EPT 009: Jennie Magiera @MsMagiera

Jennie Magiera is A White House Champion of Change, a TedX speaker, An Apple Distinguished Educator, Google Certified Teacher and Chicago Public School's 2012 Tech Innovator of the Year. She is the Digital Learning Coordinator for the Academy for Urban School Leadership. Her vision is to redefine education through digital learning and that the classroom should reflect the world for which we are preparing our students, namely by being creative, innovative and outstanding places to learn. Jennie is passionate about transforming professional learning, she co-created PLAYDATE - a conference concept encouraging hands-on teacher exploration and she helped to co-found the GA Teachers for Tomorrow annual conferences.

 “It’s such a difference when you have someone who you connect with versus a teacher who didn’t seem to have the passion for what they were doing”.

Jennie always wanted to become an teacher, right from the beginning - well, other than the times she wanted to be a singer/songwriter/magic pony horse wrangler (I want that job!). It was around middle school when she finally made up her mind to become a classroom teacher.

Jennie talks about her first novel, The Wishing Street - when she was in fourth grade. It was inspired by Sylvester and the Magic Pebble.

Here'e the link to Jennie's TEDx talk, Power to the Pupil.

When asked about the Moonshot project she said,

“The idea is like 10 times thinking. Thinking big like, go for the moon and can have impossible ideas that most people would laugh at you for doing.”

The moonshot project is essentially a part of Google’s forward thinking that illustrates against the notion which says “We don’t set up being bothered by the fact that we can’t teleport from here to China. But Moonshot thinking is the choice to choose to be bothered by that why we can’t and what can we do about it.”

As a co-founder of Playmate, Jennifer talks about the concept of throwing ideas that people would like to share. In her words, it’s more like “building a messy space”. The idea hatched when Jennifer along with her fellow educators were coming back from a conference, and they decided to embark on this “egalitarian” idea of giving shape to a universal learning platform, where people can share and collaborate across all levels to deliver an enriching experience.

“Make your moonshot thinking go and then kind of break that down into little achievable goals”

Jennifer wants people to break down their goals into further achievable goals and not spend much time thinking about it. It’s okay to believe in yourself and go further with your thinking and give it your best shot - maybe your moonshot!

Burst of knowledge round:

Q. Favorite type of music in your teen years:Jennifer Magiera: I guess maybe Grunge, Grunge Rock.

Q. Favorite Quote or Saying:Jennifer Magiera: I like that JFK saying that my kids are saying right now “We chose to go to the moon not because it was easy, but because it was hard”.

Q. What Blog do you read regularly?Jennifer Magiera: I blog surf!

Q. Are there any podcast or radio shows that you listen regularly?Jennifer Magiera: I like Teacher Tech Talk with Judie Epkie Tammy Lind and Chad Lafka. I love the Google for education Blogs and Videos.

Q. Something that irks you, a pet peeve.Jennifer Magiera: Rude and mean people. When people are nasty and specifically passive-aggressive people.

Q. Something you willing to share with people that not many people not know about you:Jennifer Magiera: I don’t eat fruits and vegetables. I probably have scurvy!

Q. What is the best piece of advice you got early in with your career:Jennifer Magiera: Remember why you got into it. So, remember why you became a teacher. I became a teacher because I wanted it to be a career and not a job. As long as it's your passion, keep it that way. We need people who are passionate and not people who are doing it for paycheck.

Q. If you are going to be invited to dinner on one on one with someone you want to meet who would it be?Jennifer Magiera: Don't ask me that - I'm going to be so embarrassed if that's on the record - it's probably someone from a reality show!

Q. In less than ten words how would you define success?Jennifer Magiera: Feeling like you make a difference in your own eyes.

Q. In less than ten words how would you define failure?Jennifer Magiera: I'm going to steal this from my friend Ken Shelton, "First attempt in learning".

Q. Two to three words that you dislike in the English languageJennifer Magiera: I don’t know.     

Q. Two to three words that have negative connotation and shouldn’t.Jennifer Magiera: Feminist, Education, Public schools and, ooh this is a fun game, paper & pencil, like analog.

Q. Define passionJennifer Magiera: It’s that thing that makes your heart beat and it makes you smile (I'm smiling right now!) and you don’t know why and it makes you want to get out of bed and you want to do it not for any other extrinsic reason than it makes you happy. I could talk about passion all day!

You can reach Jennifer in the following ways:Website: http://www.teachinglikeits2999.com/Twitter: http://twitter.com/msmagiera/LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/pub/jennie-magiera/28/1ba/9a5Google+: +JenniferMagiera

Hope you enjoy this podcast episode!

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