This is Jennifer Gonzalez welcoming you to episode 17 of the Cult of Pedagogy podcast. In this episode

I'm going to share with you some fantastic tools that let students fully develop their passions

About a month ago I wrote a book called The Teacher's Guide to Tech and in that book I

explore a whole bunch of different technology tools. We look at classroom management tools, social media,

things that you can do to get parents engaged, ways that you can give students feedback sort of online,

and when I was writing that book one of the types of tools that really fascinated me

were these tools that allowed students or anybody really to take whatever it is that they do or that they're

interested in and really go far with it really take it to the next level in the same way that someone who is a

professional would do. So for example if someone is a musician there are ways that they can actually get their

music out there into the public on their own instead of having to wait for a record company to recognize them

the way that they used to or if someone is a writer there are tools out there now that allow them to write their own

book and publish it and sell it on their own without having to find a publisher. So this collection of tools that I'm going to talk about in this

episode is just something that has so much possibility because if you find a student which you're probably going to ultimately be able to find most

of your students have interests or passions or things that really could be shared with the world if you can point them to

these tools and give them a little time to learn them or even just point them to these tools make them aware of them

then you will really be giving them such a gift because you're letting them follow the path that maybe they're intended to be going on for the rest of their

lives and for some kids this really is the key to motivating them when they find the thing that they're really into. There is a teaching approach that's very popular right now

and it's basically known by two different names it's either a genius hour or 20% time and basically the practice is where teachers set aside regular time during class or during the week for students to just work on independent projects that are things that they're just interested in.

So it's you know learning a new language or you know studying printmaking or learning chess or whatever it is that they're really interested in doing.

The time is set aside for those kids to just keep doing that so the tools in this episode would be perfect for genius hour or 20% time because they give them the tools to actually do something with them to make things with their talents and with their interests.

And all you have to do is the teacher is point them to the tools and also just let them know that if they go online and look for instructional videos they can basically find video tutorials to teach them how to use any of these.

So you don't really not need to learn how to use any of them yourself. As their teacher you just need to be aware of them so that you can steer your students toward them.

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