When Coaches Transition Back into the Classroom … What Happens Next?

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Hello everybody and welcome to the TeacherCast Educational Network.

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My name is Jeff Bradbury and welcome to Ask the Tech Coach.

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Hope everybody's had a great brand new year.

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Welcome to 2024.

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This is episode number 249.

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We have two amazing educators on today and we're going to be talking all about this topic.

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that keeps coming up in our facebook group of coaches transitioning back into the classroom not only is this an important conversation as many coaches are making that transition thinking about making that transition having that transition forced on us but also what does it look like what does it feel like how do we get back into that classroom area and

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What's the next step for coaches?

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If you are a coach out there that is thinking about or making or has already made that transition, we'd love to have you guys join us.

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You can always reach out to us on the show at feedback at teachercast.net.

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And of course, check out all of our shows and episodes over at askthetechcoach.com.

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My first guest today is an educator, a coach, and really one of my favorite people to talk to about this subject of transitioning, Ms.

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Barbara Scully.

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Barbara, how are you today?

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Welcome back to Ask the Tech Coach.

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How are you doing?

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I'm doing, actually, I'm doing excellent.

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Thank you so much for asking.

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And I'm excited to be here.

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It's been a hot minute since I've been in front of a computer and a microphone.

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It has been a hot minute.

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It's been a hot minute for all of us.

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But I'm glad that you're here.

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Tell us a little bit about yourself.

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What are you doing these days?

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Yeah, so I have transitioned back into the classroom this school year, and I'm super excited to be back in front of students and amongst our peers, right?

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There's nothing that could ever replace your school community, and that was something that I learned over this past year.

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I have an amazing school community, and I have an amazing...

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district community.

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And I'm just honored and thrilled to be back home because there's no place like home.

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Click your heels.

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It took me a hot minute to get there, but I'm excited for that journey and where it's going to lead me.

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But for now, I'm back in the classroom with students.

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I teach family and consumer sciences education.

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So those who are wondering, what is that?

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Think back to the day of home economics.

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So yes, we are still teaching students financial literacy.

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We're teaching students how to sew, do clothing construction, interior design, culinary, early childhood education, human development, mental health, all of it.

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So I'm one of several amazing colleagues and doing all the things that

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There are a lot of things that are going to be done on this show, on our network.

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I will say right now to everybody listening, stay tuned to the end.

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We've got some great announcements coming up about the future of this show, future of TeacherCast, and what you can expect moving forward.

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Definitely stick around with us and check out the ending of this episode for some great announcements.

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I want to bring on my next co-host today, Ms.

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Sarah Kiefer, coming to us from techucando.com.

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Sarah, how are you today?

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Welcome back to Ask the Tech Coach.

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I'm good, Jeff.

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A little tired.

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Went back to school this week.

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So, you know, after that nice winter break, school is back in full force.

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So, yep, I'm doing good.

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I know a lot of teachers have started to come back.

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I know a lot of coaches are coming back.

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Even today, on the day that this is being released, this is the first day for many people who are going back into the classroom and starting school up again.

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So Sarah, tell us a little bit about what you've been doing these days.

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You, much like our topic today, you're back in the classroom now, aren't you?

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I most certainly am.

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An opportunity was presented to me over the summer that I couldn't turn down and it meant making some big changes.

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I switched districts.

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So just like Barbara was saying, you know that your school community is very important to you and I'm creating a new school community

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So I have switched and I am moved back into the classroom.

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I'm at a middle school and I'm teaching sixth, seventh and eighth.

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And I'm very excited because it's all focused on technology.

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And I've been given the opportunity to kind of reinvent how their tech classes are working.

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So doing a lot of continued learning myself, as well as learning about the community, the kids and doing all that good stuff.

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Well, I am certainly happy that both of you are on here.

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Before we really dive into this topic, I want to start with a little bit of big news going on.

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In about two weeks or so from the time that this is being released, we are going to be gathering in Florida for the annual FETC conference.

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You can learn more about it over at FETC.org.

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It's going to be happening January 23 to the 26th.

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If you are an instructional coach, I would love to meet you.

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If

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You're not an instructional coach.

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I'd love to meet you, too.

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But we're going to actually be doing a two-hour instructional coachings workshop on Friday, January 26.

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It's going to be happening from 1030 to 1230, room S331B.

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I will tell you, if this is your first time going down to FETC, it is a monster conference.

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The convention center is huge.

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It's almost a mile around, it seems.

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Definitely wear some productive shoes when you'll go down there.

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But we're going to be doing a two-hour conference on productivity tips for instructional coaches, showing you guys how to build dashboards, showing you guys how to use Google Forms and Microsoft Forms efficiently, showing you how to really build those systems that's going to allow you to spend the time with your teachers, and most importantly, build those systems that's going to allow you to spend time with your family at home at the end of the day.

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So if you're looking for ways to be more productive as an instructional coach or just want to hang out with me for the afternoon, come on over.

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It's going to be Friday, January 26th at Orange County Convention Center.

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It is the annual FETC conference, January 23rd through 26th.

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Check it out today.

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Now, as we get started, one of the things that I've noticed on Facebook recently is this topic of transitioning teachers.

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We all here have stories to tell.

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We've all going to be spending some time today sharing stories.

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But one of the topics that really came up, and I mentioned this earlier, is this idea of transitioning and taking what may be seen as a step backwards.

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So our question of the week is, should transitioning teachers

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educators that are moving from a coaching role to a teacher role.

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Should that be thought of as a step backwards?

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I want to start with this topic here and we'll get into other things, but Sarah, you know, you and I are both in that position right now where we're going from a primarily coaching role into that classroom.

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Does it feel like, should it feel like a step backwards or is it just a step to the left?

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I think it depends on your personal perspective.

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I think that how your brain is working truly can make that difference.

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And I think even if you're on one side, you can shift to the other side.

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So if you, you know, maybe it wasn't your choice, you could look at that as a backward step, but you could also look at that as, hey, like this is a new chapter in my career.

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And I'm going to make the best of it, right?

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And because I think that anytime you're in a situation of change, how you personally feed into it yourself is going to make the biggest difference.

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I won't lie.

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I was at my previous district 21 years.

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So to decide to change was huge.

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And it came with a lot of tears.

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You can ask a lot of people.

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My husband will attest that

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There was a lot of tears to make that decision.

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And I did struggle with, is this a step backwards?

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But when I weighed it all out, I was like, you know what?

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This is the next transition for me.

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This is not my first transition.

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Started as fifth grade, moved up to seventh and eighth, moved into the tech role, the coach role.

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And now this is just the next chapter in my story.

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So

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Well, I think it'd be very easy to look at that.

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I think that takes the negative view on things.

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So you almost have to like force yourself to choose that positive.

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So that's where I'm at.

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Like I'm moving forward and there are so many good reasons to change.

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Barb, what's your theory on this?

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Yeah, uh, I have, I guess I have the, uh, the outlook of saying fail forward is kind of, and it's been, it's been kind of my, my whole thought process, the mind shifts, you know, since COVID we're failing forward, we're making progress no matter what we're doing, where we've been given choices.

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Um, some have been opportunities.

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Some have possibly been maybe setbacks, but just like what Sarah was saying, it's all about your perspective.

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Um, for me, I see it as failing forward.

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You might be stumbling.

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But you're getting up and you're putting one more foot in front of the other, meaning that if you can grow and learn something new, like let's say 1% every single day, at the end of the year, you're going to look back and you've grown 365%.

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So it's...

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It's an interesting way of looking at it, the whole failing forward thing.

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For anybody who is a listener of TeacherCast and has been listening to this program might have noticed I haven't been putting out a show in the last six, eight months.

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In fact, this is the first show we've recorded since ISTE.

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So it's been quite a while.

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Since that time, I've made the conscious choice.

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It was my decision to leave my position and it was my choice to become a classroom teacher.

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This wasn't something that was forced on me.

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This is something that I chose and I'm excited about it.

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This is actually the second time I've moved from a coaching or a leadership coaching role into the classroom.

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and i'm honestly i'm looking forward to it uh this month i'm going to be starting a new position much like sarah's sixth seventh and eighth grade technology education in a fantastic and wonderful school district uh close by to my house um great hours great staff great leadership really looking forward to it and i'm looking at this as a way to learn more about myself learn more about my teaching style and also learn how to become a better

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administrator leader, I guess, if you will.

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Many of you guys know my background.

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I taught orchestra for 15, 18 years or so, took up coaching for a few years, and then became a middle school teacher, got back into coaching, became an administrator, and now here I'm starting again as a

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as a classroom teacher.

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So I think by having that little bit of time as a middle school teacher a couple of years ago was during the first COVID year, that gave me a lot more perspective on how to then get back into the coaching role.

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which then helped me in my administrator position.

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And I'm seeing this not as a step backwards, but literally as a step forward to, in order to be a better administrator the next time an opportunity comes, this is my opportunity to sit back and now listening.

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And now I can see.

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And now I can actually look at the principal role with a district leadership eyes rather than with a coach's eyes or with just a teacher's eyes.

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I can literally step outside of myself and see how a school works and see how a PLC works.

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And now that I know the theory behind it,

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I don't want to say like I'm going undercover.

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That's kind of sounds weird, but now you can actually see things from a completely different set of eyes.

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So I'm not looking at it as a step forward or backwards, but I do subscribe to the one step back, two steps forward.

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If you're looking at as a career path, clearly there's a financial salary conversation in there, but I'm really looking forward to being in a position where I can be used as a leader, but not have to deal with a million emails.

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So let's take a look at this.

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If you are transitioning back into that classroom role,

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Sarah, what have you noticed are the benefits?

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I just kind of mentioned, I'm doing this from a completely different lens.

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What do you see the benefits are?

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What have the benefits been for you with all of your coaching background, with all of your 21 years of doing this, now that you're in front of kids and now that you're back into that classroom, what have you taken with you to make you a better educator?

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So I did receive the question a lot, why are you doing this?

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Why are you making this change?

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because I absolutely loved being a coach.

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I really did.

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And I thought a lot about this, especially during the interview process, because I think people thought I was a little crazy.

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And I said, look, I have a lot of quantity on my plate right now.

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When you're a coach, there's a lot that feeds into that.

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You're working with teachers and students and admins and

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companies and like all of the stuff.

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And I said, you know, what I don't have a whole lot of is the quality aspect of being an educator.

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And that's how I always saw myself first and foremost was I'm a teacher.

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Like if somebody said, what, what are you?

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Well, I'm a teacher.

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And I just, my teaching role looked a little bit different than your traditional classroom teacher.

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I said, but like, that's really the benefit of,

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The biggest benefit to me is that I am now getting a lot of quality teaching time, as opposed to a lot of quantity of stuff that has to get done.

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Somebody has got to do it.

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And it's very valuable to any school district.

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And probably the second big benefit is in my personal life.

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I can walk out of the door three o'clock.

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Jeff, like you mentioned,

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I'm not getting like a thousand emails every day.

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Um, you know, whether they were ones that I could just delete simply, or they started stacking up and they're 10, 15 of them that you've got to respond to and which is the fire that's burning the hottest that you've got to, you know, tackle immediately.

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What can wait till the next day?

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All that kind of stuff.

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Um, it's allowed and afforded me a lot more time to watch my girls grow up, to be part of their lives at home and,

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If you know me, I am not a person that likes to cook, never have been.

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I've cooked dinner.

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Like, that's what I tell people.

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Like, I've cooked dinner numerous times.

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And most of the time before I'm coming home, I'm exhausted or I've got this to do or, you know, run the girls here and there.

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But now I'm like, oh, I could make dinner for us.

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So it's like giving me back a lot more of, if you want to say the word balance,

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But it's putting me back to where my priorities should be, right?

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I'm a teacher as a job.

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That's my profession.

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And I definitely love it.

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But being a mom, being a wife is my top priority.

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And I feel like that has kind of come back into more of a focus than it was.

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that certainly puts things into perspective you know the the edu triplets here are 10 years old you're not going to get these days back right like this this is the time where you just know that you're not going to get this time back but going back into the classroom is

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exciting and it has its rewards, right?

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But it does take a little bit of time to adjust and to get into that classroom environment and to get things moving.

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Sarah, you started everything in September.

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I'm starting my new position here in January.

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Barb, talk to us a little bit about the transition that you needed to make from one position to the next.

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How did you prepare for that?

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How did you dive into that?

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How did you start to wrap your head around the new adventure that was ahead of you?

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Well, I have, I guess my journey has been a little bit, it's different and everybody's journey is different.

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I was given an opportunity to join at the state level here in Washington in education and

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I took it.

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I was excited.

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And because my mindset has always been, I want to be in the room where decisions are being made.

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I want to be that voice of reason from the teacher aisle.

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And I got, I got there, I left my position and I'm fortunate where I left my position in a good,

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In good graces, I stayed until a replacement was had and secured.

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And I built curriculum for my replacement.

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So they just had to follow.

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That's all that they had to do.

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Everything was hook, line, and sinkered.

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All they had to do was really just click and read and do to be able to go along with every day's lesson or activity.

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And I get into my new role and within three weeks, I knew that it was not a sustainable position.

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I knew, meaning that there was no actual onboarding.

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There was, we didn't even have, gosh, consultants lined up giving out like a strategic plan of what was to be had.

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So there was, there was a lot of hurry up and wait and, uh, through that and gosh, and I'm not somebody who likes to, to wait.

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I was, my expectation of my new role was that these, you're going to hit these things, uh, hit the ground running.

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These are the things that you're going to be doing.

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And there was a complete shift, uh, where all of a sudden,

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nobody knew what anybody was doing.

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And, and furthermore, I had somebody who was placed in a leadership position who never held a leadership position.

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So there was a lot of micromanaging and not letting go of tasks where I was having this, you're going to, people are going to think going, oh my gosh,

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such a toxic environment.

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And that is, I had to ask permission to talk to my colleagues.

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I had to ask permission to talk to them.

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Can you, and the only thing that I kept on coming back to was the fact that you took a highly collaborative educator out of the classroom

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to then put them in a silo, that makes absolutely no sense.

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And with that, there was some lessons learned, but sadly I was let go along with a couple of others at that same time.

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And I was put on, and I was grateful for unemployment.

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And through that time period,

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I did all the things that you need to do, jumping through the hoops with unemployment and everything.

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And in that time frame, I'm still connecting with my old CTE director and other directors around my neighboring districts and saying, if there's a chance, I'd love to come back.

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I'd love to come back.

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This is insane.

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I can't do this at this level because at that point, I hadn't been let go yet.

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And, uh, they're like, we want you, but we don't have placement yet.

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And sure enough, come may, uh, I was told you're going to come back.

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We'll generate a place for you.

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If something doesn't just open up on its own.

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And by August it was, I, I had secured my, my placement.

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I was going back into my original classroom and.

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Just relearning, reprogramming myself.

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But through that time frame, I was going through a huge adjustment and deconstruction of who I thought I was and who do I want to be?

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Because I had this now opportunity where work was no longer my...

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my everything.

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And it really put a lot of things into perspective for me of saying, you're a mom.

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You already have a child who is now in her second year at university.

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You have now a senior daughter.

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You have a freshman son and a sixth grader son.

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When are you going to put them

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as your first.

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And I went through that huge shift of saying, I need to put all these other side projects off to the side because when am I going to get these opportunities or these moments back with my own family?

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They're the ones that are missing out and I'm missing out on them.

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So I had to go through a lot of tears.

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Extra, just a lot of extra moments of silence.

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And I've learned to really enjoy the silence.

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I think the big thing there is that when you needed help, your past colleagues

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And the people that, and I had the same thing, the people who I walked away with were the first people who I called and said, can you help me with this?

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Or can you talk me through this situation?

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And I love that about your story.

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And not everybody has that opportunity.

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I'm very grateful for the people who have helped me.

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And I can tell that you're very grateful for the people who have reached out and helped you with everything.

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If you are listening to this and any of these stories ring true, please feel free to reach out to us, feedback at teachercast.net.

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You can find us on, I think Twitter is still a thing, Ask the Tech Coach.

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You can certainly go on over to askthetechcoach.com and join us on our Facebook group.

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We have our instructional technology Facebook group.

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and also we've got one on linkedin check out all the great stuff we're just getting restarted again as 2024 hits and we want to hear your stories we want to have you guys be on the show and share your stories your tips your tricks about how you are the best instructional coach and how you're helping out your teachers now sarah and barb we've been on this show before we've talked about the struggle of instructional coaches of how you pour your heart into helping teachers

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they don't always want to follow your direction right and we've talked about this idea that as an instructional coach in order for you know you to move a classroom or move a teacher or move a department you need to have that help from the principal because really there's there really is no authority in the in the instructional coaching position raise your hand if you believe that one too

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But I'm looking forward to taking all of that stuff and bringing that into my classroom.

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Right.

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I don't look at this position as I'm going to be a technology teacher.

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I'm really looking at this as I'm going to be the technology coach for 150 students and 150 students that I now have the gradebook for.

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You know, basically, if you're looking at it, take the instructional coaching position and put the evaluation arm on top of it.

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That's kind of what I'm feeling right now.

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So when I'm doing a lesson for a teacher of, you know, let me come into your classroom and teach your kids how to do slides.

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I'm doing that same lesson now in my classroom.

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I'm planning to do it.

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So Sarah, let me know, does this concept make sense of like, when you make this shift, you really are just going to be you're really now in a coaching position for your students.

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Teaching coaching, we still kind of say that same thing.

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But do you feel yourself as the teacher?

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Or do you feel yourself as the coach of younger learners?

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I'm 100% I feel like I am coaching kids.

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It sounds like it should be easier, right?

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Now they have to listen to you, right?

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Well, but they're kids.

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So, you know, that was the conversation I had with them.

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I said, you know, like, if we can make good choices because we're sixth graders, you know, great.

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But I also understand you're sixth graders.

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So sometimes I'm going to have to step in and help out with all of that.

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And it's funny that you mentioned that, Jeff, because I've had one evaluation by my principal this year so far.

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And that was...

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very different from the last time that i had an observation just because ohio has changed the way that all of that stuff works now and um i could say that's maybe one thing that i did not miss so much but that's for another topic um

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when I met with the principal afterwards and she was giving me her feedback, she said, you know, Sarah, she said, one thing that I noticed was when you got to this one point of the lesson and you were showing the kids how, you know, this, the spinner worked.

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And I had just used Flippity's spinner, you know, that uses Google sheets to create the random wheel.

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And she said, the way you explained it, she said, I really had to catch myself and think like, are you in a classroom with teachers?

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Or are these kids?

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She said, just the way that you had explained it, it very well worked for both groups.

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And she said, I really liked that.

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She said, I think that's something that works really well.

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And I was like, to me, it was second nature.

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I had not put thought into that.

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And I was like, man, that is a great way of looking at it.

-->: 28:49

And

-->: 29:02

I do really feel like exactly what you said too, like the lessons that I have created or assisted with, or you kind of mashed up and pulled back out for teachers.

-->: 29:07

It's exactly what I plan on doing with my students for sure.

-->: 29:12

Barb, what have you been able to use in your transitions here?

-->: 29:28

I mean, when you and I have talked about being a family consumer science teacher and you've got the kitchen area and that's your laboratory, things like project-based learning come naturally, it would seem, to that type of a position.

-->: 29:35

And those are types of the things that as you move into a coaching role and start working with adults or working in any other subject,

-->: 29:43

All of that stuff just feels like it comes naturally instead of like you have to learn how to do those things.

-->: 29:45

Like it's just ingrained in you.

-->: 29:53

And I feel the same way as like an orchestra teacher, like doing things in big groups, small groups, you know, presenting lessons like that just feels naturally.

-->: 30:00

So what have you been able to take from your coaching world and transition it into a classroom role that's been successful for you?

-->: 30:04

Really, it's, it's the relationships.

-->: 30:10

And for me, it's coming alongside students.

-->: 30:16

And just like with what Sarah said, she's, you're coaching students is what you're doing.

-->: 30:20

And for me, that's what it's always felt like.

-->: 30:26

And even along doing those types of activities with my own peers, um,

-->: 30:48

I know it's either in January or this month or in May, whenever if the schedule gets released for our professional development days, I'm going to be presenting like the breakout box challenge with my colleagues.

-->: 30:58

I do that activity with my students and it just, it, it pairs very nicely together.

-->: 31:04

Um, because I see my students as adults.

-->: 31:11

I, I teach high school, so I get ninth through 12th and yes, we're in the, the, the foods lab.

-->: 31:13

And I have 24 adult bodies in the lab, uh,

-->: 31:22

coming, going every which way.

-->: 31:31

So much like for you, Jeff, with your facilitating your orchestra, I feel like I'm conducting at that level as well.

-->: 31:36

But it all stems back to relationships.

-->: 31:46

And if you're able to create those meaningful relationships, then it's gonna go a long, long ways.

-->: 31:51

And I just started, we just started our trimester.

-->: 31:55

So my, in my school district, we are on trimesters.

-->: 31:57

So I only have students for 12 weeks.

-->: 32:11

And so right before break, we had just started our, what, our trimester, trimester two began, I want to say like November 29th or November 30th or something like that.

-->: 32:15

So I had students for the first three weeks and I have to say,

-->: 32:19

Those first three weeks are the absolute worst.

-->: 32:42

You're excited to getting to know your students and everything, but at the same time, it's a lot because you're trying to, I guess, shove down a lot of content in a short amount of time to only then have that break, which we'll be coming back from on Monday, which I'm excited for.

-->: 33:01

But I have to say, I felt like right before break, I got to know really, truly got to know my group, couple of my male students who really opened up because I wasn't talking about content.

-->: 33:03

I was just talking to them.

-->: 33:04

Who are you?

-->: 33:06

What are you wanting to do?

-->: 33:07

What are your goals?

-->: 33:09

How can I help you in your goals?

-->: 33:11

Well, I'm going to be going into the military.

-->: 33:12

Oh my gosh.

-->: 33:14

That's that's incredible.

-->: 33:17

So and then being told.

-->: 33:22

So I'm just here to basically I'm just here to collect a paycheck so I don't get fined.

-->: 33:31

The idea of relationships is important and an interesting thing.

-->: 33:37

I was talking to somebody about this on Facebook and, you know, I want to throw this out to both of you, but.

-->: 33:41

Do you get the urge to instructional coach your peers?

-->: 33:46

I've been doing this for a long time now, so have you.

-->: 33:54

Do you feel like you need to walk into your colleague's classroom and start instructional coaching them?

-->: 34:00

Do they know that you have a background in coaching and do they come to you with a question or two?

-->: 34:02

How do you not...

-->: 34:08

scratch that coaching itch because now it's not your job description?

-->: 34:31

Well, I can answer first because there are a few colleagues that I purposely do not go into their classroom because I just, their way of facilitating, uh, things does not, um,

-->: 34:42

does not give off, does not do, like the productivity is lagging.

-->: 34:54

And so I go out of my way not to go down those rabbit holes because I know I could come across as abrasive sometimes or overbearing.

-->: 35:03

And this year is, for me, is just calm waters.

-->: 35:05

Don't take on anything new.

-->: 35:07

You're there.

-->: 35:09

Just be there.

-->: 35:11

Be there for your students.

-->: 35:12

Be there for your colleagues.

-->: 35:18

And if they come asking for advice or help, be there.

-->: 35:28

But don't go out of your way to do anything extra because, Sarah, you want that balance.

-->: 35:32

And I'll step in.

-->: 35:37

I'm brand new district, complete other side of the city.

-->: 35:43

I know that a lot of my background came up in the interview.

-->: 35:51

So if a teacher had sat in on my interview, they're well aware of a lot of my previous adventures, if you will.

-->: 36:03

But nobody's like running to me because they feel like I'm going to be like their coach, their buddy.

-->: 36:13

I've had numerous conversations with teachers, though, and they have said, oh, well, but you know, you're well aware of or you're comfortable with and they'll ask me questions.

-->: 36:17

And I have happily volunteered information.

-->: 36:21

Ironically, my classroom is in.

-->: 36:27

like a wing of the school that isn't heavily trafficked either.

-->: 36:31

So it's not like teachers are just happening to be walking past my classroom.

-->: 36:35

So I don't get like foot traffic, if you will.

-->: 36:48

And I would say I have plenty of conversations and I have tried to employ the idea that I'm the newbie, that I need to be respectful of those boundaries.

-->: 36:51

But I'm also not

-->: 36:59

a brand new teacher to where I'm not confident in what I know.

-->: 37:14

You know, so I don't want to come across as, you know, too knowledgeable, but I do bring with me a lot to the table that I'm not afraid to volunteer or help or guide should the need arise.

-->: 37:18

So I think it's, again, it goes back to that whole balance thing.

-->: 37:20

I'm, I'm a teacher.

-->: 37:26

But I've got all of this stuff in my background, so I can't dismiss that either.

-->: 37:38

One of the things that also has come up on our Facebook group over the Instructional Coaches Network is this idea of even if I'm a teacher, am I still a coach?

-->: 37:40

And I'm wrestling with this one too.

-->: 37:44

We're doing a show called Ask the Tech Coach, but I'm no longer in that position.

-->: 37:47

What are your thoughts on this?

-->: 37:49

My thought is that

-->: 37:51

We're going to keep doing this.

-->: 37:52

We're going to have some fun.

-->: 37:53

People are listening.

-->: 37:58

If you're out there and you're listening to this, let us know.

-->: 38:01

Write us feedback at teachercast.net.

-->: 38:02

But you're always a coach.

-->: 38:05

It's that whole ABC, always be coaching, always be a coach.

-->: 38:07

You can still go to conferences.

-->: 38:08

You can still go to that.

-->: 38:11

There might be a coaching role or an admin role in your future.

-->: 38:13

Always keep in touch with that community.

-->: 38:15

Sarah, what are you thinking about all this?

-->: 38:21

Do you still consider yourself a coach, even though you're not in a coaching position officially?

-->: 38:21

100%.

-->: 38:30

I truly do believe that being a coach is the educator that I was meant to be.

-->: 38:36

And like we talked previously, right now, my focus, my goal is coaching students.

-->: 38:41

I'm having that direct contact, that direct interaction with

-->: 38:44

with kids, with middle schoolers specifically.

-->: 38:56

And it just, it looks a little different than what, you know, if you said, oh, you're an educational coach of whatever manner, they probably would assume you're working with teachers.

-->: 39:01

I 100% consider myself a coach for these kids.

-->: 39:05

Barb, you're nodding your head.

-->: 39:06

What are your thoughts about this?

-->: 39:08

Once a coach, always a coach?

-->: 39:11

Yeah, absolutely.

-->: 39:14

I don't think that is ever going to go away.

-->: 39:31

Funny little side story was over the Christmas break, a bunch of us got together and did, I don't know, it's kind of like bunco, but it wasn't.

-->: 39:37

A lot of my colleagues and the instructions were given that

-->: 39:42

I was able to pick it up really quick.

-->: 39:55

And the person who is actually one of our instructional coaches in the building did not understand the concept of this game and was constantly asking questions.

-->: 40:01

And I just kind of paired up with them and was like, okay, we're going to do this together.

-->: 40:07

And I know I upset a couple other colleagues because we shouldn't be helping one another.

-->: 40:10

But that's who I am.

-->: 40:20

I am always going to be somebody who is going to support and cheerlead and help when I see somebody who is down.

-->: 40:24

As long as they're willing.

-->: 40:31

I'm not going to step in when it's not wanted, but this was clearly wanted.

-->: 40:34

They wanted to know how to do this.

-->: 40:38

They just couldn't connect the pieces to do this game.

-->: 40:44

So yes, I'm always gonna be a coach.

-->: 40:47

I am always gonna see myself as a coach.

-->: 40:49

And I think that's the moral of the,

-->: 41:13

conversation today right we started off by asking is it a step forward is it a step back is it a step to the left and no matter how you're looking at it whether a shift from a coaching position to the classroom is something that you made the decision for or the position was not available so your district transitioned you or or any of that combination underway

-->: 41:32

you know we are all coaches we are all all here working together and we are all here to support each other and you can of course support yourself each and every day by visiting teachercast.net checking out all of our blog posts resources podcasts we're going to be starting up a lot of content that's going to be popping out of teacher cast over the next few weeks uh

-->: 41:35

Keep up to date with everything and look out for us.

-->: 41:40

We're gonna try to get back onto an every Monday schedule for Ask the Tech Coach.

-->: 41:42

Got a lot of great episodes coming up.

-->: 41:44

And again, please feel free to invite yourself on the show.

-->: 41:50

We're also gonna be starting a brand new podcast called Digital Learning Today, where we're gonna be talking about

-->: 42:15

know the latest topics in education the ais and the project-based learnings and how to how to cope with those standards i'm really excited that my book that we've been talking about for the last year or so is uh almost finished and looking to get that published this year so we're going to be doing more shows about the book and how that's all going to work having a lot more guests on and of course as we get closer to isti and conference season we're going to be starting to talk about all of that stuff

-->: 42:19

Before we go, Sarah, tell us a little bit about your website.

-->: 42:20

How do we find you?

-->: 42:23

Where do we learn more about the great stuff that Sarah Kiefer's doing?

-->: 42:26

So I have a blog.

-->: 42:39

Probably the easiest way to catch everything that I'll talk about here is if you were to go to techucando.com and branching off of that is some of my other adventures.

-->: 42:45

So the whole concept behind my blog has always been that technology is something

-->: 42:48

That everyone can do.

-->: 42:58

And I share stories, adventures, activities, conversations regarding all of the technology adventures.

-->: 43:02

I always like to think of them as adventures that I've been part of.

-->: 43:04

And I share it on my blog.

-->: 43:07

And then I also have a couple of side blogs.

-->: 43:18

One is about resources where I give just like real quick overviews of something that I've come across that I find might be interesting or helpful to different groups of educators.

-->: 43:21

And then I have.

-->: 43:36

a co-created blog that is called Templates for Teachers, where a colleague of mine and I have created and we share out all kinds of Google templates that are freely accessible to teachers.

-->: 43:44

We encourage you to modify it because we know that the template that we created for the lesson that we used, you might need to modify it.

-->: 43:46

It might not work perfectly for you.

-->: 43:49

So we have them all up there where you can make your own copy.

-->: 43:53

take it, make it into what you need it to be.

-->: 44:01

And then my newest adventure for the past year and a half or so is with a different colleague called Tech with Littles.

-->: 44:08

And that was the focus of using technology with kindergartners, first graders, second graders.

-->: 44:13

And I created that with a first grade colleague, teacher of mine.

-->: 44:13

And

-->: 44:17

I'm not pushing on as much content.

-->: 44:29

Jeff, like you said, this last year has been a little bit slower in that aspect, but I'm hoping that this transition will allow me to reinvigorate all of those.

-->: 44:31

Nice.

-->: 44:33

Barbara, where can we find more about the great things that you're doing?

-->: 44:39

Yeah, so I honestly haven't been pushing out hardly.

-->: 44:42

Actually, I've hardly pushed out any sort of content.

-->: 44:45

within the last eight months or so.

-->: 44:55

Uh, but you can always pivot over to connectfcsed.com, my website.

-->: 45:06

And that's where, honestly, I'm here for family and consumer sciences educators and, um, all the amazing career and technical education, um,

-->: 45:10

activities, adventures, because they are.

-->: 45:14

Every day is an adventure, right, Sarah?

-->: 45:28

But yeah, and I have a podcast where that's up on basically everything, your favorite streaming device, and at ConnectFCSEd as well.

-->: 45:33

Now, we mentioned at the beginning of the show that we've got some big news to share at the end, and that big news is...

-->: 45:39

Barbara and Sarah are going to be joining me more on a regular basis here.

-->: 45:43

We actually are joining a, forming a team here for Ask the Tech Coach.

-->: 45:50

We got about four instructional coaches that are going to be joining us on a rotating or weekly or we'll figure out what exactly the calendar is going to look like, but

-->: 46:01

I'm trying to figure out how can we put together this show that involves not only a core group of coaches, but also a whole cast of coaches to come and share with your stuff.

-->: 46:10

So if you've ever wanted to talk on a podcast, if you're looking to share your story on a podcast, if you have a great topic in the instructional coaching world that you'd like to bring on,

-->: 46:13

Reach on out to us over at feedbackandteachercast.net.

-->: 46:14

We'd love to hear from you.

-->: 46:16

DM me on Facebook or on LinkedIn.

-->: 46:20

Always would love to have you guys on to share your stories, share your journey.

-->: 46:24

And of course, as you share your journey, you can only be helping out somebody else.

-->: 46:26

So we would love to have you on the show.

-->: 46:29

Barbara and Sarah, thank you so much for joining us today.

-->: 46:32

I'm looking forward to having you guys on more as regular guests.

-->: 46:35

We're going to be trying to put out the show again every single Monday.

-->: 46:39

You can find us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts until it's dead.

-->: 46:45

And we're going to start putting this stuff out on video as we get content for that.

-->: 46:49

Obviously, we mentioned at the beginning of the show, I'm going to be at FETC in the next few weeks.

-->: 46:50

So look for that.

-->: 46:58

We're going to be doing that show, but doing that session on Friday, January 26th at 1030 to 1230.

-->: 47:01

We're doing our productivity tips for instructional coaches.

-->: 47:09

Guys, one more time, thank you guys for showing up and thank you again for listening to today's show and being a part of the TeacherCast educational network.

-->: 47:16

And that wraps up episode number 249 of Ask the Tech Coach on behalf of Barbara and Sarah and everybody here on TeacherCast.

-->: 47:22

My name is Jeff Bradbury, reminding you guys to keep up the great work in your classrooms and continue sharing your passions with your students