Episode 312: Robby Cobbs

Episode Transcript
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Fonz (00:30):
Hello everybody and welcome to another great episode
of my EdTechWife.
Thank you so much for joiningus on this wonderful day and,
wherever it is that you'rejoining us from around the world
, thank you, as always, for allof your support.
We appreciate all the likes,the shares, the follows, and
thank you so, so much forinteracting with our content.
As you know, we do what we dofor you to bring you some
amazing conversations andamazing guests and, as always,

(00:53):
guys, there's no difference,like today, we have an amazing
guest and we always try andbring you some amazing
perspectives, stories andviewpoints.
And today I'm really excited towelcome to the show Robbie
Cobbs, who is here today joiningus, and he's going to talk
about a nonprofit called Tech,my School and just the wonderful

(01:16):
mission that they have.
And so, robbie, how are youdoing this evening?

Robby Cobbs (01:21):
Doing great.
Thank you so much for having mePleasure to be on your show.
I've been a fan for a long timeand, yeah, a bit surreal being
on the show, so I'm ready to getgoing.

Fonz (01:30):
Awesome, robbie.
Well, thank you so much.
Like I said, it's great to haveyou on as a guest and it is
great to just connect with youand then learn a little bit more
about what you're doing andthis mission that you have
through Tech, my School.
But before we get into thatconversation, robbie, if you can
share with us a little bit ofyour backstory, so we would love

(01:51):
for you to just give us alittle introduction and tell us
what your context is in theworld of education.

Yeah, like all the listeners and followers, I'm an
educator at heart.
I've always been an educator,started in 2000 in Hawaii
working at some inner cityschools there, then went back to
California I'm from San Diegooriginally and started working
inner city there for about fiveyears international school
systems and I was an elementaryschool teacher to start

(02:20):
kindergarten second, third,fourth and then fell in love
with technology really in my owncore values.
I love to learn and I love toserve and help others and with
technology it just fills both ofthose buckets, because you're
always having to learn all thetime and then you always need to
teach people how to use thetech.

(02:40):
So I kind of shifted in towardsthat as a teacher, became the
techie teacher and went back toSilicon Valley, got my master's
in ed tech at San FranciscoState and I was working at
Yucheng International Schoolthere, right by Google.
Campus was a phenomenal placeto just, you know, expand as an
educator, really to delve intothe world of ed tech, being kind

(03:05):
of at the epicenter right there, and spent three great years
there and then went from afourth grade teacher slash, you
know, tech integrator on campuswe were.
It was a small school, so I wasbasically the tech guy to the
American International School ofJEDA in Saudi Arabia and I was
the tech director there for fouryears and then, from Jeddah,

(03:29):
went to the American School ofLagos in Nigeria and was a tech
director there as well for acouple of years, during those
COVID years, when I was inJeddah.
That is a place that's I'm notsure exactly the exact term for
it, but essentially it's a placewhere anything can happen and
you have to be prepared andready so that we're really

(03:50):
there's a readiness there.
And so we had remote learningplans and remote days of school
and virtual learning days before.
It was cool.
Before, you know, covidhappened.
So B Cameron, who's kind of alegend, implemented that with
all of the different schools inthe NISA region and, yeah, so I

(04:10):
became kind of a virtual orremote learning specialist, went
to Nigeria to you know, kind ofprepare the school for that.
But we were thinking more likeEbola or maybe like a political
uprising or something like thatcould interrupt school, and so
developed the remote learningplan before COVID and we're

(04:30):
training teachers prior to COVID.
And then, when COVID happened,we just, you know, we didn't
have to flip a switch.
We just, you know, continued onwhat we were doing.
We just implemented the planand it was a fairly smooth
transition.
We had a great leadership teamthere that helped really smooth
things out.
And in that process I burnedmyself and many teachers out

(04:51):
because we were so good at, youknow, replicating the physical
classroom into the virtual one.
And I moved to Puerto Rico withmy family to take a one-year
sabbatical to write my book oned tech and just kind of take a
breather, I guess you could say.
And I'll leave the story therefor the next question.

Fonz (05:09):
Wow, that is fantastic, Robby, just the level of
experience that you have and,most importantly too, I'm just
really so interested in thedifferent viewpoints and
perspectives that you were ableto learn along the way.
As educators, not many of ushave that opportunity that you
had to really go overseas also,and then, you know, come back
here and then the work thatyou're doing in Puerto Rico now,

(05:30):
and so I am just like in awe ofthat.
And so my question, before weget into really the heart of the
matter too, is was educationsomething that you knew you
wanted to do, or was itsomething that you kind of fell
into and then just fell in lovewith it and just really, you
know, just went all in on it?

yeah, so as a child , you know I was the poorest kid
in school.
I was Kenny from South Park.
I went to a public elementaryschool in El Cajon, california
school, a school called CrestElementary, and it was a great
school, a really nice littletown, little mountain town, kind
of like South Park again.
But yeah, I was the poor kid.

(06:12):
School was kind of my sanctuary.
That's where food was,electricity, was adults who
cared about me, all those thingsthat many kids go through if
they have kind of a roughupbringing.
But yeah, so school is always asanctuary.
I always felt very comfortablein school.
I was good at school, I likedschool, but I wasn't planning on

(06:32):
being a teacher per se.
I went to Hawaii my freshmanyear of college because I wanted
to be in Hawaii.
I thought it'd be a great place.
I was actually trying to followDan Patrick.
I was with the sports editor inhigh school and loved writing,
loved sports I still do andwhile I was there I got a job at
a surf shop.
You know it was like thecoolest job you can get in
Hawaii while going to universitythere.

(06:55):
But I needed a little bit moremoney.
Went back to university I said,hey guys, can I, you know, get a
job at the library, working atthe library doing my homework,
getting paid to do my homework?
And they were like, well, thatjob's taken.
But we have an opportunity foryou to work in an elementary
school through the America Readsprogram in the inner city
schools in Hawaii.
You know, would you beinterested?

(07:16):
No-transcript those positivememories I had at school.
So it was just such acomfortable place for me and a

(07:39):
place where I'm working withkids who really need the help
and I'm serving them and it justfelt so great.
And that freshman year ofuniversity I knew I wanted to be
a teacher.
I changed my major and fromthat point forward I was just
working in schools, like alwaysinterning, always working in
schools, all throughout collegeand immediately after that.

Fonz (07:58):
Okay.
So I got to ask, though, whatwas the major that you were
intending to follow?
And then, of course, now youmoved to education.
What was the major that youwere intending to follow?
And then, of course, now youmoved to education.

So I got a journalism major because I
thought I was going to be asports writer.
But again, it was my freshmanyear, first semester, and then
within that first month or two Iwent to a school and then when
I transferred I figured I wouldteach at the elementary school
that raised me back in El Cajon.
And so I transferred to SanDiego State and I kind of asked

(08:29):
the counselor like so what's ateacher major?
What is the major?
I don't know what the major isto be an elementary school
teacher.
Is it called elementary schoolteaching or what?
And they said no, it's calledliberal studies.
You get a liberal studiesdegree.
It's you know multiple subjectsin every subject, so you're

(08:50):
kind of knowledgeable in allthings a mile wide and a foot
deep or whatever.
And so that was the major.
I switched to and took all theclasses and for me I really
liked it simply because I wasone of the few guys in the class
, so there'd be like 200 womenin me.
So it was great and yeah, itwas just, it was a great
experience.
San Diego State is a phenomenalschool.
It's the top education schoolin the state of California for
teachers and they, you know,huge student body.

(09:11):
I think it's like you know,30,000, 40,000 students,
stanford, university of Texas,a&m.
So she was at San Diego Statewhen I was there.
So it was great to be on campuswhen she was there.
She was the head of the historydepartment and, yeah, I just
had such a phenomenal time atSan Diego State and I'm a proud

(09:35):
alumni, a proud Aztec, and Ialways, you know, follow the
program and I had futuresiblings who went to San Diego
State and I, you know, kind ofencouraged them.
My brother, he's a teacher thatcame through San Diego State.
He now coaches high schoolfootball in El Cajon at Granite
Hills High School where we allwent.
All of the Cobbs family went toGranite Hills High School and

(09:57):
he's kind of a local legendthere.
He won a state footballchampionship and all that stuff.
So, yeah, yeah, just a proudAztec.
And you know it was reallyearly in my career.
It wasn't one of thosesituations where I had, like you
know, got a degree in historybecause I love history, and then
fell into teaching.
It was like I interned freshmanyear, you know, first semester,

(10:18):
fell in love with it and went,you know, dove into the deep end
straight into it.

Fonz (10:29):
I knew this is what I wanted to do.
That's fantastic, you know.
And so right now, what I'mpicking up, though, too, is very
similar to me growing up in asituation like that.
You know, very, very poor.
You know parents just my dadworking out in the citrus farm,
my mom just kind of doing oddjobs and everything.
But I never thought I would gointo teaching and, as a matter
of fact, I always said I willnever go into teaching.
But I went in just because ofthat dream of, hey, I need to
take care of my parents, andbeing an only child pressure's

(10:52):
on and I know many people haveheard the story here because
I've said it a couple of timesbut going into college, I was
like, well, I'm going to go dobusiness, you know business
security, make some money, takecare of my parents and so on.
And then, you know, fork in theroad moment.
And then I got into teaching andI just absolutely fell in love
with it.
But what I'm picking up, youknow, and listening to your

(11:13):
story, and I mean we'lldefinitely dive into the
conversation but I think thisreally is also what, what I feel
I'm picking up from you two inthe conversation and your
passion of what you're doingthrough TechMyyschoolorg is that
being where you were, how youwere brought up and how you know
you went to school like youmentioned, like hey, adults that

(11:33):
care about me, food and so on,and then going back and maybe
kind of seeing yourself a littlebit in some of the students
just really ignited that passionfor you two as well.
So you know, I'm sure I justwant to ask you know, did that
have a tremendous role in whatit is that you're doing now?
And especially, you know, allthe traveling and so on.

(11:55):
Was that kind of like yourmission to say, hey, I want to
give everybody, or as manychildren or students as possible
, the opportunities that I neverhad, or maybe now the
opportunities that I have, sojust to be that catalyst for
them.

Yeah, no, thank you for asking the question and I
wanted to quickly mention,before getting into it, my
family were also, you know, theywere farmers, that we were
Okies.
Actually, the Cobbs family hasbeen in America since the 1620s,
so a very long time Started outas tobacco farmers from England
and they stayed in agriculturalall the way from Virginia to

(12:34):
Missouri, down to Texas and thenOklahoma, and then in the 20s
the Dust Bowl happened and wewere the Grapes of Wrath.
We came to California and we,you know, picking fruit and all
those kinds of things, and thenmy grandfather, you know, built
an empire through construction.
So all the men in my familytransitioned from agriculture to
construction and the message tome was always don't do this,

(12:58):
don't be a labored worker, youneed to work with your brain,
and so I always envisionedmyself wearing a tie.
I knew I wanted to wear a tieand as a teacher, I always did
wear a tie.
So very, very similar in thatsense.
But, yeah, so I do have aunique lens in the sense that
I've traveled to 60 countries,so I've been able to see a lot

(13:18):
of the world Africa, middle East, I've lived these places East

(13:41):
Asia, europe, latin America, youknow the US, obviously.
So I've seen a bunch ofcountries and you know, when I
was in Africa, right before wecame to Puerto Rico, we were at
the American National School ofLegos.
It's a wealthy school.
It's kind of where all theelites go the generals, the
diplomat kids, the doctors, thebusiness people.
They put their kids in theseelite schools because it's a
pipeline into the US really.
But we would serve local schoolsin the community.
We had a program where you'dbring in local teachers and we'd
teach them about ed tech orjust basic teaching pedagogy to

(14:02):
help the community.
We had a program where we weredonating computers and stuff to
local schools nearby, part ofour purchase program cycle.
And then also, just on apersonal level, I would take my
children and we'd go toorphanages and we'd donate toys
and stuff like that toorphanages in Africa.

(14:25):
And whenever I was in thosecountries and we donate toys and
stuff like that to orphanagesin Africa, and whenever I was in
those countries whether it wasNigeria or India, kazakhstan,
all these different countriesthat were, let's say, less
fortunate we would do what wecould to help them by giving
things to them computers andservices and things like that.

(14:47):
But ultimately it was theircountry and we were a guest in
that country, you know, and I'dlived as a guest in the country
for, you know, a majority of mycareer living as a guest in
other countries, learning thesecultures and traveling and those
type of things.
But when I came to Puerto Rico Ididn't know a lot about the

(15:08):
history of Puerto Rico.
I knew it was beautiful and itwas America kind of.
But yeah, we just kind of camehere with open eyes and open
ears and open hearts and kind oftook things as they came.
And after my experience inHawaii, working in inner city
schools, I figured Puerto Ricaneducation wouldn't be as strong

(15:30):
as, let's say, new York or maybeeven Florida, but it would be
something similar, like whenyou're in a school in Hawaii
versus a school in California.
The schools in Californiatypically are stronger, they're
better performing, betterresourced or those kinds of
things, but they're not thatmuch different.
There's a drop off a little bit, but it's not, you know, of

(15:53):
consequence, let's just say.
But coming to Puerto Rico, Iwas absolutely shocked because I
put my boys first.
We were looking for schools toput them into and then we
eventually, you know, bought ahouse and put our boys in a
local school and we were justabsolutely shocked at the state
of education from the schools wevisited and the ones we chose,

(16:13):
simply because of that starkdifference in quality from a US
mainland school versus the USschools in Puerto Rico.
So for those who don't know thehistory of Puerto Rico, you know
Puerto Rico became part ofAmerica through somewhat
controversial ways, throughconquest, in the late 1800s and

(16:35):
right before World War I everyPuerto Rican became a US citizen
, so everyone has the bluepassport.
They've been America since then.
There's been some controversiallaws that have been kind of
strings attached I guess you cansay the Jones Act and those
kinds of things.
But ultimately everyone here isan American.
You see the United StatesPostal Service, national Park
Services, you've got US Dollar,walmart, wendy's, the whole

(16:59):
thing.
Spain was here for many, manyyears, 400 years, 500 years.
So we just kind of took it overafter the Spanish-American War
from them.
But so they predominantly speakSpanish here, like most of the
Latin world.
But they're American.
So they can come and work andlive in Florida or Oklahoma or

(17:22):
Nebraska tomorrow if they want.
They just buy a flight, get ona Spirit Airlines flight or
United Airlines or whatever.
Go there, apply for a job, liveand work the same way anyone
else goes to any other states,and you really have the same
voting power pretty much, exceptfor the presidency.
So you can vote all the way upinto the primary, but after that
there's no vote for president,which is kind of part of that

(17:43):
original deal that they made.
So anyways, with that said,everyone here is an American and
my lens is simply I'm new tothis island, they're American,
I'm American, they have a USpassport, I have a US passport,
and if I go to any of these 60countries I've been to.
That is how you are judged.

(18:04):
You're judged by your passport,right.
If I'm in Germany, it doesn'tmatter which town or province
I'm in.
If you have the German passport, you're German right, which
town or province I'm in.
If you have the German password, you're German right, and you'd
see a similar level ofeducation.
You'd see a similar level,similar service of everything.
And so coming here was shocking, because there is a stark
difference.
And when I put my boys in theschool, it wasn't that.

(18:25):
And when I was in Africa, I waslike this is their country.
You know, I'll give themcomputers, but it's their place,
you know, here in Puerto Rico Iwas like this is their country.
You know, I'll give themcomputers, but it's their place.
You know, here in Puerto Rico.
I immediately felt like this ismy country, this is my
community.
I need to do something to helpthese kids because I was talking
with students who were 16, 17years old.

(18:47):
They were just graduating, orgetting ready to graduate, high
school.
They barely spoke English, theyhad never used a computer
before and if you lookstatistically where Puerto Rico
is at, if you look at their PISAscores the last time they took
it, I mean, puerto Rico is theoutlier of outliers when it
comes to testing.
They score statistically worsethan Mexico.

(19:08):
And me, being from San Diego, Iwas very sensitive to that
because I grew up right on theborder.
I remember going into Mexico asa young person thinking, wow,
I'm so fortunate to be born inAmerica instead of being born in
Mexico.
Because of that disparity of,you know, three, four, five
grade levels below the USnational average was really

(19:35):
shocking for me and it wasreally just a call to action
because, as I was mentioningbefore, I grew up poor but I
always had public school and ifyou go to an American public
school.
I worked inner city schools formany years.
I've never saw a kid who workedtheir butt off, who didn't
achieve Like if you workedreally hard and just ignored the
noise, the family, you know,traumatic things happening to

(19:57):
you, friends who are, you know,in trouble and all that things.
If you can just block that outand just focus on study, pay
attention to your teacher whocares about you, and just work
hard, all of those kids graduateand become successful.
I really believe that.
And so they have that rope topull themselves out of any sort
of situation.
And that's just the beautifulthing about America is the fact
that no matter where you comefrom, what you look like, what

(20:18):
you sound like, your accent, itdoesn't matter.
If you work hard, you play bythe rules, you can get ahead.
And I'm not saying everyonestarts at the same place, but
it's just that there is a system, there is a rope system where
you can pull yourself out tohave a good life.
And I feel here my fellowAmericans, for these Puerto
Rican kids who didn't have one.

(20:54):
Because the state of theseschools you know the first
school I go into you knowcomputers are not really
adherent to teachers, kids don'thave, it's mostly just it
looked similar to Africa,honestly it was.
You go into a concrete slabwhere there's a chalkboard, some

(21:14):
old desk and a fan and you knowthat's it.
That's all there is.
And you know a teacher teachingin a way the best they can, but
in a very traditional manner,you know copy off the board
those kinds of things and youknow and I see it as this tech
person that I know I can come inand help support the school,
and so that's what I did.

(21:35):
I started going into schoolsand serving Wow.

Fonz (21:38):
Robbie, like that is amazing and very commendable,
like just listening to yourheart and your passion, and it's
no wonder, you know, tech mySchool is doing what you're
talking about right now, andjust bringing you, just bringing
professional development,bringing just resources to
teachers, because there is aneed there and, most importantly

(22:00):
, like you mentioned, that rope,giving them a rope, and I love
that.
So, robbie, now that we'regoing to talk a little bit more
about what the work well, you'vedescribed really the way the
situation is.
There's some why, and now yourwork through Tech my School.
How did that come about?
And one thing that I'm loving,though, is like on your mission
statement and your core valuesand, of course, in the back, in

(22:24):
the background, we see theparrot there.

And can you?

Fonz (22:27):
tell us a little bit about number one Tech, my School,
what the mission and vision is,and then just kind of break down
you know your core values soour audience members can know
you know the work that you'redoing and also how might they be
able to also help in maybeextending a rope and extending
that hand for the educationsystem?
So tell me a little bit moreabout that.

Yeah, so it started with the one school that we
were serving and I went from newparent to training all staff
the first month.
And so for any parent who haskids, imagine walking into a new
school and becoming the trainerfor all teachers that first
month and not a necessarilytraditional or normal thing to
do.
But I think that speaks a bitto the state of where education

(23:12):
is here and also just thefortunate lifestyle I've had to
just learn so much in ed tech.
You know, prior to my career Ihad been a tech director and
presented at a number of greatconferences and kind of been a
leader in that sense.
So there was definitely a bigneed here.
So we just started out helpingone school and you know I had

(23:32):
this money for a boat coming toPuerto Rico.
I wanted to write the book oned tech and then buy this boat
and I ended up not buying theboat and tech my school became
my kind of my boat.
I used my boat money to getcomputers, get software and just
basically equip this school,tech, this school up to a place
where it could be a little bitmore on the 21st century side of

(23:55):
things.
So, for example, they didn'thave an LMS, a learning
management system.
They didn't have a studentinformation system.
They didn't have emails for theteachers.
Everyone was using a personalemail, if they even had an email
.
There was no library, no publiclibrary, no school libraries.
There was a few books in theclassroom but not a lot.
And so we just, you know,having that tech director lens,

(24:16):
I just kind of came in and justdid a needs assessment, you know
, orally and visually, bytalking with the teachers and
the director and just lookingthrough the school, and
immediately got to work, youknow, helping the school
modernize and just using thatmoney to give these professional
trainings to the teachers.
And I had, you know, spent thepast nine years giving

(24:38):
professional development tostaff.
So I felt, you know, reallycomfortable doing so and it
became an official nonprofitprobably a couple months into it
.
I had never worked, you know,as a nonprofit.
I never thought I would start anonprofit or anything like that
.
It was just the sense that,like, as I was helping the

(24:58):
school, teachers in a churchwere talking to another set of
teachers and said, hey, can youhelp our school as well?
There's this, you know, theycall the gringos.
There's this gringo here.
He's helping us with thecomputers and trainings.
Can you help us?
And so we did.
We gladly took another schoolon and so we started to expand
very quickly and so I startedthe nonprofit.

(25:20):
The name Tech my School camefrom just writing a bunch of
names down, asking my friendsand colleagues like what name
should it go with?
And when we go into a school wedo a needs assessment and then
we, based off that needsassessment, we then create a
tech plan and then fulfill thattech plan in partnership with
the school.
We call this plan the ITP orindividualized tech plan, kind

(25:43):
of like a school has an IEP.
You know, every student isdifferent ITP, every school is
different.
And yeah, from this tech planwe go in and we do a complete
audit.
Now our lens that we had is onethat is from some of the
world's best schools.
So it was a very comprehensiveprocess that we went through to

(26:05):
build these tech plans.
Even though the school hadrelatively nothing.
The documentation and theartifacts that we created in the
process of doing these techplans were very comprehensive
Because in my mind I figured, ifI'm going to start with this
role and help these schools herein Puerto Rico, why not start
to branch out eventually one dayand help other schools, and so

(26:27):
it had to be world class, notjust a Puerto Rican-only type of
system.
So that's how it started.
It started with building thetech plans and serving schools,
trainings, all those kinds ofthings, donating tech.
As a former tech director I knowand anyone listening who's a
tech person what do you do withyour old tech in your school?

(26:48):
The answer is put into a closet.
Because you buy, you know, 25%of inventory every year.
From that 25% it's sittingthere, you put in the closet in
case something breaks nothingever does and then after a few
years the closet becomes fulland you end up calling a
recycling company to come takeit all away and you pay them

(27:09):
money.
Recycling company to come takeit all away and you pay them
money.
So I got on the phone andstarted calling universities,
schools, just organizations,companies, meeting people,
talking to them, saying, hey, ifyou have old tech, used tech,
please give it to us becausewe'll repurpose it and put it
into schools.
One of the things that wenoticed was when we were going
into public schools, the publicschool district here gave

(27:32):
teachers computers.
Once COVID happened, they gaveeveryone kind of computers but
they didn't give them a lot oftraining and so after COVID was
over, they kind of just tookthose old computers and stuck
them in a closet and went backto their old ways of teaching.
And as an ed tech leader, youknow, when it comes to tech
professional development it'snot a one-time thing, it's got

(27:54):
to be continual, it's got to beongoing.
Even the tech teachers needsupport and learning because
things are evolving so quickly.
So that model of just trainingteachers all the time and, you
know, ensuring the technology wedo get from schools that is
repurposed is going to be notonly just given to a school.

(28:15):
We're not just going to givethem a fish.
We're going to teach them howto fish.
We're going to be using thetech with them all the time,
every month, going in theirclassrooms, observing the
teachers, like really becomingthat tech department that they
don't have, and just ensuring weget maximum value of the tech
that's donated.
So over the past four yearswe've been able to donate over

(28:35):
1,000 computers to schools.
Yeah, and it's all thanks tothe great donors and partners
that we've met along the way whohelped us.
We're predominantly fundedthrough donations, so we've now
been going, for this is ourfourth school year and we've

(28:58):
been able to serve 30 schools.
So we started with one, andthen two, and then four, and
then 14, and then 30.
And so when I say serve, whatwe do is we again go in, we do
this ITA, the analysis, we dothe ITP, the plan, and then we
just deploy it.
So we're in schools everysingle month giving all staff
professional training on ed techand best pedagogy.

(29:18):
We are following thosetrainings up by going into
classrooms and observingteachers and giving them, you
know, instructional coachingtype notes and those kinds of
things.
We're doing parent trainings.
We're doing tons and tons ofwork with these schools and, you
know, we've just been reallyfortunate to have just a great
team.
We have a team that spans from,you know, the Middle East

(29:39):
Africa In Texas we have a guyworking with us and then also
here in Puerto Rico, we have alot of local teachers as well.
So, yeah, just a phenomenalexperience and just we're so
happy to be a part of this andto be serving teachers and kids
in schools.
You asked about the parrot.
The parrot is the Puerto Ricangreen parrot.

(30:02):
Puerto Rico is known for thisindigenous bird, and the city I
live in in Rio Grande.
That's on the flag.
So part of that branding.
I was like, oh, I want it to besomething cool, something
techie.
I I wear polos just in my lifeI always wore like Ralph Lauren
polos or Nautica or whatever,and so I wanted to make it a

(30:25):
logo to where it'd be cool towear, like I could just wear it,
and you know whether I waswearing it as a the CEO of the
company or just wearing itbecause I just like the logo,
wearing it as a the ceo of thecompany or just wearing it
because I just like the logo.
And so, yeah, it's kind of likethis techie green parrot.
And if you go on our website,techmyschoolorg, you look at our
core values, um, you know it'sthe parrot.

(30:45):
So obviously you have a puertorican focus.
We're trying to up, bring up theeducation in Puerto Rico, which
is America's lowest performing,most underserved,
underprivileged.
Again, from anything I've seen,nothing compares to Puerto
Rican education in terms of theamount of need, the amount of,

(31:08):
statistically, where they scorethe campus when you walk through
the school, the programs orlack thereof A lot of times in
inner city schools.
The schools will be funded.
There'll be grass fields,there'll be sports programs,
there'll be art programs,there'll be teachers who are
getting a decent salarycomparative to, let's say, a gas

(31:31):
station worker.
The problem is really likewithin that community there's a
lot of like poverty and crimeand maybe like culturally, they
don't really value education asmuch per se.
I'm again painting with a verybroad stroke here.
But in Puerto Rico it's like youhave kids who have great
families, who value education,who want to improve their life,

(31:52):
but it's a system of the schoolsthat are kind of failing them
and so there isn't that rope forthem to pull themselves out of.
And that's not to disparage anyof the hard work that the
teachers are doing here inPuerto Rico.
It's just the reality ofcomparing, you know, a school in
New Jersey versus a school inPuerto Rico, new Jersey versus a
school in Puerto Rico, and sothat's why you see a huge

(32:16):
outflux of Puerto Ricans wholeave, because they're just like
the schools aren't the samequality as they are in the
States.
I'm an American, I'm just goingto go to Florida or New York or
wherever, and the kids end upgrowing up stateside rather than
on the island, and becausethese parents are, it's either
go to a public school that's notgoing to serve them to a degree
they deserve as an American oryou know leave the island and

(32:36):
just have that kind of feelingof something left behind.
And any Puerto Rican listeningto this will know what I'm
talking about, because, again,before coming here I really
didn't know that difference.

Fonz (32:48):
Wow, robbie.
Well, let's continue with that,because not only the work that
you're doing is phenomenal Wow,Remy.
I mean you're bringing someamazing knowledge and you're

(33:10):
helping the educators out butyou're also looking beyond you
know Puerto Rico and lookinginto bringing in people that are
going to provide professionaldevelopment, different
perspectives and so on.
So tell us a little bit aboutthe you know Tech, my School
conference that will be comingup next month.

Yeah, so kind of in that same spirit of you know,
thinking of the teachers inPuerto Rico there's 750 public
schools, 750 private schools andyou know a lot of teachers, you
know, let's say, half areworking in these private schools
where they're getting paid$1,500, $2,000 a month.
You know, milk is still seven,eight bucks a gallon here due to
the Jones Act, and just itbeing America and a beautiful

(33:47):
island that people want to visit, to the Jones Act, and just it
being America and a beautifulisland that people want to visit
.
So because of that, teachersare not living in the same kind
of, you know, demographic,financially as you know teachers
do in the stateside, and sothey, they are scraping by
literally to teach kids.
And you know, I was coming fromthis place prior to coming to

(34:12):
Puerto Rico, where I was againvery fortunate, but working at
some of the best schools in theworld, these American diplomat
schools that had phenomenalbudgets.
My tech budget was like amillion dollars just for my
school.
It had like 700 kids orsomething like that.
And so, yeah, I would go to allthe conferences, I would travel
the world, I would do all thesegreat things and I just felt
like every teacher deserves togo to, you know, a world-class

(34:36):
you know conference where youcan network, where you can learn
, where you can become inspiredand you can come back to your
school and just kind of spreadthat you know, that joy, that
excitement and just breathe lifeinto your school.
And so that was something thatI really enjoyed, both as an
attendee and also as a speaker.
I'd spoken at lots of differentcountries and conferences

(34:58):
around the world, so I just feltlike the teachers deserved that
here.
So Tech my School serves theselocal poor schools in Puerto
Rico for free and we'reproviding these tech, we're
providing the services, we'reproviding all these things.
But another part of theprofession is getting that
networking ability and going tothese conferences.
So I was like they deserve thattoo, and I don't want to just

(35:19):
put on some like low budgetthing.
I want it to be the best.
I want to put together afive-star, world-class
conference for these teachers.
That's forward thinking and edtech conference.
And so it's exactly what we didand we hosted every year at the
Wyndham Rio Mar and Rio Grande.
It's a beautiful, you know,five-star resort right on the
water.
The conference center is great.

(35:41):
The people who work there areawesome, fantastic.
There's two golf courses.
El Yunque is right on the baseof El Yunque, america's largest
rainforest I think it's the onlyrainforest, so beautiful place
in this world.
And yeah, so for the teachers,we pay for their tickets.
Well, the first 200.
So for the first 200 teachersthat sign up we pay for their
tickets, we pay for their foodand the attendance and all that

(36:04):
kind of stuff.
And then obviously we're flyingin speakers from across the
states, internationally andlocally as well.
So we want to get a blend ofjust both the best talent on
island and really the besttalent from the states who can
make it.
And so it's a bilingualconference and it's the biggest

(36:24):
ed tech conference in theCaribbean.
The way we structure it is anypresenter who's presenting in
English will have Spanish slidesso the attendees can follow
along, or vice versa.
When we do breakout sessions,you know whether you want to do
BrainPop in Spanish or Curipotin English.
You get to choose which youknow breakout session you want

(36:47):
to go to and which language youprefer.
But all the slides areavailable to you so you can kind
of follow along and keep track,and then our keynotes will do
the same thing.
So if they're presenting inSpanish, the slides will be in
English.
We also have we use TimeKettles X1 to do the translation
, the live translation as you'respeaking, so you can see both
languages.
So, yeah, it's great.

(37:09):
We had great speakers last year27 speakers last year.
We're going to have rightaround 27, 30 speakers this year
.
And it's a phenomenal event andwe're so excited to have it.
For teachers who are not underthe Tech my School umbrella, we
subsidize their tickets.
So for them it's only 150 bucksfor, you know, a five-star

(37:30):
experience all the food, thegreat speakers and again in a
great spot.
And then, if you're off island,if you're coming in from
Florida or New York or Houstonor wherever, we only charge you
what the hotel is charging usfor food, which is $400 for food
, and space, right, av, space,all that, the internet.

(37:51):
So we're just charging,basically at cost.
So it's again a subsidizedevent.
It's the lowest price, highestquality ed tech conference in
America.
I'll just say it highestquality ed tech conference in
America.
I'll just say it.
And then the reason it is isbecause it's subsidized through

(38:11):
these donations that we're ableto pull, because we want to
bring educators to Puerto Ricoso they can really understand
that this is their country tooand care about the island, meet
the teachers here, and we wantthe teachers here in Puerto Rico
to be exposed to, like you'resaying, just phenomenal
educators and for them to get aworld-class experience.
And so that's what we're doing.
And yeah, it's March 15th and16th.
This was for 2025.

(38:32):
If you're listening to this ayear in advance, just go to our
website techmyschoolorgbackslash conference to see the
latest you know thing.
And then also, if you're avendor, you know I had went to
the fptc conference last monthand it was great.
You know lots of speakers andlots of uh.
It was.
It was phenomenal because whenwe are there, we're talking to

(38:53):
everyone.
We're talking to other vendorsbecause we're looking for
partnerships to try to find waysto get teachers low-cost, free
software so we can push it intoschools here, because they, you
know, can't afford it.
Um, but at the same time, we'rereaching out to teachers,
trying to get them to go to theconference and just spread
awareness and that whole thing.
We're serving schools in thestates because we do have this
world-class uh tech plan processproduct and uh, but it costs a

(39:18):
lot.
I mean, they nickel and dimeyou when you go there, you got
to pay for carpet that costsover a thousand dollars.
You, you want a trash can,that's going to cost you a
hundred bucks.
You want a TV?
That's 800.
It's like it's very expensiveas a vendor.
The space itself is, you know,four or $5,000 or whatever it
was.
So it's very expensive to havethese spaces.
And for the vendors who are here, we want the teachers to be

(39:38):
exposed to these, you know, techcompanies coming in.
So if magic school is there, iffax is there, if you know
seesaw is there, we love thatbecause we want the teachers to
see these softwares that we'vebeen bringing to them and for
them to meet people in thesecompanies, because it kind of
brings it to life, it makes it alittle more real and, uh,

(39:58):
because of that, again, wecharge them basically what the
hotel charges us.
So it's for a I think it's like500 bucks and that includes
everything.
You just have to bring yourbanner or whatever and you get
your food and you get all thatstuff too.
So it's the most affordablespot for a vendor as well.
And again, we don't just havepoor schools.
We invite every school inPuerto Rico public schools,

(40:20):
charter schools, the you knowexpensive private schools,
because there are some very highquality private schools here on
the island as well, and thoseteachers and directors and
superintendents are going to behere as well, either speaking or
attending the conference.
So it's just we're trying tomake it the best ed tech

(40:44):
conference in the Caribbean.
I think it already is, but likewe would love for it to be like
an FETC, like an ISTE, you knowsomething like that, where
people in the region or on theEastern seaboard, or even you
know central or even California,they just know this is a
world-class experience.
We're coming out to Puerto Ricoit's beautiful, you know we're

(41:04):
supporting it to Puerto Rico.
It's beautiful, you know we'resupporting for a great cause and
super affordable and it's justreally, really high quality.
So those are kind of the goalsthat we're targeting.

Fonz (41:13):
That is amazing, robbie, and I mean just being here on
the show today and just for allour listeners that are going to
be catching this episode, we'lldefinitely make sure that we
link the webpage.
But for any platforms, all ofyou that are on my network, all
my friends that are listeningand you're listening to this
episode, please, you know, getin contact with Robbie.

(41:35):
Like, let's help out PuertoRico, let's make sure that we
throw that, that rope, that line, that help, whatever it is,
because I mean we that's whatwe're here for is just to help
serve our community, and whenthere's a community in need,
that we definitely love to help.
So, robbie, thank you so muchfor being here this evening and
sharing the work that you'redoing, and it amazes me that
this all started because youwere taking a break to write a

(41:56):
book, right yeah, and now lookat what has become.
That's wonderful.

Absolutely.
I learned something aboutmyself, and this is kind of true
for a lot of tech guys, uh, ortech gals, um, I feel like, and
my former superintendent, who'sa board member and a close
friend, um, he used to call melike his, his sports car, and so
, as tech, you know people, wehave all these great ideas, we
have we're high energy and we'rein the garage of the school and

(42:23):
they're like, okay, we'll haveyou spin around.
They're like, okay, we'll haveyou spin around, we'll have you.
You know, we'll drive you acouple times a year, but that's
it.
You got to sit in that garageall year and just kind of grind
your gears, thinking of things,of trying to ways to make an
impact.
Most of the time they're takingthe minivan to and from school,
right, and that analogy in thatsense.
And so I was always kind ofpent up creating ways when I was

(42:44):
working in these schools to domore.
And by coming here and havingthis opportunity, there is no
ceiling, and because of thatI've just been able to explode
and, you know, serve so manyschools and, you know, create so
many great products.
I did write the book.
It's called Tech-CenteredLearning Driven.
You can check it out on Amazonand it's for any one of your
audience members.

(43:05):
It's intended for your audience.
You know, those teachers whoare looking to use technology to
get ahead in their careers, todiscover new pathways of how you
can, you know, expand yourcareer or do more.
For those new teachers who arejust trying to learn, like you
know, what's the best way tointegrate technology, or to you
know what's the best way tointegrate technology, or to you

(43:27):
know, stay ahead or stay aheadof the curve.
That's what the book kind ofgoes through and it's really
just a combination of 15 yearsof my experience as a tech
leader through the lens I've hadin you know, all these
different places California,asia, middle East Africa and,
yeah, and interviewing Iinterviewed 20 different.

(43:53):
You know tech directors andtech specialists and educators
who own companies in the ed techspace.
So all of their kind ofknowledge and wisdom is in the
book as well.
So hopefully it's a good readand I look forward to writing
the next book as well.
My aunt's a very distinguishedauthor.
She's a New York Best Timesseller and there was a time

(44:14):
period and your listeners mayhave experienced this.
I'm not going to say I doubtedmyself, but you kind of second
guess, like, am I good enough towrite a book?
You know, become an author, youknow this pedestal person.
And so I wrote the book andthen went through the editing
process and it was on mycomputer for two years after I

(44:38):
wrote it.
It took me about a year towrite and then it just sat there
for two years.
I didn't click publish, I didn'ttry to, you know, make it
happen, kind of for self-doubtreasons.
And I was just, I had to tech,my school, it was blowing up and
I was.
That was my excuse.
But my aunt always said youknow, publish, hurry up and
publish your first book, becauseit's just getting in the way of

(44:59):
publishing your next.
And so because everyone hasthat imposter syndrome at some
point, and uh, yeah, so once Idid, it was just such a sigh of
relief and I could just moveforward on my life, with my life
.
And uh, my aunt was right.
Her name is Elizabeth Cobbs.
Look her up, she's great, she'sa very, uh great educator.
But uh, yeah, yeah, tech, techcenter, learning driven is the

(45:21):
name of book and I'd love foryou guys to check it out.

Fonz (45:24):
Excellent, and we'll definitely link it up in the
show notes and everything.
So, guys, please check out thewebsite, check out the work that
Robbie's doing, check out thebook, too, as well.
And Robbie, like I know, yousay you're, you're, you know
you're going to get started onthat second book.
So are you going to write thesecond book there in Puerto Rico
, or are you going to findanother place to rest for a year
?
And then all of a sudden, a newtech revolution is going to

(45:44):
show up.

Yeah, no, I love Puerto Rico.
We bought a house even beforeTech my School started.
We just bought the house and welove it.
After traveling so manydifferent places we were like
where in the world do we want tolive?
And Puerto Rico was a placethat we chose.
We knew we wanted to live here.
So I think we might be here fora little while and just the
level of impact we've been ableto make on the community, all

(46:06):
the friends and all the schoolswe're serving I couldn't turn my
back on them.
But I have the next book readyto go.
The first book has been kind ofmore of a generalized book
about like how to get into edtech and kind of the purpose of
you know what's the differencebetween ed tech and tech ed.
The next book is going to befar more niche for the tech

(46:27):
director and it's all going tobe about that ITA and ITP
process, what we're doing atTech my School and how you do it
Basically.
How do you, you know, modernizeyour school and ensure you're
looking at all the right lensesand that kind of thing.
Because, starting from humblebeginnings in Puerto Rico, let's
just say we've had theprivilege of testing, you know

(46:50):
our methodology out in somereally great schools in the
States.
One of the schools the firstschool we tried it out on that
was of high power.
Let's just say it wasn't thefirst school we worked with in
the States, but there areschools in the States that pay
us for our services of creatingtech plans for them and working
with their teams and that helpsfund our mission.
It was a school calledEpiscopal High School in Houston

(47:14):
and for those who aren't in theHouston area or don't know
Texas, it's one of the topschools in Texas and, yeah, we
went into that school.
I mean you go to that campus.
It's and.
And yeah, we went into thatschool.
I mean you go to that campus.
It's unbelievable, beautifulcampus.
They have literally everythingmoney can buy and so for the

(47:35):
students who go there, you knowvery fortunate kids, great kids,
great staff.
And so we were.
You know I walked in or youwouldn't tell, I came in very
confident, but because I haddone the process, you know a
number of times and you know Ireviewed the process with,
because I had done the process,you know a number of times, and
you know I'd reviewed theprocess with great schools
outside of.
You know that I knew would dowell, but still, it was my first
time doing it at just afirst-class school, five-star
school, and you know my friendKyle will tell you he was a

(48:00):
director of technologyinnovation there and his
thinking and I told him I'm likelisten, I'm not going to tell
you the process, I'm not goingto tell you anything about what
we do.
I want you to experience it asa client and then give me your
feedback and just be honest, ifwe're terrible, we're terrible.
We'll get better.
This will help us get betterwhen we move to the next one.
And he's like, okay, and he wasthinking you know this little

(48:29):
nonprofit from Puerto Rico witha guy that I've worked with in
the past, like what's it goingto do?
Like I'm just doing this guy afavor, almost.
And we went in there and, sureenough, we blew them away.
He was like this is the bestprofessional development we've
gotten all year.
We were able to help them builda really comprehensive tech plan
that really looks at the threefacets that we really focus on,
and that school had all themoney in the world so they were
able to solve all the problemsthat you could solve with money.

(48:51):
But when it came to professionallearning and for student
empowerment, that's where wewere able to find some gaps and
really add value to their school.
And you know, I was fortunateto be there for a couple days
and work with their tech team tohelp them build out their tech
plan and we just had such agreat experience doing it and,
yeah, it was just a greatconfidence booster for us, just
because we're like we know if wecan add value to Episcopal High

(49:13):
School, we can add value to anyschool in the world and we have
.
We've just done that.
We've helped schools in NewJersey and Texas and Oregon and
Washington State, so we'relooking at to add more.
So if you're a listener andyour school needs a tech plan,
you know, give us a try, give usgive a little little nonprofit
in Puerto Rico a chance andlet's see what we can do for
your school.

Fonz (49:33):
Excellent.
Well, thank you, robbie.
I really appreciate it.
But before we wrap up, wealways love to end the show with
the last three questions, andso hopefully, robbie, you're
ready for those questions.
So question number one as weknow, every superhero has a pain
point or something that weakenshim.
So, for example, supermankryptonite just kind of weakened
him.
So I want to ask you, Robbie,in the current state of

(49:55):
education, what would you say?
Is your current edu kryptonite?

night.
Um, I would say currently itwould probably be uh,
bureaucracy and bureaucracysometimes like, uh, the over
regulation of things and justthe slow process of things, and
sometimes it's important to goslow and obviously it's
important to dot your i's cross,your t's the whole, the whole
thing.
But, um, we have a very uniquelens of being able to work with
private schools, charter schoolsand public schools, and I can

(50:32):
tell you, when you work with aprivate school or a charter
school, what's great about it isyou can go in there and talk
about your vision, how you cansupport the school.
The principal or director canlook at you and be like we love
it, let's go, let's move.
And then we're going in theremaking phenomenal, drastic
changes that are reallyempowering that school, that are
just, you know, we're lightingthings up and it's you just see,

(50:54):
immediate impact, whereas youwork with the public schools and
it's like you got to take a lotof steps to get to the decision
makers and then, when you getthere, it's like, okay, you can
do it, but you can do, like this, much of what you wanted to do
and so, because of that, you'reless impactful, because of these
bureaucratic steps, and so I'mnot gonna say it's complete
kryptonite.
We're still able to, you know,work within those boundaries,

(51:15):
but it's definitely somethingthat slows us down.
And when you see the impactyou're able to make in the
schools that say yes and youwork with them, the impact
you're able to make in theschools that say yes and you
work with them and they makethese changes, it's tough
because you're like, well, justsay yes, so we can just make
these great changes and helpempower your kids and teachers.
So that's kind of the challenge.

Fonz (51:35):
All right.

Question number two .

Fonz (51:36):
Robbie is if you could have a billboard with anything
on it, what would it be and why?

If I could have a billboard that could say
anything on it and let's juststay on it what would it be and
why?
If I can have a billboard thatcould say anything on it and
let's just stay on topic, we'resticking with the education
realm here it would probably saysomething along the lines of
Puerto Rico is America too,let's build some ropes together,
and it would have some sort ofrope and kids getting pulled up.

(52:06):
You know to be at the samelevel, as you know New York or
Massachusetts or Texas orCalifornia or any of the great
states on the mainland Love it.

Fonz (52:18):
That's a great message, robbie.
You know kind of thatunderlying message throughout.
Everything that you've sharedis just really helping students,
helping teachers, just givingthem that opportunity for
success.

So that is definitely a great sign and the
last question, Robbie, is if youcan trade places with one
person for a single day, whowould that person be and why?
That's a great question Do wehave?

Fonz (52:45):
to stick to education.
No, no, you don't have to stickto education.
It could be anybody.

I mean, there's so many great people you can choose
.
It would probably be I'm goingto say Elon Musk.
And the reason I'm going to sayElon Musk is because, in my
opinion, he is one of the mostyou know for good, bad the other
.
Whatever your opinion is on theguy, I think he's one of the

(53:12):
most impactful humans on theplanet in terms of the companies
he's been able to build, theway he runs his businesses and
just the way he communicates,the way his brain works.
So this is someone who, um,he's the number one diablo three
player in the world or whateverin america.

(53:32):
He's, uh, building spaceshipsthat can be caught by by rockets
.
Uh, they can be, you know, bereused and and caught.
He's got tesla and he'srejuvenating that.
He's got neuralink he'srejuvenating that.
He's got Neuralink.
He's got that tunnel businessBoring Company.
He's doing Doge now, and I'm notsaying that I agree with

(53:54):
everything he's doing, but it'smore so that just this is
someone's brain that is so highpowered, or just it's not to
give him credit for everything,but I just think he's such an
interesting human and I thinkhe's pushing humanity forward in
his own way, and I just thinkit would be interesting to see

(54:15):
whether I'm spending a day withhim to like, how do you do it,
how do you manage all thesecompanies and tweet a thousand
times a day and you know, knowso much about the brain and know
so much about digging andengineering and all those kinds
of things.
Or if I was inside of his brainand just seeing how fast is that
computer running right.
So yeah, someone I think thatwould be very interesting to

(54:38):
spend one day with I'm notsaying a whole life, just
definitely one day.
It'd be interesting to shadowhim to see how he's able to
accomplish so much in one day.
It'd be interesting to shadowhim to see how his he's able to
accomplish so much in one day.

Fonz (54:46):
Excellent great answer, robbie.
Robbie, thank you so much.
This has been a wonderfulconversation, just definitely
bucket filling.
Just because just hearing yourstory and what you've been able
to do based on what you saw, andthen bringing in the experience
that you've had you know,international, international
experience, local experience andbringing all that to the people

(55:07):
of Puerto Rico and the workthat you're doing through Tech
my School, I definitely applaudyou.
It's an honor to have you hereand I definitely look forward to
this conference that will becoming up next month.
So, appreciate the work thatyou're doing and, for all our
audience members, make sure thatyou connect with Robbie,
connect with techmyschoolorg.
All of the information will bein the show notes as well.

(55:27):
And, guys, also, please makesure you jump over to our
website where you can go aheadand check out this amazing
episode and the other 311episodes, where I promise you
that you will find a littlesomething that you can already
sprinkle to what you are alreadydoing.
Great.
So, thank you, as always,always for all of your support.
If you haven't followed us onYouTube, please make sure you
head over to YouTube.

(55:48):
We only need I think it's 33subscribers now to hit a
thousand.
Give us a thumbs up, subscribe,share all our episodes, I
promise you.
Like I said, we definitelywanna get to a thousand.
And, as always, my friends,don't forget until next time.
Stay, techie, thank you.

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