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Elfster Makes Holiday Gifting Fun and Easy!
Bonus Episode • 16th December 2024 • Tech Tools for Teachers • Shanna Martin
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Shanna and Fuzz dive into the fun and easy world of gift exchanges with a tool called Elfster. This platform streamlines the process of organizing gift swaps, making it a breeze to set up events and create wish lists. Whether it’s for the holidays, birthdays, or any special occasion, Elfster eliminates the stress of coordination by allowing participants to easily share their gift preferences. Shanna highlights how it can be a game-changer for teachers, helping them manage gift exchanges without adding to their already packed to-do lists. They also discuss the flexibility of the platform, which can be used for various types of exchanges beyond just holiday gifting, making it a versatile tool for anyone looking to celebrate with friends, family, or colleagues.

Takeaways:

  • Elfster is a user-friendly platform that simplifies organizing gift exchanges for any occasion.
  • The tool allows participants to create wish lists, making it easier for gift givers.
  • It's free to use and takes only minutes to set up a gift exchange.
  • Elfster helps eliminate the stress of coordinating gift exchanges among friends or colleagues.
  • You can use Elfster beyond the holidays for events like Teacher Appreciation Week or birthdays.
  • Participants receive notifications when their gift recipients update their wish lists in real-time.

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Transcripts

Shanna Martin:

Thanks for tuning in to the Tech Tools for Teachers

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podcast, where each week we talk about

a free piece or two of technology

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that you can use in your classroom.

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I'm your host, Shanna Martin.

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I'm a middle school teacher, technology

instructional coach from my district.

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Fuzz Martin: And I'm her producer

and husband, Fuzz Martin.

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And I like podcasting because

it helps boost my elf steam.

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Shanna Martin: Wow.

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That's cute.

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Cute.

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So, this is 99.

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5.

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199.

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Fuzz Martin: 5.

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199.

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5,

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Shanna Martin: oh my goodness.

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199.

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5.

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For my new listeners, for my old

listeners, every once in a while,

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there's like a little one that we

just kind of throw something out at

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you, but it's not a full episode.

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Fuzz Martin: It's a mini elf episode.

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Shanna Martin: It's a

little mini elf episode.

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Fuzz Martin: Elf sized.

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Shanna Martin: Cute.

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So with this, we are throwing out there

something that's helpful for the holidays.

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It probably would have been helpful

like two weeks ago, but we are throwing

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it out now because you can use it now.

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You can use it forever.

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And I'm going to point

out too, that this site.

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It is meant for like educators and your

co workers or your family or your friends.

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This is not something you'd actually

use with your students, but would

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really save you some time during

holiday season, whatever it may be.

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It also, as I was thinking about

this site, it would be really helpful

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for other times during the year.

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Yeah.

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Like, we always.

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I shouldn't say always, let's be real.

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Often, or sometimes, we have gift

exchanges at the holiday times.

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But really, as an educator, you know

when gift time would be awesome?

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Like February.

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Yes.

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Or like.

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May 1st,

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Fuzz Martin: indeed,

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Shanna Martin: or June 12th.

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So the site we're talking

about today is called Elfster,

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Fuzz Martin: Elfster,

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Shanna Martin: E L F S T E R.

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com.

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And it is meant for gift exchanges,

but it takes all the work out of it.

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Like you don't have to do like the

biggest thing I was thinking about was

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like, who's going to coordinate it?

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Who's going to pass out the names?

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Who's going to set the list?

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Who's going to do it?

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And this one, it's so cute.

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It's like, okay, what's

your party going to be?

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What dates do you want to send it out?

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Who do you want to invite?

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What's your gift limit?

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And then each person makes a

little wishlist and it's linked

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to a bunch of different sites, but

like Amazon and sites like that.

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And.

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Through that then, you can like make a

little list and then people can order

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things and then shop for each other

and it's cute and it's easy and it

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even says like pick your image to set

your party and it gives you the images.

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It does everything for you.

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So, I learned about this from you,

because you've been using this at work.

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Fuzz Martin: We have.

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It makes, it makes gift exchange, like,

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Shanna Martin: fun and

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Fuzz Martin: easy, and like you said,

it, it takes a lot of the work that one

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person normally has to do to, to run it.

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Yeah, because

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Shanna Martin: usually that's what you

have to think about is, um, you know,

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like, you want to give to other people,

and I am a, that's my thing, like,

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I love to share things with people,

I love to gift people, but also, You

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also have to like work your job and

do all of the other things as well.

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And as a teacher, you're always

like doing all the things times a

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hundred and trying to help people.

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And

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Fuzz Martin: yeah,

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Shanna Martin: just takes that time

out to just stick to the fun part

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where it's just coordinated for you.

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Fuzz Martin: Exactly.

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And It's cool because everybody can go

and shop for things added to the list.

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It doesn't have to be on, you know,

necessarily on any of the sites.

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You can add, you can add

stuff offsite as well.

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And then,

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Shanna Martin: and you

make your own wishlist.

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So like you build your own wishlist

as a person and it's based on

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like, you can set the little budget

for whatever you want it to be.

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Um, and.

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It's just cute.

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My top guy, my top little five

things, I kind of jotted down

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like why this is super cute.

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And number one, it's

super easy to sign up.

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I did it in like five minutes or

less and it's just like click boxes

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and it sets it all up for you.

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It's free.

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It gets you into any holiday spirit.

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So I was thinking too, like they

always do teacher appreciation

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week, which is awesome.

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And this makes an easy

way for if you've a PTC

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Fuzz Martin: or a

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Shanna Martin: PTO or a PTA, whatever

your district has, this would be really

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easy for teachers to create their

little classroom wish list for families

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to notify them or things like that,

or like just different ways of that.

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You know, celebrating people in

a fun, easy way without having

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to like, do that extra step.

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I don't know.

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I just think about like that.

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Anyway, it makes it easy.

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Um, there's other ways to use it.

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I was thinking outside the box,

like December, all the things

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always happen, but why couldn't

you do like a little fun Elfster?

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In October and do a booster.

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Fuzz Martin: There you go.

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A booster.

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A booster.

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Shanna Martin: See?

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Fuzz Martin: Yep.

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Gotcha.

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Shanna Martin: Uh, so just

like different ways to use it.

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And it only takes a few steps for plant.

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Like there's not one person that has

to do all the work, which is kind of

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what takes away from it sometimes is

one person's like wants to do it and

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they want to support everybody, but also

like, Oh my gosh, I've got this giant

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to do list of all my own stuff as well.

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So, it makes it really easy.

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Fuzz Martin: Indeed, and also, it's cool

because when somebody that is on your

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gift list, like your, your, let's say

this, uh, your person, like that you have

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to buy for if it's a Secret Santa setup.

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If they add stuff to the list, you get

an email saying, you know, like Shanna

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added, uh, two new items to her wishlist.

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Shanna Martin: Skinny fine

point sharpies and coffee.

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Fuzz Martin: There you go.

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Uh, and um, and so it, it makes it so

easy to buy for them and also for them to

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say what they need and they can add new

things up to the moment you buy it, right?

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I mean, they can edit afterwards,

but like it's, it's pretty cool.

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Shanna Martin: It's just like content.

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Fuzz Martin: And then they make

their money because they'll use a

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little affiliate code when you buy

on Amazon and things like that.

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You It doesn't add to your price at all,

but that's how Elfster gets paid is by

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Shanna Martin: Like

through ads kind of thing.

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So it's free.

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Like the whole coordination

of everything is free.

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And I will point out it's

called like an exchange.

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So like you used it for Secret Santa.

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But you could use it like it is

labeled for any It's called Elfster,

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but it also is not like Christmas

themed or anything like that.

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You can use it for plenty of other things.

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It's just called an exchange.

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You can label your exchange however you

want to, for a party, for a social event.

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For a white elephant for, you know,

like whatever you want it to be.

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So it's labeled that way.

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So you just create a

little account, Elfster.

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com, and then you get a little dashboard,

like you walk through the first steps

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to kind of set up your first one.

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And I put a couple of test ones

together to see how it all worked out.

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And it's very simple.

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You can choose to email people

the link directly from the site,

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or you can choose to invite them.

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So if you were to create an event

digitally, or you wanted to do something

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in like Canva, you know, make it

all cute and then put the link in

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there to the gift exchange, it also

allows people to sign up that way.

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You create a little wishlist and then.

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It also gives you shortcuts, so once

you have it set up, you have a little

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dashboard, you can put your birthday

in there, uh, your mailing address can

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go in, if it's one of those, so that's

cool too, you don't have to do it in

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person, so if you're mailing things.

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I've seen cool book exchanges

before, where you're part of like,

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um, like a book club kind of deal

and you, you gift each other books.

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And so you could mail them directly

to people, uh, they have you add

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your little wishlist and then you

have little friends and then you also

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can have, um, shortcuts to gifts,

gifts you gave, gifts you received.

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You have like a little

family manager in there.

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You can have friends,

birthdays, activities.

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So you can keep track of all of that

stuff on your little dashboard too.

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And they have a little list of

friends you can add in there.

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If you want to gift your

friends things like.

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West Bend, Kewaskum, Slinger,

West Bend, Kewaskum, Slinger,

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West Bend, Kewaskum, Slinger, West

Just trying to save teachers time.

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This is not a tech tool that you'd

necessarily use in your classroom, but

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you definitely could use it with your

colleagues, or with your family, or with

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your friends, and it's just kind of fun.

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Yeah, and we know teachers need

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Fuzz Martin: things because you don't have

enough things in your classrooms and such.

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Yeah, supplies.

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The supplies you need, and the, you know.

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The cool LED

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Shanna Martin: lights that you

want, but you don't want to

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spend the extra twenty bucks.

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Fuzz Martin: Or even like, you

know, boxes of pencils and Kleenex.

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fuzz.

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cc

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Shanna Martin: Yes, all the

Kleenex, the Clorox wipes.

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Yeah, exactly, exactly.

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All the germified things, you know,

we gotta like holiday and cold season.

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Fuzz Martin: Exactly.

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Shanna Martin: So anyway,

we wanted to share Elfster.

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It's cute.

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It's easy.

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It's free.

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And it's just a fun tool to have in the

back of your pocket to kind of help you

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out and, you know, share things with

people and also save you some time.

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Fuzz Martin: Indubitably.

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Shanna Martin: So with that Our

next episode will be episode

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200 and it will be coming up

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the beginning of January.

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So that one should be a

fun one to look forward to.

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It's going to be unique and special.

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Fuzz Martin: All

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Shanna Martin: right.

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Well, thanks for tuning in.

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We are going to be talking

again in:

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because it's going to be 2025.

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Fuzz Martin: Like, Two

weeks away from:

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Shanna Martin: That's insane.

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Anyway, this has been the Tech

Tools for Teachers podcast.

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If you ever have any questions,

you can find me on Blue Sky,

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Threads, Facebook, Instagram, at

SmartinWI or on, you know, all those

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other fun social media platforms.

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And if you want to get more information

on the links to the technology discussed

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on this episode, you can visit smartandwi.

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com.

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If you'd like to support the show, please

consider buying me a coffee or two.

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Visit buymeacoffee.

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com slash smartandwi or visit smartandwi.

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com and click on that cute

little purple coffee cup.

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Your donations help keep the show going.

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You are very much appreciated.

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Thanks for listening.

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Go educate and innovate.

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Fuzz Martin: The ideas and opinions

expressed on this podcast and the

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smartinwi website are those of the author,

Shanna Martin, and not of her employer.

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Prior to using any of the technologies

discussed on this podcast, please

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consult with your employer regulations.

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This podcast offers no guarantee that

these tools will work for you as we've

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described, but we sure hope they do.

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And we'll talk to you next year on

the Tech Tools for Teachers podcast.

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