Nikole Blanchard, Director of Innovation and Technology at The Dunham School, joins the podcast to discuss her leadership philosophy. She shares how to foster an approachable, innovative culture through project-based learning, providing individualized professional learning for faculty, and empowering campus champions to help spread new ideas and tools effectively.

• The Dunham School 
• Apple Distinguished Schools:
• ISTE (International Society for Technology in Education)
• ASCD
• SAMR Model
• CoSpaces Edu
• Canva

Nick, welcome to Talking technology with Atlas,

the show that plugs you into the important topics and trends for

technology leaders all through a unique Independent School lens.

We'll hear stories from technology directors and other

special guests from the Independent School community,

and provide you with focused learning and deep dive topics.

And now please welcome your host, Kristina llewellen,

hello everyone, and welcome back to

talking technology with Atlas. I'm Kristina llewellen, the

president and CEO of the Association of technology

leaders in independent schools.

And I am Bill Stites, the Director of

Technology at Montclair Kimberly Academy in Montclair, New

Jersey,

and I'm Hiram Cuevas, the Director of

Information Systems and Academic Technology at St Christopher

school in Richmond, Virginia.

Hello, guys. I know that you are in two

different phases today of the back to school. Crazy bill,

you're wearing shorts because you've got teachers back, but no

students, Hiram, you're wearing a tie because it's the first day

of school. So my first question is, how y'all doing you good? Do

you need a donut?

He's wearing a Snoopy tie. It's one of my

favorites. Let's be clear. For those that can't he's wearing a

Snoopy tie. So I don't know whether that qualifies

at this point. It's really cute.

It's all about Joe Cool. Yeah, okay, gotta stay Joe

Cool.

Do kids even know who Snoopy is

anymore? Oh, who does not know who Snoopy is?

I don't know. It's generation. He's 75

years old this year.

75 I share Snoopy his birthday.

So you're 75 is that what you're saying? Hi, I'm

well, you guys both look great. You're

smiling. You're clearly all riled up this morning. How's

your day of firsts going? Hiram, you good?

I'm hanging in there. It's a little bit of

Whack a Mole. But you know that kind of is par for the course

with the start of school.

Yeah, you've got the consistent train of people

going by the office and commenting here and there on a

variety of different things going on. So it's great just to

have people back in the building and that life that just lets you

know you work at a school and all of those pieces back going,

yeah, the blood's pumping, right? The

heartbeat is back. I'm so excited for you guys.

The blood pressure is pumping, I will tell you that

much.

But yes, all right, well, hopefully nothing

like a medical emergency on this pod. We can't deal with any of

that. You know, I wanted to tell you guys, I pointed out to you

as we were hopping on the call, we're about to talk to a school

that we're not as familiar with, and I love their website, so

we'll definitely put this in the show notes. But the Dunham

school in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, as we were preparing

for the pod, I went to this website, and I was kind of

scrolling down through it. I'm like, it's got a lot going on.

What do you guys think about it? It's pretty cool.

Yeah, absolutely. 100%

we just went through a website redesign here

at MKA, and it's like, I almost don't like looking at websites

that look like this, because then I'm like, damn it, we

should have done it this way. But no, it definitely pops out

at you. I'll say that

I'm scrolling through it right now, and I love

the Zoom ins has always been a big fan of that. It's definitely

a new direction that we're seeing in school websites. And I

think Dunham captures it Well,

lots of little video movement, and it

captures your attention. You get sucked into it. Whether you

wanna be scrolling through it or not, you're gonna be scrolling

through it. I dropped it in my slack for my staff, and I was

like, We gotta hunt this vendor down. We'll have to get all the

deets from our guests today, because we may need to get them

in the Atlas community a little bit more, but great website. So

everybody pause this podcast and go check out the website, and

when you come back, let's go ahead and bring our guest in.

Let's introduce Nicole Blanchard. Nicole, welcome to

our podcast. I know we've been talking about you, and I'm going

to turn this mic to you on this website here in a second. But

Nicole, you are currently the Director of Innovation and

Technology at the Dunham school, which, again, is in Baton Rouge,

Louisiana. Welcome to the podcast.

How are you today? I'm doing great. Thank

you so much for having me. I'm excited to be here you guys.

So obviously, we love your website,

and we learned a little bit about your school from the

website. But can you tell us a little bit about the Dunham

school? Who do you serve, and how long have you guys been

around all of that kind of stuff?

So we are in the capital of Louisiana, the

great city of Baton Rouge, and our school is a pre k2, to 12th

grade school, and we're at our highest enrollment right over

900 which is super exciting. We have about 165 full time staff,

so we take a lot of pride in that student teacher ratio being

super small. We have been an Apple Distinguished School

since. 2011 so I actually came to the school to help create the

one to one program, and so it's been exciting to see it grow.

One thing that's really special about Dunham is we really have a

balanced program. So we have a lot of classical features here

at our school that you will see. But we also have an innovative

program, so we feel as though our students are getting the

best of both worlds.

Now, you heard us doting on your website.

Were you involved in that project? Is that fairly new?

Like we're kind of drooling on it, to be honest.

That's super exciting. I can't wait to tell

my director of marketing it is probably two years old. So one

thing that is important to us is that we stay on the cutting

edge, and we really stay innovative. And so we have kind

of changed the way our website looks to really not be an

internal but be an external source so that people can learn

about us. So we're trying to share our best, and we're trying

to show who we are. And the goal is, when you go to our website,

you do get sucked in, like you said, but you also feel

confident on the things that are important our distinguishers in

the community.

I want to turn now to you. You began your

journey in educational technology in 2003 at Louisiana

State University, and you still have a connection with that

school. Tell us a little bit about your journey

professionally and the things that take up your time in a day.

Okay, so I have always dreamed of being a

teacher. It's really interesting, you know, and

kindergarten NAIS, what do you want to be when you grow up? And

I replied with a beautiful artwork that I drew of me being

a teacher, but also a cheerleader. And I really feel

I'm not a cheerleader for football, but I do feel like I'm

a cheerleader for teachers. So I feel like I've accomplished both

of those things. I've always wanted to be a teacher. I always

wanted my own classroom with my own students, and working with

teachers, and I don't know all the things that were exciting

when I was younger, just the grading and the lesson planning

and the designing and all that fun stuff. So I fulfilled that

dream. But it's interesting how like teach you in different

paths. My mentor in undergrad really loved technology, and so

she wrote a grant that was going to allow student teachers to

have technology, and I was a very first class at LSU to have

a laptop for student teaching. And it kind of just seemed

bizarre. I never even thought about, okay, a laptop, whatever.

Well, I went into the classroom, and I remember this vividly. I

remember having center rotation in a third grade classroom, and

just the amount of things I could do with just one laptop.

And I was teaching a small group, and I had a student that

was, don't remember the exact activity, but was practicing a

skill on the computer. And I was like, wow, I am meeting this

kid's needs in a totally different way. And my light bulb

went off, and so I was like, I'm going back to school. I'm gonna

go work on my masters, because why not help other teachers so

that they can have the same experience that I just had? And

taking the advice of my mentor, she said, at least get one

semester in the classroom done before you go back to school. So

I did, but I was so bought in I got my first grant before I even

started teaching, and that was for classroom computers, because

I remember, I got my job and there were no computers. I was

like, Oh my gosh, it just did all this work in my undergrad

and there's no computers. How am I gonna implement what I've been

doing? So I wrote a grant, and before even in a classroom, I

had a grant for three computers, which was super exciting. And

then that spring semester, my first year, I went back to

school, and I started working on my masters. I love school.

That's why I've been in school for so long. And then I kind of

just honestly have followed the path that has been put before

me. I just kind of, if you have a deep faith, you understand, I

just follow where God leads me. And I have been in public

schools, and I've been here at Dunham for 18 years, so been

here a while, but missed the classroom and decided to go back

and teach at LSU as an adjunct professor, teaching classroom

technology to undergrads that want to be teachers. So that has

been so exciting,

kind of a full circle moment for you to go

back. It really

was. It really was. And you know, it's really

amazing, because one of my biggest passions in life is just

connecting with people. And when I became the director of

technology at the time, we added innovation one years when my

boss realized how my brain works, I guess we changed the

title, but I had reached out to my professor at LSU, and I was

like, I need help. I have this new job. How am I going to do

this like we need to create this one to one program, and back

then, in 2009 when I did this, there weren't very many out

there, and it wasn't like it is today. So it was really great to

make those connections and learn from experts in the

field. So Nicole, you mentioned you're teaching

budding teachers, new teachers that are interested in this

vocation. I'm curious, from your perspective, are you surprised

at what skills they possess and also what skills they lack in

terms of their technology use in the classroom?

Absolutely, I kind of giggle when people are

like, Oh, it's teachers that have been around a long time

that don't know how to use technology. That is not true. I

believe in mindset. It really is the mindset of the person and

the individual. And when we have a growth mindset, we kind of

pick up on it a little bit easier than when our mindset is

fixed. And I I noticed what my students, they're shocked at the

end. I have some that love and like. They think it's wonderful.

You know, they think of it as part of their methods. You know,

I'm learning how to use technology. But then I have kids

like on my evaluations, they're like, I never thought I'd walk

away learning so much. You know, we all can sit here and teach

all these different ways of using technology or how to use

it, but it's greater than that. We need to understand the why

behind it, and why are we doing what we're doing. I like to tell

people the current kindergarten student graduates in 2038 so

think about that, like 2038 It is unbelievable to think how

much the world is going to change during that time, and

when you think about it, just the advances with technology in

our lifetime. So we are teaching children, and we're preparing

children for jobs that yet to exist. And I think when my

college students understand that, and they see and even my

teachers here at Dunham, when they see that, they're like,

Okay, we get it. We can't just do things the same way that

we've always done it. Now, there's some great things that

we actually need to do, like, think back to our education,

reading and writing and math, holding a pencil, yes, and not

asking you to stop that, but I'm asking you to think also, let's

provide those rich foundations that we know, but we also need

to provide rich digital foundations too. And so when I

explain that to my students, and they get this buy in, and then

they get to see, wow, this is amazing. Some of the things I

can do with my students, yeah. What's really interesting

Nicole, is that I have a daughter who's a

senior. Actually, first day of class was today in college to

become an educator of young people like kindergarten through

second grade is her goal. And we often talk about on this pod

that her professors are not talking to her about AI. And I

don't know if it's just the program or the professor she

has, but she has me as her mom, and so I talked to her about

classroom AI because I know a lot about it being in the Atlas

space. What are you talking to your future teachers about on

the AI front?

Specifically, it's so funny you ask that,

because today is the first day of class as well for LSU, so

awesome. And don't forget to get that last first day picture,

okay, of your daughter, because this is her last first day of

college. You need to grab that picture.

Okay, I'll text her right now, and she's

gonna hate me for it, but

okay, I'm serious, that's okay. She'll get

over it. So it's funny because I I'm kind of an action research

person, so when I see something and I do something and I'm like,

oh, let's tweak it a little, or use my feedback that folks are

telling me. So when I first started AI, probably two years

ago, in my course, it was a standalone not anymore, it's

part of everything we do. So let me tell you what I had them do.

They have my syllabus, and after they watch me, because it's a

virtual course, after I go over the syllabus, and they have the

video of me explaining what to expect. Well, you know, some

people don't learn that way, right? Like, I can't expect

everyone to learn from my video. So I want you to take my

syllabus and put it into AI and do the top 10 must knows. You

must know this for this course. So what they have done now is

they have taken a syllabus that is very traditional, and we have

now put it into AI, and now they kind of know the top 10 must

know to how. Process course, and so I'm trying to teach them. We

will go much deeper, but every week, they will have something

with AI, and it could be something as simple as a tool of

summarization, like that has now helped me take this long

document and summarize it, but it also will continue use as a

tool for lesson planning, but we're also going to use it to

help us with some ideation. They write a bio, so we use it with

ways to catch the attention professionally of the parents

that you will be teaching one day, I'm trying to teach them

how to use it, not only as your personal assistant, but then how

you can use it responsibly with your students, so we will get

there. We still have some growing pains, but it's amazing

because the other professors that teach this course, we work

together and collaborate on how might it look, and we do some

testing, so we test it with one group and not the other, and see

how it goes.

So one of the things that we actually share is

that where I am at MKA, we are a three time Apple Distinguished

School as well, and really took a lot out of the past fall going

down to Florida for the conference that they ran there,

which I was very happy to attend, and got a lot out of can

you provide a little bit of background, some experience on

what it's meant for you and your school to be an Apple

Distinguished School for the time that it's had that

absolutely so, like I shared earlier, we've

been in Apple Distinguished School since 2011 and our whole

school is recognized as an Apple Distinguished School. And what

that means is that Apple has selected the Duba school as a

center of innovation for the way we use technology and prepare

kids for their futures. With that being said, I believe Apple

has different categories that it recognizes. So first it's what

are the ways in which we are empowering students? How do they

feel as though they have an opportunity to be involved in

their learning? Secondly is, how do we really take what we're

doing and leave the world a better place? So we really think

about maybe projects that they're doing, and how can we

share those with others to help inform the work they're doing or

teach others about a specific subject or topic? And then the

last one is visionary leadership. So having that

support structure, it's wonderful to have a one to one

program, and it's wonderful to have technology at your school,

even if it isn't a one to one program. One to One program, but

how do teachers feel supported, and how do administrators feel

supported? And so it's very important that it's not just a

like, let's just do a quick professional learning and move

on. It's ongoing, and it's having that support and letting

teachers know that you're not in this alone, and so as part of

being an Apple Distinguished School, we've worked with

researchers. We've opened our doors to have schools and

visitors come in. We even did a virtual one, which was super

fun, where you got to tour people around the school

virtually and see it into the classrooms. But it has created

this community which is so important, you know, just to

have people to connect with. But it's this community that we're

part of, and we couldn't make the conference because there was

a storm in Louisiana which caused us to miss it. But with

that said, it's just created this opportunity for us to

connect with educators who have the like same devices. So that's

kind of helpful. So they have some of the same maybe growing

pains that we have, or they have some of the same software like

GarageBand, maybe they're making podcasts like we're doing right

now, and just learning from each other.

So to that end, one of the things you mentioned was

the leadership aspect of that, and your role as a leader there,

as the Director of Innovation in tech, one of the things that we

always ask, What's in a name? What's in a title? What does

your position in that title mean for you? There? Can you give us

a description of what your day to day looks like?

No, days the same. Not one day is the same.

Sometimes I wish it was, but I know I don't. I love it. That's

like the fun part, you know, coming in and not knowing what

it's going to be like, I consider myself a dreamer. I

really am in touch with where kids are going in the future.

Are thinking about what's relevant and why we're doing

what we're doing. And so most of my day is really spent and

analyzing curriculum and working with teachers with

conversations. I don't believe in coming in and saying, This is

what we're going to do. This is how we're going to do it. I

really prefer to have a conversation and build

relationships where we are sharing ideas. They are the

expert, the subject expert matter. I kind of teach. Said,

I'm the tech geek. I'm just your nerd. That's going to help you

to get there. Much of my day is spent just having conversations

like we're doing now, and people saying, Hey, have you seen this?

And then I'll be like, let me go look, you know, and and then

many times, just making sure that teachers have what they

need to be successful. I can give you all of this, and I can

share things with you, but if you don't have what you need in

order to be successful, if that's the support for one

teacher, it may be an adapter for another. You never know what

they need to be successful. But teachers also know. I mean,

they're so busy, so just checking in with people and

being that cheerleader that I talked about at the beginning,

and just, you know, good for you for trying that. Yes, that's

amazing. And I always tell people, teachers are just like

students in our class, right? They're just like the students

that you're teaching. They're people. They have hearts, they

like the positive feedback. They want to be celebrated, and

sometimes they want their hands held, and that's okay. So a lot

of my time is that. A lot of my time is dealing with vendors and

budget and making sure that we're where we're supposed to

be, and that I am respecting the finances of the school that's

very important to me to make sure that the money is used

respectfully and it is used in a way that meets the students

needs. So I spent a lot of my time with that I brainstorm with

my team, or a lot of times collaborating. We're in an open

office. I gave up my office to be closer to my servers, and it

was the best thing I've ever done. I don't think I could ever

go into an office by myself, because I like to talk, if you

haven't noticed, and we do a lot of collaborating and

brainstorming and thinking together, and it's been amazing

to watch us grow as a team by just like, sharing an idea. So I

always tease that I don't know a lot about networks, but I know

enough to be dangerous and I know enough to talk about it. I

like talking like we had a lightning storm that struck an

access point, which is really a headache because those things

are expensive, so just like trying to talk through the

troubleshooting of it. So I may do that. I may be walking to

lunch and I see a teacher needs help or something, and I want to

help them. We are a Christian school, and I really do feel

that it's important I tell my team constantly, and we're in

customer service. So the only reason we really have a job is

because there are students and teachers here, so we are going

to approach everything with a heart for God and to honor and

glorify God, and so, like, we are gonna go out there, and even

if we're like, that was a silly question. That's something you

think, but you don't say, right? So we work with the teachers and

the students. So my day is kind of like scattered all over the

place, but it's a good scatter. And I think my goal for my

employees and myself is that we come happy and we leave happy,

and I think that's happening, and that's important to me and

I, and I just want to make sure we treat others how we want to

be treated, because the world's just such a better place if we

just make things simple and happy and and I tell teachers,

hey, I may not always be able to tell you yes for something you

ask, but I do have a running list, and if some money happens

to come up, or I see something like I found computer carts on

Facebook marketplace of all places, and the teacher didn't

like the cart that she had, which I thought was Lovely, but

I'm not in the class, so, you know, I trust her, and it's not

the cart. It doesn't work. So I get this amazing cart, and I was

like, wow, and it's nothing I could have purchased honestly

new, because we didn't have the money to do that, but I was able

to get it at a discount through Facebook marketplace. So it's

just like everything else. When you communicate and you share,

then that just allows us to grow

together. I have to say this scale that you

introduced in that response, Nicole of teacher support on a

scale of adapter to curriculum development. I love that. I want

to keep it so guys, from now on, when I ask you how the teacher

supports going, I want to know on a scale of adapter to

curriculum development and design.

So I'm curious, with this Open Office model, how

big is your staff?

So I have two full time staff in my office

with me. So there's three of us, and then I have a teacher that

this year, his role had to change a little, but he works

with me a lot. I'm going to tell you the secret. Okay, here's the

secret. You find your champions on campus. So by champions, I

mean you find those. People on campus who are already bought

in, bought into the program. They love the idea, but they

understand the mission of the school. Because you can love the

idea, but then you can go off on a tangent that you don't

understand who we are as a school, and it could be

dangerous. I'll just say that. So you understand the mission of

school. You love the idea of using a technology you

understand the different levels of use, which I try to teach all

my teachers, Samra, by Dr and Ruben Penta Tora, because they

all understand Bloom's taxonomy. So they understand that most of

the teachers. So how can I get on their level? I can take and

actually use same role which is on their level, and it helps

them to understand how we implement technology. Finding

your champions is so important because they help to really

spread the word. It's really funny, we had a grant that

allowed us to obtain some VR sets. Well, a teacher was trying

it out using the VR sets, and the kids walked out so excited.

Oh my gosh. Mr. So and who is, like, we traveled here, we were

able to play with these VR sets. And other kids like, wait, wait,

what's going on in that class? Like, what's happening? And then

the teacher in the other class hears it and goes to this class

of like, Hey, would you do your student? They're selling a VR,

right? They're selling it. And before I know it, I had this

teacher coming in. Hey, Nicole, how can I use this VR? Or asking

one of my coworkers. So finding your champion is so huge. I also

think, as far as people are like, I can't believe we do it

with three people, but also building culture. So we do

monthly contests. I'm going to tell you right now our monthly

contest is the best summer snapshot. So I asked teachers to

share a snapshot of their summer. You don't need to be

traveling, just anything you're doing this summer, and I used

Canva to make it look like Snapchat, because that's what

the kids like, right? So I put a little caption. Even used AI to

help me with some of the captions. And the only rule is

you have to be in the picture, which is really funny, because

go look back on your camera roll. I only have one picture of

me in it, all of my pictures of my children and my dogs. So now

they're all on the door, on our door, when you walk in, and I

probably have at least 60 on the door, and kids are voting on who

they think should be the best summer snapshot. Now you're

like, what does that have to do with technology? Nicole, well,

it gets people in here because they want to see the door, they

want to talk tech, they want to see if their pictures up there.

They want to see what their co workers are doing. The kids want

to say what their teachers are doing. It's a natural

conversation, and it builds this culture of collaboration. And

then I have partnered with Sonic, and so I just like do

this thing where whoever wins, the kids are voting, who has the

best snapshot, whoever wins gets a sonic drink on a Friday, and

it cost me less than $10 to bless these teachers. And the

teachers are all excited. So one of the teachers is like, Hey,

Nicole, do you think we can do like a Christmas tree voting.

And I was like, oh, yeah, yeah, that's a great idea, right?

Like, this our idea, well, then I was like, Oh, we're gonna do

it, but we're gonna, like, add to it and do maybe, like, some

deep fakes, like, I'm gonna put some Christmas trees on the door

that are AI generated, and the kids are gonna have to determine

which one's AI and which one is their teachers, you know, so

it's just a fun way to build culture, and people come in, and

so we're approachable, which is super important for a tech

department to be approachable and not scary. Yes, it's

stressful. The teachers are stressful. Everyone is but we're

gonna be okay. We're gonna make it

I love that. I love that whole cultural

approach, because that is a really important part of the

work that you all do. If I can pivot now because you served as

CO president of the merged organization of ASCD and ISTE,

and I love that you took time to serve in this volunteer

capacity. I'm not sure if you know that both Bill and Hiram

are part of the volunteer leadership at Atlas. So Hiram is

a board member at Atlas, and Bill is a board member of the

newly formed certification Council, the Atlas certification

Council. These two governing entities are very closely

intertwined at Atlas, and so basically, I've got two board

members here on the call, and I'm always really intrigued by

the ways that it pulls on different leadership muscles. I

hear it a lot from my own board bill, Hiram and. Just the other

14 of them. They're always saying, like, I have leadership

roles at school, but it's different when you serve an

organization in this capacity. So tell me a little bit about

your leadership journey on the volunteer side of your life. Why

did you get involved in that organization and then serving as

CO president in this kind of newly merged environment? That's

gotta be kind of cool, by the way. We've had Richard gullada

both at the Atlas conference and on our podcast, and we're fan

girls, so love him.

He's amazing. He really is, and he is one of

the reasons it makes it fun the to be on the board, to be

honest. So as shared, I believe in connections and believing in

networking. And remember, at some point, once I was able to

get my head above order with the one to one starting, I was like,

I need to find my people. Like, yeah, they're here at school. I

really need to find my people around the world. Like, I need

them to help me be better at my job. I need them to challenge my

thinking. And so at that time, ISTE had PLNs, and so I joined

the PLN, and before you knew it, within a year, I was on the

leadership of the PLN for global collaboration. Go figure,

because that's like my I love connecting. So I'm meeting these

people from all over the world. It's fabulous. And before I knew

it, someone had said, Nicole, have you ever thought about

running for the board? And I kind of giggled. I was like, a

board. Why did I do that? You know, this is where my time

like, I loved doing this, and so I just thought about it, great

about it, and then took a leap of faith. And this December will

be the end of my seven years on the board, so it has been part

of my life journey. It has been just a wonderful experience,

but, yeah, challenging at times too, because when I joined this

I did not know that we were going to go through a merger,

but all for the best of teachers and children at the end of the

day. But why do I encourage people to join boards? A couple

things. First is, for me, is the giving back. I just feel that

I've always believed in Steve Jobs leaving your dent on the

universe. How are you going to leave your dent on the universe?

And like, this is my way that little bitty Nicole over here in

Louisiana, can hopefully reach or help maybe students who are

across the world, outside of us, they're struggling with, just in

education, just general, and this is my way to be part of

that, and that's really I'm honored. I'm honored to even

have that opportunity, and then just having, like, the thought

of having some sort of strategic influence, like I had the

opportunity to work with these amazing educators in this

organization and really, like, take the things with innovation

I'm doing here and make it greater, right? It's bigger than

just my school, but within the guidelines of that organization.

So that's really fun, too, because some of the things I

know won't work at Dunham, which is a okay, can work in other

places, which is really cool, too. So just having that reach,

I guess, and the impact that, hey, just like you guys are like

bills working with the latest accreditation, you said. So

having that impact, that I get to, like, have the opportunity

to look at the standards, or the learning principles,

transformational learning principles, before they're even

released, and share my thoughts, like, why would they count

anything, you know, and that's pretty cool, like, just to have

that opportunity to be part of that. And then I've said I feel

like it's like the theme of this podcast, but just together,

we're better connecting. And I always tell folks that if we

just stop and listen to each other serving on the board, has

made me a better person, because it's allowed me to meet people

with different views. It's allowed me to meet people from

different schools. It's allowed me to stretch my thinking and,

you know, to be empathetic in situations that I don't know,

because I just thought everybody did school, I timed in school,

you know, and so well, what's that wrong about that? So the

connecting has really changed me as a person. So I always

recommend anyone who has this passion and get involved just

take a baby step like I did, go to the conference first, try to

get to a conference, or try to do some webinars, or participate

like I love the Atlas group. The Atlas group is one of my

favorite groups, the email group. It's so easy to

participate and be part of it. So just start to get to know

people, and then you see, wow, there's a lot of people out

there that think like me, or that don't think like me and

help me to be a better educator.

Having attended both the ISTE conferences and

the ASCD conferences over the years, I've always. Enjoy what

I've been able to take out of each of those, because I think,

as you're mentioning, you get out there, you hear from

different people, you meet, it's all about connecting with the

different people and really seeing each of the areas for

what they, I'll say, were focused on, because now, as

they've come together, some of that focus has been able, I

think, probably, to sharpen, and then you've been able to do a

lot more with that. But I'm curious, because of where you

now sit at this intersection of these two organizations that

have come together now, what are you seeing in the way of trends

or things that are beginning to pick up in the directions that

things are going based on where you sit at this point.

Absolutely great question. Trends. We all

know AI is a trend. We all know it's out there, and it's a hot

topic, so definitely something to consider, something out there

that, how are schools going to adopt it? Because it's not going

away. That's a biggie. Another trend is really which I think

sometimes it's ignored, is privacy. Privacy is a huge thing

for me. My identity has been stolen, and I am the tech

director, and my identity was stolen. So it happens it is not

only violating, it is just overwhelming to try to fix that.

So how might we protect our students data and make sure that

we are aware of those privacy laws and have a good lens on

those? Just a little trick, Nicole trick, I take a lot of

privacy laws, I put them into my favorite AI and I say, summarize

these, tell me what they're saying. I do that too. Yeah,

great mindset. Go live. So I use what's out there to help me,

because when I tell a teacher, hey, we can't use this. I need

to be able to understand or share why another trend that's

out there, or a hot topic, I'm going to say, is funding. A lot

of people are worried about funding. Many people think it

doesn't affect independent schools, but it does. We get a

lot of federal dollars at our school for professional learning

as well as equipment for stem so it does affect it. So I think

that unknown and that uncertainty is a hot topic right

now.

You clearly have a passion for design

thinking, and a big part of independent education is around

project based learning, sort of letting kids go at their own

pace, letting teachers have a lot of autonomy in terms of how

they deliver on the portrait of a graduate that the school is

working toward. So I'm curious how you sort of approach

technology programs across all these different grade levels

that you serve, so that you're bringing some level of

consistency and scalability sustainability and yet giving

teachers the autonomy to come into this from wherever they're,

however they view education and delivering on education. You

know, we have to be flexible with our teachers, too. So how

do you approach it big picture? If that's not too big of a

question to ask, because it seems to me like you're kind of

a yes, let's get it done person. And so that, I would think

brings some amount of flexibility into your program,

and yet you probably do want to make sure that it's sustainable

and scalable. So how do you walk that

line? So the ultimate goal I look at for our

mission of our school is really that most of our students go to

college after so we need to make sure that you feel comfortable

in college and you have the skills you need in order to go

to college. And I think it's more than just college. It's

really in the world in general, but you have to have some sort

of digital literacy. You have to and if we are ignoring schools,

we really need to rethink it. And what I have done with the

help of teachers, and they don't really know that I'm doing this

in the background. But if a child stays here from first

grade all the way to 12th grade, or even if they come in, we have

an umbrella of the skills that they are going to have on the

time they leave. And a lot of those skills, let's just say

this, all of those skills seamlessly mesh with curriculum,

and that is where I work, for example, next week, which I'm

super excited about, and third grade, we will be starting some

green screening with the students. They will be

meteorologists, because they are studying natural disasters, and

they will actually video themselves. They'll write a

script, which is writing, they'll use the vocabulary that

they're learning in science, and then they will video themselves

and learn the green screen process. And these are skills

that in third grade we're starting, but they will use

throughout their time here at Dunham, so having that big

umbrella is where it's taught, where. It is taught again,

having the teachers. It's not a separate class, it's part of

what we do. There's different philosophies on that. But in my

opinion, when we start to look at if our curriculum is

relevant, then we have to have some of those projects in those

we did a project with Apple, where we looked at retention

rights of high school students on their exams. And we learned

when none of us on this podcast did this, the kids were saying,

Oh, I only need a 75 to make an A in the course, or I need a 42

I think we heard that one to make an A. So like, what's the

point of the exam? Right? Yeah, they need to know how to take

exams. But what's the point? So we have taken exams off the

plate for grades seven through 12, for history in the spring.

So seventh grade, based on their curriculum, there's choice in

everything, but they have, like, guidelines, but in seventh

grade, they make a virtual museum. On co spaces, they make

this virtual museum. My son actually did it last year, and

he did the decades, and in each room there was something that he

created based off of what he wanted, and the teacher had

expectations. In eighth grade, they make a website. So this is

a skill that kids think about it like you probably need to know

how to make a website and know how to do it and see how easy it

is for anyone to produce a website. We talk about digital

citizenship with this. But then ninth grade, they make a book,

an interactive book. 10th grade, which was one of my favorite

when my daughter did, it was a podcast. It's really interesting

to let high schoolers talk about history in a podcast. Very fun.

11th grade they do a documentary, and then 12th grade

they do a mini dissertation, that's kind of like a TED talk

in front of their peers. So we're trying to involve kids in

their learning, and we've learned now through research,

that when you do a deeper dive into a topic, you're more likely

to retain that information. So the big answer to your question

is really taking all of these skills that we teach and making

some key points along the journey at Dunham that these

kids are involved in movie making. These kids are involved

in podcasting. We start coding. Guys at three years old. They're

coding. They're interacting with the robot. They may not know

it's coding, but they are controlling that robot. We have

CAD design. That's March in fourth grade. We are trying to

make sure, like, for instance, like you know, a novel is good

at a specific grade level. Well, we know that fourth graders are

good with CAD design any younger. If you've ever watched

a 3d printer, it just is a bunch of mess. Any younger we've

tried, so we keep those things that we know are that are

working and have the big umbrella.

So one of the questions that I actually have

is, as I was thinking about like, what we're doing here at

MKA, and the way in which we're building out our spaces. We

spent a lot of time this summer in our series of STEM and I'm

very curious, based on the work that you've done with Shell and

LSU, to do work in the field of STEM, and I'd like to hear about

that a little bit, if you could share some of what you've done

there, absolutely.

So in 2015 I was named an Apple Distinguished

Educator, and when I received that, I went to this training,

and I learned so much about the importance of involving students

in learning. And I came back and I was like, we've got to do

something here. And that initial idea has grown with LSU and

shell, but basically, research shows that, I guess I was his

student. Like, I really was not the best student. Like, I mean,

I was an average student. I made Bs and Cs my whole time in

school, until I got to education. And I was like, Ah,

I'm in my heaven, you know. And I really think it was because I

was not involved in my learning. And I always thought that you

have to be smart to go to stem Well, it's really amazing when

you create spaces and create opportunities for kids, all

kids, to test their ideas and be part of that, to be involved in

our learning, how they imagine the possibilities. So the

research shows if you put a science credit on a kid, even a

teacher, it's hilarious. They feel like they're scientists,

right? We feel like we're part of the moment. We're part of it.

Kids are told all the time, these are the guidelines. This

is what you have to do. So when you come into our innovation

lab, or the things I do at Shell yeah, there's some guidelines.

They're not what you think, like if you want your pig to be

purple. So be it like you're using your imagination have a

purple pig. But for instance, we're going to build hurricane

houses next week, and there are going to be some really great

hurricane houses that. But if you're in this area, you really

having a house on stilts is important because you want the

water not to get into your house, right? So having your

house high is important, but I'm not going to tell that to kids.

They're going to have to use what they know about hurricanes

to build their house. And then we're going to have a fan that

determines the different levels, the categories of the hurricane

to blow down the house. It is amazing the confidence that

children who are not that a student will get in these

courses and having the opportunity to build I kind of

feel like if I had that when I was a kid, wow, I would have

enjoyed learning so much more just to be involved. I kind of

tease one of my science teachers, physics teacher, they

make a boat, they make a boat in physics, and then they go to a

pool, and they test the boats. And this is part of the

curriculum. It's one of those things that I talk about that

sticks because we tried it with test. It it works. But my

goodness, I would have loved physics, if I would have been

doing that, right? I would have had a little bit of confidence

in myself with physics. So I think involving kids in the

learning process and giving them choices, they feel like they're

part of it, and it's kind of like a buy in, right? So I guess

there's a passion there, because I think about the kids like

myself who were just bored to death listening to a lecture or

listening to something so trying to involve kids in their

learning has always it's so much fun to see where their thinking

goes. And if you just stop and listen to them and don't talk

much, but just let them do it and be that facilitator, like

we're pulling ourselves out. They're the expert. And I just

like, wow, why did you do it that way? Or teach me something?

There's a sense of confidence that, oh my gosh, I'm seven, and

I can teach Miss Nicole how to do this, you know? And that's

how it should be. It really should.

Nicole, this has been really interesting. I

love how excited you are. Your energy is infectious. Before we

let you go, I'd love to ask you real quick. We're in this back

to school season. I know you're already back, but I'm curious

what's your favorite approach to PD for faculty, if you do need

to teach teachers something, can you just tell us a little bit

about what your go to toolbox might be there.

Sure, first I'm gonna, I'm just gonna share

this. I really love calling it professional learning. I love

taking away that professional development and try to call it

learning many times. I think it's just the wordsmithing. I

think that development seems like, Hey, this is a one time

thing. We're learning a continuous process, and it's

what we're trying to do with our students, right? So I really try

to create this active environment by calling it

professional learning. So one thing that right now I'm just

gonna tell you, teachers are overwhelmed. Beginner school is

non stop, so I'm just trying to make sure that they have what

they need. As a tech director, what do you need? I'm not I'm

not coming at you with the new ideas just yet they're coming,

don't worry. But I'm just coming at making sure everyone has what

they need. I am really challenging myself this year.

Now you'll have to check with me in May to approach professional

learning as individualized. Someone challenged me at the

ISTE conference and said, Why do we expect teachers to

individualize for students, but we don't individualize for

teachers? And it was like, oh so true. Like, I shouldn't assume

that everybody needs to learn how to do something as simple as

turning on the computer or, you know, that's very simple, but I

shouldn't just assume that. So I'm really trying to use some

techniques I've learned from Apple learning coach to really

make sure that my teachers are met at their needs. One thing I

did at the end of the year was i Another simple survey. So I'm

using that survey to kind of drive some of the professional

development. So I can now group people based on their needs, and

I can kind of help people at different places. One of my

favorite professional learning is I did 92nd little videos

teachers. One thing, just like students, quick, fast, they are

on the move. They're on the move. So they were able to watch

them on their phone while they're walking their lunch.

They were able to help. So I would say, make sure everybody's

up and running. Make sure we're all happy, and then we can

approach them individually where they are.

I love that so much. That's perfect advice

and a great way to wrap this all up, Nicole, I want to thank you

for your time today. It's been such a pleasure to get to know

you. I appreciate not only you sharing what you've learned in

your experiences at your school, but also just how you serve the

broader technology and education community. So thank you so much

for joining us. We hope you'll come back and share. Share with

us how everything is going at your school. This was a

pleasure, and thank you very much Absolutely.

Thank you for having me and I wish everyone a

wonderful school year.

This has been talking technology with Atlas produced

by the Association of technology leaders in independent schools.

For more information about Atlas and Atlas membership, please

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