Why Distance Learning?

Seth Fleischauer (00:01.225)
Hello everyone and welcome to Why Distance Learning, the podcast that challenges misconceptions about live virtual education hosted by three seasoned distance learning professionals, myself, Tammy and Allison. Hello ladies.

Allyson (00:14.134)
Hi!

Tami Moehring (00:15.183)
Hello.

Seth Fleischauer (00:16.403)
We bring you real stories, expert insights and research back strategies that uncover the true impact of distance learning in today's world. And if you've been listening to our podcast since the beginning, perhaps you remember that we had some incredible young guests on way back when in episode five, and we are going to build on that today with some more student guests. Today's episode is going to build on our last new episode, which was with Ben Summers from.

recess.gg an online platform, transforming virtual education into an e-sports style team based experience where students show up because they want to. And if you would like to check out that episode, you can get a much deeper look at recess.gg and what it does for students. But today we've got two of those students here with us. And this episode is about what happens when two young creators take learning into their own hands and turn it into a podcast.

Today we sit down with Maddie and Ella, the dynamic co-hosts of The Recess Rundown, a podcast by and for self-directed learners. With them, we will explore how their homeschooling journeys led them to distance learning and podcasting, how being part of a digital community like recess.gg fuels their passions and what they've learned from creating a show of their

Allyson (01:19.662)
Yeah.

Seth Fleischauer (01:38.557)
Along the way, we will talk feedback, effort, superpowers, and dream episodes and get their advice for any young learner or creator ready to jump into the world of podcasting and distance learning. Maddie and Ella, welcome to the podcast.

Allyson (01:52.845)
Yay.

Ella (01:52.906)
Thank you.

Maddie (01:53.409)
Hi. Yeah, thanks for having us.

Seth Fleischauer (01:54.335)
Yeah, we're so happy that you're here. Tammy, could you please introduce our guests?

Allyson (01:55.534)
you

Tami Moehring (02:00.448)
I'd be happy to introduce them. Maddie is 11 years old and co-hosts the Recess Rundown podcast. She loves creative writing, journaling, and podcasting. She also enjoys creating digital media such as animating, editing videos, and more. Ella is 13 years old, or is a 13 year old homeschooler and co-host of the Recess Rundown with Maddie.

where they dive into all things recess and self-directed learning. When she's not podcasting, Ella blogs about her pet guinea pigs, enjoys theater and musicals, drawing, playing piano, and immersing herself in novels, usually with a good cup of tea in hand. We are excited both of you are on the podcast. And I have to say, I love all of our other amazing...

guests that I've been on, but none of them have as fun bios as the two of you do. You do things I want to get off the podcast and do now.

Allyson (02:52.462)
Me too. Yeah. Yeah.

Seth Fleischauer (02:52.671)
Yeah, right. want some recommendations like musicals, anime, like how do you do all that? How do you have so much fun? I forget. I forget how. Let's just set the stage here. I want to know, like you two started as homeschoolers, but now you're creating your own podcast adventures. So how did homeschooling lead you to discover distance learning?

Ella (03:03.491)
you

Seth Fleischauer (03:21.209)
And what made you want to share that with others through your podcast?

Maddie (03:28.059)
okay, so my homeschooling journey started exactly right after COVID. I was around five years old and I missed my kindergarten graduation and I literally remember being like so upset about it.

Allyson (03:43.532)
Yeah.

Maddie (03:47.812)
I did two years of online school and homeschoolers know that online learning during COVID is completely different than homeschooling. I did not like what I was learning, so my mom decided that we will try and homeschool. So around eight years old, I think, my mom started me on journaling and practicing how to reflect and write. And this is really just when I

found my passion for being a creative writer and a writer. And then just having that time for myself to explore, I think really helped me figure out what I enjoy and like to do. And I really wanted a way to my voice and my voice, I wanted a way to voice my love of learning. And I thought by creating a podcast and talking about all my experiences would maybe inspire other kids to want to try

to learn or try something different than what they're currently doing. And I wanted the podcast to be about Recess because Recess just opened so many opportunities for me. And not only does Recess have amazing classes, mentors, and facilitators, Recess is a great community. And I just found my closest friends at Recess and my co-host, Ella.

Seth Fleischauer (05:14.079)
Oh my gosh. I love that you're talking about discovering your passions as if that's not something I'm still doing at 46 years old and you're like 11 and being like, yeah, I nailed this and here I go. Just building stuff. Yeah.

Tami Moehring (05:19.352)
I know.

Maddie (05:23.352)
Hahaha

Allyson (05:24.462)
Discovering your passions happens all the time. It's awesome to hear about the foundation you've given yourself. so cool.

Ella (05:33.026)
Peace.

Seth Fleischauer (05:33.329)
And Ella, what's your story? How did you end up here?

Ella (05:36.263)
okay. I have been homeschooled my entire life. Never been to school. I don't know much about it other than from what I've seen in movies and stuff. like... What is real recess? I don't know what that is. I've got recess, Gigi. I'm fine. Homeschooling, it's kind of given me the opportunity and the freedom to explore

Seth Fleischauer (05:55.391)
You

Ella (06:05.28)
everything that interests me. Contrary to popular belief, most homeschoolers do not just sit at a desk all day doing schoolwork. I was always really interested in media and tech and online gaming. So distance and online learning were kind of an obvious next step for me. I wanted to be able to connect with other kids who shared my interests.

in those things and that kind of led to my mom finding recess. And then that other part of the question, what wanted me, what made me want to share that? I think hanging out with these awesome kids every day. You would not know the crazy things that kids at recess could do. I mean, you're about to find out, but...

Seth Fleischauer (07:03.076)
Hehehe... Hehehe...

Ella (07:05.114)
I've just been interacting with the most amazing kids who do awesome things. Recess helps kids nurture that ability to think for themselves and turn an idea into something that's not just an idea anymore. It's a real thing. the podcast was just an idea. and then boom, here we are.

Seth Fleischauer (07:33.257)
Hmm. I want to ask about a part of this because oftentimes when people discuss distance learning, they, they don't believe that you can form authentic relationships. And just from the way that you guys have been talking about this, it sounds like you really have done that. Maybe using recess, maybe using other things. I wonder if you can speak to that.

How do you make it so that the friends that you're making, the people you're connecting with, it feels like real life versus what a lot of old people say about connecting with people online, which is that you can't really get there. You can't have a real friend that you met online. How do you make it feel real when you're talking to people?

Maddie (08:29.465)
Just.

Ella (08:29.624)
I think you have to believe that it can be real. A lot of the time while you're talking to these people, you might like, like you're saying you're going to go, but this is, we're just talking online. This is kind of strange. It doesn't have to be. You're, it's a friendship. You're doing the exact same things that you would be doing in real life, but you're just not in the same place at the same time. Well.

Maddie (08:33.463)
Yeah.

Ella (08:59.17)
Time zones. Like, Maddie started off as an online friend until we realized we lived near each other. And this... Yeah.

Seth Fleischauer (09:08.179)
Yeah

Seth Fleischauer (09:13.585)
Maddie, does that resonate with you? What's your perspective on that?

Maddie (09:17.857)
I completely agree with Ella. Another great thing about kind of like meeting these awesome people online is that when you get to meet them in person, it's just like super cool and like it's like even funner than just hanging out online.

Seth Fleischauer (09:35.676)
there's that like super exciting part of like, I the anticipation of it. So quick story, I had a my daughter

When we first had her, she's like 12 now. but we were posting on Instagram pictures of her. don't do that anymore. Digital citizenship is another topic. We'll talk about that another time. but we were using this particular hashtag to, was her nickname, right? And then we found out that there was another person posting using that hashtag because their dog had the same nickname.

Allyson (10:11.682)
Mm-hmm.

Seth Fleischauer (10:11.747)
And they lived in Colorado and we lived in California. And then at one point they were like traveling through California and we got the two Vitas together, the dog and the kid. And we met them in real life. And it was just this amazing like a story of how the internet can connect people like that. Right. And this was totally random. It like, we just happened to use the same nickname and hashtag.

but, but like, remember that anticipation of like, my God, I get to meet these people in person. And we do the same thing with Bainian global learning. have these students all the way on the other side of the world and we teach them they're in Asia. We're in America. And then we send our teachers out there to meet them in person. And like the, the, that authentic connection that you built online just becomes that much more exciting. And it reinforces.

the online relationship. Once you get back to online, then you feel like you've had this extra layer of like intimacy that you've been able to share with them. It's such a cool thing to be able to use both in tandem and build those relationships.

Allyson (11:17.622)
Yeah, I mean, that's it. I feel so excited that you both were able to have this experience and you're in the community of recess, who's really helping you shape the idea of building that community, knowing that there's times and space and ways to create don't have to matter in this medium. Tammy and myself, for example.

We met online a long time ago and got to meet in person a couple of times, but a lot of the work that we've done has been online through the work we do at CILC, but also writing. So it's really interesting to see when you have those relationships that you form online, how they can really impact your lived experience. And I wonder, since you are part of the recess community, how has being part of the online community shaped your learning experiences, the way you learn or how you might learn or prefer to learn?

and maybe even inspired your episodes and helped you connect with more children or adults around the world to build up those relationships.

Ella (12:12.377)
Thank

okay. I've never really kind of said this out loud, but I'm always thinking it. Well, okay. Recess is the whole reason for all of this. To me, recess feels like my safe little bubble. It's my happy place. It's helped my confidence grow.

Allyson (12:26.03)
Hey.

Ella (12:45.123)
like a million times this podcast as well has definitely helped. But

that feeling where you know that no one there is going to judge you and if you do something silly or that might not quite be right, they're not going to completely leave you in the dark about it.

It's completely like changed the way that I see learning and education now.

So like I said earlier, the kids are amazing. They are talented and inspiring and every time I interview, like we interview one of them, I want to go and do what they've been doing. I'm like, all right, whatever you've been doing sounds great.

Allyson (13:40.846)
you

Seth Fleischauer (13:40.927)
you

Ella (13:47.862)
And I think we're kind of talking about online relationships. Part of that confidence boost is the way that Recess kind of looks at the online relationship stuff. Like you said, a lot of people are averse to it. They don't really like, online friends? No, what is that? But they encourage it with

Allyson (14:10.476)
Yeah.

Seth Fleischauer (14:11.167)
Thank

Ella (14:16.409)
They have a daily social hour where kids get to go and hang out with other kids. And the way that opens up so many opportunities to meet new people, try out cool things, it's, like I said, completely changed the way that I see education and learning now.

Seth Fleischauer (14:40.625)
Maddie, does that resonate with you? How do you feel about that?

Maddie (14:43.907)
Yeah, so the part when Ella said when she listened to these other kids that we interviewed, she got really inspired on what they were working on, I completely agree with that because just listening to what other kids are doing has definitely just leveled up my learning experience and inspired me to just try all these new cool things. Actually, if you listen to...

of our past episodes where we interviewed this girl named Mellie. She is another homeschooler that's been blogging for a very very long time and she actually inspired me to start a buy me a coffee account where I plan on sharing some short stories online. Yeah and I've had such just literally just a fun journey learning about

Allyson (15:32.856)
Yay!

Maddie (15:40.825)
podcasting and just running it in general. yeah, it's also just such a fun time getting to know everyone in recess and connecting.

Seth Fleischauer (15:53.296)
And what have you learned about podcasting? You're using this podcast to learn about other students at recess, learn the types of self-directed learning that they are leading themselves to. I'd love to hear like what you've learned about the art of podcasting and also maybe a couple more of those inspiring stories of the people that you've interviewed.

Allyson (16:14.69)
Yeah, your podcast is so fun to listen to and watch. You do such a great job. It's so awesome.

Ella (16:19.513)
Thank you.

Ella (16:24.047)
I think this is, it's, you're talking about more interesting stories. I've got one another about Millie. I, like in the intro, I blog about my pet guinea pigs and my blog, like Millie heavily, heavily inspired the idea for a blog.

it. Watching the way like how she loves writing makes it.

so enjoyable and she puts so much effort into her blog posts.

and I think another kid that we interviewed.

I really... Angela was another... her art is amazing, so talented in the way she puts art and coding together into one thing. It's something that not many people think about and it's very inspiring.

Maddie (17:21.822)
yeah.

Seth Fleischauer (17:40.613)
Maddie, what do you, what do you like about podcasting? What have you learned about podcasting?

Maddie (17:46.703)
Bye.

Okay, just I think learning about who we are interviewing is just super fun and it, yeah, again, it inspires me like crazy. And I just find it really fun to be asking these questions, playing these games at the end and just, yeah, again, just learning about who we're interviewing and all these great things about recess.

Seth Fleischauer (18:26.249)
That sounds amazing. The fact that it's such a service, right? It's such a service that you're providing to your community to allow people to really dive deeply into what they do and to give them a platform to be able to inspire other people while you yourself are inspiring other people by

by creating and leveraging the power of technology to do something that's uniquely your own. And I'm curious for kids or families who want to do this type of learning, who are curious about self-directed learning or starting their own podcasts or joining an online community, do you guys have advice that you would give them for making the most of distance learning or how to stay motivated or?

sharing what you've learned with others. What is the wisdom that you have developed over your time as a podcaster?

Ella (19:27.247)
Wisdom, not true. I don't feel very wise. We're still, I mean, we're still relatively new to this. But, and it's all very self-directed. We don't really, we haven't had a podcasting mentor. We've had to figure this out for ourselves. And so, you know.

Don't... I don't have very sound advice.

Allyson (20:00.336)
You

Seth Fleischauer (20:01.62)
What are some of the things that you figured out on your own?

Ella (20:05.775)
I think we've had to figure out- sorry, Maddie.

Maddie (20:08.111)
Edit, edit.

Like, isn't that, like how to edit on these softwares?

Allyson (20:15.0)
Yeah!

That is a skill Lucas can tell our editor. have an editor outside of our team that helps us part of our team just outside of the team that you see here. So yeah, that's a really big skill who. Yeah.

Seth Fleischauer (20:28.413)
Yeah, we learned how to ask someone else to do that for us.

Ella (20:31.055)
This

Maddie (20:31.412)
haha

Allyson (20:33.464)
So what are your... I wonder if you think about your process a little bit on how you build up your episodes, do you typically think out the questions together? Do you write a script? How do you choose your guests and then kind of construct your episode around it for them to tell their story?

Tami Moehring (20:33.712)
You're way further than we are, so good for you.

Maddie (20:54.127)
So I feel like we just for picking the people to be on the podcast is just like, cause in recess there is a feed where kids can post all their projects and cool things that they're doing. So usually me and Aless grow through that and look at these cool projects that these kids are doing. And we're like, okay, that's super cool. We should definitely reach out to them. And for the, for,

for the questions, we usually always write a script on what we're planning on saying and asking. Yeah, and we get them to fill out a form right before we film, so we know a lot more about them.

Seth Fleischauer (21:42.996)
Hmm.

Allyson (21:43.736)
That's great. go ahead, Ella.

Ella (21:46.102)
sorry, I think a lot of the time the script kind of goes out the window. It's we get into it and we're improvising and it's it's always very fun when that happens because it it makes the conversation feel very natural which a podcast should be.

Maddie (21:52.61)
Yeah.

Allyson (21:52.846)
You

Ella (22:07.137)
I I had another thing that I was going to say.

Might have to get back to that one.

Tami Moehring (22:15.44)
Is there anything you think I would never ever do that again? Like you learn from the parts that you kind of stumble on that you're like, that was a good learning moment for the two of us.

Allyson (22:15.532)
Okay, yeah, when it comes to you just let us know.

Ella (22:29.903)
Hmm.

Maddie (22:30.927)
I think definitely one time I was filming with Ella and I was, I forgot to close my window because I like, I keep it open sometimes. And then literally while I'm editing, I just hear all these car noises and this really weird air noise. And I'm just like, okay, this is really bad. We need to fix this.

Seth Fleischauer (22:51.891)
You

Allyson (22:52.406)
you

Allyson (23:00.45)
You're checking the window every time now.

Seth Fleischauer (23:00.563)
I'll be right back after I close my window.

Maddie (23:02.979)
No

Allyson (23:08.982)
Is there anything that you both felt like was a really big challenge that you had to be creative around and then felt like really successful about maybe not overcoming the challenge, but looking at it a different perspective and making it work for you? I find sometimes, especially with the work Tammy and I've done together, from writing to editing, depending on the time of day, the challenges can look different. But I wonder if there's one that sticks to you that you feel really accomplished.

Ella (23:36.259)
Mm-hmm.

Maddie (23:36.887)
Is this just about everything or just about podcasting?

Allyson (23:39.126)
Yeah, it can be about everything. Podcasting is great. But yeah, I mean, especially with both being self-directed learners, a lot of that is you finding ways to problem solve and some of the work you might be doing. You explained it here in the podcast. So we love to hear about anything you feel accomplished about. That's part of your journey.

Maddie (23:58.672)
So before, actually right now I'm writing a book about, very inspired by the Chronicles of Narnia that land. So, and I also just noticed that the name is super similar. It's called Sumeria. It sounds the same, Narnia, Sumeria, it kind of sounds similar. But yeah, it's just.

that I'm really excited for that kind of happened. And I've also published another book when I was younger with two other authors. One of them being Angela, the person we've interviewed and her younger sister. It was a long time ago, I've definitely improved my writing skills, but, and I still kind of cringe when I look back at it, but.

Seth Fleischauer (24:56.511)
you

Maddie (24:57.263)
I'm kind of happy that I actually finished it and published it with them.

Allyson (25:01.87)
Yes, congratulations. Oh my goodness. I can't wait to read what's coming up and what you've already put together and shared with the world. And we'll make sure to link everything in the podcast notes so everybody can know how to keep up. Ella, what about you? Oh, sorry, Nessa.

Seth Fleischauer (25:20.745)
Hello, what about you?

Ella (25:20.947)
okay. I think podcast challenges is learning how to work with another person. Thankfully, Maddie and I, we're, it's.

Seth Fleischauer (25:31.615)
Try three. Oof.

Allyson (25:35.617)
Yeah!

Maddie (25:36.301)
Ahaha

Ella (25:39.701)
It's, you know, there are obviously going to be disagreements sometimes. And I think, I mean, usually what everyone says, but like compromise.

It's honestly a life changer.

And then some challenges. think challenges that we faced is a lot of the time pacing of episodes, figuring out how to put questions, put them in the correct order so it feels like you're moving, like you're not like, okay, this is visual. I'm a very visual person. So sometimes for a question, you're

going like this, zooming all around. And we just want to do a simple hop to the next question. I think just learning how to structure those correctly is a challenge that we've overcome.

Seth Fleischauer (26:42.623)
It's so interesting cause like Maddie used the word cringe, right? Which I feel like that is a, that is a palpable threat to all kids, right? Like, like, like you sure, sure. But we can deal with it, right? Like we're, we're older. We understand to a certain extent that comes with the gig, right? Um, but like kids are like, you know, super, super sensitive to that. Yet here you are putting yourself out there.

Allyson (26:42.921)
Very.

Allyson (26:51.722)
Yeah. and parents. You don't want to be cringe either as a parent. It's fair, fair.

Ella (26:56.047)
you

Seth Fleischauer (27:11.525)
over and over again, and you're learning the types of lessons that are only able to be learned when you actually do. Right? Like, like, there's a whole bunch of stuff that kids, these kids these days, sorry, will never learn, right? Because they're afraid to put themselves out there. And it's so inspiring to see two young people who, despite the threat of cringe, have

Maddie (27:26.383)
you

Seth Fleischauer (27:39.484)
decided to just go out there and do it, right? Like that is, that's amazing. And I want to transition now to two questions that we ask all of our guests. And most of our guests are like seasoned distance learning professionals who have been around for years and years and years. yet I am very excited, more excited about your answers to these questions than other people. Cause you are, you are the, you are the user.

Maddie (28:03.786)
Thank

Seth Fleischauer (28:09.117)
Right? Like you are the distance learner. so one of them is, a golden moment, right? So it's this idea of like, I am using distance learning and there is some celebration, some moment where I'm like, wow, this wouldn't have been possible if I didn't have this. And I'm wondering if you can tell that story for us.

Ella (28:37.549)
Hmm.

Maddie (28:37.935)
For me, think, first of all, again, bringing up the book that I'm working with, could have never properly edited, editing it without Breanne's help. We've interviewed, actually, her on the podcast, so check that out after.

Allyson (29:03.874)
You

Maddie (29:06.519)
She's one of my mentors and she just looks at me so much with just like adding these notes on the document saying, hey, you spelled this wrong. Try it. This is how it's really spelled. That I could never have done. Like, I've never even gotten this far with the book without her.

Seth Fleischauer (29:24.703)
What about you, Ella?

Ella (29:26.155)
well that was gonna look bad if I don't say Breanne. Don't worry, Breanne. You too. but I think recess, number one. We're just honestly free promotion for recess. but the freedom that I have, I kind of like, we've talked about this earlier, but that

Allyson (29:29.006)
Yeah.

Seth Fleischauer (29:33.735)
You

Ella (29:55.408)
freedom that I get to decide my day, structure it how I want it to. Maybe, like, my curriculum isn't just the regular stuff that you have. I've got musical theater, music lessons, I have the book club that I run. I like that, like studying the book.

Maddie (30:20.136)
yeah.

Ella (30:25.369)
figuring out discussion questions for the group, think, yeah, something that I could not have done anything without is the freedom that homeschooling has given me.

Seth Fleischauer (30:35.775)
Alison, can you tee up YDL?

Allyson (30:39.222)
Sure. So we also like to always ask on the podcast, the question of our podcast, the name of it, why distance learning? We like to know how you think about the medium of distance learning and the power of it. Why do you choose to share your voice in podcasting in this form of distance learning?

Seth Fleischauer (31:05.469)
In other words, why distance learning?

Allyson (31:07.242)
You

Maddie (31:12.843)
Hmm. I feel...

Maddie (31:20.051)
I don't know. Hello, what do you think?

Ella (31:23.362)
I'm thinking I want to see a good answer.

Seth Fleischauer (31:26.271)
you

Ella (31:29.775)
I think

Ella (31:34.031)
I, the reason I do distance learning is the, to give myself the ability to function in a world that is always changing and filled with technology. And that the way the ability to seek out

Maddie (31:34.191)
Well.

Ella (32:00.208)
people that share similar interests to me and that are going to help me to get to my goals. That ability to surround yourself with awesome people. Other distance learners, other homeschoolers, just...

Maddie (32:22.115)
Yeah, I agree with Ella, but yeah, just homeschooling is great because in public school, instead of just listening to these boring classes, I don't know if maybe some are funner, boring classes and learning about these things that sometimes you don't even want to learn. Just homeschooling, you get to learn about whatever you want. And there are like so many great platforms to be on and have your kid join.

And of course, you don't have to be professional, professionally trained to homeschool your kids because there are just so many resources to help you. you're able to personalize your education and just love what you learn. And I have overheard a lot of my mom's conversations with these other random parents, and they always say,

or I always ask, do you have any experience in teaching? And no, my mom doesn't have any experience and she doesn't need to have experience to teach her kids because it's easy with the resources online and who knows your kids better than you do because you are the parents. And yeah, it's not, in homeschooling it's...

Allyson (33:27.854)
You

Maddie (33:50.87)
just super fun, flexible, just like these resources are so available.

Seth Fleischauer (34:02.429)
You guys are so awesome. can't wait until you run the world instead of what we've got going on right now. It's going to be great.

Allyson (34:02.739)
Good answers. Yes. my goodness. Right? Hey, I have a question. I know that we said that we had to end at 45, but if we could, we did had some lightning round questions. If we don't have time, we can edit this out. But I was just thinking, because it could be fun just to hear you both play games in your podcast. So as an ode to your podcast and the games.

Tami Moehring (34:06.66)
Yes.

Maddie (34:07.139)
haha

Allyson (34:30.114)
We put together just a couple questions that we were calling lightning round questions that we'll shoot out and you can give us your answers. If you want us to share, we can too, but we definitely want to hear your answers if that's okay. All right, lightning round, here we go. Okay, so first question, if learning were a superpower, what would your superpowers be and how do you use them in your homeschool adventures?

Ella (34:41.807)
Yep.

Maddie (34:57.903)
Okay, myself, I think I'm pretty good at putting together a presentation. So working with Canva or Google Slides, and I've been doing it so much to prepare for the clubs I lead and workshops I have taught. And I love making the spreads look super stylish and pretty. So I definitely think that would be, that is my superpower.

Allyson (35:23.598)
Awesome.

Ella (35:24.847)
my superpower would probably be my ability to juggle the 20 million things going on every single day. The... the... I've got a lot going on.

Allyson (35:32.394)
you

Maddie (35:33.871)
Yeah.

Allyson (35:41.006)
That's awesome balance and style, two very important things to have. And it's great when you can be a team and bring that out too. Okay. Tammy, do you want to take the next question?

Tami Moehring (35:54.128)
I have to double check I'm following the exact same place that you are. there we go.

Allyson (35:58.424)
the podcast.

Tami Moehring (36:03.222)
it. What's okay, sorry, this is not a superpower of mine to follow a live document. So what's the funniest or most unexpected thing that's ever happened while you were recording an episode of Recess Rundown?

Allyson (36:03.886)
Sorry.

Allyson (36:08.302)
Hahahaha

Maddie (36:18.911)
So I feel like this question is so hard to answer because there are countless funny moments on the podcast, especially in the games and even just when we're ranting. But I think if I were to choose, it would be the episode where we interviewed Finn and we talked and laughed how she wanted to be a toothbrush when she grew up, when she was little. I just thought that was like so funny.

Allyson (36:25.006)
you

Seth Fleischauer (36:45.284)
Who doesn't, you know?

Allyson (36:46.786)
You

Maddie (36:48.911)
And actually, on the podcast, I said, okay, well, when you come and visit us in Canada, in Toronto, because she actually lives in Canada as well. I said, okay, well, I wrote down toothbrush on a sticky note and said, okay, when you come, I will give you your name tag of being a toothbrush. And when we did the, we filmed the...

Allyson (37:08.928)
Yeah

Maddie (37:15.297)
The meetup, the recess meetup, she came and when we met in person and we did a mini interview and talked and gave her gifts, I actually gave her a name tag that says Toothbrush with her name on it. And it wasn't just this sticky note, it was actually like a real good name tag.

Ella (37:34.692)
was hilarious watching Finn's reaction to the toothbrush. Mine is probably when we thought a bookshelf fell on Ben, one of the founders of Recess, while we were interviewing him. He said he was going to go get some books. He went off-screwed, like off-camera, and then we hear, like, a loud crash. We're like, Ben, are you okay? No response.

Allyson (37:35.018)
it.

Seth Fleischauer (37:59.956)
You

Ella (38:04.559)
So Maddie and I just sit there getting more and more panicked by the minute and thinking this we might have to call the 911. Try send it to Risa's headquarters. Did not happen. Ben was fine. He just had a book or two fall on him.

Maddie (38:07.843)
Yeah

Allyson (38:24.142)
Good. I'm glad he was fine.

Tami Moehring (38:24.4)
You

Seth Fleischauer (38:30.736)
Tammy, keep going.

Tami Moehring (38:32.41)
Okay, if RecessGG were a real life playground, what would it look like? What games would everyone be playing?

Ella (38:41.097)
we play a lot of drawing games at recess, so kids would probably be playing something similar to Gartic Phone or Scribble, which are some games that we play a lot at recess. But I think it would also be really chaotic and like crazy in the funnest way possible. It would be changing all the time because I think we'd have a new playground every week.

Maddie (38:43.8)
Yes.

Ella (39:10.573)
Recess is always evolving.

Maddie (39:15.055)
Yeah, just in my perspective, I feel like this park would have to be very big, a very big playground. And I think in my eyes, I would see like kind of groups of kids and guys either like hosting games or gathering groups based on interest or starting out, hey, we're gonna start a game, come join us if you want. And then just everyone will be just inspiring each other and.

Tami Moehring (39:22.704)
You

Maddie (39:43.821)
just seeing all the cool things everyone's doing.

Allyson (39:47.598)
So, acres and acres of parkland. It's okay, I'll do the last one and then we'll, okay, great. Because I know we have a live session. I wish I could hang out and chat with you guys all day, with you all, excuse me, all day. So, if you could create a podcast episode about absolutely anything, even something totally silly, what would it be and why?

Maddie (39:51.085)
Yes.

Ella (40:11.631)
Okay, this is going to sound really, really silly and it might be a little confusing, but hopefully recess kids watching will understand, listening will understand. So I would want to make an episode about the guide, Christopher. We've already interviewed him, but this would be different. Investigating his secret identity. I may or may not have started, we'll never know. Shh.

a rumor that Christopher is secretly a Canadian rock climber named Zack who is bald. yeah. So yes, we have my my proof. Wait, the person who came up with this rumor, their their proof is

Allyson (40:51.502)
You

Maddie (40:56.975)
Just wears a wig.

Seth Fleischauer (40:59.935)
you

Ella (41:09.453)
that if he ever tries to show you that he was not wearing a wig, pulling on his hair, he's just got extremely good wig glue. Like, you can, it's very strong. So I would want to make an episode investigating into that.

Allyson (41:16.526)
you

Maddie (41:22.991)
I think for me, it would be another one of those recess meetup vlogs. But instead of just going to a park, hanging out, asking questions, I would want to do an escape room where the guides are trying to, or staff members and guides trying to figure out these puzzles in the escape room. we're, let's say the person that was in running the escape room just like told us.

how to solve it and we're just messing them up saying, hey, no, I don't think you should do that. Or this might not be it. Or it could be where we miss kids, the escape room and the guys and try to help us doing it.

Allyson (41:56.014)
Hahaha

Allyson (42:08.014)
Done.

Seth Fleischauer (42:10.521)
so that was out of sequence. We'll circle that back and we'll have just ended the wide distance learning question. I think that's how we'll go. but, thank you guys so much for being here today. if you want to point people towards your podcast, what should they search for?

Maddie (42:33.039)
Just search up on YouTube or Spotify recessed rundown podcast or even just search it up on Gemini or Google And I think I searched it countless times and it actually showed up So yeah

Allyson (42:50.072)
and we'll link it in the show notes as well.

Maddie (42:51.886)
Yes.

Ella (42:52.579)
Yay.

Seth Fleischauer (42:52.669)
Yeah, we will absolutely do that. for our listeners, if you've ever wondered what distance learning looks like when it's driven by creativity, curiosity, and kid powered collaboration, Maddie and Ella are living proof that it works. Please do check our show notes for links to the recess rundown podcast and recess.gg the online hub where Maddie and Ella connect with other learners. As always, thank you to our editor, Lucas Salazar. And if this

Allyson (43:19.256)
Thank you.

Seth Fleischauer (43:20.337)
Episode gave you a fresh perspective on what kids can do when you hand them the mic Please do share it with a fellow educator or parent follow the show leave us a review tell a friend if it sorry It helps more people discover what's possible in the world of distance learning one learner led story at a time Why distance learning because when students lead everyone learns see you next time