled
a lot of the passion and just like in terms of education, she
(09:53):
was the one who was like, yes, school do well do that, you know
that she was all about learning.Yeah, that was a great in in you
from the beginning, huh? Oh, yeah, it was, it was always
there, right. So with that though, you know, I
think I was like, well, how can I anchor everything that I'm
doing? Because I am, you know, someone
who is, you know, whether they what's what's I'm trying to
(10:13):
think of what's the term? It's it'll come back to me in a
second. Yeah.
But multi hyphen, right? Multi hyphenated where you got
multiple things going around andyou try to figure out how to put
it together. So I created the the Julia
Elizabeth Legacy Scholarship Fund four years ago, and I've
been each year awarding a scholarship in memory of my mom
(10:36):
for an African American high school student that's pursuing a
STEM degree pathway. So anchoring everything there,
I'm like, all right, well, everything I create and produce
is going to have to kind of funnel and filter into this,
this overarching big major, ultimate goal of providing a
full scholarship, right. So with that, what I, what I
(10:58):
started doing initially with just creating was, you know, I,
I was in education, so start producing material, content
resources. And that led me to where I am
now with STEM 1000, which is kind of like my driving thing
now, because if I try to focus on too many things, as most
people would know you, you, you look kind of lose sight and, and
(11:18):
veer off track. So I'm like using STEM 1000.
So stem1000.com as my my grounding in a lot of this and
what STEM 1000 is essentially ithas the moniker of 1000 books,
1000 futures. What does that mean?
So two books, I have one right here.
Actually, this is the first one initially that I started with
(11:41):
the kind of initiative or campaign, it's called algorithms
of success, STEM Stories to Inspire.
So within this book, there are 50 different STEM careers and
pathways it up just to kind of show it.
And with each one of those there's also, you know, of
course, imagery. And this is for this.
Is for younger children. This is not for adults.
(12:03):
This is, and you know, this is not necessarily for like anybody
carrying younger K to 12, but this is for younger children.
Exactly. Yeah, Yeah.
So fifty career pathways within this book, but then building on
it, it's, it's really about exposure representation, because
I like to say that, you know, exposure plus experience equals
education. In order to become something,
(12:25):
you have to know that it exists.And then you can step into that
space, engage with it, and then you become educated on that
thing. And then, oh, now I can now I
can step into this world. That's how I became a chemist,
right? I had to know that it existed
first and then I had to get experience.
Oh, I like mixing things together.
I go in the lab. This is wonderful.
And then on the back end of it you you learn right.
So that's where I started with algorithms of success and I
(12:48):
created another book that is even for younger children than
than this book or ages 4 through7.
And that book is called a is foralgorithm.
And it's essentially, you know, rhyming, very child friendly
language that introduces children, you know, A through Z
to technology based concepts. So this a is for algorithm, you
(13:11):
know, all the way down to like zeros and ones and everything in
between. Where there's also some some
really kind of I think been ableto tie in some of the more
innovative aspects of of creations and creativity and in
production like using AI for example, for even in both of
(13:32):
these books, if you go to the last page, if you get your copy
we'll. Definitely have everything in
the show notes about the two books so you can get those.
I appreciate that. But yeah, last page of them, you
can actually scan AQR code. This is just an example of one
thing, but you can scan AQR codewhich will actually take you to
a STEM music playlist that I wasable to generate using AI,
(13:55):
right? So it's 7 songs that are all
related to stem concepts and different types of like music
genres. So you get, you get like an
Afrobeat style. There's one that's like all in
Spanish. So it's a different variation.
But also how we can leverage thetechnology for good essentially.
And being able to present something to our youth and say,
(14:17):
hey, check this out, meet you where you are right?
Engage, intrigue, and then really the, at the core of it,
it's, it's all basically, you know, pretty much interest
driven, which is what I'm reallyall about when it comes to
learning. Yeah, and you so writing two
books, I know it doesn't matter what type it takes a while.
So that was that was time for you.
And it's, I love the perspectivethat you're bringing in so that
(14:39):
people, I think so often, like, I think one of the reasons we
connected as we were talking about like the Ed Hustle, when
you were supporting teachers that were there, you're
supporting teachers that do career transitions.
But now you're, you're giving younger children the opportunity
to kind of think about what their path is going to be.
And I love it now. Well, love, hate that education
(14:59):
can be very personalized for people.
I wish when we were in school that it was like that.
I feel like I had to pick something that really wasn't
interested me. Like I was in a four year
cluster situation, like cluster going to a college and things
and I didn't really get to find an interest for me.
Like it's just like this is whatyou're in, this is the courses
(15:20):
you have to take. And then college was kind of
like that too. But it seems to there's more
becoming more flexibility now inthe space that you can actually
focus in on like STEM and stuff like that.
Is that how you see? Is that how you see it or is
that you do have a different perspective?
Yeah. No, it's I, I see it that way.
And I think I can, I guess I cansay I'm lucky in that because
(15:42):
that was kind of always my, my shaping and framing of it.
Right. I love that I did not have that.
I'm jealous. Even as a even as a math
teacher, and I think this this might be there might be
something to be said about people who kind of move into
education from a different industry, especially if your
(16:03):
teaching or your focus of education or instruction is
aligned to that thing. So me being a science person,
scientist, and then also just really enjoying like creativity,
artistry, like you can see, likeeven just you know, the stuff I
didn't. I.
Love it right? Like, I mean, I created this
T-shirt that had like, so it's, there's more to it.
(16:25):
But whenever you have that and you step into a space where
traditionally things are a little bit more, for lack of a
better phrase, confined and, youknow, in terms of a classroom
and then you go in and kind of just shake it up.
It's, it's a little bit different, right?
There's a there, the outcomes are going to be a little
different. And I, I say, I can say that by
a couple of different just, I guess experiences based on my
(16:47):
teaching, you know, my background there when I began
actually in math in 3rd grade, the approach to it was all
inquiry based. Like my favorite phrase to my
students in, in my third grade math class was I don't know.
And I would just walk away right.
Like, Hey, what do you think about this?
I don't know. And then it would, it got, it's
funny, I tell people all the time, it got to a point where,
(17:09):
you know, even, you know, withinthat school we would have, you
know, transfers come in mid year.
That's a whole nother conversation.
But we'd have, you know, students come in to the
classroom, you know, from whatever other school moving or
whatever, and they would ask me the questions, hey, can you tell
me if this is right? And the students who had been
there with me that the, you know, since the beginning of the
(17:30):
year, they'd be like, I don't know why you're asking him.
He's going to tell you. He has to know.
Yeah. Talk to them, right?
Just avoid that. Yeah, situation as well.
I love that though, because thenyou're, you're requiring them,
you know, you've heard things like 3 before me.
And even in like a, a professional setting, I use that
because everybody just wants theanswer right away.
I'm like, well, why don't you explore it a little bit for
(17:51):
yourself first? Yeah.
So one of the things that, you know, AI, like you have all all
these different things. It won't replace teachers
necessarily, but like, what doesit like to you?
What does the classroom that's powered by like AI and human
connection look like, like in inreal life?
(18:13):
Like what is, what is that? How does do all those synergies
come together? That's probably a loaded
question. It is.
Well, you know, it's interestingbecause the answers to some of
these same questions now we're probably a little bit different
a month, two months, three months, like is it all move so
(18:34):
fast? Because you do have
implementation and some of the expansion of leveraging and
using AI in schools, different changes in policies and things
like that. And actually just did a, a, a
presentation last week. Well, we're currently in what
June, the month, the week of June 16th.
I don't know when this is going to be, but last week early,
(18:55):
early in June for national BlackAI literacy week.
And my presentation was talking about AI education and the
future of work. And part of that was really
considering, well, what's happening right now, right?
Where are we? We do see, you know, Khan
Academy's con migo and you know that being used as a a teaching
(19:17):
assistant slash tutor. We do see a lot of Ed tech
companies or folks creating. I always use the airport
solutions that, you know, apply an employee using AI where I see
this potentially ultimately being I think what we'll begin
to kind of see more of is definitely more, you know, I
(19:43):
think what I would hope more opportunity for educators,
teachers in the space to be moredirectly connected with students
right and meaning. Where they're at like.
Yeah. You know, like the the
resistors, I just have to mention those people that have
just like New York, I'm startingto interrupt.
(20:04):
But this is like something that like really stuck with me when
AI first came out. Is New York City completely
banned ChatGPT within days of itbeing released?
Like nobody's allowed to use it.Well, here's here's why I say
for for folks in education especially, I think part of our
(20:26):
positioning, right and emphasis should be right, not tell
anybody what they what, what what to do, but should be as
objective as possible. That's my aim, right?
Because we do have, and I'm not saying that anybody's wrong
because I get the understanding of it from from all the sides,
right. If we're looking at we got over
(20:48):
on here, we got the doom and gloom Terminator.
The robots are coming to take over fit.
Like like Will Smith and I Robot.
I'm not stalking at those peoplebecause I've I've seen some
interest. I've I've personally ridden in a
way MO driverless taxi. So this is a real and I also
know people who are look who would look at me and say I would
(21:09):
never do that. That's crazy, right?
So there's that fair other side.Oh, let's just leverage and get
rich and become billionaires. Fair, right.
Like, because this is all like we're talking about potential
impossibility in the middle is essentially where I try to
ground myself, which for me justmeans that I need to be as well
(21:29):
informed as possible to tell people on either side of the
fence. This is what really is right.
Like you, you see it that way, That's fine.
But here's the truth, right? Here's what we know.
And then building on that, beingin a classroom where we can see
this, of course, teachers engaging with students more so
on a personal relationship basedlevel.
(21:50):
Also being able to leverage and use, you know, some of the AI
tools for more personalization, more customization, meeting the
needs of the student, which is great because I've even done
this with homeschool families, you know, create a create us a
plan for my child whose interestis in dinosaurs so that they
don't have summer slide, right? We can, we can create that type
(22:11):
of stuff and then put it in place.
But it's it's going to be reallyinteresting to see, I think just
how, just how really, because the implementation of everything
always falls on teachers, right it.
Absolutely. Does in education like to?
Test it out. I mean, so it's like we can we
can push all this stuff and and put these initiatives in place
(22:34):
and the district can have this whole trickle down effect, but
it's really going to fall on theshoulders of teachers to say,
OK, well, this is how we're going to put it in place, right?
So what does that mean for younger learners?
Maybe that's, you know, AI driven centers, like where we're
already kind of seeing that where there's usually a
technology center. If you're looking at especially
like K through 2K through three,I mean, they're engaging with
(22:56):
some type of technology, a tablet, a laptop or whatever
they log into whatever program, math, etcetera.
Maybe there's something that's AI driven there.
But we're also seeing in just some of the research that I've
recently done is that a lot of teachers are more so making use
of it for some of the personalization, but also in
(23:16):
support was like some of the planning, right?
And taking, yeah, saving time, right?
Those are still like the key kind of pillars that people are
leaning on. But ultimately it's it's going
to be more of like, well, what'swhat's pushed, what's encouraged
and what's enforced so that the teachers are going to have to
basically get to a point where the, you know, realization is
(23:39):
the district wants me to do this.
I have to do it in this way. So it's it's still very, very
loose to the point where that nobody can really say exactly
what it looks like, but. Right.
We can't predict the future. We didn't, certainly didn't
think AI was going to be this sophisticated at this point, did
we? I don't know.
But I mean, the main thing is how do we step in to inform
(24:03):
people, to educate people, right?
Because again, going back to my equation, exposure plus
experience equals education, exposing to this right, to the
resource, to the tool, to this whole world, right?
Showcasing it. Because there's a lot of people
who are talking about things andthey'll tell you, you know, what
to do, why you should do it and when you should do it.
(24:24):
But a lot, there's not a lot of the how, which is what I found
just with education in general, when you talk about professional
development, professional learning, whenever you're able
to have more of a hand holding experience, right?
Where my, for example, my goal leading any PLC, any
professional development session, anything like that ever
is always for everybody in the space to be able to take at
(24:47):
least one thing away and play the next day.
Like, I don't need you to be able to use this next week or
next year. I need you to use it tomorrow,
right? So what, how are we doing that
implementation, right? If we're, if we're saying, oh,
we need to use AI, let's implement it, Let's put it in
place, OK, but make it so that it's applicable now, because
(25:11):
again, if you put this on a teacher's desk and say you have
to do this and it's only out of compliance, are we really going
to get the full benefit of it? And ultimately will the students
get the full benefit of it? If, if that's where we're
focused, right? Or is it just like, oh, it's
another box to check, Don't do that, right?
Be mindful about it. Otherwise we, we might need to
(25:33):
think about how we're approaching right.
What's the, what's the reasoning?
What's the point behind this? Because if it's not for the
benefit of we'll say the teachers, but also definitely
the students and looking into the future, which is where I'm
kind of positioned more so then we got to start asking ourselves
questions like, well, why is this happening?
What's the point? That's great advice and great
perspective on how to how to deal with that.
(25:54):
You know, I think a lot about the diffusion of innovation
theory where there's like the Luddites at the end and the
people like us who just automatically latch on.
And then in the middle, that's kind of where we try to find, we
find that happy medium for people are kind of like
apprehensive, but people that they really do want to explore
it and figuring out where we cansupport them and implementation.
Not just like you're saying, notjust telling them what to do,
(26:16):
give them the space for trial and error 'cause that's what
this is, that sort of situation.So we're coming up on the end of
the episode here, but I definitely wanna.
You're a transition teacher. You have quite the following now
on LinkedIn. You're an influencer by all
those standards. Yes, I know, Cedric, people say
(26:38):
the same thing to me. And I'm like, no, that's not me.
I'm just out here trying to helpsave the world.
So what is some advice if you know as a transition teacher
that you can maybe maybe 3 actionable items that if you're
they're thinking about transitioning out, what could
they do? You know, as we continue to
expand like in the world of AI and having all these different
(26:59):
things available, the support that you offer and making sure
everybody's representative, whatcan teachers do to transition
out? You know what is the advice you
would give all? Right here we go.
OK, because I I do I do have this so.
I know I asked you a lot of interesting questions.
You did great. No, no, no, you're ready.
(27:20):
So the first thing I've recommended and and walk people
through and actually have videoson and stuff like that is
basically taking really practical hands on.
Take a sheet of paper, fold it in half on one side of the paper
at the top right, we're making AT chart right strengths.
On the other side of the paper, write interest.
(27:41):
We're going to take a survey because what happens, especially
with a lot of recommendation andadvice on, on LinkedIn I've
seen, you know, primarily is if people say, oh, you got to
narrow it down. You got to find your niche.
You got to like target your focus.
Here's how you do it on the strength side.
You list all the things that youare amazing at that you can
prove. It's very important that you can
(28:03):
prove based on your actual experience, right?
So list those things. For me, it's things like, I
don't know, math, I'm good with leading professional
development, so on so forth, right.
You can list those things out STEM on the other side is your
interests. And some of these are going to
have overlap, which is the point, right?
On the other side, you list yourinterests.
(28:24):
What are what are the things that you actually can see
yourself really doing? What are you, what do you, what
do you enjoy? Right?
List those things out. If that's writing, if that's
presentations, whatever, then cross reference those columns.
And then from there you can actually start to, if you want
matter of fact, since we have AInow this, I wasn't using it at
(28:44):
the time when I did this, but you can go into a ChatGPT or a
cloud or whatever it is that you're using and say what job
titles align to these cross points, right?
Math and curriculum, math and presentations.
And then you can from there, youcan begin to generate
essentially job titles and areasof focus that are also grounded
(29:06):
in your success. And when I say success, things
that you can point to on like we'll say your resume that you
have been amazing at, right? Don't necessarily think so much
about ultimately, like I get that people have like large
(29:26):
dreams and goals and they think that they want to go in One
Direction and and try this thingout.
But the first thing would be narrow down to like where you're
amazing at, right? I read this book.
Where are you going? Exactly.
I'm sure you've talked to transitioning teachers.
And I'm like, I want to be an instructional designer.
And I'm like yes, and what part?Yeah.
And also like, what about your background and experience speaks
(29:50):
directly to you being successfulas an instructional designer?
And like where and what you've done says I have already done
this thing successfully because at that point, you're then
stepping out and, and saying, well, just give, just give me a
chance. And you're competing against
people who have already been successful in that world.
(30:10):
And in our, you know, let's say I have three years of
instructional design design experience and a transitioning
teacher who albeit might have 20years experience teaching.
If you don't have instructional design experience specifically,
then that might not look great in comparison.
So real quick, there's a book that I read.
It's more so about marketing business, but it helps with
(30:32):
this. It's called Brands Don't Win.
And essentially what the the idea of brands don't win is, is
that you want to be able to position this.
Yeah, it's awesome. You want to be able to position
yourself in a way that you're playing the game that only you
can win or the game that you have the best chance at winning,
(30:52):
right? The the, the subheading of of
that book or the subtitle of that book is how transcenders
change the game, change the game.
Don't play the game at everybodyelse's.
I'm not going to jump into the pool of professionals that are
looking for a role in English language arts and my background
is in is in math and science. I lose every time, right?
(31:15):
I'm jumping into the pond where I'm the big fish because I was a
chemist, instructional coach, blah blah blah blah blah, right?
Did curriculum. I look great over here, not over
here. So positioning is number one.
Second thing, highly recommend. Even in the midst of you working
full time. This is not, I'm not saying this
(31:37):
is easy, but I highly recommend getting into contract work if
feasible. If you can land a contract,
especially doing something that you think you want to do and
getting a little bit of experience there.
Oh I want to go into curriculum writing.
My backgrounds in math teaching.See where you can fit and find a
role short term. Something like that.
Contract based. Doing some math curriculum
(32:00):
development. You might find that you actually
hate doing that. Yeah, that does happen.
But there's also it's also aligned right in terms of the
experience overall outside but. On your resume.
Exactly, Yeah, right. And I mean, you make money,
right. Great.
But at the same time, you can still be doing what you're doing
(32:20):
full time, keep your health benefits, all that cool stuff,
but but get that experience, right.
So that's the next phase. Next phase of it is kind of
building those things out. The third one, I mean, if I can
throw out 1/3, yeah, in terms ofalignment would then really be,
I mean networking is a contact sport.
(32:42):
I'll be just be completely. I love it that you said that
because it's so true. Even even on even virtually on
LinkedIn, like, yeah, what I'll say is, is, is kind of thinking
about things from the there's well, stark difference between
education system and education industry.
Sorry, that was a kind of another tip.
But know the difference between there right where you're
(33:03):
pivoting now into an industry world where things are a little
bit more focused on aspects likerevenue and money and, and
growth and, and. Pipelines and sales and APIs and
all the things. Yeah.
So I mean, the verbiage is goingto shift and things like that.
But what really helps more than anything when people say, hey,
(33:24):
you know what the secret is to, to getting a job in Ed tech or
to get a job in education industry.
I'm going to be honest with you.The the secret is that there is
no secret unless, unless you have somebody that is already in
that space who can lift up the curtain and say, hey, come on,
come underneath. That's the secret.
And how do you get to that point?
By connecting directly with folks, having conversations,
(33:47):
rubbing elbows with people, joining in conversations, you
know, on other, you know, platforms, whether that's group
forums, engaging in different events, stuff like that.
To the point where whenever a role comes out, because a lot of
times, you know, with companies,for example, a lot of the roles,
the aim is to backfill them internally, right?
(34:08):
So who do we have here already? Because we trust everybody here,
right? They weren't.
The. System exactly.
How it? Works.
And if we can't feel from within, then OK, the next phase
of that is who do we know here that knows somebody that can be
brought in? And at that point, oh, I talked
to Holly at this event or I saw her this presentation or I
(34:30):
checked out her podcast. I think she'd be amazing for
this. Hey, Holly, this role just came
out. What do you think about this
right now? What happens?
You talk, you talk to me inside track.
I can talk to the manager, right?
Or, or you can put me list me asa reference, you know what I
mean? Or whatever you on that, that
application, you get filtered tothe top.
(34:50):
Now you just increase the chancethere.
So that would be the last thing,which is just target
specifically after you've already outlined direction that
you should go based on your experience, right?
You started to look at all right, Well, this makes sense.
I'm going to go in this direction.
What organizations, what companies, what people align
with the solutions, the things that you care about that you're
(35:13):
amazing at, connect with them. LinkedIn, if you go to the the
company's page, they have a little people tab.
Right. Go to those people.
Oh, I saw that this is, you know, that you work here.
I saw that this is, you know, open or available.
I want to connect, have some conversations that might lead to
something that's a little more inside track, in which case you
(35:33):
again, how transcenders change the game.
And you know, we're, we're talking about kind of separating
yourself a little bit from the pack.
Absolute great pieces of advice and very structured like how to
actually how to do it. So re listen to that last few
minutes people and take that advice.
Cedric, I can't thank you enoughfor coming on the show and
(35:55):
sharing all the different thingsthat you're doing.
You're you're so inspirational. And I'm not just saying that I'm
a follower. I see all the things that you're
doing and I really appreciate, you know, all the resources and
the information and the things that you put out there to make
all everybody successful and feel like they're, you know,
they're a part of your community.
You have a vast community. So where can everybody find you?
(36:18):
We're going to have this on the show notes and you're going to
have you're going to fill out your little guest form.
But where can people find you? What do you want want them to
know about you? You know, final thoughts as we
wrap up the I wrap up this episode.
Well, first, thank you for inviting me on again.
Yeah, really appreciate it and enjoyed having this, you know,
this sit down with you. But yeah, you can find me
(36:39):
primarily I would say go to LinkedIn, Cedric Scott, Cedric
Scott Junior with my little, youknow, Masters of Education
credential at the end. Yeah, I love it too.
I should be writing. That too.
I got it there, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Check me out there. Connect with me, send me a
message. I do respond just just so people
(37:00):
know. And then where my my primary
push again is STEM 1000. I am the the founder of Black AI
Media as well at blackaimedia.com, which focuses
on really uplifting and empowering the Black global
community when it comes to AI and technology.
So learning more about folks across the globe.
(37:20):
You have to do another whole episode.
Of that and stuff, but you're. Coming back on.
But yeah, really just, you know,STEM 1000 because I think the
urgency of thinking about the future of work, career
development for our youth and really equipping them right now
is of the utmost importance. That's kind of just where I'm
(37:43):
really targeted. So you can go to stem1000.com.
You can check out the the kind of the the main books, which are
again, algorithms of success. A is for algorithm and there's
some also some other resources and cool stuff there too.
But those are the main things. Just trying to get the
information into the hands of our youth and be able to support
schools, families, everybody right when it comes.
(38:06):
To that, I love it so much. I love it so much.
Thank you so much, Cedric again,we're definitely I'm definitely
we're going to have to have a follow up so for some of the
other initiatives as well and talking about, you know, the
black AI media, all those different things.
So but thank you for what you doand thank you for being a great
part of this community and a contributor and an influencer.
(38:27):
I have absolute the utmost respect for you and thanks for
coming on the show. Thank you so much.
I appreciate it. And I got the utmost respect for
you too. So thanks for what you're doing.
Keep it up. Hi, we're ispring, an
international team of e-learningenthusiasts who help more than
60,000 clients across the globe succeed with better online
learning. Our two flagship solutions are
ispring Suite and ispring Learn LMS.
(38:49):
Ispring Suite is an intuitive, all in We'd be happy to get to
know you and pick a solution that fits your needs best.
Go to www.icepringsolutions.com to learn more about us and
connect. Thanks for spending a few
(39:11):
minutes with Holly. She knows your podcast queue is
packed. If today's episode sparked an
idea or gave you that extra nudge of confidence, tap, follow
or subscribe in your favorite app so you never miss an episode
of Ed Up L&D. Dropping a quick rating or
review helps more educators and learning pros discover the show,
too. Want to keep the conversation
(39:33):
going? Connect with Holly on LinkedIn
and share your biggest take away.
She reads every message. Until next time, keep learning,
keep leading, and keep believingin your own story.
Talk soon.
Hi everyone, welcome back to another amazing episode of Ed Up
Learning and Development. I'm your host, Holly Owens, and
today's conversation is packed with inspiration, insight and
actionable advice. I'm thrilled to be joined by
Cedric Scott Junior, an educator, Ed tech influencer and
(00:21):
all around powerhouse in the learning space.
Cedric has one of those incredible journeys, from a
background in chemistry to becoming an instructional coach
and now making ways in the Ed tech world.
In this episode, we talk about his mission to improve STEM
education for underserved communities, the importance of
representation in the classroom,and how financial literacy can
(00:43):
be a game changer in education. We also get into the role of AI
in the classroom and why no matter what, how advanced a tech
gets, human connection still matters the most.
Plus, if you're a teacher thinking about making a shift
into a new role, Cedric shares some real talk and practical
(01:04):
tips on how to leverage your strengths and build meaningful
network. This is one of those episodes
that will leave you fired up andfull of ideas.
Let's dive in. Hi, we're ispring, an
international team of e-learningenthusiasts who help more than
60,000 clients across the globe succeed with better online
(01:28):
learning. Our two flagship solutions are
ispring Suite and ispring Learn LMS.
Ispring Suite is an intuitive, all in one authoring tool for
creating engaging e-learning content, and ispringlearn is an
innovative online training platform for onboarding,
upskilling, and certifying your teams.
(01:49):
We also provide tons of free resources for aspiring and
experienced e-learning professionals, conduct weekly
webinars with top industry experts, and organize annual
e-learning conferences, challenges, and championships.
We'd be happy to get to know youand pick a solution that fits
your needs best. Go to www.ispringsolutions.com
(02:12):
to learn more about us, downloadour resources, and connect.
Hello everyone, and welcome to another amazing episode of Ed Up
Learning and Development. My name is Holly Owens and I'm
your host, and I'm super excitedabout this episode because this
guest and I should have talked way sooner than what we're
talking now, but we're finally doing it.
(02:34):
We're finally doing it. So please welcome Cedric Scott
Junior to the episode. Cedric, welcome in.
Thank you, Hollywood. Yeah.
And I know we, we've, we've had this conversation.
We're like, yeah, well, let's weeven.
Even lived in the same area. Exactly.
But you know it, it happened when it was supposed to.
So I'm just grateful to be here.Thank you so much for inviting
(02:55):
me on and happy to have this conversation with you.
Me too. I'm really excited and I know
you're pretty. I want to say you're you're
definitely an influencer out there on LinkedIn world and I
follow you and all your the different work that you're doing
that's so inspirational. But for the people that are
listening right now who haven't met you before, tell us about
your journey. How did you get into all these
(03:15):
different endeavors that you're you're you're doing of?
Course, Yeah. So originally I started out
actually in science. My background, bachelor's
degree, earliest career pathway and trajectory actually was in
chemistry. So I got my degree at Virginia
State University, shouts to the HBC US, and I got my degree in
(03:38):
chemistry. And then from there, I actually
returned back home to my hometown of Pittsburgh, PA,
worked briefly in chemical industry, and then I decided to
pivot into education. I always knew that I would do
something in that, that space teaching.
I'd always been, you know, supporting a lot of different
people with learning, you know, growing up as one of six
(04:01):
children, have 4 younger siblings.
So helping with homework and that type of thing was, was
always there. And then just being helpful and
being mindful about other people, their progression and,
and just how I could be of support and service.
So pivoted into teaching, which landed me in Washington DC,
which was awesome and in a lot of different capacities. 1 is
(04:23):
because I got that experience, of course, going into schools
and engaging with youth directly.
Started out originally teaching in 3rd grade, primarily in math
and science, which was really fun.
I had a really good time. And at the same time, you know,
I was fortunate to actually meetmy wife, who is also a teacher.
(04:45):
So yeah, that that all just really panned out really well,
which then led to kind of Fast forward to now actually, I guess
thinking more so about 2020 whenthe pandemic hit.
And that was the same time that my son was born.
And that was when I had basically made the decision to
pivot once again. Up until that point I had been a
(05:06):
teacher in different capacities,mostly in elementary and work my
way into being an instructional coach.
And then my last school based role, I was actually an
assistant principal at an elementary school.
And when I. You've done it.
All. I've done a lot.
I've done a lot. Do you?
Feel, I feel old. Do you feel old when you start
talking about your journey? I'm like, I can't believe that
(05:27):
I've done all this, but that's this is amazing.
Keep going. I've I've felt old since I was
10. We'll dig into that.
But yeah, yeah. So, yeah, with my wife and I
and, you know, knowing that our son is coming into the world, I
really just wanted to be presentand really be there and then and
everything kind of shut down. And that's when he was born late
(05:49):
March 2020. And then from there, I was able
to make the shift again, more sointo the Ed tech or kind of
education industry space, began working in curriculum and
product and things like that, which allowed me also to work
fully remote. And happy to say that I've been
fortunate enough to be fully remote ever since my son came
(06:10):
into the world. You know he just turned 5 this
year. Oh, what a fun age.
Yeah, so it's it's been great being able to be here.
I can do is commute in the morning, grab him to, you know,
pre-K he's going to be starting kindergarten.
And then also just being able tosupport and be here, be present
for my wife as well, who also isstill teaching, but she's doing
so remotely, which is great. And yeah, with creating all of
(06:34):
this other stuff, I guess the, Ithink the creative aspect of
being an educator overall is, issomewhat overshadowed often, I
think in a lot of folks who might be hearing this or, you
know, watching this episode probably attest to that.
And what I found was that havingmore time and just kind of like
(06:56):
space and opportunity to tinker,I began creating and thinking
about what are the disparities in what I saw as a student, but
also as an educator in the school system myself, right?
Lack of representation, history,you know, even things like
financial literacy. So I started creating and
producing based off of that. And then also gauging support
(07:19):
from, you know, others outside of even the school system
itself. Thinking about what's happening
in the home school world, you know, what types of things that
can I put in place that could really be of benefit long term?
And thinking really just outsideof myself and even my own
family, but really looking at community and and consideration
(07:41):
for our future and our youth. Yeah, gosh, I you're so
inspirational. I, I, you know, I love your
stuff. You just and you like
constantly, you know, like reinvent things or you just take
it and you just make it something better.
All the different things that you're doing.
But I want to talk about all your different initiatives.
So tell us a little bit about you were mentioning before we
(08:03):
started the episode the SEM 1000.
You've rented 2 books. You said a black AI media.
Tell us about the things that you're doing and how like you're
helping education systems, especially like, you know,
underserved communities, people that aren't organized, like
you're saying about the representation, which is so
important nowadays, especially with DEI programs being cut by
(08:27):
the current administration. So talk to us about that.
Yeah. Well, I'll preface it by saying
that, you know, I had to anchor everything away and, and the way
that I did what that was primarily thinking about my own
reflection, upbringing, experiences and what kind of
shaped and molded me. And one of those major
(08:49):
influences, like many other people, you know, where was my
family and more specifically, thinking about my mom, right?
If I'd be remiss if I didn't, you know, shout her out.
And with that, one of the thingsthat, you know, one of the
things I had to create was a scholarship and like a
scholarship fund in memory of her because unfortunately, I
(09:10):
mentioned that, you know, I mentioned that I agree.
No, no, no, it's fine. It's so ridiculous now.
But no, it's, I mentioned that like, you know, I, I haven't,
I've, I've felt old ever since Iwas 10.
And part of that is due to I lost my mom when I was 10 years
old. Well, you know, my family,
right? I mentioned myself, five
siblings and that upbringing in my father being, you know, an
(09:33):
amazing person, amazing man and doing all the work, every
everything that he had to do to keep us moving, which I can
never give him enough praise andlove for that.
But when I think about it, my mom was one who really instilled
a lot of the passion and just like in terms of education, she
(09:53):
was the one who was like, yes, school do well do that, you know
that she was all about learning.Yeah, that was a great in in you
from the beginning, huh? Oh, yeah, it was, it was always
there, right. So with that though, you know, I
think I was like, well, how can I anchor everything that I'm
doing? Because I am, you know, someone
who is, you know, whether they what's what's I'm trying to
(10:13):
think of what's the term? It's it'll come back to me in a
second. Yeah.
But multi hyphen, right? Multi hyphenated where you got
multiple things going around andyou try to figure out how to put
it together. So I created the the Julia
Elizabeth Legacy Scholarship Fund four years ago, and I've
been each year awarding a scholarship in memory of my mom
(10:36):
for an African American high school student that's pursuing a
STEM degree pathway. So anchoring everything there,
I'm like, all right, well, everything I create and produce
is going to have to kind of funnel and filter into this,
this overarching big major, ultimate goal of providing a
full scholarship, right. So with that, what I, what I
(10:58):
started doing initially with just creating was, you know, I,
I was in education, so start producing material, content
resources. And that led me to where I am
now with STEM 1000, which is kind of like my driving thing
now, because if I try to focus on too many things, as most
people would know you, you, you look kind of lose sight and, and
(11:18):
veer off track. So I'm like using STEM 1000.
So stem1000.com as my my grounding in a lot of this and
what STEM 1000 is essentially ithas the moniker of 1000 books,
1000 futures. What does that mean?
So two books, I have one right here.
Actually, this is the first one initially that I started with
(11:41):
the kind of initiative or campaign, it's called algorithms
of success, STEM Stories to Inspire.
So within this book, there are 50 different STEM careers and
pathways it up just to kind of show it.
And with each one of those there's also, you know, of
course, imagery. And this is for this.
Is for younger children. This is not for adults.
(12:03):
This is, and you know, this is not necessarily for like anybody
carrying younger K to 12, but this is for younger children.
Exactly. Yeah, Yeah.
So fifty career pathways within this book, but then building on
it, it's, it's really about exposure representation, because
I like to say that, you know, exposure plus experience equals
education. In order to become something,
(12:25):
you have to know that it exists.And then you can step into that
space, engage with it, and then you become educated on that
thing. And then, oh, now I can now I
can step into this world. That's how I became a chemist,
right? I had to know that it existed
first and then I had to get experience.
Oh, I like mixing things together.
I go in the lab. This is wonderful.
And then on the back end of it you you learn right.
So that's where I started with algorithms of success and I
(12:48):
created another book that is even for younger children than
than this book or ages 4 through7.
And that book is called a is foralgorithm.
And it's essentially, you know, rhyming, very child friendly
language that introduces children, you know, A through Z
to technology based concepts. So this a is for algorithm, you
(13:11):
know, all the way down to like zeros and ones and everything in
between. Where there's also some some
really kind of I think been ableto tie in some of the more
innovative aspects of of creations and creativity and in
production like using AI for example, for even in both of
(13:32):
these books, if you go to the last page, if you get your copy
we'll. Definitely have everything in
the show notes about the two books so you can get those.
I appreciate that. But yeah, last page of them, you
can actually scan AQR code. This is just an example of one
thing, but you can scan AQR codewhich will actually take you to
a STEM music playlist that I wasable to generate using AI,
(13:55):
right? So it's 7 songs that are all
related to stem concepts and different types of like music
genres. So you get, you get like an
Afrobeat style. There's one that's like all in
Spanish. So it's a different variation.
But also how we can leverage thetechnology for good essentially.
And being able to present something to our youth and say,
(14:17):
hey, check this out, meet you where you are right?
Engage, intrigue, and then really the, at the core of it,
it's, it's all basically, you know, pretty much interest
driven, which is what I'm reallyall about when it comes to
learning. Yeah, and you so writing two
books, I know it doesn't matter what type it takes a while.
So that was that was time for you.
And it's, I love the perspectivethat you're bringing in so that
(14:39):
people, I think so often, like, I think one of the reasons we
connected as we were talking about like the Ed Hustle, when
you were supporting teachers that were there, you're
supporting teachers that do career transitions.
But now you're, you're giving younger children the opportunity
to kind of think about what their path is going to be.
And I love it now. Well, love, hate that education
(14:59):
can be very personalized for people.
I wish when we were in school that it was like that.
I feel like I had to pick something that really wasn't
interested me. Like I was in a four year
cluster situation, like cluster going to a college and things
and I didn't really get to find an interest for me.
Like it's just like this is whatyou're in, this is the courses
(15:20):
you have to take. And then college was kind of
like that too. But it seems to there's more
becoming more flexibility now inthe space that you can actually
focus in on like STEM and stuff like that.
Is that how you see? Is that how you see it or is
that you do have a different perspective?
Yeah. No, it's I, I see it that way.
And I think I can, I guess I cansay I'm lucky in that because
(15:42):
that was kind of always my, my shaping and framing of it.
Right. I love that I did not have that.
I'm jealous. Even as a even as a math
teacher, and I think this this might be there might be
something to be said about people who kind of move into
education from a different industry, especially if your
(16:03):
teaching or your focus of education or instruction is
aligned to that thing. So me being a science person,
scientist, and then also just really enjoying like creativity,
artistry, like you can see, likeeven just you know, the stuff I
didn't. I.
Love it right? Like, I mean, I created this
T-shirt that had like, so it's, there's more to it.
(16:25):
But whenever you have that and you step into a space where
traditionally things are a little bit more, for lack of a
better phrase, confined and, youknow, in terms of a classroom
and then you go in and kind of just shake it up.
It's, it's a little bit different, right?
There's a there, the outcomes are going to be a little
different. And I, I say, I can say that by
a couple of different just, I guess experiences based on my
(16:47):
teaching, you know, my background there when I began
actually in math in 3rd grade, the approach to it was all
inquiry based. Like my favorite phrase to my
students in, in my third grade math class was I don't know.
And I would just walk away right.
Like, Hey, what do you think about this?
I don't know. And then it would, it got, it's
funny, I tell people all the time, it got to a point where,
(17:09):
you know, even, you know, withinthat school we would have, you
know, transfers come in mid year.
That's a whole nother conversation.
But we'd have, you know, students come in to the
classroom, you know, from whatever other school moving or
whatever, and they would ask me the questions, hey, can you tell
me if this is right? And the students who had been
there with me that the, you know, since the beginning of the
(17:30):
year, they'd be like, I don't know why you're asking him.
He's going to tell you. He has to know.
Yeah. Talk to them, right?
Just avoid that. Yeah, situation as well.
I love that though, because thenyou're, you're requiring them,
you know, you've heard things like 3 before me.
And even in like a, a professional setting, I use that
because everybody just wants theanswer right away.
I'm like, well, why don't you explore it a little bit for
(17:51):
yourself first? Yeah.
So one of the things that, you know, AI, like you have all all
these different things. It won't replace teachers
necessarily, but like, what doesit like to you?
What does the classroom that's powered by like AI and human
connection look like, like in inreal life?
(18:13):
Like what is, what is that? How does do all those synergies
come together? That's probably a loaded
question. It is.
Well, you know, it's interestingbecause the answers to some of
these same questions now we're probably a little bit different
a month, two months, three months, like is it all move so
(18:34):
fast? Because you do have
implementation and some of the expansion of leveraging and
using AI in schools, different changes in policies and things
like that. And actually just did a, a, a
presentation last week. Well, we're currently in what
June, the month, the week of June 16th.
I don't know when this is going to be, but last week early,
(18:55):
early in June for national BlackAI literacy week.
And my presentation was talking about AI education and the
future of work. And part of that was really
considering, well, what's happening right now, right?
Where are we? We do see, you know, Khan
Academy's con migo and you know that being used as a a teaching
(19:17):
assistant slash tutor. We do see a lot of Ed tech
companies or folks creating. I always use the airport
solutions that, you know, apply an employee using AI where I see
this potentially ultimately being I think what we'll begin
to kind of see more of is definitely more, you know, I
(19:43):
think what I would hope more opportunity for educators,
teachers in the space to be moredirectly connected with students
right and meaning. Where they're at like.
Yeah. You know, like the the
resistors, I just have to mention those people that have
just like New York, I'm startingto interrupt.
(20:04):
But this is like something that like really stuck with me when
AI first came out. Is New York City completely
banned ChatGPT within days of itbeing released?
Like nobody's allowed to use it.Well, here's here's why I say
for for folks in education especially, I think part of our
(20:26):
positioning, right and emphasis should be right, not tell
anybody what they what, what what to do, but should be as
objective as possible. That's my aim, right?
Because we do have, and I'm not saying that anybody's wrong
because I get the understanding of it from from all the sides,
right. If we're looking at we got over
(20:48):
on here, we got the doom and gloom Terminator.
The robots are coming to take over fit.
Like like Will Smith and I Robot.
I'm not stalking at those peoplebecause I've I've seen some
interest. I've I've personally ridden in a
way MO driverless taxi. So this is a real and I also
know people who are look who would look at me and say I would
(21:09):
never do that. That's crazy, right?
So there's that fair other side.Oh, let's just leverage and get
rich and become billionaires. Fair, right.
Like, because this is all like we're talking about potential
impossibility in the middle is essentially where I try to
ground myself, which for me justmeans that I need to be as well
(21:29):
informed as possible to tell people on either side of the
fence. This is what really is right.
Like you, you see it that way, That's fine.
But here's the truth, right? Here's what we know.
And then building on that, beingin a classroom where we can see
this, of course, teachers engaging with students more so
on a personal relationship basedlevel.
(21:50):
Also being able to leverage and use, you know, some of the AI
tools for more personalization, more customization, meeting the
needs of the student, which is great because I've even done
this with homeschool families, you know, create a create us a
plan for my child whose interestis in dinosaurs so that they
don't have summer slide, right? We can, we can create that type
(22:11):
of stuff and then put it in place.
But it's it's going to be reallyinteresting to see, I think just
how, just how really, because the implementation of everything
always falls on teachers, right it.
Absolutely. Does in education like to?
Test it out. I mean, so it's like we can we
can push all this stuff and and put these initiatives in place
(22:34):
and the district can have this whole trickle down effect, but
it's really going to fall on theshoulders of teachers to say,
OK, well, this is how we're going to put it in place, right?
So what does that mean for younger learners?
Maybe that's, you know, AI driven centers, like where we're
already kind of seeing that where there's usually a
technology center. If you're looking at especially
like K through 2K through three,I mean, they're engaging with
(22:56):
some type of technology, a tablet, a laptop or whatever
they log into whatever program, math, etcetera.
Maybe there's something that's AI driven there.
But we're also seeing in just some of the research that I've
recently done is that a lot of teachers are more so making use
of it for some of the personalization, but also in
(23:16):
support was like some of the planning, right?
And taking, yeah, saving time, right?
Those are still like the key kind of pillars that people are
leaning on. But ultimately it's it's going
to be more of like, well, what'swhat's pushed, what's encouraged
and what's enforced so that the teachers are going to have to
basically get to a point where the, you know, realization is
(23:39):
the district wants me to do this.
I have to do it in this way. So it's it's still very, very
loose to the point where that nobody can really say exactly
what it looks like, but. Right.
We can't predict the future. We didn't, certainly didn't
think AI was going to be this sophisticated at this point, did
we? I don't know.
But I mean, the main thing is how do we step in to inform
(24:03):
people, to educate people, right?
Because again, going back to my equation, exposure plus
experience equals education, exposing to this right, to the
resource, to the tool, to this whole world, right?
Showcasing it. Because there's a lot of people
who are talking about things andthey'll tell you, you know, what
to do, why you should do it and when you should do it.
(24:24):
But a lot, there's not a lot of the how, which is what I found
just with education in general, when you talk about professional
development, professional learning, whenever you're able
to have more of a hand holding experience, right?
Where my, for example, my goal leading any PLC, any
professional development session, anything like that ever
is always for everybody in the space to be able to take at
(24:47):
least one thing away and play the next day.
Like, I don't need you to be able to use this next week or
next year. I need you to use it tomorrow,
right? So what, how are we doing that
implementation, right? If we're, if we're saying, oh,
we need to use AI, let's implement it, Let's put it in
place, OK, but make it so that it's applicable now, because
(25:11):
again, if you put this on a teacher's desk and say you have
to do this and it's only out of compliance, are we really going
to get the full benefit of it? And ultimately will the students
get the full benefit of it? If, if that's where we're
focused, right? Or is it just like, oh, it's
another box to check, Don't do that, right?
Be mindful about it. Otherwise we, we might need to
(25:33):
think about how we're approaching right.
What's the, what's the reasoning?
What's the point behind this? Because if it's not for the
benefit of we'll say the teachers, but also definitely
the students and looking into the future, which is where I'm
kind of positioned more so then we got to start asking ourselves
questions like, well, why is this happening?
What's the point? That's great advice and great
perspective on how to how to deal with that.
(25:54):
You know, I think a lot about the diffusion of innovation
theory where there's like the Luddites at the end and the
people like us who just automatically latch on.
And then in the middle, that's kind of where we try to find, we
find that happy medium for people are kind of like
apprehensive, but people that they really do want to explore
it and figuring out where we cansupport them and implementation.
Not just like you're saying, notjust telling them what to do,
(26:16):
give them the space for trial and error 'cause that's what
this is, that sort of situation.So we're coming up on the end of
the episode here, but I definitely wanna.
You're a transition teacher. You have quite the following now
on LinkedIn. You're an influencer by all
those standards. Yes, I know, Cedric, people say
(26:38):
the same thing to me. And I'm like, no, that's not me.
I'm just out here trying to helpsave the world.
So what is some advice if you know as a transition teacher
that you can maybe maybe 3 actionable items that if you're
they're thinking about transitioning out, what could
they do? You know, as we continue to
expand like in the world of AI and having all these different
(26:59):
things available, the support that you offer and making sure
everybody's representative, whatcan teachers do to transition
out? You know what is the advice you
would give all? Right here we go.
OK, because I I do I do have this so.
I know I asked you a lot of interesting questions.
You did great. No, no, no, you're ready.
(27:20):
So the first thing I've recommended and and walk people
through and actually have videoson and stuff like that is
basically taking really practical hands on.
Take a sheet of paper, fold it in half on one side of the paper
at the top right, we're making AT chart right strengths.
On the other side of the paper, write interest.
(27:41):
We're going to take a survey because what happens, especially
with a lot of recommendation andadvice on, on LinkedIn I've
seen, you know, primarily is if people say, oh, you got to
narrow it down. You got to find your niche.
You got to like target your focus.
Here's how you do it on the strength side.
You list all the things that youare amazing at that you can
prove. It's very important that you can
(28:03):
prove based on your actual experience, right?
So list those things. For me, it's things like, I
don't know, math, I'm good with leading professional
development, so on so forth, right.
You can list those things out STEM on the other side is your
interests. And some of these are going to
have overlap, which is the point, right?
On the other side, you list yourinterests.
(28:24):
What are what are the things that you actually can see
yourself really doing? What are you, what do you, what
do you enjoy? Right?
List those things out. If that's writing, if that's
presentations, whatever, then cross reference those columns.
And then from there you can actually start to, if you want
matter of fact, since we have AInow this, I wasn't using it at
(28:44):
the time when I did this, but you can go into a ChatGPT or a
cloud or whatever it is that you're using and say what job
titles align to these cross points, right?
Math and curriculum, math and presentations.
And then you can from there, youcan begin to generate
essentially job titles and areasof focus that are also grounded
(29:06):
in your success. And when I say success, things
that you can point to on like we'll say your resume that you
have been amazing at, right? Don't necessarily think so much
about ultimately, like I get that people have like large
(29:26):
dreams and goals and they think that they want to go in One
Direction and and try this thingout.
But the first thing would be narrow down to like where you're
amazing at, right? I read this book.
Where are you going? Exactly.
I'm sure you've talked to transitioning teachers.
And I'm like, I want to be an instructional designer.
And I'm like yes, and what part?Yeah.
And also like, what about your background and experience speaks
(29:50):
directly to you being successfulas an instructional designer?
And like where and what you've done says I have already done
this thing successfully because at that point, you're then
stepping out and, and saying, well, just give, just give me a
chance. And you're competing against
people who have already been successful in that world.
(30:10):
And in our, you know, let's say I have three years of
instructional design design experience and a transitioning
teacher who albeit might have 20years experience teaching.
If you don't have instructional design experience specifically,
then that might not look great in comparison.
So real quick, there's a book that I read.
It's more so about marketing business, but it helps with
(30:32):
this. It's called Brands Don't Win.
And essentially what the the idea of brands don't win is, is
that you want to be able to position this.
Yeah, it's awesome. You want to be able to position
yourself in a way that you're playing the game that only you
can win or the game that you have the best chance at winning,
(30:52):
right? The the, the subheading of of
that book or the subtitle of that book is how transcenders
change the game, change the game.
Don't play the game at everybodyelse's.
I'm not going to jump into the pool of professionals that are
looking for a role in English language arts and my background
is in is in math and science. I lose every time, right?
(31:15):
I'm jumping into the pond where I'm the big fish because I was a
chemist, instructional coach, blah blah blah blah blah, right?
Did curriculum. I look great over here, not over
here. So positioning is number one.
Second thing, highly recommend. Even in the midst of you working
full time. This is not, I'm not saying this
(31:37):
is easy, but I highly recommend getting into contract work if
feasible. If you can land a contract,
especially doing something that you think you want to do and
getting a little bit of experience there.
Oh I want to go into curriculum writing.
My backgrounds in math teaching.See where you can fit and find a
role short term. Something like that.
Contract based. Doing some math curriculum
(32:00):
development. You might find that you actually
hate doing that. Yeah, that does happen.
But there's also it's also aligned right in terms of the
experience overall outside but. On your resume.
Exactly, Yeah, right. And I mean, you make money,
right. Great.
But at the same time, you can still be doing what you're doing
(32:20):
full time, keep your health benefits, all that cool stuff,
but but get that experience, right.
So that's the next phase. Next phase of it is kind of
building those things out. The third one, I mean, if I can
throw out 1/3, yeah, in terms ofalignment would then really be,
I mean networking is a contact sport.
(32:42):
I'll be just be completely. I love it that you said that
because it's so true. Even even on even virtually on
LinkedIn, like, yeah, what I'll say is, is, is kind of thinking
about things from the there's well, stark difference between
education system and education industry.
Sorry, that was a kind of another tip.
But know the difference between there right where you're
(33:03):
pivoting now into an industry world where things are a little
bit more focused on aspects likerevenue and money and, and
growth and, and. Pipelines and sales and APIs and
all the things. Yeah.
So I mean, the verbiage is goingto shift and things like that.
But what really helps more than anything when people say, hey,
(33:24):
you know what the secret is to, to getting a job in Ed tech or
to get a job in education industry.
I'm going to be honest with you.The the secret is that there is
no secret unless, unless you have somebody that is already in
that space who can lift up the curtain and say, hey, come on,
come underneath. That's the secret.
And how do you get to that point?
By connecting directly with folks, having conversations,
(33:47):
rubbing elbows with people, joining in conversations, you
know, on other, you know, platforms, whether that's group
forums, engaging in different events, stuff like that.
To the point where whenever a role comes out, because a lot of
times, you know, with companies,for example, a lot of the roles,
the aim is to backfill them internally, right?
(34:08):
So who do we have here already? Because we trust everybody here,
right? They weren't.
The. System exactly.
How it? Works.
And if we can't feel from within, then OK, the next phase
of that is who do we know here that knows somebody that can be
brought in? And at that point, oh, I talked
to Holly at this event or I saw her this presentation or I
(34:30):
checked out her podcast. I think she'd be amazing for
this. Hey, Holly, this role just came
out. What do you think about this
right now? What happens?
You talk, you talk to me inside track.
I can talk to the manager, right?
Or, or you can put me list me asa reference, you know what I
mean? Or whatever you on that, that
application, you get filtered tothe top.
(34:50):
Now you just increase the chancethere.
So that would be the last thing,which is just target
specifically after you've already outlined direction that
you should go based on your experience, right?
You started to look at all right, Well, this makes sense.
I'm going to go in this direction.
What organizations, what companies, what people align
with the solutions, the things that you care about that you're
(35:13):
amazing at, connect with them. LinkedIn, if you go to the the
company's page, they have a little people tab.
Right. Go to those people.
Oh, I saw that this is, you know, that you work here.
I saw that this is, you know, open or available.
I want to connect, have some conversations that might lead to
something that's a little more inside track, in which case you
(35:33):
again, how transcenders change the game.
And you know, we're, we're talking about kind of separating
yourself a little bit from the pack.
Absolute great pieces of advice and very structured like how to
actually how to do it. So re listen to that last few
minutes people and take that advice.
Cedric, I can't thank you enoughfor coming on the show and
(35:55):
sharing all the different thingsthat you're doing.
You're you're so inspirational. And I'm not just saying that I'm
a follower. I see all the things that you're
doing and I really appreciate, you know, all the resources and
the information and the things that you put out there to make
all everybody successful and feel like they're, you know,
they're a part of your community.
You have a vast community. So where can everybody find you?
(36:18):
We're going to have this on the show notes and you're going to
have you're going to fill out your little guest form.
But where can people find you? What do you want want them to
know about you? You know, final thoughts as we
wrap up the I wrap up this episode.
Well, first, thank you for inviting me on again.
Yeah, really appreciate it and enjoyed having this, you know,
this sit down with you. But yeah, you can find me
(36:39):
primarily I would say go to LinkedIn, Cedric Scott, Cedric
Scott Junior with my little, youknow, Masters of Education
credential at the end. Yeah, I love it too.
I should be writing. That too.
I got it there, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Check me out there. Connect with me, send me a
message. I do respond just just so people
(37:00):
know. And then where my my primary
push again is STEM 1000. I am the the founder of Black AI
Media as well at blackaimedia.com, which focuses
on really uplifting and empowering the Black global
community when it comes to AI and technology.
So learning more about folks across the globe.
(37:20):
You have to do another whole episode.
Of that and stuff, but you're. Coming back on.
But yeah, really just, you know,STEM 1000 because I think the
urgency of thinking about the future of work, career
development for our youth and really equipping them right now
is of the utmost importance. That's kind of just where I'm
(37:43):
really targeted. So you can go to stem1000.com.
You can check out the the kind of the the main books, which are
again, algorithms of success. A is for algorithm and there's
some also some other resources and cool stuff there too.
But those are the main things. Just trying to get the
information into the hands of our youth and be able to support
schools, families, everybody right when it comes.
(38:06):
To that, I love it so much. I love it so much.
Thank you so much, Cedric again,we're definitely I'm definitely
we're going to have to have a follow up so for some of the
other initiatives as well and talking about, you know, the
black AI media, all those different things.
So but thank you for what you doand thank you for being a great
part of this community and a contributor and an influencer.
(38:27):
I have absolute the utmost respect for you and thanks for
coming on the show. Thank you so much.
I appreciate it. And I got the utmost respect for
you too. So thanks for what you're doing.
Keep it up. Hi, we're ispring, an
international team of e-learningenthusiasts who help more than
60,000 clients across the globe succeed with better online
learning. Our two flagship solutions are
ispring Suite and ispring Learn LMS.
(38:49):
Ispring Suite is an intuitive, all in We'd be happy to get to
know you and pick a solution that fits your needs best.
Go to www.icepringsolutions.com to learn more about us and
connect. Thanks for spending a few
(39:11):
minutes with Holly. She knows your podcast queue is
packed. If today's episode sparked an
idea or gave you that extra nudge of confidence, tap, follow
or subscribe in your favorite app so you never miss an episode
of Ed Up L&D. Dropping a quick rating or
review helps more educators and learning pros discover the show,
too. Want to keep the conversation
(39:33):
going? Connect with Holly on LinkedIn
and share your biggest take away.
She reads every message. Until next time, keep learning,
keep leading, and keep believingin your own story.
Talk soon.
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