March 1, 2025 • 46 mins
Unlock Creativity & Accessibility with Book Creator and Katie Fielding
In this special episode of My EdTech Life, we celebrate 100,000 downloads with an incredible guest—Katie Fielding! 🎉 Katie, an educator-turned-EdTech leader, joins us to dive into the power of Book Creator, the most inclusive tool for creativity and demonstrating learning in K-12.
As My EdTech Life’s newest official partner, Book Creator is revolutionizing how students and teachers engage with learning. Katie showcases how this multimodal platform empowers students through voice, video, text, and images, breaking barriers for accessibility and multilingual learners. Plus, we explore its latest game-changing feature—text-to-speech for PDFs! 🔥
🎯 What You’ll Learn in This Episode:
✅ How Book Creator fosters accessibility & inclusion
✅ Real classroom applications & success stories
✅ Be an Author Month—a global storytelling competition for students
✅ Why educators love Book Creator for engagement & creativity
If you’ve been curious about Book Creator, now is the time to jump in! Whether you’re looking for classroom-ready templates, interactive student projects, or a tool that truly supports every learner, Book Creator has you covered.
💡 Try Book Creator Today: bookcreator.com
📢 Join the Be an Author Competition: Be An Author
✨ Thank you for supporting My EdTech Life! Don’t forget to like, subscribe, and share to keep the conversation going.
Authentic engagement, inclusion, and learning across the curriculum for ALL your students. Teachers love Book Creator.
Yellowdig is transforming higher education by building online communities that drive engagement and collaboration. My EdTech Life is proud to partner with Yellowdig to amplify its mission.
See how Yellowdig can revolutionize your campus—visit Yellowdig.co today!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Fonz (00:30):
Hello everybody and welcome to another great episode
of my EdTech Life.
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 yourcontinued support.
I would like to announce thattoday is a very special day.
We have just hit 100,000downloads.
So thank you, each and everysingle one of you.
(00:52):
All our listeners andespecially our amazing guests
who have come on here, haveshared their stories, shared
their journeys, their expertise,and, again, we do what we do
for you so we can bring youthese amazing conversations, so
we can continue to grow in theeducation landscape.
So thank you so much for all ofthat support, and I am excited
(01:13):
to celebrate this milestone, too, with a wonderful creator and
somebody that is truly inspiring, who's been on the show before
and is doing some phenomenalwork.
So I would love to welcome tothe show today Katie Fielding.
Katie, how are you doing today?
Katie Fielding (01:28):
Good, I'm excited to celebrate with you.
It's been a few years sinceI've been here and I'm so proud
of you.
Fonz (01:33):
Thank you so much, katie, and yes, it has been a couple of
years, I think the last timeyou told me, I think it was four
years.
Katie Fielding (01:41):
Yeah, yeah, four years in May, I think, yep, yes
.
Fonz (01:44):
Four years in May.
So this is amazing just to haveyou back on.
And of course you know, at thattime you were sharing your
wonderful inspirational story,the work that you were doing,
obviously through COVID, andbeing able to help so many
educators, not only in your areabut really globally, you know,
with the resources that you wereputting out.
And then, of course, you'resharing your inspirational story
(02:05):
too, as well, and now you arein a new role and I am excited
to have you on here so you cantell us a little bit more about
that new role.
So, katie, for our audiencemembers who are not familiar
with your work just yet, can yougive us a little bit of an
introduction and what yourcontext is within the education
(02:25):
space?
Sure?
Katie Fielding (02:27):
of course.
So I was a teacher and then Iwas a tech coach and then I was
a STEM specialist.
So I had 20 years in the K-12space and then this summer I
joined Book Creator as theeducational content manager,
which means that I get to doreally fun content creation all
the time.
So a little bit of curriculumcreation, a lot of marketing
(02:49):
creation and it's just a lot offun and a great extension of a
lot of the work that I was doingbefore as a consultant,
advocating and presenting toteachers about accessibility,
which, as a disabled person, isa huge passion of mine, which,
as a disabled person is a hugepassion of mine, exactly, and
you know it's amazing.
Fonz (03:06):
Just what I love about your journey is the various
lenses that you have seen theeducation space in you know, as
a teacher, in the classroom, andthen, of course, with all those
three specialties, and then theprofessional development, which
I know with professionaldevelopment, it has to be
something that is good,something that is engaging and
innovative, because as teachers,you know that those are some of
(03:29):
the things that where we go andfind those gems that we can go
sprinkle into our classroom.
And again, following your workfor years and I've had the honor
of meeting you at ISTE, I thinkthat was what maybe two years
ago in Philadelphia in personand then got to briefly see you
at TCEA because you were running, yeah, and then you were
running too because you had asession.
(03:50):
But I must say that TCEA waswonderful.
This year that I saw the bookcreator booth was like a whole
different thing.
I mean, you can barely walkthrough that little section
because everybody wassurrounding the book creator
booth, which is fantastic, whichalso is a testament to the work
that you all are doing, in thatyou're engaging so many
(04:12):
educators and they're findingthe value in those tools and I
think you know, with yourexpertise and like you mentioned
, what you get to do now andreally creating and still
advocating and bringing yourpassions together.
I think that that's a great fitand so I'm excited to dive in a
little bit more into that.
So for our audience membersthat you know weren't able to
(04:32):
make it to TCEA or get to seeall the wonderful stuff that you
guys were doing in the booth,can you tell us a little bit
about what Book Creator is andyou know how it could be used in
the classroom?
Katie Fielding (04:44):
Yeah, so we like to say that we're the most
inclusive tool for creativityand demonstrating learning for
K-12.
So we're blank kind of canvas.
Students can make books, butyou don't always have to think
of it as a book.
You could think of it as adigital activity, and so it can
be a blank canvas.
(05:04):
But we also have tons oftemplates that students and
teachers can start from, orteachers can make their own
templates and assign them totheir students.
So it has a book-like formatwhich is really familiar for
people.
But we have so many inclusiveaccessibility features and we
just launched one really thisweek I'll be glad to show you,
which is text-to-speech in PDF.
(05:26):
So now when you add a PDF toyour book, it will read that PDF
aloud to a student, which weknow can be a really nice way to
elevate that PDF that maybe youprinted out before.
But now it can be moreinclusive and accessible to a
student because they can have itread to them and then they can
respond in the best way for them, either with text or audio or
(05:47):
video.
Fonz (05:48):
It's wonderful and we'll definitely get into that because
I'm really excited for you toshare some of those features
because, like I mentioned, manyeducators out there and I saw
the number there at the boothand I know that there were many
people that were doingpresentations, including
yourself book creators so I knowthat we have some audience
members that maybe have heard ofit, maybe kind of dipped their
toes a little bit, but maybeafter today, when they get to
(06:09):
see a little bit more of whatcan be done, they'll definitely
just dive right in.
But before we get into that, Ithink that you described Book
Creator in a very good way,which is just a multimodal
learning tool, which Iabsolutely love because I know
currently many times in theclassrooms we'll see that and
there's nothing wrong with thisbecause I know that it could
(06:31):
still be effective depending onthe classroom and, of course,
with the teacher engagement too.
It's a teacher-centered thisallows.
What I like is that it's alittle bit more student-centered
.
Or you can partner up and thenthe students are able to share
their learning process, sharetheir thinking, whether it's
through speaking, whether it'sthrough uploading, whether it's
(06:53):
through creating somethingwithin the book itself,
uploading images.
So there is a myriad of waysthat the students can show
mastery of the concept, and Ithink that's something that is
very beneficial and very needed,and I think that there is some
new tech that is out there.
Obviously, you know everybody'sbuzzing about AI, but sometimes
(07:14):
just to kind of reel it back inand just get back into just the
basics of it, in that sense ofjust allowing the student to
share their thought process in away that is creative and it's
engaging and also inclusive, Imean it's fantastic, and that's
the one thing that I do love.
As I was flipping through someof the pages of the books that I
(07:35):
had created, one of the thingsI do want to highlight is one of
the most read books at mydistrict was when I was doing
the Google Level 1, level 2certification.
So I created it using BookCreator, and so the teachers
would just go view the book.
They go like, ok, chapter 1,we're talking about spreadsheets
, chapter 2, we're talking aboutthis, and so it was a fun way
(07:57):
to present the material andstill engage my audience, which
in this case, was my teachers,with the video format and the
speaking and all of that greatstuff.
So that, I think, is very, veryexciting.
So now I know you mentionedthere is that new feature which
I think is fantastic, with PDFs.
So what I would love to do nowis, if you don't mind, let me go
(08:18):
ahead and just share yourscreen so you can kind of give
us an overview of what BookCreator is and what it's doing
and some of the tools that arethere.
So here we go Great.
Katie Fielding (08:29):
So this is Book Creator.
This is one of my library, andsomething that you just
mentioned that I kind of loveusing Book Creator for is
presenting.
So I love.
You know, I used to use aGoogle slide or maybe another
presentation tool, but now whenI present with Book Creator, I
have all of my like attendees atmy presenting session join my
(08:49):
library.
All they have to do is joinwith the code and then I get
like an instant attendance listof everyone who's come to my
presentation session.
So that's a really nice featurethat you know other
presentation tools don'tautomatically give you.
So if someone joins my library,I get like kind of a point of
contact for them, which is nice.
But if I'm at my library here,of course it's creating books.
(09:12):
Every new book has three pages,and the newest thing that we
launched this week istext-to-speech for PDFs, and so
you'll see our import PDF buttonis now highlighted because we
really want to feature that, andif you come in here and you
look for a PDF on your computer,I'm going to pull this one.
You can come in, you can pickthe size that's best based on
(09:33):
that PDF, and now I can rightclick on it and select scan for
text.
I'm going to say current pageonly, and now it can be read
aloud, so I'll see.
Now it can be read aloud, soI'll see.
Now the speaker button downhere.
Fonz (09:50):
I can identify three big reinforcers.
Katie Fielding (09:52):
So now I can have that whole PDF read to me
and I've had some people onsocials be like, oh, I don't
like that voice If they have adifferent voice, and all you
have to do is come up into readmode the play button in the top
right and go into the gear.
You can select a differentvoices.
So I can go into those Englishvoices and I can look for, you
know, another English voice.
If I'm Australian, I couldchoose Catherine.
(10:13):
Fred I don't know if I likeFred's voice Gordon All right,
maybe I'll go with that.
Kathy Okay, all right, I'll gowith her, I'll go with Kathy.
Okay, all right, I'll go withher.
So now if I go back into editmode and I click on this again,
I can have it read by Kathy.
Fonz (10:36):
That is fantastic, and I think that is something that is
so useful because I think, likefor the most part, I know within
my district, our contentspecialists.
What they do, or contentcoordinators, I should say.
What they do is they create alot of activities for the
teachers to share with students,and for the most part, the
delivery is always going to be aPDF, and I know that we have
(10:59):
tools that you know students canwork with PDFs and so on.
But just the fact that you canalso bring it in into Book
Creator and also be read and beread nicely and clearly too as
well, depending on the voicetype that you like I think that
takes that to that next level,because within Book Creator,
like you mentioned, there's somany other things that you would
be able to do Like.
(11:19):
So, for example, I would beimagining, too, that in looking
at this PDF and getting read tome as a student, I would also
have the ability to vote likerecord my answer using my voice
and just pop it into one ofthose boxes instead of
necessarily having to typeanything in, which would be just
something great foraccessibility as well.
(11:40):
You're right.
Katie Fielding (11:41):
Yeah, exactly, so I can just click start
recording.
Well, derek, yeah, exactly, soI can just click start recording
.
If I'm thinking about thedifferent types of forces
pushing and pulling, I can thinkabout a potential energy, the
response.
So that can then be a responsehere.
But if my student let's saythey were a newcomer, a Spanish
(12:03):
speaker, and they wrote theyspoke that in Spanish, but I'm a
science teacher and I don'tspeak Spanish I could easily add
a transcript to whatever theysaid in their home language and
then, after I transcribed that,it takes just a moment.
Fonz (12:23):
This is fantastic.
Katie Fielding (12:24):
I could then translate it so I could bring it
to English.
In this case, I'm going to goto Spanish because I spoke in
English, but now I have thatexact audio.
What the student said or what Isaid can be easily translated.
So yeah, the accessibilityfeatures and the potential to
really build and reduce barriersin our classroom, to really
build and reduce barriers in ourclassroom, to reduce the
(12:45):
barriers and start thoserelationship building things
from day one with a multilingualnewcomer, are really empowering
.
Fonz (12:52):
Yeah, no, I agree with you , and I know I think last
episode, the episode becausethis is episode 315, episode 314
, I had a gentleman here, youknow, from Pocket Talk, and he
mentioned something that's veryimportant is like you mentioned
too is highlighting thatrelationship aspect.
I mean, what I get to see toohere and I know it's not just in
(13:13):
my area but pretty much in thewhole of the United States too,
when you get new students thatare coming in, whatever
nationality that may be in, Imean they're leaving their home
behind, their culture behind.
They're coming in.
Now, you know, as a teacher, itadds a stressor to the teacher
as well.
It adds a stressor to thestudent as well in having that
(13:33):
barrier to that language.
But the fact that now, throughBook Creator, the student can go
ahead and speak the answer intheir native language and it
still shows that they havemastery of that content or you
know, explaining the thoughtprocess.
The teacher now can also listento that and be able to see okay
, although the language may notbe the same, the content is
(13:56):
there or the thought process isthere, and I think that's
something that is fabulous tooto have, because now the student
kind of has a relief of anxietyand I've heard that happen many
times here, even with ourdistrict.
With something like tools thatare able to translate, just that
stress level goes down and nowthe learning can take place,
(14:16):
that engagement.
And so what I want to add toois even here in Texas I know we
have what is called the TELPIStesting, where our students
which is very kind of difficultin a way students have to speak
for 45 seconds and they'regiving a prompt or they're
(14:36):
giving a picture, and ifstudents don't get to practice
their speaking skills, thatcould be very difficult, because
now you have to carry on aconversation for 45 seconds, and
if you don't hit those 45seconds, it doesn't matter if
you use proper vocabulary or ifeverything was pronounced
correctly, because it's not 45seconds it's like nope, sorry,
(14:56):
you don't get to pass on ormaybe exit the program or show
any growth.
So having this tool available issomething that is fantastic,
because now the students canreally dive in and practice, and
I think that would be somethingthat's very beneficial, and it
is being beneficial to theclassroom, so I absolutely love
that.
Katie Fielding (15:16):
Yeah, with the four domains of language reading
, writing, listening andspeaking students can do all of
those things in Book Creatorwith the audio and video
features so you can have a youcould record something and have
them do a listening exercisewhere they can record something
and do that speaking or alanguage piece.
The possibilities are totallyhere, especially for those
(15:39):
students, those WIDA Telbus, Ithink in they have another name
in California for their testing.
But, yeah, lots of options forthat, perfect.
Fonz (15:50):
Now I do see here too, like I do want to show our
audience members this, because Iknow you pulled this up, the
All About Me journal.
So tell me a little bit aboutthis and what the students are
going to be able to find throughthis, and the teachers as well.
Katie Fielding (16:01):
Yeah, so this is in our Discover area.
So if you're on your teacherdashboard and you click on
Discover, you're going to findall of our remixable book, and
this one's right here underGetting Started, and it is a
journal that we've made just fornewcomer students.
So if you do have that newmultilingual learner in your
class, what I would do if I wasthe classroom still is I'd remix
(16:21):
this book.
That's how you get your owncopy of it.
I'd put it in my library andthen I would make this book
about me, the teacher, and Iwould then be able to translate
this whole book into their homelanguage and that student and
their family can meet me and getto know me as a teacher.
And then I can make anothercopy of it for them to complete
(16:42):
in their home language and oncethey've filled it in, I can
translate it back to English andI can get to know them from day
or week one.
So that relationship building.
This reduces that languagebarrier and we can start getting
to know each other and buildingthat teacher-student
relationship.
Fonz (16:58):
Again, I'm going to go ahead and just add a little
something here.
When I was still in theclassroom.
They didn't have this before orjust these types of tools for
that accessibility.
And I would constantly, in thedemographic area that I lived,
and especially here in deepSouth Texas, in the Rio Grande
Valley, and because we're soclose to Mexico, you know
(17:21):
there's a lot of manufacturing,so we would get students that
come in from Korea because theirparents were working in the
manufacturing, or they wouldcome in from Israel, they would
come in from Japan.
So sometimes middle of thesemester, middle of the year,
you would get a new student thatcomes in and again, like we
were talking about, kind ofimmersed in a new culture,
immersed in a new language, andfor me and I was just having a
(17:45):
discussion with one of mycolleagues and talking about the
accessibility and how we can dobetter and something like Book
Creator being able to help outis that, without wanting to
single out the student, I wasalready, you know, singling them
out in the sense that I wouldhave to sit them close to me
because I had the iPad and thenit was just Google Translate Can
(18:05):
you type in, and then me waitand listen, and then, of course,
having to take care of all theother students and you know,
just making sure that I'm doingmy service to help them out and
also my other students.
But now what I love here is thefact that what you just shared
is now I can share who I am as ateacher.
You know philosophies, yourlittle rule like.
(18:26):
You know classroom procedures,things of that sort that now the
family gets to listen to intheir language and then they can
comfortably go ahead and createsomething in their language and
then I can listen to it, andnow I feel like I wouldn't have
to kind of pull all thosestudents together right next to
my desk.
They can also work with eachother, communicating next to
(18:50):
each other, you know, even inthe think-pair-share activity,
and they can go back and forth.
And I think that that issomething that we need to see
more because again, going back,it's student getting singled out
Like it's not fun as it is.
They already have thatadditional stress, and so now
(19:10):
it's a great way for them tobuild relationships, not only
with you as a teacher but withthe students, and they can still
collaborate and, you know, fill, you know create those projects
together, even though they maybe speaking a different language
.
But Book Creator helps breakthat break down that language
barrier and I absolutely lovethat.
Katie Fielding (19:23):
That's fantastic Break that break down that
language barrier and Iabsolutely love that.
That's fantastic.
Yeah, when my last year was inschool, we had a lot of the
students from the Afghan airlift.
One of those people quicklyleft and you know, I had a
student.
She was like, oh, they're notgoing to have mine.
(19:44):
No, miss, like they don't haveit.
And then I was like, well,let's just look.
And so you know, I was like,let's take a look.
And then she was like she sawit.
She saw Urdu.
And she was like like soexcited that her language is
there and she could do theassignment that everyone in the
class was doing in her newcomerclass, like, and she had just
gotten there and she was likeempowered and she felt good
about what she was doing andthat was really rewarding for me
as the tech coach at that time.
Fonz (20:03):
That is fantastic.
I love that, Katie.
So if you don't mind, if we goback to book creator here as
well then let me go ahead andask you here, as a new teacher
coming in, talk to me a littlebit about what the libraries are
, or the discovery.
This is my first time afterwatching this show and I'm like,
(20:24):
okay, I want to dive in.
Where shall I go first?
Katie Fielding (20:31):
to go ahead and just kind of dip my toes in and
start getting comfortable withBook Creator.
First of all, you're just goingto go to bookcreatorcom and
you're going to click create afree account.
So if you've never used beforeit is, you can get in for free.
You can get started for free.
With a free account, you canhave one library with 40 books.
So you'll see that I have azillion library, because if you
have a premium account you haveunlimited libraries and you can
(20:53):
have a thousand books.
So the free account is reallygreat, especially if you're an
elementary teacher, we knowthat's a really great number you
can get started with and then,after you use those 40 books,
you can archive them and thenyou'll have 40 more.
So we try and make it so thatthe free account is really
usable.
Our founder, dan Amos.
(21:14):
He created Book Creator becausehe had a son with dyslexia and
he wanted to find a way to helphim like reading and like
writing, and so that's why hecreated Book Creator.
So we still want to make thatavailable to a lot of students,
despite a price barrier.
So that's why we have the freeaccount and we will keep it.
(21:36):
But if you do want more bellsand whistles and more libraries,
then the premium account is foryou, and then you're going to
see your libraries.
You can think of those as, likeyour classrooms.
The discover section is wherewe have our remixable books.
I'm going to highlight this oneat the top middle, our March
activity journal.
This is a great starting point.
(21:57):
Every month we put out one ofthese activity journals, and
every day of the month there's acelebration or a recognition of
something that's happening inthe world or in the in the
States.
So, for instance, today isMarch 1st and so it's World
Compliment Day.
And so, fonz, I'm just going tocompliment you, not on the
postcard but in person, abouthow great this podcast has been
(22:20):
for the education space.
I've learned so much overlistening the past few years.
So kudos to you.
So students can come in withtheir copy of the book and they
can write a compliment card tosomeone, and every day in March
they can have a differentactivity.
So that's just one thing.
A quick, quick win.
You know that's great bell work.
At the end you know you're donewith your activity.
(22:42):
Go work on your activityjournal.
Or, you know, coming in for theday a little, getting in seat
work as you first get into class.
That's a great one to go to.
Fonz (22:52):
Okay.
So, katie, let me get thisstraight, okay, and this is
again just to clarify and thenfor all our audience members
here too.
So you're telling me that everymonth there is a book that will
be put out just by book creatorto, I mean, teacher can dive in
, and let's say that maybe nextmonth is her first month in
April.
They're going to find somethingthere that they can go ahead
and use for that whole month.
(23:13):
Is that really?
Am I understanding correctly?
Katie Fielding (23:16):
You are understanding 100% correct.
So every month we have ithighlighted up here.
That's where you'll find itreally easily.
Fonz (23:23):
That is fantastic.
So for my educator, friends outthere that have been kind of on
the fence or maybe just kind ofdipping your little fingertips
and toes into the book creator,kind of water like, as you
notice here Katie's just sharingwhat would be available for you
every month as activities,things that you know, like she
mentioned, either early morning,like kind of bell work, like
welcome, or at the end of theday or maybe in between periods
(23:46):
and things of that sort, andit's already built out for you
and the students can go in thereand go ahead and engage in that
learning that sometimes youknow it's great that they would
have that independent learningtime as well, and it doesn't
necessarily have to tie in tothe content at that given time,
but they get to, you know, goahead and work on something and
be engaged.
But I do notice here at thebottom tabs you do have it
(24:07):
broken down also by you knowsome subjects.
You know you have literacy,hela curriculum and so on.
So tell us a little bit aboutthat too as well.
Katie Fielding (24:15):
Yeah, so we have other templates and so we have
it by content.
So the student templates, theseare the ones that are remixable
on our Discover page, and so ifyou wanted to look for STEM,
you could come in here and maybeyou teach science and you use
the 5e model, so this notebooktemplate is going to be perfect
for you.
Again, you just click, remixthis book, copy it into the
(24:36):
library you want and then editit.
I would not give every studentthis whole book up front.
I would, you know, give them afew pages.
That's another great feature inBook Creator is like you can
assign a book with five pagesand then after you can add a
page to their books as it goes.
So it's a really great way tochunk the information for
(24:56):
students.
You know you don't have thatkid running ahead.
You don't give that kid.
That feels kind.
You can really manage theclassroom experience and the
pace by our copy to feature,which allows you to copy a page
to students' books.
So we have all different kindsof content that you can remix,
and then further down we havelike inspirational content,
(25:18):
content that's been made by ourcommunity for different grades,
and different content If youscroll down even further that
you can explore to see what realteachers are doing with Book
Creator in their classrooms.
Fonz (25:29):
This is great.
Yeah, this is wonderful.
Now, katie, I want to ask you Iknow that we had previously
talked before and you showed meone that I think that for a lot
of teachers I mean it definitelyjust like blow their mind, and
especially if they're, you know,kinder teachers working with
you know learning the alphabetor learning letters and things
that sort, and I think that thatwas fantastic because it
(25:49):
includes, you know, the audio,it includes video and so on.
So would you mind sharing thatwith me for the lower grade
levels, because I think thatthat is something that they
would absolutely love.
Katie Fielding (25:59):
I think like the core of our really good content
is found under literacy, andyou'll see we have some recent
like text prep.
Actually, we created theseoriginally with the teaks in
mind, so these are really greatthese fourth, fifth and third
grade reading response practice.
But if we're looking for evenyounger students, you're
definitely going to want tocheck out our, our literacy
(26:21):
content.
I love this one, the vowelsteams book, and so you'll see
within this book a vowel teamfor every you know vowel team
that little learners arelearning and it goes through and
it gives them opportunities tohear it, say it, find images
that go with the vowel team,write it, so they're really
(26:42):
doing like step-by-step learningof understanding these vowel
teams, and so we have those forall the vowel teams.
We also have a whole collectionof the five pillars of literacy
and content to support that too.
Fonz (26:56):
That is fantastic and I know, like for my lower grade
teachers, you know, I think thatthis is something that is
wonderful, that is already there, again, as a supplement to what
you are already doing.
Great.
So imagine you're doing this,your initial teach, you know
you're going through it withyour students, and then now you
can go ahead and, you know, putopen up a Chromebook or you can
work on this together.
(27:17):
You can either project it andthen just have an engaging,
colorful, editable classroomdiscussion and students can
definitely, you know, continuetheir learning and be engaged,
whether it's independent orthrough the help and support of
a teacher, and I think that thisis something that is fantastic,
wow.
Katie Fielding (27:34):
All right.
Fonz (27:35):
Katie.
Next thing that I want to talkabout, because I have been
seeing this all over socialmedia and I know it's been for
the last couple of weeks.
Now we're talking about Be anAuthor Month, which starts today
, march 1st, when this episodewill be released March 1st.
So tell me a little bit aboutwhat Be an Author Month is and
(27:55):
the competition that BookCreator is putting together.
Katie Fielding (27:58):
Yes, we started Be an Author Month a few years
ago, with a celebration everyMarch encouraging students to be
creative and become authors.
So we have a lot of excitingthings happening.
This year we have a competitionwhere it's a personal narrative
competition for students totell their story.
This is actually something Ihelped my L teachers do back
(28:19):
when I was a tech coach, andusing Book Creator to tell those
newcomer story was really apowerful opportunity for them.
But we want to give that toevery kid in the world, and so
every kid in the world can enterthis.
Every school can submit freebooks to represent their school
and we have great prizes thisyear for students.
But we really just want toencourage them to be creative
(28:41):
storytellers and obviouslystudents know themselves and
they everyone has a unique storyto share.
I know that I've been empoweredby sharing my own story, and so
we want to again pass thatalong to students and empower
them to share their stories andwhat they love, what their
passions are, what they likehelping people with their
stories and what they love, whattheir passions are, what they
(29:01):
like helping people with whatyou know gets them excited,
what's been challenging for them.
So, whatever angle they want togo at.
We're really excited to readtheir narratives.
Fonz (29:09):
That is fantastic.
So let's go ahead and take alook at this here and tell us a
little bit more.
So, as a teacher diving in andI see this on social media, or
after today, this afternoon, onSaturday I'm listening to the
episode and I'm like, ok, I gotto go here.
Where can they find theinformation and what should they
be able to follow that way theycan enter their school or their
class into this competition?
Katie Fielding (29:31):
Yeah, so you're going to find our Be An Author
Month hub on our website.
If you go to our website,you'll see a banner at the top
that will get you to this page,and we have four main areas on
this page.
So information about the Tellyour Story competition, and if
you go on to this page, or fromthe competition page, I should
say you're going to see all therules, all the prizes.
(29:52):
We have some really greatprizes this year, so the winning
kids are going to get a Kindle,colorsoft, their class is going
to get a pizza party, we gotswag and we'll get your book
printed as well.
So really fun things.
To support teachers and helpingtheir students submit entries,
we've created a whole set oftemplates.
So in these templates we havesome for elementary and some for
(30:15):
secondary, and all you need todo is again remix the book and
assign it to students and itwill help them.
This one will be a planningbook where they can plan their
personal narrative, and theother book is the template that
they can use to put their finalstory in and submit it, and
teachers will be submittingthose, to be clear.
So, yeah, once the entry isopen, which is going to happen
(30:39):
on the 5th and they close onApril 5th, so you have a whole
month to get your entries inthree entries for every school,
and then in later in April we'llbe announcing the winners.
Fonz (30:52):
That is fantastic, katie, and I think that this is a great
exercise to not only inobviously, engaging with book
creator, but, just like youmentioned, being able to tell
your story, being able to write,and then, of course, for a lot
of students you know, sometimesthat may be something that is
difficult, maybe writing forthat specific subject matter,
but for them to be able to relaytheir story, their message,
(31:14):
their experiences and so on.
I think that this is a greatexercise for them to just really
put themselves out there andjust get to learn a little bit
more writing skills, puttingthis together and then the
teachers allowing the studentsjust to be creative, and I think
that this is fantastic, this iswonderful.
Katie Fielding (31:31):
Yeah, and if students want to use audio and
video to tell their story withintheir book, we welcome that and
we encourage that too.
So if you're more comfortable,as a student, telling it with an
oral and oral storytelling, weknow is a huge, you know,
historically, cultural practicewe're encouraging that.
We want to see that.
Whatever is important to youand the way you want to share it
(31:53):
, that's what we want to see.
Fonz (31:55):
That is fantastic.
And I think right now, when yousaid that you know, if I, when
I was growing up I guess Ididn't learn English until I was
probably that I can remember,maybe like till, like my third
grade that's as far back as mymemory can go, as far as kind of
getting that language, becauseit was just like immersion.
But the fact that what you justmentioned right now I have
(32:15):
always thought of myself as abetter speaker and telling my
stories than a writer so thefact that we are allowing
students to be able andempowering them to be able to
share their stories, because Ifeel like I learned more from
listening to people'sexperiences than just the
reading aspect, and so now, evenas an adult, I'm still kind of
(32:35):
learning how to properly readand just really taking my time
and things of that sort, but forme it's just the listening.
You know that that really iswhat helps.
So this is wonderful, that BookCreator is allowing the
students to make it do acombination either the written
and the storytelling aspect ofit, and I think that's great and
fantastic.
One other thing that I do wantto highlight too for Book
(32:57):
Creator I noticed that as Iscroll all the way down past.
You know the activity journalsand all that that is there.
I do see a page for partnersthat have partnered up for this
Can you tell us a little bitmore about those partners?
Katie Fielding (33:11):
Yeah, we have some amazing partners this year.
Some of them you'll seefeatured in our teacher guide
that's going to be this pinkteacher guide that is in our
library.
So some of them.
We have some ideas for appsmashing how you can take your
student narratives to the nextlevel, either through AI
feedback, ai brainstorming,video creation with WeVideo.
(33:34):
We have some amazing partnershere with some ideas on app
smashing to take those books tothe next level.
And for some of our partners,we have webinars this month.
So we have one with ClassCompanion, magic School, and we
had one with we Will Write justthis past week.
So, and we have some other ofour partners that we've had
webinars with or will havewebinars with after Be An Author
(33:57):
Month.
So ways to get connected tothem and just help students
writing their personalnarratives or refining them.
Fonz (34:06):
That is excellent.
So, guys, as you notice, bookCreator not only is a multimodal
learning tool.
I mean, they're doing somewonderful stuff and advocating
for students for accessibility,for all those great things, and
partnering up with some amazing,amazing ed tech platforms.
Like Katie mentioned, appsmashing, being able to use a
(34:26):
different app and bringing itinto a different platform and
working together to just createsome magic.
And that's really what it's allabout as educators really just
creating that next level ofmagic, just sprinkling that, you
know, that little extra to whatyou're already doing great, and
I think that Book Creator isdefinitely a great tool for you
to be able to do that.
But also, with them partneringup with all of these other
(34:48):
wonderful ed tech companies andplatforms, you can just
definitely take that learning tothe next level.
So that is fantastic.
Katie, thank you so much.
I really appreciate you comingon the show and just sharing the
book creator magic and tellingus more about not only how
useful book creator can be forthe learning, breaking the
language barriers, but also thewonderful resources that are
(35:11):
already built out for teachersas well, and how wonderful you
guys are in building outresources every month for
teachers and the webinar.
So I think that's why, when Iwas at TCEA, I saw your booth
packed the way it was, becauseyou have all built a wonderful
community.
(35:31):
I mean, your team has done aphenomenal job.
Like I mentioned, I got to meetApril at TCEA, I got to meet
Dan, I got to run into you, andthen everybody at Book Creator
has been so wonderful and sokind and I think that the
success that you're having, andobviously your booth filling up,
is really a testament to thework that you all are doing.
(35:52):
So thank you so much foreverything that you're doing as
well.
Katie Fielding (35:56):
Yeah, I think we all just really want to support
kids and support teachers thatare supporting kids.
So that's our mission and Ithink the ethos of everyone that
works on the team and so that Ithink is going well and being
effective.
Yeah, Awesome.
Fonz (36:10):
Well, you heard it here, guys Book Creator.
Like I mentioned to you, andI've said it several times
during the show, if you havebeen looking at it or have you
been thinking about it, you'vebeen on the fence or you're just
like I don't know, maybe it'stoo overwhelming.
I think Katie today gave you areally, really just wonderful
walkthrough as to what isavailable, what can be done, and
so now, if you've just dippedyour toes in, you can definitely
(36:32):
now just say you know what.
I'm going to go ahead and takethe plunge, because you don't
have to feel like you're alone.
Katie showed you that you are abuilt-in resources that can
help you walk through some ofthese creations that you know
for your students to be engagedwith and, you know, just take it
to that next level a little bitat a time.
So, katie, thank you so muchfor our audience members.
(36:53):
Please make sure you check outthis episode, because this is
going to be wonderful and thiswhole month you know be an
author month, it can definitelytake that learning and your
classroom engagement to the nextlevel.
Well, katie, before we wrap up,as you know, I always love to
end the show with the last threequestions.
So hopefully you're ready andI'm just anxious to hear your
(37:14):
answers.
So here we go.
Are you ready?
Yeah, I'm ready, I'm ready.
All right, here we go.
Question number one Katie.
Yeah, as we know, everysuperhero has a weakness or just
, you know, some kind of painpoint.
For example, superman,kryptonite kind of weakened him
and took some of those powersaway.
So I want to ask you, in thecurrent state of education, what
(37:35):
would you say, is your currentedu kryptonite?
Katie Fielding (37:39):
Yeah, it's definitely cute over
accessibility and function.
So sometimes you know, I loveseeing that.
You know teachers put so mucheffort into the aesthetic of
their physical space, theirdigital creation, but when those
things aren't accessiblebecause of the aesthetic or
(38:00):
because the time was spent onthe aesthetic and not the
accessible piece, that'sdefinitely my kryptonite.
So I hope that teachers willstart to take a little more time
on the accessibility thatthey're putting into, like the
aesthetic and the cuteness ofthings.
Fonz (38:16):
There you go.
Good, good point, good point.
All right, here we go, katie.
Question number two is if youcould have a billboard with
anything on it, what would it beand why?
Katie Fielding (38:27):
Yeah, I guess it would have to be.
Whenever I present atconferences, I use my hashtag
slogan thing.
I guess my branding of be aaccessibility ally but I don't
use the word accessibility.
I use the hashtag, which ishashtag A11Y, so it kind of
looks like be an ally.
Ally if you're just a visualperson and you don't know what
(38:49):
the hashtag is, but it's hashtagA11Y is just the first and the
last letters of the wordaccessibility and the 11 letters
in between, Because I wanteveryone to be an accessibility
ally and be an advocate fordisabled people.
Fonz (39:06):
Absolutely.
And you know what, katie,that's one of the things that I
absolutely love about you andthe work that you have been
doing since I started followingyou on social media, and
obviously your presentations andthe work that you do with
students, social media andobviously your presentations and
the work that you do withstudents, and now the work that
you get to do with Book Creatoras well is just really
prioritizing accessibility, andI think that that's fantastic in
having a wonderful advocatesuch as yourself to be able to
(39:29):
just bring this to light andjust help us as educators, kind
of slow things down a little bitand be like okay, did I, do you
know my students a duediligence by providing this or
this or this or this to makesure that everybody is engaged
in the learning in a proper way.
So, thank you so much for that.
Yeah, all right.
Last question, katie and I'mreally really curious to hear
(39:51):
your answer here is if you couldtrade places with anyone.
Anyone for a day doesn't haveto be an education, anything
could be anyone for a day.
Who would it be and why?
Katie Fielding (40:05):
well, I am like the quintessential 80s kid, so I
definitely think I'm gonna haveto have my own back to the
future moment, um, and go backand switch with my earlier self.
Uh, one, I would like them tocome and like get any stock
secrets from the future.
Two, like NVIDIA we'reinvesting in NVIDIA.
(40:25):
And then two would be, I wantto go be able to tell, like my
parents, that, like the miraclemedicine they hope is coming for
me, one day comes, and that I'ma really thriving, happy adult.
So I know, like through mychildhood, you know, my parents
worried a lot like most parentswith any child, but especially a
(40:49):
child with a chronic disease or, you know, any type of
disability worries about theirchild and what is that life
going to be like for that child.
I would just want to goreassure them that it's going to
be OK.
Fonz (41:02):
That is wonderful and that's such a great message,
katie.
That is really also a testamentto who you are, your heart and
your story.
And again, if you want to catcha little bit more of Katie's
story, please go back to ourepisode four years ago, back in
May of 2020.
I believe it was 2020.
Yeah, so around there, but I'llmake sure and link that in the
(41:22):
episode.
If you want to know more aboutKatie and her wonderful journey
and story, I mean just to giveyou more background, because I
think that with this episode,you know, once you put both
together, you'll see where herheart is, what her passion is
and why she is the way.
She is A wonderful educator whois a wonderful advocate for
accessibility.
(41:43):
So, katie, thank you so much forjoining me today and I am
excited to put out this episode.
So, if you're listening to this, today, it is March 1st, it is
Be an Author Month for BookCreator, so please make sure
that you log on, go tobookcreatorcom, get your account
whether it's free or hey, putthe, you know, put the bug in
your principal's ear or in yourdistrict's ear to say, hey, I
(42:06):
just learned about a wonderfulapplication platform that is
going to help us, you know, inour classrooms.
Go ahead and do that.
You know you've heard what itcan do.
You know what is available, soplease make sure you check them
out.
And also don't forget, ifyou're listening to this episode
(42:27):
, we also have 314 otherepisodes, also for the last five
years, and I promise you youwill find some knowledge nuggets
that you can sprinkle onto whatyou are already doing.
Great and as always, my friends, thank you again for your
support and making today extraspecial, waking up to 100,000
downloads.
This, again is a testament toyou, is a testament to all our
wonderful guests, such as Katie,who have been sharing their
(42:49):
stories to all our listeners,especially you all that are
downloading the shows and arefinding value in what these
wonderful educators, creators,founders, you know are saying
and inspiring you.
Thank you for engaging with ourcontent.
Thank you so much for that, andI want to give a big shout out
also to our partners who havepartnered up with my Ad Tech
(43:11):
Life, who believe in our mission.
Thank you so much to EduAid.
Thank you so much, yellowdigalongside Content Clips.
Thank you so much.
Pocket Talk alongside ContentClips.
Thank you so much, pocket Talk.
And I would love to announceour newest partner, and our
newest partner is Book Creator.
Thank you so much, book Creator, for believing in what we are
doing, and I look forward tomany more wonderful episodes,
(43:33):
many more wonderful partnershipsand, again, as always, more
wonderful interviews, voicesthat are amplified to help our
education space continue to grow.
So thank you all for everythingand don't forget my friends.
Until next time, stay techie,thank you.
Hello everybody and welcome to another great episode
of my EdTech Life.
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 yourcontinued support.
I would like to announce thattoday is a very special day.
We have just hit 100,000downloads.
So thank you, each and everysingle one of you.
(00:52):
All our listeners andespecially our amazing guests
who have come on here, haveshared their stories, shared
their journeys, their expertise,and, again, we do what we do
for you so we can bring youthese amazing conversations, so
we can continue to grow in theeducation landscape.
So thank you so much for all ofthat support, and I am excited
(01:13):
to celebrate this milestone, too, with a wonderful creator and
somebody that is truly inspiring, who's been on the show before
and is doing some phenomenalwork.
So I would love to welcome tothe show today Katie Fielding.
Katie, how are you doing today?
Katie Fielding (01:28):
Good, I'm excited to celebrate with you.
It's been a few years sinceI've been here and I'm so proud
of you.
Fonz (01:33):
Thank you so much, katie, and yes, it has been a couple of
years, I think the last timeyou told me, I think it was four
years.
Katie Fielding (01:41):
Yeah, yeah, four years in May, I think, yep, yes
.
Fonz (01:44):
Four years in May.
So this is amazing just to haveyou back on.
And of course you know, at thattime you were sharing your
wonderful inspirational story,the work that you were doing,
obviously through COVID, andbeing able to help so many
educators, not only in your areabut really globally, you know,
with the resources that you wereputting out.
And then, of course, you'resharing your inspirational story
(02:05):
too, as well, and now you arein a new role and I am excited
to have you on here so you cantell us a little bit more about
that new role.
So, katie, for our audiencemembers who are not familiar
with your work just yet, can yougive us a little bit of an
introduction and what yourcontext is within the education
(02:25):
space?
Sure?
Katie Fielding (02:27):
of course.
So I was a teacher and then Iwas a tech coach and then I was
a STEM specialist.
So I had 20 years in the K-12space and then this summer I
joined Book Creator as theeducational content manager,
which means that I get to doreally fun content creation all
the time.
So a little bit of curriculumcreation, a lot of marketing
(02:49):
creation and it's just a lot offun and a great extension of a
lot of the work that I was doingbefore as a consultant,
advocating and presenting toteachers about accessibility,
which, as a disabled person, isa huge passion of mine, which,
as a disabled person is a hugepassion of mine, exactly, and
you know it's amazing.
Fonz (03:06):
Just what I love about your journey is the various
lenses that you have seen theeducation space in you know, as
a teacher, in the classroom, andthen, of course, with all those
three specialties, and then theprofessional development, which
I know with professionaldevelopment, it has to be
something that is good,something that is engaging and
innovative, because as teachers,you know that those are some of
(03:29):
the things that where we go andfind those gems that we can go
sprinkle into our classroom.
And again, following your workfor years and I've had the honor
of meeting you at ISTE, I thinkthat was what maybe two years
ago in Philadelphia in personand then got to briefly see you
at TCEA because you were running, yeah, and then you were
running too because you had asession.
(03:50):
But I must say that TCEA waswonderful.
This year that I saw the bookcreator booth was like a whole
different thing.
I mean, you can barely walkthrough that little section
because everybody wassurrounding the book creator
booth, which is fantastic, whichalso is a testament to the work
that you all are doing, in thatyou're engaging so many
(04:12):
educators and they're findingthe value in those tools and I
think you know, with yourexpertise and like you mentioned
, what you get to do now andreally creating and still
advocating and bringing yourpassions together.
I think that that's a great fitand so I'm excited to dive in a
little bit more into that.
So for our audience membersthat you know weren't able to
(04:32):
make it to TCEA or get to seeall the wonderful stuff that you
guys were doing in the booth,can you tell us a little bit
about what Book Creator is andyou know how it could be used in
the classroom?
Katie Fielding (04:44):
Yeah, so we like to say that we're the most
inclusive tool for creativityand demonstrating learning for
K-12.
So we're blank kind of canvas.
Students can make books, butyou don't always have to think
of it as a book.
You could think of it as adigital activity, and so it can
be a blank canvas.
(05:04):
But we also have tons oftemplates that students and
teachers can start from, orteachers can make their own
templates and assign them totheir students.
So it has a book-like formatwhich is really familiar for
people.
But we have so many inclusiveaccessibility features and we
just launched one really thisweek I'll be glad to show you,
which is text-to-speech in PDF.
(05:26):
So now when you add a PDF toyour book, it will read that PDF
aloud to a student, which weknow can be a really nice way to
elevate that PDF that maybe youprinted out before.
But now it can be moreinclusive and accessible to a
student because they can have itread to them and then they can
respond in the best way for them, either with text or audio or
(05:47):
video.
Fonz (05:48):
It's wonderful and we'll definitely get into that because
I'm really excited for you toshare some of those features
because, like I mentioned, manyeducators out there and I saw
the number there at the boothand I know that there were many
people that were doingpresentations, including
yourself book creators so I knowthat we have some audience
members that maybe have heard ofit, maybe kind of dipped their
toes a little bit, but maybeafter today, when they get to
(06:09):
see a little bit more of whatcan be done, they'll definitely
just dive right in.
But before we get into that, Ithink that you described Book
Creator in a very good way,which is just a multimodal
learning tool, which Iabsolutely love because I know
currently many times in theclassrooms we'll see that and
there's nothing wrong with thisbecause I know that it could
(06:31):
still be effective depending onthe classroom and, of course,
with the teacher engagement too.
It's a teacher-centered thisallows.
What I like is that it's alittle bit more student-centered
.
Or you can partner up and thenthe students are able to share
their learning process, sharetheir thinking, whether it's
through speaking, whether it'sthrough uploading, whether it's
(06:53):
through creating somethingwithin the book itself,
uploading images.
So there is a myriad of waysthat the students can show
mastery of the concept, and Ithink that's something that is
very beneficial and very needed,and I think that there is some
new tech that is out there.
Obviously, you know everybody'sbuzzing about AI, but sometimes
(07:14):
just to kind of reel it back inand just get back into just the
basics of it, in that sense ofjust allowing the student to
share their thought process in away that is creative and it's
engaging and also inclusive, Imean it's fantastic, and that's
the one thing that I do love.
As I was flipping through someof the pages of the books that I
(07:35):
had created, one of the thingsI do want to highlight is one of
the most read books at mydistrict was when I was doing
the Google Level 1, level 2certification.
So I created it using BookCreator, and so the teachers
would just go view the book.
They go like, ok, chapter 1,we're talking about spreadsheets
, chapter 2, we're talking aboutthis, and so it was a fun way
(07:57):
to present the material andstill engage my audience, which
in this case, was my teachers,with the video format and the
speaking and all of that greatstuff.
So that, I think, is very, veryexciting.
So now I know you mentionedthere is that new feature which
I think is fantastic, with PDFs.
So what I would love to do nowis, if you don't mind, let me go
(08:18):
ahead and just share yourscreen so you can kind of give
us an overview of what BookCreator is and what it's doing
and some of the tools that arethere.
So here we go Great.
Katie Fielding (08:29):
So this is Book Creator.
This is one of my library, andsomething that you just
mentioned that I kind of loveusing Book Creator for is
presenting.
So I love.
You know, I used to use aGoogle slide or maybe another
presentation tool, but now whenI present with Book Creator, I
have all of my like attendees atmy presenting session join my
(08:49):
library.
All they have to do is joinwith the code and then I get
like an instant attendance listof everyone who's come to my
presentation session.
So that's a really nice featurethat you know other
presentation tools don'tautomatically give you.
So if someone joins my library,I get like kind of a point of
contact for them, which is nice.
But if I'm at my library here,of course it's creating books.
(09:12):
Every new book has three pages,and the newest thing that we
launched this week istext-to-speech for PDFs, and so
you'll see our import PDF buttonis now highlighted because we
really want to feature that, andif you come in here and you
look for a PDF on your computer,I'm going to pull this one.
You can come in, you can pickthe size that's best based on
(09:33):
that PDF, and now I can rightclick on it and select scan for
text.
I'm going to say current pageonly, and now it can be read
aloud, so I'll see.
Now it can be read aloud, soI'll see.
Now the speaker button downhere.
Fonz (09:50):
I can identify three big reinforcers.
Katie Fielding (09:52):
So now I can have that whole PDF read to me
and I've had some people onsocials be like, oh, I don't
like that voice If they have adifferent voice, and all you
have to do is come up into readmode the play button in the top
right and go into the gear.
You can select a differentvoices.
So I can go into those Englishvoices and I can look for, you
know, another English voice.
If I'm Australian, I couldchoose Catherine.
(10:13):
Fred I don't know if I likeFred's voice Gordon All right,
maybe I'll go with that.
Kathy Okay, all right, I'll gowith her, I'll go with Kathy.
Okay, all right, I'll go withher.
So now if I go back into editmode and I click on this again,
I can have it read by Kathy.
Fonz (10:36):
That is fantastic, and I think that is something that is
so useful because I think, likefor the most part, I know within
my district, our contentspecialists.
What they do, or contentcoordinators, I should say.
What they do is they create alot of activities for the
teachers to share with students,and for the most part, the
delivery is always going to be aPDF, and I know that we have
(10:59):
tools that you know students canwork with PDFs and so on.
But just the fact that you canalso bring it in into Book
Creator and also be read and beread nicely and clearly too as
well, depending on the voicetype that you like I think that
takes that to that next level,because within Book Creator,
like you mentioned, there's somany other things that you would
be able to do Like.
(11:19):
So, for example, I would beimagining, too, that in looking
at this PDF and getting read tome as a student, I would also
have the ability to vote likerecord my answer using my voice
and just pop it into one ofthose boxes instead of
necessarily having to typeanything in, which would be just
something great foraccessibility as well.
(11:40):
You're right.
Katie Fielding (11:41):
Yeah, exactly, so I can just click start
recording.
Well, derek, yeah, exactly, soI can just click start recording
.
If I'm thinking about thedifferent types of forces
pushing and pulling, I can thinkabout a potential energy, the
response.
So that can then be a responsehere.
But if my student let's saythey were a newcomer, a Spanish
(12:03):
speaker, and they wrote theyspoke that in Spanish, but I'm a
science teacher and I don'tspeak Spanish I could easily add
a transcript to whatever theysaid in their home language and
then, after I transcribed that,it takes just a moment.
Fonz (12:23):
This is fantastic.
Katie Fielding (12:24):
I could then translate it so I could bring it
to English.
In this case, I'm going to goto Spanish because I spoke in
English, but now I have thatexact audio.
What the student said or what Isaid can be easily translated.
So yeah, the accessibilityfeatures and the potential to
really build and reduce barriersin our classroom, to really
build and reduce barriers in ourclassroom, to reduce the
(12:45):
barriers and start thoserelationship building things
from day one with a multilingualnewcomer, are really empowering
.
Fonz (12:52):
Yeah, no, I agree with you , and I know I think last
episode, the episode becausethis is episode 315, episode 314
, I had a gentleman here, youknow, from Pocket Talk, and he
mentioned something that's veryimportant is like you mentioned
too is highlighting thatrelationship aspect.
I mean, what I get to see toohere and I know it's not just in
(13:13):
my area but pretty much in thewhole of the United States too,
when you get new students thatare coming in, whatever
nationality that may be in, Imean they're leaving their home
behind, their culture behind.
They're coming in.
Now, you know, as a teacher, itadds a stressor to the teacher
as well.
It adds a stressor to thestudent as well in having that
(13:33):
barrier to that language.
But the fact that now, throughBook Creator, the student can go
ahead and speak the answer intheir native language and it
still shows that they havemastery of that content or you
know, explaining the thoughtprocess.
The teacher now can also listento that and be able to see okay
, although the language may notbe the same, the content is
(13:56):
there or the thought process isthere, and I think that's
something that is fabulous tooto have, because now the student
kind of has a relief of anxietyand I've heard that happen many
times here, even with ourdistrict.
With something like tools thatare able to translate, just that
stress level goes down and nowthe learning can take place,
(14:16):
that engagement.
And so what I want to add toois even here in Texas I know we
have what is called the TELPIStesting, where our students
which is very kind of difficultin a way students have to speak
for 45 seconds and they'regiving a prompt or they're
(14:36):
giving a picture, and ifstudents don't get to practice
their speaking skills, thatcould be very difficult, because
now you have to carry on aconversation for 45 seconds, and
if you don't hit those 45seconds, it doesn't matter if
you use proper vocabulary or ifeverything was pronounced
correctly, because it's not 45seconds it's like nope, sorry,
(14:56):
you don't get to pass on ormaybe exit the program or show
any growth.
So having this tool available issomething that is fantastic,
because now the students canreally dive in and practice, and
I think that would be somethingthat's very beneficial, and it
is being beneficial to theclassroom, so I absolutely love
that.
Katie Fielding (15:16):
Yeah, with the four domains of language reading
, writing, listening andspeaking students can do all of
those things in Book Creatorwith the audio and video
features so you can have a youcould record something and have
them do a listening exercisewhere they can record something
and do that speaking or alanguage piece.
The possibilities are totallyhere, especially for those
(15:39):
students, those WIDA Telbus, Ithink in they have another name
in California for their testing.
But, yeah, lots of options forthat, perfect.
Fonz (15:50):
Now I do see here too, like I do want to show our
audience members this, because Iknow you pulled this up, the
All About Me journal.
So tell me a little bit aboutthis and what the students are
going to be able to find throughthis, and the teachers as well.
Katie Fielding (16:01):
Yeah, so this is in our Discover area.
So if you're on your teacherdashboard and you click on
Discover, you're going to findall of our remixable book, and
this one's right here underGetting Started, and it is a
journal that we've made just fornewcomer students.
So if you do have that newmultilingual learner in your
class, what I would do if I wasthe classroom still is I'd remix
(16:21):
this book.
That's how you get your owncopy of it.
I'd put it in my library andthen I would make this book
about me, the teacher, and Iwould then be able to translate
this whole book into their homelanguage and that student and
their family can meet me and getto know me as a teacher.
And then I can make anothercopy of it for them to complete
(16:42):
in their home language and oncethey've filled it in, I can
translate it back to English andI can get to know them from day
or week one.
So that relationship building.
This reduces that languagebarrier and we can start getting
to know each other and buildingthat teacher-student
relationship.
Fonz (16:58):
Again, I'm going to go ahead and just add a little
something here.
When I was still in theclassroom.
They didn't have this before orjust these types of tools for
that accessibility.
And I would constantly, in thedemographic area that I lived,
and especially here in deepSouth Texas, in the Rio Grande
Valley, and because we're soclose to Mexico, you know
(17:21):
there's a lot of manufacturing,so we would get students that
come in from Korea because theirparents were working in the
manufacturing, or they wouldcome in from Israel, they would
come in from Japan.
So sometimes middle of thesemester, middle of the year,
you would get a new student thatcomes in and again, like we
were talking about, kind ofimmersed in a new culture,
immersed in a new language, andfor me and I was just having a
(17:45):
discussion with one of mycolleagues and talking about the
accessibility and how we can dobetter and something like Book
Creator being able to help outis that, without wanting to
single out the student, I wasalready, you know, singling them
out in the sense that I wouldhave to sit them close to me
because I had the iPad and thenit was just Google Translate Can
(18:05):
you type in, and then me waitand listen, and then, of course,
having to take care of all theother students and you know,
just making sure that I'm doingmy service to help them out and
also my other students.
But now what I love here is thefact that what you just shared
is now I can share who I am as ateacher.
You know philosophies, yourlittle rule like.
(18:26):
You know classroom procedures,things of that sort that now the
family gets to listen to intheir language and then they can
comfortably go ahead and createsomething in their language and
then I can listen to it, andnow I feel like I wouldn't have
to kind of pull all thosestudents together right next to
my desk.
They can also work with eachother, communicating next to
(18:50):
each other, you know, even inthe think-pair-share activity,
and they can go back and forth.
And I think that that issomething that we need to see
more because again, going back,it's student getting singled out
Like it's not fun as it is.
They already have thatadditional stress, and so now
(19:10):
it's a great way for them tobuild relationships, not only
with you as a teacher but withthe students, and they can still
collaborate and, you know, fill, you know create those projects
together, even though they maybe speaking a different language
.
But Book Creator helps breakthat break down that language
barrier and I absolutely lovethat.
Katie Fielding (19:23):
That's fantastic Break that break down that
language barrier and Iabsolutely love that.
That's fantastic.
Yeah, when my last year was inschool, we had a lot of the
students from the Afghan airlift.
One of those people quicklyleft and you know, I had a
student.
She was like, oh, they're notgoing to have mine.
(19:44):
No, miss, like they don't haveit.
And then I was like, well,let's just look.
And so you know, I was like,let's take a look.
And then she was like she sawit.
She saw Urdu.
And she was like like soexcited that her language is
there and she could do theassignment that everyone in the
class was doing in her newcomerclass, like, and she had just
gotten there and she was likeempowered and she felt good
about what she was doing andthat was really rewarding for me
as the tech coach at that time.
Fonz (20:03):
That is fantastic.
I love that, Katie.
So if you don't mind, if we goback to book creator here as
well then let me go ahead andask you here, as a new teacher
coming in, talk to me a littlebit about what the libraries are
, or the discovery.
This is my first time afterwatching this show and I'm like,
(20:24):
okay, I want to dive in.
Where shall I go first?
Katie Fielding (20:31):
to go ahead and just kind of dip my toes in and
start getting comfortable withBook Creator.
First of all, you're just goingto go to bookcreatorcom and
you're going to click create afree account.
So if you've never used beforeit is, you can get in for free.
You can get started for free.
With a free account, you canhave one library with 40 books.
So you'll see that I have azillion library, because if you
have a premium account you haveunlimited libraries and you can
(20:53):
have a thousand books.
So the free account is reallygreat, especially if you're an
elementary teacher, we knowthat's a really great number you
can get started with and then,after you use those 40 books,
you can archive them and thenyou'll have 40 more.
So we try and make it so thatthe free account is really
usable.
Our founder, dan Amos.
(21:14):
He created Book Creator becausehe had a son with dyslexia and
he wanted to find a way to helphim like reading and like
writing, and so that's why hecreated Book Creator.
So we still want to make thatavailable to a lot of students,
despite a price barrier.
So that's why we have the freeaccount and we will keep it.
(21:36):
But if you do want more bellsand whistles and more libraries,
then the premium account is foryou, and then you're going to
see your libraries.
You can think of those as, likeyour classrooms.
The discover section is wherewe have our remixable books.
I'm going to highlight this oneat the top middle, our March
activity journal.
This is a great starting point.
(21:57):
Every month we put out one ofthese activity journals, and
every day of the month there's acelebration or a recognition of
something that's happening inthe world or in the in the
States.
So, for instance, today isMarch 1st and so it's World
Compliment Day.
And so, fonz, I'm just going tocompliment you, not on the
postcard but in person, abouthow great this podcast has been
(22:20):
for the education space.
I've learned so much overlistening the past few years.
So kudos to you.
So students can come in withtheir copy of the book and they
can write a compliment card tosomeone, and every day in March
they can have a differentactivity.
So that's just one thing.
A quick, quick win.
You know that's great bell work.
At the end you know you're donewith your activity.
(22:42):
Go work on your activityjournal.
Or, you know, coming in for theday a little, getting in seat
work as you first get into class.
That's a great one to go to.
Fonz (22:52):
Okay.
So, katie, let me get thisstraight, okay, and this is
again just to clarify and thenfor all our audience members
here too.
So you're telling me that everymonth there is a book that will
be put out just by book creatorto, I mean, teacher can dive in
, and let's say that maybe nextmonth is her first month in
April.
They're going to find somethingthere that they can go ahead
and use for that whole month.
(23:13):
Is that really?
Am I understanding correctly?
Katie Fielding (23:16):
You are understanding 100% correct.
So every month we have ithighlighted up here.
That's where you'll find itreally easily.
Fonz (23:23):
That is fantastic.
So for my educator, friends outthere that have been kind of on
the fence or maybe just kind ofdipping your little fingertips
and toes into the book creator,kind of water like, as you
notice here Katie's just sharingwhat would be available for you
every month as activities,things that you know, like she
mentioned, either early morning,like kind of bell work, like
welcome, or at the end of theday or maybe in between periods
(23:46):
and things of that sort, andit's already built out for you
and the students can go in thereand go ahead and engage in that
learning that sometimes youknow it's great that they would
have that independent learningtime as well, and it doesn't
necessarily have to tie in tothe content at that given time,
but they get to, you know, goahead and work on something and
be engaged.
But I do notice here at thebottom tabs you do have it
(24:07):
broken down also by you knowsome subjects.
You know you have literacy,hela curriculum and so on.
So tell us a little bit aboutthat too as well.
Katie Fielding (24:15):
Yeah, so we have other templates and so we have
it by content.
So the student templates, theseare the ones that are remixable
on our Discover page, and so ifyou wanted to look for STEM,
you could come in here and maybeyou teach science and you use
the 5e model, so this notebooktemplate is going to be perfect
for you.
Again, you just click, remixthis book, copy it into the
(24:36):
library you want and then editit.
I would not give every studentthis whole book up front.
I would, you know, give them afew pages.
That's another great feature inBook Creator is like you can
assign a book with five pagesand then after you can add a
page to their books as it goes.
So it's a really great way tochunk the information for
(24:56):
students.
You know you don't have thatkid running ahead.
You don't give that kid.
That feels kind.
You can really manage theclassroom experience and the
pace by our copy to feature,which allows you to copy a page
to students' books.
So we have all different kindsof content that you can remix,
and then further down we havelike inspirational content,
(25:18):
content that's been made by ourcommunity for different grades,
and different content If youscroll down even further that
you can explore to see what realteachers are doing with Book
Creator in their classrooms.
Fonz (25:29):
This is great.
Yeah, this is wonderful.
Now, katie, I want to ask you Iknow that we had previously
talked before and you showed meone that I think that for a lot
of teachers I mean it definitelyjust like blow their mind, and
especially if they're, you know,kinder teachers working with
you know learning the alphabetor learning letters and things
that sort, and I think that thatwas fantastic because it
(25:49):
includes, you know, the audio,it includes video and so on.
So would you mind sharing thatwith me for the lower grade
levels, because I think thatthat is something that they
would absolutely love.
Katie Fielding (25:59):
I think like the core of our really good content
is found under literacy, andyou'll see we have some recent
like text prep.
Actually, we created theseoriginally with the teaks in
mind, so these are really greatthese fourth, fifth and third
grade reading response practice.
But if we're looking for evenyounger students, you're
definitely going to want tocheck out our, our literacy
(26:21):
content.
I love this one, the vowelsteams book, and so you'll see
within this book a vowel teamfor every you know vowel team
that little learners arelearning and it goes through and
it gives them opportunities tohear it, say it, find images
that go with the vowel team,write it, so they're really
(26:42):
doing like step-by-step learningof understanding these vowel
teams, and so we have those forall the vowel teams.
We also have a whole collectionof the five pillars of literacy
and content to support that too.
Fonz (26:56):
That is fantastic and I know, like for my lower grade
teachers, you know, I think thatthis is something that is
wonderful, that is already there, again, as a supplement to what
you are already doing.
Great.
So imagine you're doing this,your initial teach, you know
you're going through it withyour students, and then now you
can go ahead and, you know, putopen up a Chromebook or you can
work on this together.
(27:17):
You can either project it andthen just have an engaging,
colorful, editable classroomdiscussion and students can
definitely, you know, continuetheir learning and be engaged,
whether it's independent orthrough the help and support of
a teacher, and I think that thisis something that is fantastic,
wow.
Katie Fielding (27:34):
All right.
Fonz (27:35):
Katie.
Next thing that I want to talkabout, because I have been
seeing this all over socialmedia and I know it's been for
the last couple of weeks.
Now we're talking about Be anAuthor Month, which starts today
, march 1st, when this episodewill be released March 1st.
So tell me a little bit aboutwhat Be an Author Month is and
(27:55):
the competition that BookCreator is putting together.
Katie Fielding (27:58):
Yes, we started Be an Author Month a few years
ago, with a celebration everyMarch encouraging students to be
creative and become authors.
So we have a lot of excitingthings happening.
This year we have a competitionwhere it's a personal narrative
competition for students totell their story.
This is actually something Ihelped my L teachers do back
(28:19):
when I was a tech coach, andusing Book Creator to tell those
newcomer story was really apowerful opportunity for them.
But we want to give that toevery kid in the world, and so
every kid in the world can enterthis.
Every school can submit freebooks to represent their school
and we have great prizes thisyear for students.
But we really just want toencourage them to be creative
(28:41):
storytellers and obviouslystudents know themselves and
they everyone has a unique storyto share.
I know that I've been empoweredby sharing my own story, and so
we want to again pass thatalong to students and empower
them to share their stories andwhat they love, what their
passions are, what they likehelping people with their
stories and what they love, whattheir passions are, what they
(29:01):
like helping people with whatyou know gets them excited,
what's been challenging for them.
So, whatever angle they want togo at.
We're really excited to readtheir narratives.
Fonz (29:09):
That is fantastic.
So let's go ahead and take alook at this here and tell us a
little bit more.
So, as a teacher diving in andI see this on social media, or
after today, this afternoon, onSaturday I'm listening to the
episode and I'm like, ok, I gotto go here.
Where can they find theinformation and what should they
be able to follow that way theycan enter their school or their
class into this competition?
Katie Fielding (29:31):
Yeah, so you're going to find our Be An Author
Month hub on our website.
If you go to our website,you'll see a banner at the top
that will get you to this page,and we have four main areas on
this page.
So information about the Tellyour Story competition, and if
you go on to this page, or fromthe competition page, I should
say you're going to see all therules, all the prizes.
(29:52):
We have some really greatprizes this year, so the winning
kids are going to get a Kindle,colorsoft, their class is going
to get a pizza party, we gotswag and we'll get your book
printed as well.
So really fun things.
To support teachers and helpingtheir students submit entries,
we've created a whole set oftemplates.
So in these templates we havesome for elementary and some for
(30:15):
secondary, and all you need todo is again remix the book and
assign it to students and itwill help them.
This one will be a planningbook where they can plan their
personal narrative, and theother book is the template that
they can use to put their finalstory in and submit it, and
teachers will be submittingthose, to be clear.
So, yeah, once the entry isopen, which is going to happen
(30:39):
on the 5th and they close onApril 5th, so you have a whole
month to get your entries inthree entries for every school,
and then in later in April we'llbe announcing the winners.
Fonz (30:52):
That is fantastic, katie, and I think that this is a great
exercise to not only inobviously, engaging with book
creator, but, just like youmentioned, being able to tell
your story, being able to write,and then, of course, for a lot
of students you know, sometimesthat may be something that is
difficult, maybe writing forthat specific subject matter,
but for them to be able to relaytheir story, their message,
(31:14):
their experiences and so on.
I think that this is a greatexercise for them to just really
put themselves out there andjust get to learn a little bit
more writing skills, puttingthis together and then the
teachers allowing the studentsjust to be creative, and I think
that this is fantastic, this iswonderful.
Katie Fielding (31:31):
Yeah, and if students want to use audio and
video to tell their story withintheir book, we welcome that and
we encourage that too.
So if you're more comfortable,as a student, telling it with an
oral and oral storytelling, weknow is a huge, you know,
historically, cultural practicewe're encouraging that.
We want to see that.
Whatever is important to youand the way you want to share it
(31:53):
, that's what we want to see.
Fonz (31:55):
That is fantastic.
And I think right now, when yousaid that you know, if I, when
I was growing up I guess Ididn't learn English until I was
probably that I can remember,maybe like till, like my third
grade that's as far back as mymemory can go, as far as kind of
getting that language, becauseit was just like immersion.
But the fact that what you justmentioned right now I have
(32:15):
always thought of myself as abetter speaker and telling my
stories than a writer so thefact that we are allowing
students to be able andempowering them to be able to
share their stories, because Ifeel like I learned more from
listening to people'sexperiences than just the
reading aspect, and so now, evenas an adult, I'm still kind of
(32:35):
learning how to properly readand just really taking my time
and things of that sort, but forme it's just the listening.
You know that that really iswhat helps.
So this is wonderful, that BookCreator is allowing the
students to make it do acombination either the written
and the storytelling aspect ofit, and I think that's great and
fantastic.
One other thing that I do wantto highlight too for Book
(32:57):
Creator I noticed that as Iscroll all the way down past.
You know the activity journalsand all that that is there.
I do see a page for partnersthat have partnered up for this
Can you tell us a little bitmore about those partners?
Katie Fielding (33:11):
Yeah, we have some amazing partners this year.
Some of them you'll seefeatured in our teacher guide
that's going to be this pinkteacher guide that is in our
library.
So some of them.
We have some ideas for appsmashing how you can take your
student narratives to the nextlevel, either through AI
feedback, ai brainstorming,video creation with WeVideo.
(33:34):
We have some amazing partnershere with some ideas on app
smashing to take those books tothe next level.
And for some of our partners,we have webinars this month.
So we have one with ClassCompanion, magic School, and we
had one with we Will Write justthis past week.
So, and we have some other ofour partners that we've had
webinars with or will havewebinars with after Be An Author
(33:57):
Month.
So ways to get connected tothem and just help students
writing their personalnarratives or refining them.
Fonz (34:06):
That is excellent.
So, guys, as you notice, bookCreator not only is a multimodal
learning tool.
I mean, they're doing somewonderful stuff and advocating
for students for accessibility,for all those great things, and
partnering up with some amazing,amazing ed tech platforms.
Like Katie mentioned, appsmashing, being able to use a
(34:26):
different app and bringing itinto a different platform and
working together to just createsome magic.
And that's really what it's allabout as educators really just
creating that next level ofmagic, just sprinkling that, you
know, that little extra to whatyou're already doing great, and
I think that Book Creator isdefinitely a great tool for you
to be able to do that.
But also, with them partneringup with all of these other
(34:48):
wonderful ed tech companies andplatforms, you can just
definitely take that learning tothe next level.
So that is fantastic.
Katie, thank you so much.
I really appreciate you comingon the show and just sharing the
book creator magic and tellingus more about not only how
useful book creator can be forthe learning, breaking the
language barriers, but also thewonderful resources that are
(35:11):
already built out for teachersas well, and how wonderful you
guys are in building outresources every month for
teachers and the webinar.
So I think that's why, when Iwas at TCEA, I saw your booth
packed the way it was, becauseyou have all built a wonderful
community.
(35:31):
I mean, your team has done aphenomenal job.
Like I mentioned, I got to meetApril at TCEA, I got to meet
Dan, I got to run into you, andthen everybody at Book Creator
has been so wonderful and sokind and I think that the
success that you're having, andobviously your booth filling up,
is really a testament to thework that you all are doing.
(35:52):
So thank you so much foreverything that you're doing as
well.
Katie Fielding (35:56):
Yeah, I think we all just really want to support
kids and support teachers thatare supporting kids.
So that's our mission and Ithink the ethos of everyone that
works on the team and so that Ithink is going well and being
effective.
Yeah, Awesome.
Fonz (36:10):
Well, you heard it here, guys Book Creator.
Like I mentioned to you, andI've said it several times
during the show, if you havebeen looking at it or have you
been thinking about it, you'vebeen on the fence or you're just
like I don't know, maybe it'stoo overwhelming.
I think Katie today gave you areally, really just wonderful
walkthrough as to what isavailable, what can be done, and
so now, if you've just dippedyour toes in, you can definitely
(36:32):
now just say you know what.
I'm going to go ahead and takethe plunge, because you don't
have to feel like you're alone.
Katie showed you that you are abuilt-in resources that can
help you walk through some ofthese creations that you know
for your students to be engagedwith and, you know, just take it
to that next level a little bitat a time.
So, katie, thank you so muchfor our audience members.
(36:53):
Please make sure you check outthis episode, because this is
going to be wonderful and thiswhole month you know be an
author month, it can definitelytake that learning and your
classroom engagement to the nextlevel.
Well, katie, before we wrap up,as you know, I always love to
end the show with the last threequestions.
So hopefully you're ready andI'm just anxious to hear your
(37:14):
answers.
So here we go.
Are you ready?
Yeah, I'm ready, I'm ready.
All right, here we go.
Question number one Katie.
Yeah, as we know, everysuperhero has a weakness or just
, you know, some kind of painpoint.
For example, superman,kryptonite kind of weakened him
and took some of those powersaway.
So I want to ask you, in thecurrent state of education, what
(37:35):
would you say, is your currentedu kryptonite?
Katie Fielding (37:39):
Yeah, it's definitely cute over
accessibility and function.
So sometimes you know, I loveseeing that.
You know teachers put so mucheffort into the aesthetic of
their physical space, theirdigital creation, but when those
things aren't accessiblebecause of the aesthetic or
(38:00):
because the time was spent onthe aesthetic and not the
accessible piece, that'sdefinitely my kryptonite.
So I hope that teachers willstart to take a little more time
on the accessibility thatthey're putting into, like the
aesthetic and the cuteness ofthings.
Fonz (38:16):
There you go.
Good, good point, good point.
All right, here we go, katie.
Question number two is if youcould have a billboard with
anything on it, what would it beand why?
Katie Fielding (38:27):
Yeah, I guess it would have to be.
Whenever I present atconferences, I use my hashtag
slogan thing.
I guess my branding of be aaccessibility ally but I don't
use the word accessibility.
I use the hashtag, which ishashtag A11Y, so it kind of
looks like be an ally.
Ally if you're just a visualperson and you don't know what
(38:49):
the hashtag is, but it's hashtagA11Y is just the first and the
last letters of the wordaccessibility and the 11 letters
in between, Because I wanteveryone to be an accessibility
ally and be an advocate fordisabled people.
Fonz (39:06):
Absolutely.
And you know what, katie,that's one of the things that I
absolutely love about you andthe work that you have been
doing since I started followingyou on social media, and
obviously your presentations andthe work that you do with
students, social media andobviously your presentations and
the work that you do withstudents, and now the work that
you get to do with Book Creatoras well is just really
prioritizing accessibility, andI think that that's fantastic in
having a wonderful advocatesuch as yourself to be able to
(39:29):
just bring this to light andjust help us as educators, kind
of slow things down a little bitand be like okay, did I, do you
know my students a duediligence by providing this or
this or this or this to makesure that everybody is engaged
in the learning in a proper way.
So, thank you so much for that.
Yeah, all right.
Last question, katie and I'mreally really curious to hear
(39:51):
your answer here is if you couldtrade places with anyone.
Anyone for a day doesn't haveto be an education, anything
could be anyone for a day.
Who would it be and why?
Katie Fielding (40:05):
well, I am like the quintessential 80s kid, so I
definitely think I'm gonna haveto have my own back to the
future moment, um, and go backand switch with my earlier self.
Uh, one, I would like them tocome and like get any stock
secrets from the future.
Two, like NVIDIA we'reinvesting in NVIDIA.
(40:25):
And then two would be, I wantto go be able to tell, like my
parents, that, like the miraclemedicine they hope is coming for
me, one day comes, and that I'ma really thriving, happy adult.
So I know, like through mychildhood, you know, my parents
worried a lot like most parentswith any child, but especially a
(40:49):
child with a chronic disease or, you know, any type of
disability worries about theirchild and what is that life
going to be like for that child.
I would just want to goreassure them that it's going to
be OK.
Fonz (41:02):
That is wonderful and that's such a great message,
katie.
That is really also a testamentto who you are, your heart and
your story.
And again, if you want to catcha little bit more of Katie's
story, please go back to ourepisode four years ago, back in
May of 2020.
I believe it was 2020.
Yeah, so around there, but I'llmake sure and link that in the
(41:22):
episode.
If you want to know more aboutKatie and her wonderful journey
and story, I mean just to giveyou more background, because I
think that with this episode,you know, once you put both
together, you'll see where herheart is, what her passion is
and why she is the way.
She is A wonderful educator whois a wonderful advocate for
accessibility.
(41:43):
So, katie, thank you so much forjoining me today and I am
excited to put out this episode.
So, if you're listening to this, today, it is March 1st, it is
Be an Author Month for BookCreator, so please make sure
that you log on, go tobookcreatorcom, get your account
whether it's free or hey, putthe, you know, put the bug in
your principal's ear or in yourdistrict's ear to say, hey, I
(42:06):
just learned about a wonderfulapplication platform that is
going to help us, you know, inour classrooms.
Go ahead and do that.
You know you've heard what itcan do.
You know what is available, soplease make sure you check them
out.
And also don't forget, ifyou're listening to this episode
(42:27):
, we also have 314 otherepisodes, also for the last five
years, and I promise you youwill find some knowledge nuggets
that you can sprinkle onto whatyou are already doing.
Great and as always, my friends, thank you again for your
support and making today extraspecial, waking up to 100,000
downloads.
This, again is a testament toyou, is a testament to all our
wonderful guests, such as Katie,who have been sharing their
(42:49):
stories to all our listeners,especially you all that are
downloading the shows and arefinding value in what these
wonderful educators, creators,founders, you know are saying
and inspiring you.
Thank you for engaging with ourcontent.
Thank you so much for that, andI want to give a big shout out
also to our partners who havepartnered up with my Ad Tech
(43:11):
Life, who believe in our mission.
Thank you so much to EduAid.
Thank you so much, yellowdigalongside Content Clips.
Thank you so much.
Pocket Talk alongside ContentClips.
Thank you so much, pocket Talk.
And I would love to announceour newest partner, and our
newest partner is Book Creator.
Thank you so much, book Creator, for believing in what we are
doing, and I look forward tomany more wonderful episodes,
(43:33):
many more wonderful partnershipsand, again, as always, more
wonderful interviews, voicesthat are amplified to help our
education space continue to grow.
So thank you all for everythingand don't forget my friends.
Until next time, stay techie,thank you.
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