Shownotes:
If there is one thing that we can all agree on it might be that technology has a way of humbling us! With empathy and compassion, Debbie Tannenbaum works with her peers to find purpose-driven ways to use technology to improve teaching and learning without overwhelming kids or adults. Together, we can focus on removing barriers and celebrating the opportunities!
About Our Guest:
An educator with over twenty years of experience, Debbie Tannenbaum works each and every day to “transform” learning using technology. During her time in education, she has served both as a classroom teacher in various grades and as an elementary technology coach. Outside of the classroom, Debbie promotes using technology tools to amplify student learning in her work as an educational technology consultant, author, blogger and speaker. You can connect with Debbie at TannenbaumTech.com .
Book: TRANSFORM: Techy Notes to Make Learning Sticky
Website: tannenbaumtech.com
Twitter: @TannenbaumTech Instagram: @TannenbaumTech
About Lainie:
Lainie Rowell is an educator, international consultant, podcaster, and TEDx speaker. She is the lead author of Evolving Learner and a contributing author of Because of a Teacher. Her latest book, Evolving with Gratitude, was just released. An experienced teacher and district leader, her expertise includes learner-driven design, community building, online/blended learning, and professional learning. Learn more at linktr.ee/lainierowell.
Twitter - @LainieRowell
Instagram - @LainieRowell
Evolving with Gratitude, the book, is now available! Purchase here!
You can also get bulk orders for your staff (10 copies or more) at a discounted price! Just fill out the form linked below and someone will get back to you ASAP! bit.ly/ewgbulkdiscount
Transcript:
Lainie Rowell: [00:00:00] Hello, my friends. I have Debbie Tannenbaum. Debbie is an educator of over 20 years, so lots of experience. Every single day she's working in classrooms, she's working with kids, she's working with adults.
She's transforming learning through the use of technology, and I'm gonna let her tell more because I know she has a variety of experiences and she's got a really fun role right now. So Debbie, why don't you tell us all about, and you're an author by the way, we have to make sure and get that in. So hopefully you'll chat about that.
But tell us more about what makes you so cool.
Dennie Tannenbaum: Thank you. Cool introduction. So I am an elementary- we were called school-based technology specialists. Essentially that means I'm an elementary school tech coach. This year I'm in a new school and I get to work with kids pre-K all the way to sixth grade.
I love my pre-Ks, they're so cute. And I get to help teachers learn ways to integrate technology in ways that empower our students and really amplify learning. So I love that part of my job. I really get to show teachers ways that they can use technology in those transformative ways. So I talk to my teachers a lot about what's something that they could do a little bit differently.
And really focusing on how the technology can give them those opportunities that they might not have without them. In addition to that, I get to teach a few classes on the master schedule and I get to do all the stuff you get to do when you're in schools on a daily basis. Some things that we're not gonna talk about cuz they're kind of bad words in education right now. Starts with a T.
But I've been really lucky over the past six years I've been able to work in this role in the elementary school setting and it's really changed my life. I guess like seven, seven years now, I joined Twitter and became a connected educator.
And being a connected educator changed everything. I started getting connected. I started meeting people like you and others that we have in common, and started blogging. On February 1st, I hit my four year blogging anniversary.
Lainie Rowell: Aw.
Dennie Tannenbaum: Which was really weird. I was presenting a T C E A and all of a sudden I was like, wait, it's February 1st.
I've been blogging for four years. Like, really kind of crazy. But because of blogging, I ended up doing a lot of writing, and at the end of 2019, I was doing a Twitter chat, the LeadLAP chat, the Lead Like a Pirate chat, and Jay Billy was doing it and he's like, what could you do if you could do anything?
And I was like, I wanna write a book. And like many of us, I know you have the same feeling and ended up having a pandemic book baby. And I wrote my book during 2020. And then it, it came out on my birthday in 2021.
Lainie Rowell: That was a fun story. I heard you tell that.
So you were on George Couros' podcast? What?
Dennie Tannenbaum: Yes.
Lainie Rowell: Maybe. Well, like right around when the book came out, wasn't it?
Dennie Tannenbaum: Yeah. Right around when the book came out.
Lainie Rowell: Yeah. So that's always fun cuz George is one of my favorites, so I'm glad you got to be on his podcast to launch that.
Dennie Tannenbaum: My book is really about my story. It talks about how when I first started teaching, you know, we were kind of teaching behind closed doors and how I kind of fell in love with using technology to engage my learners.
And how I kind of have re-looked at how we can use technology with education. Talks about amplifying our learning, really building on that creativity. And what does it mean to create. I spend, I do a lot with my learners using Project Zeros, thinking routines, and with the adults I work with I really feel like they help scaffold thinking.
And so it, the book talks about that and the work that I've done, finding health technology tools can really amplify that work, but talks about other ways of looking at creation. In addition, the book talks about nurturing student agency. One of the things I'm probably the most passionate about is when I became a tech coach, I had no idea what I was doing with my young learners.
I felt like I was playing Whack-a-Mole , and I was really lucky to have some experiences that have helped me to learn and grow and really build that up. And so that's something I present on often on how to empower our youngest scholars or our littles to create. And the book kind of talks about the beginning of that journey, how I started teaching, the more icons, how I built in more, you know, agency with video and the language I'm using.
And then the rest of the book is kind of a social media journey in a lot of ways. It talks about how, as an educator, you can transform with tech seeking connections outside of your school, finding that PLN. Offering your voice and then it kind of finishes talking about reaching beyond your expectations and how you can maximize learning's, impact to transform.
Like most of us who write education books is an acronym and each one stands for one of the chapters. But something I'm really proud of, I'm really glad that I got the opportunity to work on, I met my publisher through Twitter, so, and you've been on Darren's podcast so you know Darren and so, been really wonderful.
I've gotten the chance to contribute to a few books too, which was, which has been really nice. But right now I'm really trying to focus on providing the people I work with, both at my school and outside of my school resources to really help them with the technology. Making it simple. Yeah. Far too often people get overwhelmed by what they think integrating technology is, and I'm sure you can relate to this.
And they're like, it's too hard. I can't do it all. Well, I'm just trying to make it simple. You know? What are we trying to get our kids to do? We wanna give our kids choices. What's a program you can use that has choice embedded? Mm-hmm. If we wanna get our kids talking about math more, what can we use to do that?
And really kind of finding that match. I've really been focusing on in the past year because far too often... I think it's that mental mindset that I'm not good at tech, but when you ask them why it's too big to even be into tackle. So that's what I've really been working on. In addition to speaking at conferences and continuing to blog and just really loving the whole journey.
If you had told me even five years ago I'd be doing all these things, I would have thought it was crazy.
Lainie Rowell: Well, I share what you say about social media and how it's connected all of us and how powerful it is. It's like you say how some people get really overwhelmed with technology, just even with social media, we get overwhelmed and so sometimes people are hesitant to step in.
But I really appreciate your perspective on, think about the problem you're trying to solve. Yeah. And could you do it through this and not a let's put the tech first.
Dennie Tannenbaum: Never.
Lainie Rowell: It's always, well, what's our goal? And how could we use technology to remove barriers, to amplify voices, to be creative and empower our learners, give them more agencies.
So I'm on board with all that.
Dennie Tannenbaum: It's just so funny cuz I was just a T C E A and when I do sessions, I don't ever do them about a tech tool specifically. I do them about a topic and then show how the tech tools fold in. And somebody came up to me and they were like, I like your sessions because you do that.
Mm-hmm. . And you're not just focused on let's learn a hundred reasons why you should use Google Slides or a hundred reasons why you use this or that program. But instead I'm talking pedagogy and then how the tech fits into that. And so I've really been trying to focus on that because I feel like if you do that, it's not as overwhelming.
Lainie Rowell: I hundred percent agree. I think that's such a great strategy and I think about, again, the technology is a great way to remove barriers. I was planning to be a special ed teacher and ended up focusing more on how to use technology to meet the needs of all learners. So you're speaking my language.
And then, you know, with social media, it just became such a learning tool for me, a way to connect with people. And again, I understand people have hesitations, but I don't really see that part of what some people see because I've kind of created a walled garden where I'm pretty strategic about when I go on social media, it's to learn something new from my community.
It's to share something that I've learned that I think others would benefit from. Or it's to express gratitude. And so those are kind of my three reasons to get on social media. And I don't tend to spend a ton of time in my feed. I tend to do more searching than swiping, , scrolling, whatever you wanna say.
Dennie Tannenbaum: Yeah. And I just think about, I've met so many amazing people who've helped me to learn and grow. Obviously, we have George Couros in common, but I'm really involved in the Teach Better Team. I've met every single one of those people through, you know, the, and they're my family through social media.
And just, you know, I go to conferences and you run into, I'm sure you've had the same thing happen. You run into people who you've only ever interacted with online and it's like you've known them forever. Yeah. And I can't imagine not having that because I've learned so much from people who I've met online.
Lainie Rowell: Yeah, it's always that surreal thing where I see someone who I know their face and I'm like, have we met in person before? Is this, is this it? Because I'll know them from social media and sometimes I'm trying to figure out if we've actually been in physical space in real life before.
Thank you for sharing so much about yourself, and I'm so excited about all that you do. And now I wanna get to what does gratitude mean to you.
Dennie Tannenbaum: To me, the whole idea of gratitude is something that I feel like has really evolved for me over the past couple of years. There have been times over the past couple of years that were hard and I didn't quite understand why they were hard, but understanding that when things happen, they're happening for a reason and that the celebrations are coming afterwards.
That's what I do every morning. I journal and I journal my celebrations and I always look at it as a way of something that happened, something that's going to happen. But looking at that as an opportunity, I think is really key. And it's something that I probably wouldn't have done earlier in my career because I would've been like, well, this is a problem.
That's a problem. Well, everything that was a problem has led to an opportunity that I could not have expected, you know? And I ended up at a school, my principal introduced me to Twitter, right before I was at that school. I was in a not so great situation. Well, that I guess, downhill or that, you know, that low led me to growing in a way that I could never expected.
You know, I kind of believe that things happen in a reason. And so really appreciating those things, I feel the same way about my husband. You know, this is my second marriage. I'm so grateful every day that I had that first experience so now that I can really, really treasure this and so really just focusing on that and focusing on those types of things I think is really where I've been, you know, sticking with gratitude lately, I've gone through a lot of iterations.
I've done the things where you write three things you're grateful for. Then for after I read your book, I was doing gratitude stories and it really came down to the list, I guess last couple of months I've really been doing the celebrations each day and writing the list of celebrations, and that really feels authentic to me, right.
Lainie Rowell: And I think that's what's so important, right? And that's one of the things I've tried really hard to do in the book and why there's, you know, 20 contributors is like, I don't wanna just say why, I wanna talk about gratitude and why it's important to me and this is how I do it. That's in there a little bit, but I really wanted to focus more on, there's so many ways you could do it and here's how these 20 amazing educators are doing it.
And then I still knew there were way more stories, which is why you're here today, Debbie. And why I keep doing this podcast is because I wanna hear everyone's story. And I think it's a bit contextual and kind of depends on what's happening in our lives right now.
And like you said, are you in a peak or a valley? Where are you right now? And so understanding that there are peaks and valleys that's part of the full human experience. Yeah. And, and knowing you'll get back to that peak.
Dennie Tannenbaum: Absolutely. Sometimes I feel like people don't know what to appreciate unless they've had those ups and downs.
And that was one of the reasons that I started sharing my story was because I was thinking about blogging, wasn't sure what to do with it. And somebody said, your story isn't all ups. Mm-hmm. But there are ups and downs and people need to hear that you can have ups and downs and you can still be successful and you can still reach beyond your expectations.
And it requires a lot of growth in order to really have that gratitude and really appreciate those things that are happening. Our brains are preconditioned to be negative, but it's such a much better place to live and to be in. And it's watching when working with the kids and working with the teachers and seeing how, you know, being an educator has never been harder, but being able to help educators is more important than ever.
And I love the fact that I get to do that, help them help their students and learn from them at the same time too. So, it's been really wonderful.
Lainie Rowell: I think it's really lovely when you get to support both adults and kids. I still do that and when I was in a district, that was something that I really enjoyed doing, is getting in there with kids, but also getting opportunities to really collaborate on a much deeper level with my peers.
Dennie Tannenbaum: Well, you know, today I got an experience where I was able to help facilitate one of my teams of teachers trying something new. Well, that's awesome. That makes me really happy because so, so many times our teachers are like, well, if you're teaching the kids, then I don't need to teach the kids.
But these are skills that we all have to have. We're preparing our kids for jobs we don't know what they're gonna look like. We have to also learn these things. It can't just be the kids learn and then you don't. because that leads to a very slippery slope.
Lainie Rowell: I think we wanna be modeling how we evolve as learners. It's not just that we're lifelong learners, which is also essential, but it's that we continue to take these risks and learn.
Dennie Tannenbaum: Absolutely.
Lainie Rowell: That's what we need from our kids and that's what we need to do because everything is changing and we don't wanna be doing, you know, the same things we did yesterday because we did them yesterday.
If we're gonna do it, it better because it was the best thing and there's nothing better today.
Dennie Tannenbaum: And I model to the kids sometimes we'll try something new and it won't work and I'll be like, ok, these things happen. They're gonna happen to you too.
Now we have to troubleshoot. Now we have to figure this out. And I think that that's such an important lesson for the kids to learn. Because if one of the things that I, you know, not that covid was a good thing, right? But during Covid, I found the first time I saw teachers showing that they didn't know everything and learning with their students.
And I think that that's so valuable, and I hope that isn't something that goes away. Things are changing so fast that we have to learn together. To think that we're always gonna stay ahead of everything might not be possible. Technology is changing very quickly. Yeah. You know, and my job is to help make it easier for my teachers, but that doesn't mean that they don't have to learn while their students are learning at the same time.
I want the teachers to learn with my students. And so I've really been promoting that co-teaching model and getting in there and watching them see, well, if I do this lesson, you know, yesterday did a lesson on Desmos.
Well, the teacher I was working with had never seen it before. She's like, oh my goodness. I have all this data. I can see where my kids are. I can see whether my kids understand what a fraction is, what a half is, what a third. She would've never had that if it wasn't for that opportunity that we had had in that co-teaching experience.
Lainie Rowell: Yeah. And I hear you doing a gradual release of responsibility. So you can go in there and you can model it. They can see the potential with their own kids. Like it's not some like staged scenario. No, this is in your space with your learners and here's how it's gonna go.
And then you can move to the side and more of a co-teach. I'm here for you and, and co-teaching can have a lot of different facets to it. It could be planning together, it could be side by side. It could be, you know, I'll just be here for support as you need me.
So I think that that's something that has traditionally not been in our system of education, it just really hasn't. I mean, hello, Captain Obvious, I know I'm being obvious here, but you know, we've, we've, we've been in a very siloed traditional system for a very long time, and so when we can have these opportunities to teach shoulder to shoulder, that's really special and I think that's the best professional learning that you can pretty much do.
Dennie Tannenbaum: Absolutely. And like I'm in a new school this year. The school I had been in before I was at for three years as a tech coach, and I built a lot of relationships and built up those teachers who were willing to trust me to come into their room. Yeah. And so right now, being in a new school this year, I'm just starting to see those inroads.
You know, it's February, but I know that we're gonna be able to continue to build on that. So right now my goal is to get in to show them that it's okay to have somebody else in the room to learn together and then, you know, get that gradual release as we build onto that. I want them to know that me coming in is not evaluative.
I'm there to help them and now the teachers who I've been doing it with regularly, they get that. And when I say, okay, we're signing up for times to do co-teaching this month, they're the first ones to sign up. And so that's great because there's so many things put on teacher's plates. I don't wanna be something on their plate.
And I say to them, if me coming feels like something on your plate, then we need to talk. I'm doing something wrong here.
Lainie Rowell: Right. This is, this is to help and to move us forward. But it's not to overwhelm you or make your life harder.
Dennie Tannenbaum: Right. And there's a lot of technology the teachers are expected to use that might not be creation based and might be more consumption based.
So my job when I get in there is to activate that learning. And so for some of my teachers, that's something new now.
Lainie Rowell: It's awesome that you're in there modeling the use of the technology. I think you're also modeling that risk taking
Dennie Tannenbaum: Absolutely.
Lainie Rowell: Cause things will go wrong.
And as someone who does this on a very regular basis, I am constantly thrown into someone else's environment. I mean, I now travel with an H D M I cable. I come, I come prepared for everything I can possibly do, but I'm still gonna go into a space where there's gonna be things I cannot control.
Dennie Tannenbaum: Absolutely.
Lainie Rowell: So it's a matter of the technology or the setup is always humbling in a sense, cuz it's always keeping you on your toes. And so you're not just saying you should do this, you're modeling it in every way.
Dennie Tannenbaum: Absolutely. Whenever a teacher welcomes me into the room, that's a sign of trust.
I think that's really important because I think it's hard to be an educator that trusts right now and the fact that educators are willing to trust and you've built that relationship, that's really important. And I wanna be able to continue to build on that.
Lainie Rowell: Could you tell us a little bit about what does gratitude look like in your day-to-day in your experience in expressing, you could maybe go in the personal direction or the professional or both, or, you know, you, you've talked a lot about developing relationships. Do you see that fitting into these situations where you're co-teaching?
Dennie Tannenbaum: Absolutely, because for most of the people, at least in the school that I'm in right now, they haven't had a full-time tech coach in a while. So this is a position that's been kind of transient for them due to a variety of circumstances. And so I'm really trying to prove to them that not only am I there, but I'm not going anywhere.
I'm here to work with them and build that trust and I just really view it as this amazing gift because I spent three years in my old school trying to refine what I was doing and best reach my students. I'm in a new environment where I have the opportunity to try things and see whether it's, well, does this really work, or did it just work because I had three years to get it to work. And so it's really been this amazing experience to see the way my teachers are responding, building those relationships, but also seeing that it's taking away some of that overwhelm and giving them a little bit of that fun back in teaching, because to me, when we're using the technology, there's a little aspect of fun there.
And if there isn't, then people aren't gonna probably wanna use it.
Lainie Rowell: What would be the motivation if they're not seeing it do something magical in their room, it's definitely harder to take that risk.
Dennie Tannenbaum: I mean, I know with me back when I first started doing it was because my kids were engaged in a way I had never seen 'em engaged before.
And so really showing them that this is something you can do different. How it's gonna help you as a teacher better inform your instruction, but also how it's gonna help your students better engage. And I think that it's great that I have those opportunities to do that, but also that they're welcoming me in there.
So, I mean, I really try to spend my days starting with talking about those things. I'm grateful for writing them down, but also as my day is going on, looking at my day and saying even if it's something that necessarily I'm not grateful for in the moment, it's something I'm gonna be grateful for afterwards because it's part of that experience.
And jobs, like ours, not everything is going to be at the top of that list of, oh, I can't wait to do to that. But everything is part of that experience of helping our students grow and helping them learn and building that engagement. So understanding that that's all part of the journey.
There would be times where there would be certain things I'd have to do and I'd grumble about it so hard. Well, that's part of the day. It's not the whole day. And sometimes those things that you're not as excited about make you more excited about those other things.
Lainie Rowell: I feel like being an educator you're in a really profound profession. You don't even get to see all of the impact. Right. You're making a difference in a way that you won't fully understand because our, our impact moves on.
Dennie Tannenbaum: Absolutely.
Lainie Rowell: And I really appreciate what you said. I love what I do. I don't love everything I have to do. There's more on like a, you know, that happiness definition from the social scientists, happy in my life, happy with my life. So yes, there are positive emotions a good amount of time, not all the time.
But from a meta cognitive level, I can go, you know, I'm really happy with the impact I get to have, even if I don't love every task I'm gonna have to do in a day or in a week or in a month. Or in a year.
Dennie Tannenbaum: Absolutely. And so those are the things that I try to think about when I'm doing things that might not be my preferred activities.
They're part of the process that, one of those things that I do like, you know, if I'm helping a teacher with testing, probably not my favorite thing to do, but then that's part of the relationship building with my teachers. So, you know.
Lainie Rowell: Oh my goodness.
Was that your "T" you were referring to earlier?
Wake up Lainie! Get some coffee. I'm gonna have to come back to that later and think hard about that. But yeah, I hear you.
Dennie Tannenbaum: But, you know, that helps my teachers, that helps my administration and it helps my students. I'm building those relationships with them doing that. And as that continues to build, then maybe we'll be able to, you know, do something else later or maybe collaborate on something else.
And so it's all part of the process and sometimes it's, it's easy to forget that.
Lainie Rowell: I think what makes you a great writer and a great coach, a great teacher, is that you can be really honest about, you know, not everything is perfect. And when I do it, things are gonna sometimes go wrong and that's okay.
I think that that vulnerability and that honesty really resonates with people. Cuz for me, it's hard to watch people who look like they have mastered everything and they feel like they just have figured out the secret to everything. And I'm just like, okay, well I don't think anyone's figured out the secret to everything.
Dennie Tannenbaum: No.
Lainie Rowell: So I kind of don't trust you now and I would rather learn from someone who admits that not everything is perfect. Not everything goes a hundred percent the right way.
Dennie Tannenbaum: Absolutely. And I think about earlier in my career, how I was so afraid to be vulnerable and say I didn't know things. And you know, since becoming a connected educator, I'm not afraid.
And I feel like my vulnerability kind of becomes your greatest strength because you're real.
Lainie Rowell: Yeah.
Dennie Tannenbaum: And you know, when I talk to educators and I'm talking about teaching those little kids and they're all whack, I'm playing whack-a-mole. That's a real situation. Most educators are gonna laugh cuz they've dealt with.
Lainie Rowell: Oh yeah.
Dennie Tannenbaum: Just like you talked about, you write books cuz you don't have the answers. I went searching for the answers because I couldn't find them anywhere for how to really engage my littles in a meaningful way and get that agency built. Now I've started to find some of those answers, but do I have all the answers?
No. I just have some things and I'm hoping other people will take my ideas, like I took other people's ideas and build on them. Right. And so I think you. I think that as you're looking at all of that, you have to kind of consider that. Nobody knows everything. And you know, I think a lot of times when people are afraid to learn or say that they know how to do everything it's fear.
Lainie Rowell: Yeah.
Dennie Tannenbaum: And, you know, fear has challenged me to try to do things that I would've never expected. And I wanted to challenge my students and the educators I work with to try things that they wouldn't have expected, because that's how we grow and far too often I see educators saying that they don't wanna do PD, that we have too many PD days.
Well, we're lifelong learners. We've gotta figure out how to make this work in a way that we all can kind of embrace learning. You know, getting that choice in and making educators feel like their opinions matter, I think is super important. Because you know, when you have those, then you're gonna feel more grateful for those experiences.
Lainie Rowell: Yeah. And I think a lot of times part of the reason educators are hesitant to go to professional learning is cuz they don't feel like their opinion's valued and they didn't necessarily get a say. And it's a little bit one size fits all, and it's not always honoring the expertise. I mean, I think we've all heard the example of someone being told you will go to this PD and they've like written a book on it, on the topic.
I do love that with your message about amplifying the knowledge in the room, the creativity, increasing that agency, I think that's really great and I love vulnerability can be your greatest strength.
I think that's so important.
Dennie Tannenbaum: And I just think that we have to try to do some of these things because right now I'm reading a book talking about the different generations of leaders, teacher leaders in our building and how the different generations are all very different.
And I'm looking at that and I'm like, well, how is my PD addressing that? You know, I like to be able to give my participants the time to process things. I don't talk at them the whole time. I'm letting them engage with things. And so as I'm reading this book, kind of self-evaluating and reflecting to see how what I'm doing, you know, kind of matches up to what I'm reading right now.
Because you and I are both Gen Xers. We're from a different generation than some of the teachers that we work with and definitely the students we work with. So it's just been super interesting to kind of think about it in that way too.
Lainie Rowell: Oh yeah, absolutely. I appreciate that empathy. I think that's a great thing for teachers to do when they're designing learning experiences is to get into the, you know, I know I don't know everything about them, but I, I can know some of the places they're coming from and how can I try and make this as relevant as possible to them?
Dennie Tannenbaum: Absolutely.
Lainie Rowell: Okay my friend. I know I need to let you go here. So who would you like to give a shout out to?
Dennie Tannenbaum: I feel like I've listened to your podcast, enough to know that I could do a lot of different people and I think I'm gonna do...
Lainie Rowell: I'm just laughing cause Yes, for those who haven't listened to the podcast very long, as one of our guests previously pointed out that I used to be pretty strict about like, no, it's one person and then you know the wheels have fallen off and I just say go for it.
And I'm totally happy about that. Who could limit gratitude?
Dennie Tannenbaum: I'm gonna do, I'm gonna do one personal and one professional. So the personal one would absolutely be my husband. He has really believed in me in a way that I didn't even know I could believe in myself. And when I said I wanted to, you know, start doing PD and going to conferences, there was never any. "Are you sure?" He was like, you can do this. You're gonna be great. Just really been my biggest cheerleader, my biggest advocate, and I couldn't do any of this without him. We're a blended family and that influence has influenced our kids as well. So I'm really grateful for him every single day because I could not do any of this without him.
And then my professional one, I'm gonna do to a group. I'm gonna...
Lainie Rowell: I knew you were, I knew this was gonna happen. No, that's fine. I love it. I love it. I'm teasing.
Dennie Tannenbaum: I'm gonna do it to my Teach Better family. They've been such a great support network for me. I was blogging for them. I need to get back into doing that.
I'm an ambassador. I'm part of their edupreneur group. And they've just been there to support me in ways and helped me grow in ways that I could have never imagined. So I'm really, really grateful for them as well. And all of the people that I've met through them.
Lainie Rowell: Yeah, they are a great group of educators that are really, I mean, they're putting a lot of great stuff out there and they bring people together and you know, Josh Stamper is in the book, he is just one of the best people on this entire planet and...
Dennie Tannenbaum: Absolutely. I got, I've gotten to meet him twice this year, so in person,
Lainie Rowell: Lucky you. I still have only known him through Zoom and text messages and emails and social media.
Dennie Tannenbaum: Well, he was at the Teach Better Conference and then he was at TCEA.
Lainie Rowell: I know. Darn it, one of these days I'm gonna see him in person. But I am so grateful.
We had Rae Hughart on here before, and we've had others from Teach Better.
Dennie Tannenbaum: It's just like their whole mindset has really been what's kind of propelled me forward. That idea that, you know, you're gonna be better today than you know yesterday and better tomorrow than you were today.
That the whole mindset is kind of how I live every day. Like I wanna make sure that I'm giving my best and every day's a growing experience. And it's full of interesting twists and turns as now I have four drivers in my family and you know, I'm looking at colleges for the youngest, but that's all part of the process.
Lainie Rowell: I feel like there's a subtext in Teach Better, it's not that you're not already doing a great job.
Dennie Tannenbaum: Right.
Lainie Rowell: Right. It's just that we can always keep getting better and so...
Dennie Tannenbaum: Absolutely and it's just really been a wonderful addition , to my P L N.
I originally joined Twitter on one Twitter handle. I got hacked and I really built my second Twitter handle being part of the Teach Better team, I wasn't part of it before then. It's really helped me to look beyond just people who are ed tech experts, but educational leaders thought leaders, really looking at it's not just about me learning about tech, but also learning about education and growing as a leader and a coach at the same time. So been a really amazing influence in my life. I let them know that every time I interact with any of 'em.
Lainie Rowell: Absolutely. And I know people, if they haven't already connected with you, are gonna wanna connect with you.
Thank you for this time now. And how can people keep in touch with you? What's the best way to reach out to you?
Dennie Tannenbaum: So I'm pretty much TannenbaumTech everywhere on Twitter, on Facebook. I'm on Instagram, but I haven't quite mastered the Instagram life yet. And then LinkedIn. I was on TikTok for a little bit, but it's just, I don't know, I can't, it's not my thing yet. And then on my website, so it's pretty easy to find me. My email, debbie@tannenbaumtech.com. So it's pretty easy. I try to keep it pretty consistent, but feel free to reach out to me and, you know, read my book. Read my blog.
And you know, if you see me at a conference, come say,
Lainie Rowell: She's putting tons of great stuff out there. I'm gonna make sure everything she said is in the show notes. Y'all can just tap, click whatever you need to to get straight to her. Debbie, thanks again for your time. I hope you have a great rest of the day, and I hope to see you in person one day.
Dennie Tannenbaum: I know, I, I was hoping I was gonna get out to CUE. It just isn't gonna happen this year, but I look forward to meeting you in person too.
Lainie Rowell: Yep, absolutely. We'll make it happen. All right. Thank you, Debbie for being here, and thank you all for listen.