How to Make Learning More Accessible and Enjoyable for Every Student | Stacey Roshan | Glasp Talk #5
This is the fifth session of the Glasp Talk!
Glasp Talk delves deep into intimate interviews with luminaries from various fields, unraveling their genuine emotions, experiences, and the stories that lie behind them.
Today's guest is Stacey Roshan, a renowned educator, author, and advocate for the innovative use of technology in the classroom.
In this interview, Stacey shares her journey of integrating technology to transform traditional teaching methods, enhance student engagement, and create personalized learning experiences. She discusses the challenges and successes of flipping her AP Calculus class, the importance of building trust with students and parents, and her vision for the future of education with the help of AI and other technologies. Join us as we explore Stacey's insights and her passion for empowering every student's voice.
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Transcripts
Kazuki: So welcome to Glasp Talk. Today we are very excited to have Stacey Roshan with us, a renowned educator and advocate for the innovative use of technology in the classroom. Stacey has made a significant contribution to the field of education through her innovative work in enhancing the classroom, ensuring students have a more personalized and engaged learning experience. Her methods have transformed how students interact with complex subjects, making learning more accessible and enjoyable. So join us as we dive into Stacey's journey and her insights on educational technology and her vision for the future of teaching and learning. So, welcome, Stacey, and thank you for joining today.
Stacey: Thank you for that wonderful introduction, and I'm so excited to be talking with you both. Thank you.
Kazuki: So yeah, first of all, we know who you are and what you do, but you know some of our audience might not know who you are yet. So just in case, could you introduce yourself, what you do, and how you got into education and technology?
Stacey: I'd love to. So I started as a math teacher, and I started integrating technology into my classroom about three years into my teaching. I really started getting interested in how I could change some of the classroom dynamics by integrating technology. So specifically, I was very interested in video. This was a little bit before the flipped classroom started to take off, and I really just wanted a way to have more time with my students. And then I just flipped my AP Calculus class—that's how it started. And then I got more interested in how, now that I made the videos, I did that the first year, how can I make them more engaging? So I started to look for platforms that allowed me to add interactive questions within it. And then I got really interested in how do we hear from all different types of students? So you know, not just the traditional hand-raising in the classroom, but how could technology allow all students to participate in a way that really allowed them to feel comfortable because not everybody's that talkative, loud kid in the classroom. And so as my interest in technology evolved, I started having a chance to work more with teachers, and so now my main role is supporting teachers. I also work with some tech companies in helping guide what they're building. I always, in my heart, will be a math teacher, but at the moment, I'm working more with teachers.
Kazuki: Oh yeah, that's exciting and impressive. So yeah, I have many questions, but you know, I'd like to know how you noticed the issue. And I know you mentioned that engaging was an issue and video can solve it and so on, and technology and software can solve it. But do you remember the first time you came up with this, or you faced the issue, like a specific issue?
Stacey: Yeah, so that's a really good question, and I'm always really interested in kind of asking when people are looking for solutions, that same sort of question—like what's your pain point? To really get there first, because I think a lot of times we jump in with solutions instead of like, what is your problem? So my initial problem was I was teaching AP Calculus, and it's a very packed curriculum. There's a lot of material to get through, and I felt like I was spending most of my time at the front of the room, and I wasn't getting around to students. And also, I was feeling a lot of anxiety from students because they had to do all these really hard homework problems at home when I wasn't there, and then they would feel a lot of stress to get all these questions answered and for me to have time to get through the lecture. So I really wanted to offload the lecture; I wanted to eliminate the lecture, but you know, I didn't know how I was going to do that. So that's where video allowed me to really change the dynamic of my classroom, and it worked really well for my personality and for my students. And you know, I also—the other thing that's really been a motivator for me is myself. I think a lot of times if we like look at our own pain points growing up, we all have had things that were great and we all had things that we really struggled with. And I loved school, I always loved school, but I am very introverted by nature. I'm also a perfectionist, and I really, even when I was younger, I struggled with it even more, where it felt very difficult for me to participate in class in the traditional ways of like hand-raising. I was never the first to raise my hand. I also needed more time to process, and I was scared if I didn't have the right answer to even try. And now I've looked at that, you know, like what were solutions that I needed as a kid, that I needed as a student? And I've seen me, the student, in so many of the kids that I have taught, you know. So none of us are alone, even though a lot of times we feel like, oh, we're the only ones that are going through this struggle. If you're going through it, a lot of other people usually are. And so a lot of my journey has been trying to address things that really matter to me because like that was little me who was struggling, you know, so how could I make that better now?
Kazuki: I see. Yeah, that's really impressive that you see yourself in your students. So impressive. And so then you like incorporated some software and video and software in education, and how has it changed? I mean, did you get feedback from students? You mentioned a little bit, but do you remember like an eye-opening moment?
Stacey: Yeah, yeah. So the first year that I started flipping in my AP Calculus class, you know, this wasn't being talked about. Like it wasn't really a thing. I mean, I'm not the first person who used video in their classroom; I'm not saying that at all. But it just wasn't popular, right? It wasn't something where you would say flipped classroom and students would know, or parents would know. It wasn't yet a term that was being used. And so when I introduced it to my students, I said, I think this is going to really work, and this is why. Like I want you to have more time. I want you to be able to do things in the classroom, but we're going to do this for chapter two, which was what we started with. We started with chapter 2, and you'll tell me how you like it. And if it works well, we'll continue, and if it doesn't work well, well, then we'll change things. And so that made students comfortable from the beginning, because they were worried, they were scared, they thought they'd only learn through lecture in math class in particular. And so they said like, how am I going to learn now? I'm not going to be able to ask you questions. Like I need to ask you questions when you're teaching me. I'm not going to be able to learn if they don't. But because I said that like we're going to try it for this first chapter, and it was a chapter that was a little bit of review material, they were comfortable with that. So we went with it, and they loved it because they discovered like, oh, well, I can still ask you questions just when I come to class, and now you're going to be there when we do the problems together. So I'm like really happy, and I can not only ask you questions, but like I can do the problems with a partner, with my friends, you know, instead of just listening. And so they were excited about it. So that first year went really well. Now then I decided, okay, I'm going to do the same thing in my Algebra 2 class with younger students. And because I had had a lot of success in AP Calculus, I did it with them, like okay, we're going to do it. Like this is the way that we're going to do it in class. And they were really scared, and a lot of their parents were really scared. And that felt really different because the first month was very challenging for me because kids were—they weren't as interactive in the process of me delivering it as when I was doing it with the AP Calculus class because I was really developing it with those students. And plus, they were older, so you know, they can give you better feedback than a younger student who a lot of times their feedback is more based on if they're doing well or not doing well, you know, or if it's hard or if it's easy. And for a lot of my Algebra—it was honors Algebra 2—a lot of those students, it was their first challenging math class that they had ever had. For a lot of them, it was their first high school math class ever. And so that one took me more time to develop trust with them. And so I learned a really valuable lesson then that I needed to gain the trust of the parents first. And so ever since then, I make a video to explain it to parents. I explain it to students, and I kind of work in a little bit more time for them to get comfortable with it. We do a little bit more in class, and you know, I've learned to more gradually roll it out. But I think that feedback is so important to listen and evolve with whoever your audience is, whether that's your students, whether you're developing a tech product and educators are your audience, or whoever it might be, really developing that trust and allowing channels for that communication, like how things are going, checking in, and seeing how everybody's feeling, is just—I think that leads to more success than anything else that you can do.
Kazuki: Yeah, totally makes sense. So yeah, when you introduced AP Calculus, were there any other alternatives other than AP Calculus, and why did you choose it?
Stacey: AP Calculus was the main pain point that I was feeling as a teacher because the curriculum is just—they have to take this standardized test, and it's not just at the end of the year; it's like a full month before school even ends. So it's a very tight timeline. And at the school I was teaching at, like we—it was an independent school, which has a lot of pros, but also we had less school days than a lot of the public schools that were around or like teaching hours. And so I felt really, really crammed for time. So that was mainly it. And then also, they are older students, so they are older, extremely motivated students who really, really have a lot of internal drive. And so I felt like I could—I don't want to say I could experiment with them, but I felt like I could gain their trust that like, here's something that's going to make your school year better. And I knew what the struggle was from—I had taught it two years before that. I had really gained insight into like, one of the biggest things was this time crunch and homework felt really challenging, and a lot of kids were coming in after school for help and stuff like that. And I just wanted them to not always have to come after school, like for them to be able to get their questions answered in class, you know, and for them to be able to work with their classmates. When I first started actually flipping my classroom and started using video, a lot of my students said like, I almost forgot what it was like being able to do my math work with my classmates because they hadn't had that in their prior class. Because again, like lecture just does take up a lot of time, especially when you're on a shorter block schedule. And so I think that—I hope that answers most of the questions, but it was like a group of students that I could trust and who could trust me. That's key. And then highly, highly motivated students, so I knew that they were going to do that work for me.
Kei: So in the previous question, you mentioned it's important to build trust with students and parents. How do teachers typically communicate with parents in the United States? Do teachers come to the school through students, or how does that work?
Stacey: It's a good question, and I think it really does depend on where you are. Again, like my teaching experience has all been in independent or private schools where parents are very involved. And so I have a chance to really form relationships with parents, and they can really help in that learning process too. I really believe in the power of parents, especially involved parents. Some people kind of fear very involved parents because they think they're going to get in the way, but in my experience, it's been so positive where, you know, if a kid is worried about something that's happening, they tend to go to their parents first and they express that. And if their parents have a good understanding of what's going on in the class, then the parent can really reassure them and help them get over whatever block it is. They can help them, you know, maybe they'll help them with their homework, or maybe they'll just help them understand what study strategies, whatever it might be. Parents can really be the first one there. But if parents are nervous, then that makes kids even more nervous, or it will introduce doubt or worry. And so I think that clear communication is really important. How I've communicated with parents—again, I'm lucky that we have a very close community with our parents. So we have back-to-school night at the beginning of the year where most parents would come to that at my school. And I know that's not everywhere that, you know, they have that luxury. But for parents who couldn't come to back-to-school night, that's when I started making a video that I would actually email to everybody so that the parents who couldn't come to back-to-school night could see that material. And I also think that's where technology can really come in because at different places now that I work with schools all over, you know, I see so many schools where not every parent speaks English. So at back-to-school night, they might not understand the whole thing, but the beauty of video, for example, is that you can turn on the closed captions, and it can be translated to a different language. And there's so many other things now that even if you write home a newsletter, a school newsletter, or you know, just the teacher writes a newsletter home, that it can be translated in any language too. And so these are places where I see technology can really help with the relationship piece because we can always send out, you know, an email, and it doesn't have to be an elaborate thing. But really helping, just helping whoever your audience is understand what you're doing and why you're doing it. And I just did—I spent a lot of time doing this in September and October, the first two months of the school year, and after that I had gained the trust. So I would put work up front into this, but it isn't something that's like you have to do for the entire school year. You know, that might seem overwhelming. It's really just, I think, this beginning piece of like spending some more time gaining that trust and building those relationships and communicating clearly.
Kei: Beautiful. Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. And so after you introduced AP Calculus, did you introduce any other technology or software into the classroom?
Stacey: Yeah, so I was teaching honors Algebra 2 at the time, and I was also teaching Algebra 1. And in Algebra 1, I didn't do a lot of homework with them. Like it was not obviously as much as in the honors classes. So I had to think about how I was going to use technology. I used more technology in the classroom, and I also did introduce some video. But mainly, I used it in the classroom, and I used it as a way to kind of have more individual time with students, where some students could be watching a video, and then I could meet with a small group of students. And then like, you can swap, you know, who's working on the video and who I'm working with. So that was really good for that group. And then honors Algebra 2, kind of like I had said before, I introduced it in a similar way to what I had done with the Calculus students, and I should have started slower with them my first year, but I learned to do that in subsequent years. And then students were able to do really well with that. With honors Algebra 2, they were younger students, so I used shorter, a little bit shorter videos, and then I really—they were the ones that I started adding more interactivity into the video to keep them engaged. As soon as I started doing it with them, technology started evolving where I could embed questions into the video so the video would pause. Because especially the younger students, sometimes like their mind would wander, or they would think they would understand, and these would give instant learning checks for them. So that was really good. And then when they came to class, I really started—this was a couple of years later—I started using, instead of just doing a presentation, I started doing something where they could interact with me through their own device. So they would have just—they had their laptop in class anyway, so they could respond, they could type, or they could write, and I would get kind of all that information from them instead of having to collect papers. And so that was like the next part of the evolution was like, how can I get data more instantly than everybody writing things on a piece of paper and me collecting it and not really being able to act on that until like the next class period.
Kei: Interesting. Yeah, that's innovative and efficient. And as you mentioned before, you can spend more time or more importance on chatting and interacting with students.
Stacey: Yeah, exactly.
Kei: Thanks. So yeah, also, just kind of like switching the topic, but we are interested in your personal learning too, your knowledge management tools. So in your daily life, do you use any note-taking apps or writing tools or knowledge management tools? You don't need to mention Glasp, by the way. Yeah, any software.
Stacey: Any software? Yeah. My main driver is called NotePlan, and I use that for pretty much planning everything. NotePlan is—it was just a Mac and iOS app, but they've recently launched a web app too. And you can use it for daily notes, and you can also use it for project notes. So I love the daily notes because they link to my calendar. So each day has a note, and you can also do weekly planning, monthly planning, quarterly planning, and even yearly planning. And then you have all your project notes where you can take notes on whatever, and that organizes in more of a folder structure. So everything that I do is there. It's all markdown-based, so it's very free-flowing. It's just like a bunch of text notes that all comes together under this wonderful platform that's fully searchable. And that was something that I really—why I really wanted to go to a system that I could do my calendar notes, my reminders, my to-dos, and my note-taking all in one, because I wanted it to be fully searchable. And so that's pretty much where I do everything. And so one of the things when I—you know, you're reading a lot of articles and you want to take notes on articles, and I was looking for something better than just copying and pasting over. And when I discovered Glasp, I was like, okay, this is perfect because I can highlight my notes, and then you pretty much can copy them over to NotePlan seamlessly. Because it just—again, like you can paste anything into NotePlan and it will tag it, so then everything becomes searchable there. But also, Glasp in and of itself is searchable. Like you can find it, you can tag things. And so those systems work really well together. And then the added bonus I find to using Glasp is that it is social. And so like everything we were talking about, like learning is just very important to me. So when I learn, I like to share with other people because that's how I've learned so much. So much of my journey into technology, I kind of was talking about the things that I have done, but I didn't mention that along the way, like when I was doing all of this, Twitter was called Twitter, and I used Twitter. And I would share on Twitter. People, other people would share what they were doing. I would get ideas. Like we would go back and forth. I could grow in so many ways. And I just kept sharing what I was doing because other people were sharing what they were doing, and I was really inspired by it. And I met a lot of great educators through that. And so that same idea, when I learned about Glasp and I was like, okay, I'm highlighting notes, but I can see what other people are highlighting on the same things I'm reading, like that's really cool. And the platform is all about that, like social sharing and learning together. And yeah, so that makes my educator heart really happy. And also, I just think it helps us learn better in general.
Kazuki: Thank you so much for mentioning that. And at the same time, you know, you mentioned about the daily plan, like weekly planning, and also capturing information and copy and paste and the share. How do you consolidate your learning? Do you have any workflow to deepen your learning or, you know, like, do you keep like a daily note, how to say, like a diary and so that you can deepen what you learn, you know, like, and so that you can iterate onto the next idea? Do you have some workflow on that part?
Stacey: I don't have like a formal workflow that a lot of people have. Like I know a lot of people in the NotePlan community, they have a more formal way of taking a note, taking, making a note for every new idea, doing more like Zettelkasten, you know, all these very, yeah, very elaborate systems. For me, I use tags. So like if I have read something, I'll like tag it with reading so that I can find it. But I'm like a big, big believer in search. So I just try and like remember, like I'll put, if I read something and I copy it into NotePlan, for example, I'll add in like a couple sentences of my own there that have a lot of keywords that I'm going to remember from it so that when I search, well, like I'm going to find it again. And so I'm not so particular with the system so much. So how I do it is I have my daily notes. Every day I have a daily note, and I usually do that the night before. I plan my daily note for the next day. And every evening I do a review. So everything that was on there that I didn't check off, I will either move over to the next day, I'll cancel, or I'll find a day when I have enough time to actually complete it. Because sometimes the next day is busy, right? So every day I run off that daily note, and that has all of my to-dos on it, but also is where I will like consolidate ideas. So for example, like if I want to write an article, like say tomorrow in my plans, I want to write an article. Well, I'll write in there that like tomorrow my plan is to write this article, but usually like I'll probably have some ideas in my head of things that I want to mention in that. So because again, NotePlan is just very free-flowing and free form. It's again all markdown-based. So it's just like a giant text box where I can put anything. I just jot down bullet points there, and then I can see it all laid out in one document, as opposed to a lot of other systems that are more just to-do lists. You know, like you have to click to open it and expand it. And like, they're just, the capturing itself is usually very quick in most of the to-do apps, but to actually elaborate and to like start brainstorming is not. And so that's what I really like about that system. Now I have my daily note, but then say that I'm like working on a collaboration with a company, and I have to script a video, and I needed to draft the video first, like a script for them to review, and then I need to put some social media posts so that, you know, they, multiple steps. Well, that's like a collaboration that I have with this company, and it's going to be ongoing work, not just I'm going to finish it tomorrow and it's done. So then I would create a project note for that. And in my daily note, you can backlink between the two. So I can reference that like tomorrow I'm going to work on this collaboration project, and all I do is link to the project notes. So then I'll click tomorrow, I'll see that project note is there, go into the project note, which is now only concentrated on whatever this collaboration is, and then I'll work there. And when I'm working in there, usually like I'll have certain deadlines for myself, and I can date those deadlines. And those deadlines, I hope this makes sense to whoever's watching, but those deadlines link back to the daily note. So it's a two-way reference. Either I started in my daily note, link out to the projects, or in my projects, I add a date, and then it will go back to my daily note. So you know, otherwise, like if you have a bunch of Google Docs, you can so easily lose track of what you were doing, when you were doing it, when do I follow up on this? And so, you know, like there's certain things where I just want to remember every month, like to post something or every month to do something, and I can just set a recurring reminder every month, go back to this project note, or every month do something to carry me forward with this project or update it.
Kazuki: Interesting. And yeah, that totally makes sense. And I think the power of note-taking apps is calendar, and I see that. And because you can bidirectionally manage your notes and also see how it's related to your schedules and calendar. Yeah, totally makes sense. And then, but this is a little bit another topic, but you know, I see you are an ambassador of a lot of, you know, great software companies and projects like Pear Deck and Nearpod. You are like certified coach, Kami, and Grammarly. And sorry, I'm curious about how did it start? Did you approach them too, or, you know, and yeah, because I love these projects, you know, and also software and products. So I was wondering that part too.
Stacey: Yeah, so how did it start? A lot of them were programs where I wanted to learn more, and they were offering these learnings. And if you participated in the learning, then at some point you became a coach, and then if you became a coach, then you could become a, some of them are like a coach and then a trainer and then an ambassador. So like you just do more learning, and usually to become an ambassador, you have to be doing a certain amount of sharing too. So I was speaking at a lot of conferences, and when you enroll in these programs, there's certain, like one of the reasons I enroll in them is because first of all, I'm learning a lot of material. Secondly, you get some access to some of the training materials that they create, but you're also then in a community. Usually they have a Slack group or a Discord group or, you know, some kind of group where people can talk and you can ask one another questions and you can share what you're doing, and so you get a lot of ideas from one another. And so that's where my interest really came in was I started participating in the ones where I felt like their trainings were really good. So if their training was good, I was like, want to do this because I'm going to learn, and then I'm going to be able to share this learning forward, and I'm going to be able to connect with other people who are kind of doing the same thing as I am. And as I started doing more of this, you know, my social media presence became bigger. You know, I was posting a lot, I was sharing a lot, and so I was very lucky that, you know, especially with Twitter, but that was where my main audience grew. And so as I started sharing more, that's where all of it at first was me applying for these programs. And then it started being that some companies reached out to me like, hey, we see you sharing a lot of things. That was like, I was so honored. That's how the Grammarly ambassador came about was I just was sharing content about how I was using Grammarly. I'd been using it for a really long time. I would make videos sharing about how I use Grammarly in my workflow and why I recommend it to students. I made tutorials for students to use, and then they invited me to join their community. And now I've met so many cool people through that. And so it's kind of a mix. Sometimes you apply, sometimes you have to look. Grammarly has an application actually. So I've invited some of my friends to become Grammarly ambassadors, and now they've been able to join me in the community too, and other people have done it organically. But I really encourage people who are interested in this type of thing to like look on a lot of websites. If you look, you'll see if they have some ambassador programs. And you don't need to have like a huge following of people. A lot of times they're just looking for people who are just like authentically sharing, you know. Like I think a lot of people are like, oh, I don't have enough followers on this platform or whatever, but you know, it's really about just sharing what you're doing, and that's why I enjoy being part of the groups.
Kazuki: Interesting. And I'm curious about who are those people in like, you know, like the Grammarly group or Pear Deck group, and each, like, are they teachers mainly or parents who are interested in like learning and teaching, or I don't know, like more like coaches?
Stacey: Yeah. With most of the groups that I'm in, so Pear Deck, Kami, Quizzes, Edpuzzle, those are all educators. Like everybody's an educator in those groups. Some people are like leadership at their school, but mostly it's teachers and some people who are like, now my role is a consultant, so I'm not in a classroom right now. And so a lot of people are like me. With Grammarly and another one that I'm in is Lucid Software, those two are a lot more people in business. Grammarly is like, there's so many people who are writers in there, which makes total sense. And that's been a really cool group that I've been part of. There's a lot of freelance writers in that group. People also who are just like in the business world who are trying to get their company really understanding the power of Grammarly and what it can do for Grammarly Business. There are some educators, but there's not as many educators as there are other professions. So that's a real hybrid of different types of people. And you know, the other thing that we get to do in these groups—oh, and then like Lucid Software is mainly people that are in business. And so I learn a lot from them because it's a different ambassador group than I've been in with other things. And so I'm part of Lucid for Education, they have an ambassador group, and that's all educators, and we share just lesson plans. Lucid for Business is more people who are in the business world, and they share like what they've learned over the years, what advice they would give to people. And it's a way to connect. But another thing that I love about these groups is that you, in all the groups that I'm in, you get to beta test stuff. So there are people who love this and there's people who are not going to like this because when you're beta testing things, things break. So like you have to be excited about trying things that might not work perfect yet, but you're able to give feedback and that feedback informs—I mean, you guys know this very well, it informs how you're going to build things. And for me as a person who is not a developer, who's not a builder, to have some influence, some say over things that I want to see built is really exciting for me. And so I'm really excited to do that work, you know, and be part of these communities. And so that's what they're offering you. They're offering you connection. They're offering you a chance to talk directly with developers and give feedback and to learn. So to me, that's just fun and exciting.
Kazuki: Great. And regarding the beta testing, I think nowadays, you know, like people are obsessed with AI, ChatGPT, OpenAI, and so on. And how has AI impacted education generally? I mean, from your perspective, I mean, in any like softwares or in classroom and any like teaching, and do you have any like ideas and thoughts around here?
Stacey: Yeah, I think it's a confusing time for everybody, but maybe particularly in education because there are a lot of still concerns, whether that's student privacy. You know, we're talking about young kids' data, but also we're talking about responsible use in children where it's, you know, their brains are still developing. And so that to me is something that I find particularly challenging is, you know, them like knowing—I don't want to say right from wrong because kids know right from wrong, but sometimes, especially when it comes to like what really is cheating, I think it's hard. I think that's hard. And I think that it's easy to say like, oh, you know, like they use the AI and then they plagiarize from the AI or, you know, they rely too heavily on it. But I think sometimes it's a tricky thing in a kid's brain. It's tricky for them to figure out what's right and wrong. But I think it's also tricky when they're under so much stress to do so well, to like want to get an A in the class, to having so much homework, to feeling stressed out. Like there's a lot going on. So I think there's this whole emotional side of it that's difficult. But also like, you know, the technology is not made for kids. Like we're developing more, like more of these tools now are created now for students. And there are certain ones that are like almost like a sandbox of like kids only have access to this sort of tool and teachers can have a dashboard of what students are doing so they can help guide students. And I think that's really important. In terms of teachers using AI, I've seen some really great uses, but I've also seen like a lot of these tools where it's like, oh, we'll take a worksheet and you can scan it and now it's digitized and it's like automatically digitized. And I don't know, to me, that doesn't get me super excited because, yeah, I mean, it's cool that now it's going to be on the computer and maybe kids will get instant feedback and it's better than a worksheet on paper, but it's still a worksheet. You know, it's like if we're really innovating, like that's not being super innovative. So, you know, I've seen a lot of companies push that out and I've seen a lot of people, even companies that didn't start with that, that so many teachers asked for it and then it became part of the platform. So I just, you know, I think we're in early stages still and I just hope that we see truly innovative uses of the AI and not just like, how can I do what I was doing before, but like use technology to do it, you know? But I think too that like it's going to save teachers a lot of time in certain areas. And if we get back to like what I was saying at the very beginning with how, why my videos transformed everything for me as a teacher, it was because I opened up space in my classroom. I opened up time in my classroom because they watch this video, right? And then I had time for students to do all this other stuff. So I can see the same thing, same argument with AI technology is like if we can automate certain things for teachers, we can automate certain things for, you know, grading and then like, you know, you're going to proofread it. You're going to go over it too. The AI is not doing all of it, but if AI can help with that and can help with the lesson planning and can help with the rubric generation and all this stuff, you're going to free up teachers' time to do other things. And I think that's where the beauty comes in. The beauty comes in in what energy you can free up for the teacher and where, you know, you can free up time for them to do their most important work, which I think is like being there for the kids and forming relationships and doing the one-on-one work and really facilitating learning experiences.
Kazuki: I see. And then what's your thought on like, you know, like previously you mentioned about trust, trust building, trust with parents, like teachers and, you know, between teachers and parents. And how has AI changed that part? I mean, because, you know, responsibilities of teacher change, I think, then, you know, as well as like parents' responsibilities, you know, change, right? Because of AI. So did it—yeah, has it changed or something? Has something changed, you know?
Stacey: I feel like I have ideas for answers to this, but also like I'm not in the classroom right now. And so I feel like my expertise is less like valid here because I don't really know. I haven't experienced it myself. I've heard from other teachers, but I haven't felt any of the impact myself because I haven't used it as a teacher. But I do—one thing that I do find exciting is just like how it can help with communication. And so I think there's a lot of fears, but I think that it can do a lot for communication. So when like we're talking about all the work that I did like in September and October to like communicate with parents and share what I was doing and creating newsletters and stuff like this, I think that AI can be such a tool to help create this stuff, you know, so it feels less intimidating and it feels more doable. Because, you know, a lot of the things that I share, you know, I spent a lot of time creating them. And I know that's a roadblock for some teachers because a lot of teachers teach way more students than I had to teach in my independent school world. And I see that a lot with the schools that I work with now, like, you know, they'll just have a lot more students and a lot more different preps and a lot more parents and all this stuff. And so if AI can help with some of that, that's huge. And then also when we were talking about like translation, like it's huge in terms of like really helping with the communication, some communication barriers that might have been in place, you know, taking things to the next level.
Kazuki: Yeah, that totally makes sense. And so a little bit off topic, but you know, like during your day, you know, daily life, daily work, do you have some favorite, you know, in your life maybe, and do you have any favorite slogan or motto or quotes? Do you always remind for yourself like, you know, for some people, you know, someone's quotes, you know, always, you know, like motivate me? Do you have something?
Stacey: That's an interesting question. I don't have a particular quote, but I think what I think about a lot now is more of like, how can I stay present with what I'm doing and focused on the work that I'm doing, taking things one step at a time? I think that it's very easy to kind of not only have a lot of physical tabs open on your computer, but mentally have a lot of tabs opened in your brain. And I definitely experienced some degree of burnout in the past because I just was trying to juggle so many different things. And, you know, I definitely have some perfectionist tendencies, which can be very hard on your well-being. And so I try now to be more present in the moment and put my full attention into one thing at a time and know that it's okay to sometimes say no to opportunities. And maybe that's partly because I'm getting older. When you're younger, you say yes to everything because, you know, it's interesting and you have a lot of stamina and energy and you're learning and you're trying to figure out what you're really interested in. And now that I've gotten a little bit older, I'm more aware of what I'm interested in. And I, you know, I have learned that sometimes like saying no to something that does still sound interesting and like an opportunity is really good. And I don't know the exact quote, but there is a saying that says that when you say no to something, you're saying yes to something else or you're saying yes to yourself. And I think that is something that has really been on my mind a lot in this past year in particular, especially as I'm trying to explore some new areas, like I'm trying to get back into writing again and I'm trying to be more focused in like the work that really brings me joy and doing more of that. And some of the work that I was—that is interesting to me and that I would like to do detracts from me putting more time and attention into like the things that I'm super passionate about. And so I've said for now, I'm going to say no to some of that to grow my passions where I'm like, know that I want to lead to now. So yeah, I think it's been a big evolution for me. And in the last year, I've seen a lot of growth personally for myself in that area, and I couldn't have said that like as a younger person.
Kazuki: That's a great message. But maybe similar to that question, but so do you have any like other advice for like aspiring teachers or students who are struggling with something, learning?
Stacey: Yeah, I think that one big thing is to have a growth mindset and to not be afraid of fumbling along the way because everything is not going to be perfect. And if everything has to be perfect all the time, you're going to miss out on so many learning opportunities. And I really think that when you can see learning as play and you can see it as something that's, you know, grow—like they say, growing your brain is a way to talk to kids about having a growth mindset that their brain is growing even when they do something wrong or if they do something right. You know, it's all growth. And how can we use this? I think that's one of the most important things that we can have as learners. And that doesn't matter if you're young or old. If you can always maintain that growth mindset, I think you'll always stay young, young at heart, and you'll always stay learning.
Kazuki: And this is a little bit heavy question, but you know, since Glasp is a platform where people share what they're learning and we see learning as a legacy and one's legacy because sharing is caring and that information of quotes, meaning that they cared about. So, and we see it as a legacy. So do you have, as an educator, do you—what legacy do you want to leave behind? Do you have some ideas and thoughts around here?
Stacey: Yeah, and I love that that's part of your mission. It really—like when I saw that, it really spoke to my heart. So I think that's one of the big motivators for me in writing and sharing. Writing is not comfortable for me. I'm a math teacher, and I much prefer equations to ever writing. But I feel like that's a way that I can communicate to people what I've learned along the way. And I think that we all have our own personal struggle and story. And like you've shared your story behind building Glasp, and you know, it's very motivational when you really understand why people do what they do, especially when maybe, you know, like something impacted a person's life. And so they decided that they were going to do, you know, a certain job or they were going to build something or whatever it might be. And so for me, it's been a big motivator to write, and that's part of why I want to write more now. And I want to write from a very personal space, even though it's scary because it's scary to share your full story. But I think that's how people grow empathy and people can grow as a person too. Like I read books all the time, and I don't, you know, like when I—even when I'm reading a memoir or reading, you know, something where a person's trying to share their journey to help you, it's not always that I feel the same journey as they've been through or I can relate exactly to what they said, but there's pieces that resonate. And I think that a really artful author will allow you to read into whatever they're saying and allow you to kind of put yourself in that position and say like, what can I learn from this person's story that I can apply to my own to help me be a better person? And I hope to be able to do some of that through my writing and also through like the conference speaking that I do through the sharing. Most of my work that I'm really passionate about now is how do we empower every student's voice? So how do we use this technology to help all different students feel comfortable participating, to help them grow confidence? I just think that there's just this world open to us with technology, and none of it has to be complex. It's so simple. You know, give students a platform to type out their thoughts and to raise their hand. Give some collaborative platforms so that students can brainstorm when they're sitting on their bed at home or when they're in the classroom. So like, you know, we all have different comfort spots and we all have different ways of when we feel comfortable, where we feel comfortable. We have introverts, we have extroverts, and we have everybody in between. And I really think that technology is a way for everybody to express themselves and also for us to just be more empathetic, compassionate human beings because we can understand what everybody's trying to say instead of getting drowned out by hearing like the same person talk and the same ideas are spoken. And I don't know, I just really hope that we can have more of that in this world in general of like more voices shared, more people heard.
Kazuki: Very impressive. And I edited up your book, Tech with Heart, and we will put the link in the description. And I think, yeah, so I think we asked, you know, many questions, and thank you for answering all the questions. And yeah, and also thank you for joining today.
Stacey: Yeah, it's my pleasure. And I really thank you for the work that you're doing, and I, you know, I really hope that more people do feel comfortable sharing and learning in public like what you talk about. I know that sometimes people are a little hesitant to use something where other people will be able to see what they highlight or what they've read, but I just think that it is such a service that we can do for each other and that we can learn together and, you know, that we're not necessarily judging people for what they find interesting or what they're highlighting or any of this, that we just have more, like I was saying, like more compassion for one another and this mindset of growth together.
Kazuki: Yes, thank you so much. Yeah, thank you so much for joining. We had a really great time.
Stacey: Yes, thank you so much. I appreciate it.
