Audio Transcript Auto-generated
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Welcome to stem stories, Mr Ewing.
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Find your voice.
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This is fourth installment of how we worked to create
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a better virtual learning environment during that magical unicorn here
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that we're getting ready to walk into, Actually, that we've
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been in since about March 2020.
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So finding your voice, what does that mean?
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And we're gonna talk about and I always say we
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like there's more than one of us here because he's
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not saying anything.
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Find your voice, but also finding your platform.
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And that's super important as we navigate through, um, this
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change. So the first thing I want to say is
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be authentic.
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And I know this is a word that we've thrown
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around for a very long time, but during this time,
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more than ever, is this important?
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BU being the most authentic you as possible making and
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putting out work that is provided by you Being you
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is the best connection you can make with your students.
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It's gonna create a release of those Oxy Top Tosa
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and dopamine and serotonin levels are gonna elevate in your
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students. They're gonna be so much more engaged than you
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providing lessons that are not created by you being the
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most authentic you.
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So while I think other video platforms and everything are
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super important that we integrate with our lessons, they're not
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a replacement for you being there for your students, whether
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it's live or recorded be you.
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And if you want to put on costumes and have
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fun, which is something I love to dio do it
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and I can't emphasize enough what it means to be
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authentic. Be genuine, be riel.
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Be real.
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Be bonified and be true to yourself.
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Don't force yourself to do things that you wouldn't normally
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do in the classroom.
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Don't try to be someone you're not.
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If you're the funny teacher, be the funny teacher.
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Don't take that out of the work you're doing.
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Your students expect it.
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And if you're up there and you're just like while
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today did you and you're not doing this, they're not
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gonna engage.
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They're not gonna feel it if you're not feeling it
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and you're not having fun and you're not being that
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crazy teacher, they're gonna know I love this picture.
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By the way, if you're stern, if you're strict, if
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you're that teacher, be that teacher on your lessons don't
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change your keep.
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Students may say that they don't like your class, but
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they love it.
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Trust me, some of the strictest teachers I ever had
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were some of my favorite classes.
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Not during the time.
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But I look back, I have this one teacher, Mr
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Barefoot, Social Studies in 10th or 11th grade.
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All we did was this insane, noting, But I and
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Iose I felt like I was drowning in that class.
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But I look back at it now, and it was
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probably one of the most amazing experiences I had with
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a teacher.
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And I I know that that he honestly really cared
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about my learning.
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It wasn't learning in an environment that was very weird
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for me and very uncomfortable, but it was amazing.
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And I look back at it now, so if that
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you be you Do you all right?
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If you have a twinge of sarcasm in your lessons
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and be careful with sarcasm, we all know that can
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go, belong, want with bad way.
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But I love this ice.
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Actually. Say this to my students all the time I
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go. One of my favorite lessons to teach is how
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to cheat in class, and my students are always like
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you're gonna teach us how to cheat.
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And I'm like, Yeah, sure, what I'm really doing is
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telling them like I see all this stuff you're doing
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and it's not gonna fly with me like people don't
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look in their labs and smile in life.
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We just don't do that.
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That's how we know there's a phone in your life
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or when someone passes a note and they do this.
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I mean, it's just not things that humans do.
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So if that's you bu again, just be you don't
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change. Don't feel like you have to change.
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Don't feel like you have to be something.
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You're not being that person that you are every day
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in that classroom.
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In that building in life, be authentic.
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And if you're one of those teachers that always has
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a cup of coffee teacher lessons with a cup of
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coffee, do those normal things that you do in your
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classroom integrated in.
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So here's one of the most profound things.
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I figured out platform, and I thought, Who does the
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best job at teaching us every day?
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It's the news channels.
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It's the morning shows.
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It's the Daily Show's It's the nightly news or the
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morning news.
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Those people engages in a way create.
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There's emotional bond with us.
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We're really addicted to a particular news channel.
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We don't usually flip around.
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We watch one.
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We watch one channel.
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We watch one program or we watch a couple.
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But we go to those same programs because they have
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created an emotional bond with us.
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Do we actually know them?
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No. Do we really know who they are as a
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person? Probably not, but they worked very hard with body
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language with the way they talk, The things they talk
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about, the way they interact with us on the screen
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to create that bond with us, do the same thing.
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That's what our students want.
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That is the way we actually create those environments that
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engages air students, making those social connections meat.
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Looking into the screen right now, smiling, moving, doing all
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the gestures is creating a connection with us.
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Well, maybe for most of us, maybe not, I don't
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know, but that's what I'm working on.
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I'm trying to mimic mawr of what a reporter does
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every day to engage you to deliver content and information
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in a way that engages you and want you to
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tune in tomorrow.
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They all do it.
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They do amazing jobs of creating these personal interactions with
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us. Because what you name, because we want to be
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their friend.
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What? We want them to be our friend or whatever
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reason you tune in.
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I mean, I'd love to go hang out with all
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these people.
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So call me, um, call me on that side, but
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do it that young, mimic them, wash them, watch their
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body language.
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Look at the way they engage in the camera.
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You know, they talk to each other.
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You know, if you have a teaching partner, do it,
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Uh, an online meeting and recorded with both of you
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guys on the screen interact like co anchors of a
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news channel to deliver content.
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That's what we need to do the best.
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Engage our students in this kind of environment, you have
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to mimic the people that do it best.
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And I think personally as I kind of brainstorm and
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searched newscasters are the ones that do it best.
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So recreate it, and I know I know doing live
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lessons is hard for a lot of us because one
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it's very uncomfortable to not all over.
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Learners are online at the same time.
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So yes, we need to be doing live lessons.
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It's super important, but record them.
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And if you're not comfortable with live lessons first, ask
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yourself why My guess is like me.
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I don't like to hear my voice.
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I don't like to see myself on video, but by
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creating all these videos, I've become really comfortable with it.
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And actually, the interactions I had with my students live
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were so amazing.
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It was powerful for them.
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But it was really powerful for me to make those
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connections and see them.
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And they really, really want you to deliver the content,
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not other videos.
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Now, Yes, those videos out there are super important to
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support what we're doing, not replace it.
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Very, very, very important again.
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If you're that teacher, be that teacher.
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If you're this teacher, that teacher, this teacher, be it
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don't try to be something you're not.
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If anything, we know our students can read through us
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in a second.
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And if you're trying to be something that you are
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not, they're going to know it.
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So find a platform find your voice.
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I will tell you very quickly.
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I use Prezi video.
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I find that it mimics the outline or the layout
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of a nightly news program.
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And like I said, I can flip through different screens
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like they can as well.
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Um, I really like this platform.
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Find your platform.
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It's super important as finding your voice and how you
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deliver content.
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Don't deliver flat content.
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If you're going to be online, use a platform like
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this and be able to be the center of the
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learning and let the whatever you're delivering over here.
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I like this so I can actually bring it up
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to the full screen and bring it back in.
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So I still get to see the phone being the
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focus and still allow them to feel that it's an
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integral, integrated piece of learning.
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So practice experiment.
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Put yourself outside your comfort zone.
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Find your authentic