Interview #2- METI Para /Device Coordinator Assistant

1. Name of technology coordinator being interviewed.What is your title?

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all right so uh if you could state your
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name your title for me
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uh my name is jamison gladden
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and i'm a media center paraprofessional
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okay

2. What type of degree is required for your position?

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and what type of degree is required for
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your position
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um there is no there's not a specific
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degree
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required for this position you just have
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to have a college degree
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and my college degree is in business
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business management okay and what is

3. What are your job responsibilities?

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your job responsibilities
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my job responsibilities at this point
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is to troubleshoot student devices
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uh
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prepare the plan for
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device uh
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distribution and device collection
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um
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and
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that's pretty much it that's that's 99
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of the day it's a full day
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just doing that

4. How are you meeting the needs of faculty and staff during the transition
to remote learning this semester?
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um do you
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happen to work with students when there
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was remote learning did you ever work
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with students or staff as far as
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technology
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issues or
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implementation
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so during remote learning
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i had to be here on site
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because when
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so yes to answer the question but i had
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to be here on site
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because when a student had a problem
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that couldn't be fixed behind the scenes
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they would have to come on site so that
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we could either
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swap their device out or repair that
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device so yes

5. How are you meeting the remote learning needs of students and parents?
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and as far as faculty and staff and the
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same role of the question how did you
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work with the remote learning with the
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teachers and staff
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with teachers and staff it was
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pretty much the exact same thing as the
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teachers were actually on site
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um and when they had an issue with their
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laptops
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um i did the exact same thing i
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troubleshot the
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laptops and
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either repaired or replaced the student
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or i'm sorry teacher laptops

6. What are typical daily activities for your job?

7. Have you had an opportunity to impact technology implementation

throughout your school? Would you describe a specific example? (Y)
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um and
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have you had opportunity to impact
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technology implementation in the school
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technology implementation let's see
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so as far as
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doing something special with the
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chromebooks or like instructing the
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students on special
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[Music]
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tasks or
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activities on their tablets or what they
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could do with them
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that part is not actually part of
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gabriel okay
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all right um

8. Does your school have a technology committee?

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the are you aware of a technology
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committee inside of westlake
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there is no technology committee inside
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of westlake

9. How are technology decisions made?

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as far as any technology decisions who
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are those made by
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 the technology decisions within the
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school
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are
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made
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basically by
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who
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the person that our in-school tech
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reports to
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so those actual decisions are made by
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that person and then
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uh principal adams obviously has to
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approve
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you know whatever technology decision
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you know if it's actually implemented
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okay so

10. What is the best part of your job?

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uh what would you say is the best part
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of your job on a day-to-day basis basis
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um interacting with the students is by
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far the best part of my job being able
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to
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troubleshoot a device
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and
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or having a student coming to the media
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center
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with a device problem and then seeing
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the joy or relief and i fix their device
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and they're able to go
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do their work so that's the best part
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for me
11. What do you find to be the most challenging part of your job?
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and what do you find to be the most
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challenging part of your job on a
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day-to-day basis
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um as far as technology as far as
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technology is concerned um
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for me the most challenging part is
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when there is an issue that i know how
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to fix
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but i do not have the
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credentials to be able to go in and fix
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it
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um or
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when
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there's something that
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that has to be done only by our
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in-school tech
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and it's not being done
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because
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i like to do everything like i want to
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do it now yeah i need it fixed now yeah
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so when a teacher has a problem
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um i want to fix it now so when it's
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only that i don't have the credentials
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to fix it
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that's it's a challenge for me it's
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frustrating for me one i know i can do
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it but i'm not allowed to do it yeah i
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think my my in-school tech
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mr williams was saying the same thing
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like recently like we already agreed for
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a
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ton time re-imaging computers
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and then he was like well
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we won't be doing that anymore they told
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us to just send it to the you know the
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building
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it's kind of difficult because i could
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just do it right now and then be done
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but yeah so and it's interesting that
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you brought up re-imaging because that's
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exactly one of the things i'm thinking
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about at this point i can be the image
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of device i'm just not allowed to yeah
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um
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so yes that's that's the
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that's a challenge for me
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yeah
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um
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so
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[Music]

12. Other activities:

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are there any
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fun activities that you do with the
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students as far as like their devices or
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when they come in the media center you
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might have like a
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it's scavenger hunt or some sort like do
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you do anything hands-on with the
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students with tech
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um
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so i have a group of students that
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we call the geek squad
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that
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they're work based learning students
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they're students who
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signed up for the work based mining
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program but they don't have
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transportation to actually
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go off campus and work so they work for
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me here in the media center as the geeks
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we call them the geek squad
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so
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i'm not i guess we can't call it a fun
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activity but
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for me
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it's fun because i get a chance to show
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them everything that i know as it
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relates to technology and computers and
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and then it's uh
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you know it's just a joy to see you know
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when
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a student really gets it
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and
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that you know so we've had i've had
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students that work for me
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and because of what i showed them
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they pursued a technology career and now
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work for fulton county schools
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and tech support
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so
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i'm not sure
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fun activity but yes i almost
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it's almost one a year that i have you
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know
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um
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in my work based group and i usually
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have a total
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of about
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12 work based learning students you know
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and they come to me in
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different blocks
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but
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the fun thing i guess
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you know as i said i don't know if we
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can call it a fun activity but
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it's very fun for me to be able to teach
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them
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you know all the things that i know
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about technology pass on that knowledge
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it turns into uh
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you know when it turns into a career you
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know for them
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it's awesome yeah
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well that is all for our interview
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i appreciate your insight and your
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thoughts on your
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duties and responsibilities and how
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technology has impacted the school