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Hello, everybody,

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and welcome to the

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TeacherCast Educational Network.

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My name is Jeff Bradbury,

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and I have a fantastic show

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for you today.

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Today, we're talking all about literacy.

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And of course,

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we can't start any podcast

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without talking about my edutriplets,

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10 years old,

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and they're reading every

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single thing they can get their hands on.

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Today,

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I have two amazing guests talking

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all about a great program that they've

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created to help young

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students enjoy a love of literacy.

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I want to bring on today

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from a great website called

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Footsteps to Brilliance, Ms.

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Eileen Rosenthal and Kathy Maximoff.

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Eileen and Kathy, how are you today?

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Welcome to TeacherCast.

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Thank you so much.

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We're great and really

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appreciate being on here with you.

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Excited to be here, Jeff.

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Well,

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let's get started here because I love

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talking about reading.

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I love talking about literature.

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I love watching my kids open up books.

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The other day they were at a

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library and in an hour,

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I think they each went

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through like 10 and 11 books.

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It is so important that we

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have the supports for

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students as they are

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picking up these literary skills,

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especially in the younger grades.

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Talk to us a little bit

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about what's going on at

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Footsteps to Brilliance.

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Jeff.

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You just said it so well.

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Your children have

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incredible access to books

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and they love literature.

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And they're going to grow up

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to be incredible readers and thinkers,

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really building the tools.

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So the problem is that in

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the United States,

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nearly half of our children

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actually enter school

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one,

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two or three years behind where they

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should be.

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That's at age five.

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And the reason for this is

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that they don't have those

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resources that your

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children do that our children did.

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And so the question is,

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how do you remedy that?

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How do you level the playing field?

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And that's why we created

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Footsteps to Brilliance.

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We were one of the very

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first companies to see

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mobile technology as a way

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to remedy the digital

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divide and to provide

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parents and their children,

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even before they came to school,

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with the books, songs,

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and games that they needed

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in order to be prepared to

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succeed academically.

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And the beautiful thing is

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that when you give access to the books,

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songs, and games that parents need,

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we leverage their smartphones,

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their tablets, their computers,

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the children really do

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enter kindergarten ready.

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So it's very exciting.

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We, of course,

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also work in the schools

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because we want to make

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sure that the second benchmark,

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reading proficiently at third grade,

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is met.

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Now,

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any parent wants to make sure that

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their students are educated

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and well literate,

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but it's really difficult

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sometimes on a busy schedule.

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What advice do you have for parents,

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especially parents that have many,

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many younger kids,

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for helping to instill that

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love of reading and to get

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kids starting just to look

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at the books and start to

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figure out sounds and sound

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letters together?

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How can parents start down

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this journey to help out their students?

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Do you want me to jump in there, Eileen?

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I am also a parent,

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and I just think that when

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we are working with our little ones,

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they already have this

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inspiration and wonder,

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and we just want to

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continue on the path of

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inspiring their curiosity.

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asking questions having

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conversations and I think

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that's one of the neat

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things about the digital

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programs that we put

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together at footsteps to

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brilliance is that we have

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a lot of interactivity in

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the program that draws the

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parent in we also have this

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really neat toggle button

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that allows the parents to

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go from english to spanish

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because we know in a lot of

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our homes that english is

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not the first language and

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we want to be sure that

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those parents are engaged

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everything in the program as

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well is just available at a

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touch so even parents who

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might not have those

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literacy skills that they

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need or they don't feel

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really comfortable and

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literate themselves they

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may not have that love of

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reading themselves they can

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still give it to their

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child they can still

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play these books along.

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They can go to the Spanish side,

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listen to it in Spanish,

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and then read along in English as well.

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And it's a really powerful

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way to help parents feel

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empowered by what they've

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got just right there in

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their back pocket.

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let's talk a little bit

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about students picking up

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the natural language here

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because we know that

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there's many different

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kinds of reading out there

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there's reading the words

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there's reading for

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comprehension there's

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reading to have a deeper

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understanding there's

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reading to be able to share

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what you've known I mean

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it's one of the things that

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we talk about at the dinner

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table here is what are you

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reading tell me about the

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characters what are the

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characters doing meaning

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and stuff like that all of

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that stuff is translating

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throughout their entire you

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know life really but mostly

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their you know their academic career

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How can parents help bring

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their students from simple

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sounding things out through

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those early stages of

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actually what are you reading?

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What are you understanding?

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There is a huge gap right

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now in people who can do

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that and people who are

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still trying to learn that.

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What are some of the things

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that teachers and parents

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can do to make sure that

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our students are able to

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not only understand what they're saying,

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but be able to spit it back at them?

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Jeff,

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music is one of the marvelous ways to

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develop oral language.

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And Footsticks to Brilliance

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is infused with nursery rhymes,

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both English and Spanish,

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and lots of music throughout.

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So children will learn their

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counting through music.

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This is a wonderful way to

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produce knowledge.

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But I have to say that one

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of the podcasts that I saw

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you do that I loved was

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about having children tell

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their own stories.

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And at Footsteps to Brilliance,

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we have something called Create a Book.

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And this allows children,

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every time they read a book,

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to take all of the

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characters and the

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backgrounds and make a variation of it,

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create their own story, if you will.

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And this is so exciting that

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there are now books

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published and in libraries

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throughout the United

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States written by young

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children because they've

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been using the Footsteps to

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Brilliance platform.

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Yeah, I would just add, Jeff,

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that that's kind of part of

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our collective impact model.

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Like we come in and we

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partner with our school districts,

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we partner with our communities,

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and we create these

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challenges that the district rolls out,

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maybe over spring break,

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maybe over the summer,

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those times when there's a lull

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And they really want to

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engage with families and

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not have that slide back

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from all of the good

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learning that's been

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happening in the classroom.

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And so we'll create a

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writing challenge and have

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families be reading the books,

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writing and submitting

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their writing work.

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And then the district can

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celebrate the amazing work

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that's happening.

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There are all kinds of like

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Eileen was talking about.

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They're publishing those

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books and putting them out

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in libraries and

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celebrating the writing that

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students are doing.

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And when they have a voice,

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just like you were talking about,

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it really makes a difference in their,

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even their motivation to be

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a reader if they're an author as well.

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Speaking today to Eileen and

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Kathy from Footsteps to Brilliance,

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you can learn more

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information over at

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footsteps2brilliance.com.

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That's footsteps, the number two,

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brilliance.com.

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We're going to make sure we

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have every single link over

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in our show notes over at

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Digital Learning Today on

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teachercast.net.

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Now,

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if a school district is looking to

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bring this program in,

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generally around what grade

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does that happen?

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What does a school district

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need to have in order for

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this to be successful and

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implemented in the classroom?

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So we are a mission-driven company.

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And so when we work with school districts,

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the school districts

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sponsor the children that

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are in the school already.

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And we actually sponsor for

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free the children who are

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in the community.

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And this means that we can

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start at birth working with parents,

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showing them how to read, talk,

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play with their children.

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taking them up through the

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foundational skills that

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they need to be prepared for kindergarten,

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and then going all the way

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up until they're really

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doing very sophisticated

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critical thinking work in the sciences,

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in the social sciences,

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in all of the work that they need to do.

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And so when a teacher is

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working with the program,

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what does that look like to a parent?

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Sure.

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So our program is really

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easy for a teacher to get started.

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We know that teachers right

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now are really overwhelmed,

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that there's a lot of

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pressure happening around

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the science of reading, about MTSS,

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about doing data-informed instruction.

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And so with Footsteps to Brilliance,

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we just seamlessly align

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with what the schools and

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the districts are already doing.

00:09:15.812 --> 00:09:17.813

We have pre-curated

00:09:17.994 --> 00:09:21.576

alignments of our games and

00:09:21.696 --> 00:09:23.557

books and activities and lessons

00:09:24.022 --> 00:09:25.384

that align to the core

00:09:25.464 --> 00:09:27.186

reading programs that are out there.

00:09:27.225 --> 00:09:28.148

So a teacher would go and

00:09:28.168 --> 00:09:30.390

look up their program and off they go.

00:09:30.431 --> 00:09:31.692

They've got a weekly pacing

00:09:31.731 --> 00:09:33.575

guide where students can be working on

00:09:34.024 --> 00:09:35.546

the same skills that they're

00:09:35.586 --> 00:09:36.546

doing in the classroom,

00:09:36.566 --> 00:09:37.285

and then the teacher

00:09:37.446 --> 00:09:39.986

automatically gets reports

00:09:40.187 --> 00:09:41.347

because our games are like

00:09:41.427 --> 00:09:42.467

formative assessment.

00:09:42.567 --> 00:09:44.568

So whenever the students are playing,

00:09:44.609 --> 00:09:45.389

the teachers are getting

00:09:45.408 --> 00:09:46.409

the reports back.

00:09:47.429 --> 00:09:48.691

Parents can be interacting

00:09:48.730 --> 00:09:49.591

with all of that at home.

00:09:49.811 --> 00:09:51.751

So they're getting exactly a

00:09:51.951 --> 00:09:53.113

window into what the

00:09:53.153 --> 00:09:54.493

teacher is teaching in the classroom,

00:09:54.533 --> 00:09:55.994

but it's all interactive.

00:09:56.994 --> 00:09:57.855

they don't need to know the

00:09:57.894 --> 00:09:59.414

phonic skills they don't

00:09:59.434 --> 00:10:00.816

need to know the sounds

00:10:00.936 --> 00:10:02.197

even but they just make

00:10:02.236 --> 00:10:02.996

sure that the students are

00:10:03.017 --> 00:10:04.859

getting the time and that

00:10:04.958 --> 00:10:06.158

they can kind of watch over

00:10:06.198 --> 00:10:08.120

the shoulder also and

00:10:08.821 --> 00:10:10.341

engage and ask questions

00:10:10.422 --> 00:10:11.861

and interact with the books

00:10:11.922 --> 00:10:13.562

and songs as well so it

00:10:13.582 --> 00:10:14.364

sounds like the parents

00:10:14.423 --> 00:10:16.144

really are a partner in this program

00:10:16.885 --> 00:10:18.908

absolutely absolutely and I

00:10:18.947 --> 00:10:19.587

think that's one of the

00:10:19.648 --> 00:10:20.869

things that I've loved

00:10:20.908 --> 00:10:21.629

about footsteps to

00:10:21.669 --> 00:10:23.410

brilliance um coming on

00:10:23.471 --> 00:10:24.812

board is that our program

00:10:24.952 --> 00:10:25.873

also even from the

00:10:25.952 --> 00:10:28.455

fundamentals was built for

00:10:28.535 --> 00:10:31.077

parents um when covet came

00:10:31.138 --> 00:10:32.578

we were okay in part

00:10:32.639 --> 00:10:33.840

because our pro is also

00:10:33.899 --> 00:10:36.282

built to be used with wi-fi

00:10:36.601 --> 00:10:37.743

or without so even though

00:10:37.763 --> 00:10:39.384

we're on mobile devices we

00:10:39.423 --> 00:10:41.946

made a clear decision that

00:10:41.966 --> 00:10:43.668

we needed to have equity

00:10:44.207 --> 00:10:46.869

access for all parents and

00:10:47.028 --> 00:10:48.490

in order to do that we have

00:10:48.529 --> 00:10:50.429

a totally offline mode and

00:10:50.450 --> 00:10:51.471

the teachers and the

00:10:51.530 --> 00:10:52.931

districts still get their

00:10:52.951 --> 00:10:54.731

data as soon as that device

00:10:54.772 --> 00:10:55.912

connects to wi-fi again

00:10:55.932 --> 00:10:57.533

that's pretty amazing that

00:10:57.552 --> 00:10:58.614

you have that program that

00:10:58.813 --> 00:11:00.913

is able to access the you

00:11:00.953 --> 00:11:02.894

know like I said with wi-fi

00:11:02.955 --> 00:11:04.056

or not could you give us

00:11:04.076 --> 00:11:05.115

some examples of a school

00:11:05.155 --> 00:11:06.557

district or a program that

00:11:06.576 --> 00:11:07.777

you're working with that

00:11:07.817 --> 00:11:09.076

you've had a lot of success

00:11:09.116 --> 00:11:10.317

with and what does that look like

00:11:11.991 --> 00:11:13.332

Oh, you know, we have,

00:11:14.254 --> 00:11:15.195

thank you for asking that.

00:11:15.235 --> 00:11:17.277

We have really so much success.

00:11:17.856 --> 00:11:19.457

I want to tell you maybe two

00:11:19.518 --> 00:11:21.059

stories that will really illustrate it.

00:11:22.073 --> 00:11:23.475

One is the other day

00:11:25.535 --> 00:11:28.138

superintendent Diego Ochoa

00:11:28.879 --> 00:11:30.500

from San Mateo Foster City

00:11:31.580 --> 00:11:33.041

podcast that he had done.

00:11:33.662 --> 00:11:35.023

There was a family that had

00:11:35.082 --> 00:11:36.222

moved from Brazil and they

00:11:36.283 --> 00:11:38.245

spoke no English and their

00:11:38.264 --> 00:11:39.806

young child ended up being

00:11:39.905 --> 00:11:41.006

one of the top readers on

00:11:41.047 --> 00:11:42.748

the Footsteps to Brilliance platform.

00:11:43.587 --> 00:11:47.030

And he has a podcast where he asked the

00:11:48.515 --> 00:11:49.636

child, you know,

00:11:49.876 --> 00:11:51.739

why did you spend so much time?

00:11:52.499 --> 00:11:53.960

And basically she said,

00:11:53.980 --> 00:11:55.642

I wanted to learn English

00:11:56.322 --> 00:11:58.323

and I learned how to speak

00:11:58.423 --> 00:11:59.865

English on the Footsteps to

00:11:59.904 --> 00:12:01.826

Brilliance platform in just 30 days.

00:12:02.486 --> 00:12:03.687

So that's the kind of thing

00:12:03.727 --> 00:12:04.729

that's really exciting.

00:12:04.769 --> 00:12:05.610

And the parents were

00:12:05.649 --> 00:12:07.211

learning alongside her.

00:12:08.392 --> 00:12:09.972

In terms of actual data,

00:12:11.134 --> 00:12:12.934

California a few years ago

00:12:13.355 --> 00:12:14.797

gave a standardized test,

00:12:14.856 --> 00:12:17.038

which was called the California

00:12:18.740 --> 00:12:20.561

English language development test.

00:12:21.201 --> 00:12:24.283

And this was done throughout California,

00:12:24.322 --> 00:12:25.484

but in Napa County,

00:12:26.065 --> 00:12:28.725

which was our very first client,

00:12:28.785 --> 00:12:30.326

and they're still with us today,

00:12:30.346 --> 00:12:33.109

the psychometricians

00:12:33.389 --> 00:12:34.830

noticed something really unusual.

00:12:35.451 --> 00:12:38.293

Before they could even analyze the data,

00:12:38.873 --> 00:12:40.134

there were these outliers

00:12:40.193 --> 00:12:42.576

that kept popping up of certain children.

00:12:43.375 --> 00:12:45.677

And when they reversed engineered it,

00:12:46.197 --> 00:12:47.158

They found out that the

00:12:47.219 --> 00:12:48.900

children who on average

00:12:49.441 --> 00:12:51.743

tested 31 points higher

00:12:52.403 --> 00:12:54.245

than other children had

00:12:54.285 --> 00:12:55.167

been the children who were

00:12:55.246 --> 00:12:56.648

using footsteps to brilliance.

00:12:57.187 --> 00:12:58.208

And that meant that they

00:12:58.249 --> 00:12:59.711

were being reclassified

00:13:00.951 --> 00:13:02.734

from English learners to

00:13:02.874 --> 00:13:04.294

actual English speakers.

00:13:04.995 --> 00:13:05.196

Wow.

00:13:06.256 --> 00:13:07.238

That's an amazing story.

00:13:09.106 --> 00:13:10.008

That's got to make you guys

00:13:10.048 --> 00:13:11.268

feel pretty awesome that

00:13:11.889 --> 00:13:14.370

this platform is helping so

00:13:14.390 --> 00:13:15.451

many students and affecting

00:13:15.471 --> 00:13:16.111

so many children.

00:13:17.091 --> 00:13:17.493

Thank you.

00:13:17.932 --> 00:13:18.273

It does.

00:13:18.894 --> 00:13:19.894

It's why we get up every

00:13:19.933 --> 00:13:21.075

morning and are

00:13:21.095 --> 00:13:22.775

enthusiastic about what we do.

00:13:23.876 --> 00:13:25.618

When we're looking ahead here,

00:13:26.317 --> 00:13:27.318

what do you see as the

00:13:27.379 --> 00:13:29.000

future for Footsteps to Brilliance?

00:13:29.480 --> 00:13:30.600

What's on the horizon?

00:13:30.620 --> 00:13:32.682

I always ask the question,

00:13:32.903 --> 00:13:33.763

where are we going to be in

00:13:33.822 --> 00:13:34.803

six to 12 months?

00:13:35.345 --> 00:13:36.544

I'll let you answer that.

00:13:37.265 --> 00:13:38.145

Where do you see all this

00:13:38.186 --> 00:13:38.866

going in the future?

00:13:41.293 --> 00:13:41.573

Well,

00:13:42.794 --> 00:13:45.017

we have three things that we're

00:13:45.057 --> 00:13:46.337

working on right now.

00:13:47.238 --> 00:13:48.799

One is generative AI,

00:13:48.940 --> 00:13:50.461

how that's gonna be helping teachers,

00:13:50.520 --> 00:13:51.120

how it's gonna be

00:13:51.181 --> 00:13:52.601

accelerating student learning.

00:13:53.023 --> 00:13:54.563

We're really excited about

00:13:54.604 --> 00:13:55.985

the work that we're doing in that area.

00:13:57.298 --> 00:13:58.418

We're also doing something

00:13:58.479 --> 00:14:02.663

that is really transformative.

00:14:03.323 --> 00:14:04.585

We're doing a transmedia

00:14:04.625 --> 00:14:06.846

program with San Bernardino County,

00:14:07.326 --> 00:14:08.688

their PBS station.

00:14:09.448 --> 00:14:10.951

And what it's going to do is

00:14:11.191 --> 00:14:13.072

turn television from a

00:14:13.173 --> 00:14:14.913

passive to a very active

00:14:14.995 --> 00:14:16.735

experience for parents and

00:14:16.755 --> 00:14:17.297

their children.

00:14:18.754 --> 00:14:20.496

And then the even bigger

00:14:20.537 --> 00:14:22.477

vision is democratizing

00:14:22.857 --> 00:14:24.460

education for the entire world.

00:14:24.980 --> 00:14:25.780

We actually have a

00:14:25.841 --> 00:14:27.601

partnership right now with

00:14:27.621 --> 00:14:28.923

the government of Pakistan

00:14:29.024 --> 00:14:29.783

and Teach the World

00:14:29.844 --> 00:14:31.385

Foundation where we're

00:14:31.446 --> 00:14:33.748

creating micro schools that

00:14:33.868 --> 00:14:36.230

children can come and learn English.

00:14:36.970 --> 00:14:38.130

And the amazing thing is

00:14:38.431 --> 00:14:39.773

that Nielsen did an

00:14:39.793 --> 00:14:41.833

evaluation study and they

00:14:41.874 --> 00:14:43.075

find that the children who

00:14:44.035 --> 00:14:46.317

frankly, for one reason or another,

00:14:46.398 --> 00:14:49.019

weren't able to afford even

00:14:49.019 --> 00:14:50.519

$2 to get into school,

00:14:51.380 --> 00:14:52.662

could come to these micro

00:14:52.701 --> 00:14:55.342

schools for a couple of hours a day.

00:14:56.244 --> 00:14:59.046

And at the end, they were actually

00:14:59.557 --> 00:15:01.278

testing three times higher

00:15:01.298 --> 00:15:04.883

on English than their

00:15:05.083 --> 00:15:06.345

counterparts were in a

00:15:06.445 --> 00:15:07.787

traditional school with

00:15:07.927 --> 00:15:09.788

teachers and books and all

00:15:09.828 --> 00:15:11.030

the other things that go with it.

00:15:11.730 --> 00:15:13.113

So we're really excited

00:15:13.192 --> 00:15:14.754

about the future of digital

00:15:14.815 --> 00:15:15.875

learning in terms of what

00:15:15.895 --> 00:15:16.817

it can do for the world.

00:15:17.457 --> 00:15:19.179

That is an amazing story and

00:15:19.200 --> 00:15:20.841

a remarkable accomplishment.

00:15:21.001 --> 00:15:23.063

Congratulations on putting

00:15:23.124 --> 00:15:24.085

all of that together.

00:15:24.125 --> 00:15:26.386

I mean, those three things that you said,

00:15:26.407 --> 00:15:28.068

those are huge hurdles to

00:15:28.129 --> 00:15:30.431

accomplish and it's...

00:15:32.398 --> 00:15:32.998

It's inspiring.

00:15:33.038 --> 00:15:34.299

I got to tell you, as a parent here,

00:15:34.679 --> 00:15:35.340

saying that there are

00:15:35.399 --> 00:15:36.541

programs that are out there

00:15:36.561 --> 00:15:37.282

that are going to help

00:15:37.322 --> 00:15:39.062

students get to where that they need,

00:15:39.524 --> 00:15:41.144

whether they are learning English,

00:15:41.164 --> 00:15:41.905

whether they are native

00:15:41.966 --> 00:15:42.846

English speakers trying to

00:15:42.865 --> 00:15:43.506

learn how to read.

00:15:44.187 --> 00:15:45.688

There's so many different things here.

00:15:45.908 --> 00:15:47.610

And again, Footsteps to Brilliance,

00:15:48.110 --> 00:15:48.951

it's just that program

00:15:48.971 --> 00:15:49.591

that's going to go out

00:15:49.611 --> 00:15:50.272

there and help out.

00:15:51.133 --> 00:15:53.075

Tell us a little bit about what we can do.

00:15:53.174 --> 00:15:53.835

Where do we go?

00:15:53.855 --> 00:15:55.515

How do we reach out to you?

00:15:55.537 --> 00:15:56.537

If somebody has a question,

00:15:56.557 --> 00:15:57.077

where can they go?

00:15:58.148 --> 00:15:59.188

Kathy, do you want to take that one?

00:15:59.849 --> 00:16:00.190

Sure.

00:16:00.409 --> 00:16:00.769

Yeah.

00:16:00.850 --> 00:16:05.232

So we are on footsteps2brilliance.com.

00:16:05.274 --> 00:16:07.134

So that's footsteps and the number two,

00:16:07.674 --> 00:16:09.716

brilliance.com.

00:16:10.216 --> 00:16:15.341

And on our website,

00:16:15.360 --> 00:16:16.642

you can find out a lot about us.

00:16:16.721 --> 00:16:19.784

And we also are on social media.

00:16:19.804 --> 00:16:20.905

And you can follow us on all

00:16:20.926 --> 00:16:23.668

of the standard platforms there as well.

00:16:24.601 --> 00:16:25.263

We're going to make sure

00:16:25.283 --> 00:16:26.222

that we have links to all

00:16:26.243 --> 00:16:27.924

their social medias, to their website,

00:16:27.965 --> 00:16:28.945

and to all the great

00:16:28.985 --> 00:16:29.885

achievements that we've

00:16:29.905 --> 00:16:31.006

been talking about today.

00:16:31.027 --> 00:16:32.748

Eileen and Kathy,

00:16:32.927 --> 00:16:34.349

thank you so much for being

00:16:34.408 --> 00:16:35.230

on the show today.

00:16:35.250 --> 00:16:36.311

Do me a favor.

00:16:36.571 --> 00:16:38.393

Please invite yourself on in the future.

00:16:38.432 --> 00:16:39.633

We would love to have you

00:16:39.673 --> 00:16:40.995

come back and share some

00:16:41.034 --> 00:16:42.254