205 - Spotlight on Monroe: The Admin/Coach Relationship - with Andrea Carovillano & Logan Stanger

Continuing our mini series on the Admin/Coach relationship, we are coming to you this week to talk about how one SW Ohio school district is making major waves and creating systemic change because of an awesome admin/coach partnership. Join us in learning how they’ve streamlined their success and are transforming their district, and how you can emulate their achievements!

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Podcast Team

Hosts- Katie  Ritter & Justin Thomas

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Transcript

Justin Thomas: 0:00

Calling all technology coaches join for an edge this summer for a two day coaches camp packed with high quality professional development exclusively for you. Attendees will work with like minded coaches on creating strategies for teacher relationships, executing coaching cycles and building a culture of coaching and tech integration within their school district. There are two opportunities to attend coaches camp this summer. Join us either June 25 and 26th in New Orleans prior to iste 2022 or in Cincinnati on July 28 and 29 please visit For and hyphen edge dotnet slash coach camp to reserve your spot today.

Katie Ritter: 0:41

Aloha everyone, I'm Katie Ritter.

Justin Thomas: 0:43

And I'm Justin Thomas. And this is the restart recharge podcast a podcast by coaches for coaches will bring you the tips and tricks in your everyday life and work to help you as an instructional technology coach or you know, whatever they call you in your school district.

Katie Ritter: 0:57

So hopefully you're gonna leave this episode with us today just feeling a little bit less on your own coaching Island.

Justin Thomas: 1:02

And as you heard at the very beginning of this episode, we do have coaches camp coming up, you can use the our our podcast code, and that is going to get you $50 off of your registration. So once again, coaches camp an amazing opportunity to learn how you can create a culture of technology integration within your school district and also meet other like minded individuals and create that personal learning network. Now today we're continuing on with our mini series on the admin and coach relationship. And we are coming to you this week to talk about how one southwest Ohio School District is making major ways in creating systematic change because of an awesome administrator and coach partnership. So join us in learning how they've streamlined their success and our transformation transforming their district and how you can emulate their achievement. So for today, we're going to be taking a look at this school district. Let's first introduce the coach in this relationship and that is Andrea Carver Solano. She has been in education for 12 years 10 of which were spent in the classroom. She's taught first and third grade with math and science and also seventh and eighth grade technology. She also taught courses like Google basics and fundamental game design courses. She became an instructional technology coach in 2020, working with grades K through 12, and supporting teachers in designing impactful learning experiences. So please welcome in Andrea.

Andrea Carovillano: 2:26

I thanks so much for having me. Yeah,

Katie Ritter: 2:28

we are glad to have you here, Andrea. And I have the pleasure of introducing our second guest, the principal in this coach principle partnership joining us today, and that is Mr. Logan Stanger. This is his sixth year in education in his second year as a principal of Monroe Junior High School. He previously served as an intervention specialist at Monroe High School for four years prior to transitioning to administration. He received his bachelor's from Ball State University and special education. And he also has a master's in educational leadership from American College of Education. As principal, He currently works with a staff of about 35 to 40 members, and then also serves a student population that ranges between about 454 75 students every year in the building. So Logan, welcome. We are so glad to have your perspective on this three part miniseries about how coaches can work with principals and other admin to really have a really strong partnership to move change and instruction forward. So thank you so much for being here.

Logan Stanger: 3:32

Absolutely. Thank you for having me. Excited to be here.

Katie Ritter: 3:35

Awesome. So okay, we're gonna kick it off. So if you guys could first give, you know, beyond what your roles are in Monroe, local schools here in Ohio, we'd love to give our listeners maybe a little bit of background. So maybe about three years ago, you know, tell us where were you from, you know, technology use in the classroom? What did that look like across the district? And then we'd like to hear you know, where are you now? And then I might ask a little follow up question on kind of how you got there. But let's start where where are you? Where are you now?

Andrea Carovillano: 4:07

Okay. Well, we are kind of a relatively small and medium sized district. We've grown though a ton in the last few years. I mean, was it I think, like 1007 2007,

Logan Stanger: 4:20

we had like K 12. We had about 1100 students. And now we have like 2900. So about 15 years, it's been a huge increase in student population for us. So absolutely, yeah.

Andrea Carovillano: 4:33

And because of that, I think we've seen a lot of change just due to the number of students that we now have joining our district, the number of additional staff that that requires. And so because we have all of these new people coming in, whether they're students or staff, we are trying to figure out the best way to keep that that culture moving forward. So three years ago, I'd say we were kind of very traditional. We, you know, in every classroom, we had students they were They would use Chromebooks occasionally, you know, to work on assignments and things like that. But there wasn't really a culture to push towards more than just using the technology for some of that substitution type application, or substitution styles of learning. And so in the past three years, we've gone one to one with our districts, we've also started like a CMR initiative to try and help push some of those more hands on some of those higher level of thinking with, with technology and things like that. And it's, it's been a long process. But I think it's one that we're really proud of, and we're, we just try and keep going forward every day.

Logan Stanger: 5:45

Absolutely. And just to add on to that, you know, converting to One to One this school year, I can just say, from an administration standpoint, it has been fantastic. Just because, you know, we always preach accountability for our students, students are responsible for their devices, it's definitely streamline that process for our educators just to get content to our kids, and just great and creative ways. Andre is phenomenal. I'll say that a few times throughout this recording, no doubt about it. But she's great to work with, she does a great job supporting our teachers, and just gives them a variety of resources and options to deliver content to our kids, and just all kinds of learning modalities that are interesting to them. So it's been a really great transition for us with a one to one this school year. And it looks completely different than how it did three years ago in our district.

Andrea Carovillano: 6:35

Yeah, so three years ago, the only building that we had, or the only grade levels that we had that were actually one to one where our seventh and eighth grade building or junior high. And so we kind of piloted almost one to one in those grade levels, and then made small changes to see okay, how is this going to work best in elementary, what grade levels do we need to incorporate or include in the take home version of one to one rather than just making sure we have a device for each kid in the classroom. So we went from just kind of piloting in seventh and eighth grade to actually now having were let me let me clarify that too. We didn't have the students take anything home during that first pilot, it was just we had carts we had to make, we made sure that there was at least one device for every student in those grade levels. And then we transitioned to after a lot of research, a lot of talking with teachers, to deciding that our one to one, we would go five through 12, our students would be able to be in charge and accountable of those devices to take them home. And then in our K to four classrooms, we would just continue that current version of one to one where each child has a device, because even up till last year, our primary grades did not were not one to one at all, they had maybe one device for every two to three kids. So being able to increase or increase the number of devices and the amount of access we have was huge. And I think that was kind of the catalyst for a lot of our teachers to start tweaking things. Because they're like, well, well, now we have this technology, let's you know, move forward. And we figured it was the perfect time. You know, over the summer, we attended our administration, myself and our other instructional coach attended the Ford Edge admin boot camp. And we talked about CMR at the boot camp. And we talked about all these other ways that the coaches can work along with admin was a fantastic experience. And all across the board all of our admins so that they wanted to focus on CMR, as kind of the way to move forward, you know, we're going one to one, let's make sure that our staff and our, our students know how to use that technology in the most effective ways. That's not just using the Chromebook because they have it but using in a way that's going to support that pedagogy that instructional strategies and practices and whatever it is that our students are supposed to be doing, you know, using technology to support that.

Katie Ritter: 9:01

Awesome. I'm curious, how much did like COVID play into admin decision to actually move forward with one to one was that already in the works, you know, because you mentioned the pilot three years ago, so that was definitely, you know, prior I

Logan Stanger: 9:16

can write I can speak on that. Yeah, we just we knew there was a need. I think COVID Certainly accelerated that for our district, just because of just the status of everybody either being in the building or not being able to come in the building for various reasons for that, but it really just kind of lit a fire under us to really get that process and get the ball rolling with that with the one to one transition. And I'll also just add on to Andrea's in terms of our administration focus on Samar and what that means for us, if you know the kids might all have their Chromebooks but if our staff aren't aware of what to do with the same or the different levels of that it really doesn't change anything. So, you know, we really wanted to instruct and make sure that our staff was aware of what coaching options are out there and how to really play through the all four levels of Samar. Yeah,

Katie Ritter: 10:07

that's awesome. Well, it sounds like you guys didn't, by no means did you just say, Hey, we're putting devices in all the kids hands and jumped in. It sounds like you're very thoughtful and intentional over the past three years, of, hey, we're gonna first pilot this right? Like, let's, let's see how it works. Let's adapt it based on our grade levels. And then let's continue to add, and then you've put in a lot of work to from, you know, Andrea, your work with the teacher perspective. Logan, it sounds like you guys, as an admin team put in a lot of work behind the scenes. So it sounds like you've laid like a lot of good foundations to get you from point A to point B, you know, ah, somewhere in the middle, you're further than point B, right? Right. I don't know that we ever get to Z. Right. So it's always a journey.

Justin Thomas: 10:53

Always a journey. You've both already kind of talked a little bit about your roles that you've played in these big changes, but how about your partnership together and how that has contributed towards this student and teacher growth or success with these models?

Andrea Carovillano: 11:08

I think, for me, specifically, in my role as an instructional coach, I work not only with like admin and teachers, but I have also been working with our IT department as well, just to come up with, okay, what technologies are necessary for these things to see our students grow, and what's the best types of things that we can provide for them. But I think for the most part, our partnership has really just made us reconsider and kind of rethink how instruction needs to look in the classroom. So that's kind of where we've been having open conversations with each other. At the beginning of of this school year, this year, I met with every building administrator, and I just talked to them, like, what are your goals for your building this year? And Logan gave me like a page and a half of initiatives. Very thorough. And that, you know, first year, first year principal do Right, right. Well, no second, second, your principal. So he still has the big long list?

Logan Stanger: 12:05

I do. I do. I'm a thorough person. Yeah.

Andrea Carovillano: 12:08

So you're talking about, you know, all these different initiatives, and we kind of narrowed it down said, Okay, well, how can I in my role support you? And which initiatives Do you want me to help tackle alongside you, you know, as the year progresses, and I think it helped us really understand what that plan needed to look like. And again, the main plan that we had across the bill across the district, even though these were individual building conversations I was having across the district, we wanted to go with CMR. So then I kind of took it back a little bit, and I worked into, okay, what's our big focus for this year? What do we want to get done? What does CMR look like one year from now two years from now. And I kind of just laid out a bare bones plan that I gave to each of our administrators. And then we kind of worked worked with it to make CMR fit into how they're building works, how their grade level and department meetings work, and how we would be able to fit CMR into basically just any anything and anywhere that we could we could actually get it. So I think that was big part of it, that we would just check in with each other regularly, and to be able to include those discussions and on CMR. So that teachers are able to transfer that learning to the students and have the student outcomes that they're looking for.

Katie Ritter: 13:26

I love it. Well you guys give an example. Like what was one initiative Logan that you had? So you had the district initiative? Of Samer, right, so you decided as an admin team, hey, we find this really valuable and important. So we're going to kick it off with this, then login, you know, then we start like dwindling down. And it's like, okay, now every building principal, they're still going to have their own initiatives and goals based on what their students and staff needs. So like, what was one example of that initiative then that you and Andrea looked at together?

Logan Stanger: 13:58

Right. So as we talked about earlier, my thoroughness in terms of what we wanted to do was definitely evident there. In terms of what we wanted to do, just from the building perspective, Andrea, when she was in the junior high, she led our building tech committee. And we just really expanded on the roles and responsibilities of our staff. And that just in terms of talking about CMR, we do our just in our monthly meetings as a staff. We do like a tech spotlight to where a member of our building tech committee highlights it, like whether it's a protocol or a certain resource or a version of Samar in terms of our instruction, and they kind of, you know, just highlight that for the staff. They give our entire building staff time to interact with it. And Andrea and I have just really kind of worked to make sure that those resources are available and this as presentations are laid out together. And just really even just figuring out what we want to do for prep for, excuse me for professional development. it with how we roll that timeout for our staff when we do get that critical time to work together. So it's a very fluid communication process between us just checking in and out pretty often throughout the week, just to see how things are going, checking in on just all the various responsibilities of how our building tech committee is doing within the junior high building. So she plays a critical role in that.

Andrea Carovillano: 15:24

Yeah, I want to chime in on that too, because Logan's always done a very, has done an incredible job with modeling, you know, the different things that we're hoping our teachers are doing in their classrooms as well. So he even joins like our lunch and learn PDS and things like that, and then takes what we're talking about. And he uses it in staff meetings, whether it's, you know, using something like Pear Deck to get everybody engaged and collect data on, you know, just simple things like serving the staff on their needs, and things like that. He's using those kinds of tools to support and collect that information. So I think he's not only modeling it in a great way, which is definitely going to help keep that our building moving forward, because they're seeing it not only just from me, but also from Admin from all different directions. But he's doing it consistently, too. So we're seeing it, like he mentioned his Screencastify in his building announcements, you know, every morning, so our students are seeing it, we're seeing ways that we're able to get this information to not only, you know, the admins between themselves, but also to the wider scope of of our district in general.

Logan Stanger: 16:30

And I'll add on to that, with she mentioned, my use of Pear Deck and our staff meetings. Yeah, we have, as we know, schools have tons of committees. You know, there are often questions that I posed through Pear Deck to our staff. And you know, usually staff, your usual staff meeting just says, you know, raise your hand or who thinks this and that you don't really have a way to walk away with those responses that you feel did with the Pear Deck resource that Andre has certainly coached me to incorporate into our staff meetings, that has allowed me to export that data, bring it to the other committees and say, like, maybe our PBIS initiative, you know, how's our system working currently? What adjustments can we make, you know, through that paradigm, I'm getting responses from all staff. It's not just one or two that's raising their hands and sharing out, everybody's participating. I take that data, and then I bring it to the committee and say, here's where our staff feels like we're functioning as a building, and allows us to have really good conversations within their subcommittees with our in our building. So the technology and Andre is prompting and coaching has really not only elevated our students and staff, but just me personally in terms of being able to support those other committees in the role that I'm in. Yeah,

Katie Ritter: 17:43

that's awesome. Kudos to you. And I feel like a lot of coaches listening are currently jealous of having a building admin that works so well, in his modeling. It's so awesome job to you log in. Andre, will you? And I'm sorry, if you said this at the beginning, but I forget what you said if you did, when did you have these initial meetings with all of the building admin was at a summer thing? Was that an end of previous school year thing?

Andrea Carovillano: 18:05

It? I'm kind of both actually. Sure. So I mean, towards the end of last year, that was my first official year in the instructional coach. Prior to that I was kind of just informally, I was still teaching, and I was kind of doing you know, I had a duty period for coaching responsibilities. But at the end of last year, I kind of started some of those conversations, because I wanted to know, hey, what is it that you need me to be working on over the summer so that I can be ready when you guys are, you know, when we come back here in August? Because with I'm still on a teacher contract. And so I don't have those summer hours to be you know, that I'm going to be in the building and things like that. So I did kind of start a little bit of front loading, I guess, my summer ideas and things like that by having those conversations with them at the end of the previous year. But I would say they had me come back a week early in regards to the you know, the regular teacher calendar. And that's kind of where we had all of these main conversations, because they had been, you know, they've been doing work all summer. What's changed? You know, since we last talked, obviously, since we went to they went to, we all went to the admin camp, I went to the coach's camp over the summer, as well learned all kinds of great things there. So and by kind of, I guess, just looking at the big picture, and now seeing okay, we're all these pieces moving now that, you know, we're two months ahead. What can we do? What can I do to help? How can I support, you know, which initiatives are most important to you and things like that? Right.

Logan Stanger: 19:34

And I'll also chime in to I didn't mention this earlier, but part of those pre school year meetings were and we've already talked about my thoroughness, in terms of my role, but you know, we already have our data department meetings, staff meetings already have those dates set for the entire school year and set in August and then that allows Andre and I to synchronize our schedules to make sure that she is able to attend those department meetings and She's able to add resources Hey, like, here's my thoughts on this and allows the teachers within their department to share, hey, we're struggling with this, do you have any ideas? Are there any resources or options that you have. So we have allocated time within each of those department meetings for Andrea to attend. And we try and set those on the same day. So Andre has not go into our building, like eight different times a month. But she's able to disciple within, you know, those 1015 minutes to each department to visit and check in and so that way they can get their questions answered and support it. So.

Katie Ritter: 20:36

So much two things that you guys have kind of alluded to in that thread there. One, you both made mention of like the ongoing communication. So it's not like, set our goals, like move forward, we'll reconvene in next May. But I love the ongoing communication that you hit on. And I love so much Logan, that you are including Andrea, in other meetings that aren't even necessarily specifically tech focused, right, like that's the point that's a goal of what we're trying to do is just embed these things, you know, into our instruction seamlessly. And if we only say Lita tech PD on our PD days, or only point people like, oh, go see Andrea, to teach you how to use that this one time, like that isn't going to cut it. But you guys are really getting at the heart in the fundamentals of like, how do we really transform this from the ground up and everything we do, and that's by including Andrea and things that aren't like forward, necessarily on the outward, like tech focused. And so that too, right.

Logan Stanger: 21:41

And I think the biggest the vocab word is just consistency, that is just a part of our monthly and just expectations for staff that we're going to engage in those conversations and just try to always improve each day.

Andrea Carovillano: 21:55

Yeah, I, that's something we've done across the building to not just specifically with our junior high, but with our elementary or primary or high school, I have on my calendar, you know, all of their department meetings and grade level meetings, and I attend, you know, when I can obviously I can't make it to everything, but we try and have, you know, just those very organic conversations like, hey, what, you know, what kind of information, what kind of units are coming up, let's talk about ways that we can, you know, support our students, and is there anything that you need accessibility wise, or, you know, we have a large number of ESL learners, or ELL students this year. So we talked about different ways that we can support those students in the classroom and different options we have for communication and things like that. So it was really nice to be in on those conversations, even though it's not a tech PB, I can still provide support for those teachers for their every day, which is, I think, essential. So they see me not only as like a coach, which many people time, or many times people can see as sort of looking for, like, I'm struggling, I know, right, as as can see, can be seen as like, I'm evaluative, or I'm like your negative thing in terms of people need to come see me if they're doing something wrong, which is not the case, it's more of like the idea of bouncing the idea that two brains are better than one, you know, and we can just talk and share ideas that are really more about making sure that our students are supported. And we're getting the outcomes from them that we're hoping for.

Logan Stanger: 23:26

Yeah, and that is a great point as a district initiative. And Andre is spread out amongst four buildings in our district. And as I talked, we talked about the student population earlier, it is a large number of meetings and different things like that to make sure it's getting the address. And there will always only be one, Andrea, because she's fantastic. But certainly, it's something that we as a district look into for additional coaches and additional support so that we can provide that more frequently and just engage in that conversation consistently. Sure.

Justin Thomas: 23:56

I mean, two big things that came out of that was consistency and communication. I feel like but I mean, that whole conversation was amazing with just different ideas. You guys have had to really help with this partnership that you guys have grown here. Is there any advice that you give to other coaches and principals and creating and achieving something of this shared goals? I mean, you guys had a lot of great aspects. Just anything else that you want to talk about on that.

Andrea Carovillano: 24:19

I think the biggest thing that and this could be tied to an entirely different episode, but we've really worked hard over here to build like a network of like Ed Tech and like people that are in on the conversations and helping move everything forward. Is like Logan said I am only one person and that was my biggest thing when I went to the forward edge coaches camp over summer. My main question when I walked in for that day was how do I duplicate myself? Like I it's not possible for me to help 275 teachers, you know, sufficiently every year and things like that so I wanted to make sure okay, how can I how can we like cast a wider net which made us you know, work with our and kind of reimagine our buildings committees and kind of make them an extension of what I call the Instructional Technology Department, which of course, right now is just me. They are an extension. And I think we've done a really great job at kind of just, you know, starting off small involving a few more people getting that ball rolling. And it's it's really grown into something that's pretty impressive in terms of where we were even just last year, our building tech committees even last year, aside from the junior high, there might, they're my special group over here. Aside from the junior high, our building tech committees were really only in on conversations on like, infrastructure type conversations, how many devices are we getting? That type of thing. And we've turned it and we've really changed it into having them be a part of, hey, what do what do our grades, our grade levels need, you know, and things like that. So I think that building relationships, and providing a network of support for our staff has really helped, I think that's probably the number one tip that I would suggest is try to create and cast a wider net, especially if you only have a few people who are in the roles that I am in. And I think another part of it, then is once you kind of have that net, like, you know, cast out a little further, the idea of maybe making kind of scripting your moves, like what's most critical, you know, in terms of what do we need to get done? So from the top down from our district Technology Committee, you know, what are some of those big ideas here? How can we feed that into our building tech committees? How does that get them fed out into, you know, just our staff across the board. And so we're kind of making those those scripted critical moves, and moving slowly through them, which I think is big, too. And then, the final thing, which I'm, I'm really pleased with this year, as well, we are really focusing on the bright spots, and trying to ensure that we are encouraging change by celebrating the change that we see happening. So throughout the district, we have things like the technology spotlights, like Logan mentioned in his staff meetings, we did something over winter break that we've actually not been through breaks are prior to winter break that we extended through the rest of our year. So far, where we have teachers just kind of doing a little shout out of an showcase of things they're doing in their classrooms, we have a Padlet Wall where everybody shares across the district. And so we have big, bright spots like that. And then we also have little things, our coaches, and even some of our teachers have taken to giving postcards out to people that they just like, appreciate and say, Hey, I love what you did here. This was a great use of whatever or a thanks for letting me be in your classroom letting me observe and see how things go. I've even see teachers giving them the students said, Hey, you worked really great on you know, this test and you just checked, you went through and you checked every single one of your answers before you submit it. And I want to, you know, say thank you for it. So we're really trying to really celebrate those bright spots. And I think that's what helps us create that sustainable change. Because we're not only just, you know, giving it to him one time and saying, Okay, we'll see you next May. Here's a here's an idea. Let's see how far you can take it. We're trying to keep it going by bringing it up in staff meetings by giving those little posters out by having people chime in on the Padlet and showcase what's happening in their classrooms. Whether it's technology related or not. It's just let's share and let's let's celebrate Let's support each other.

Katie Ritter: 28:48

Yeah, a quick follow up question for you, Andrea. Before Logan, we feel what advice you have for other coaches or principals, particularly for creating these shared goals. But Andre, when I'm thinking in terms of like your time management, and how many, like you're coaching that many teachers across multiple buildings, you're attending all of these meetings, which is awesome, because you're able to get this different perspective. Do you do you attribute being able to manage that to some of these like tech committees and how you phrase it like casting a wider net or like duplicating yourself? Or do you have another like specific tip you might give to coaches around like how you're managing and juggling all those things?

Andrea Carovillano: 29:27

Yeah, well, that actually is something that has changed for me from last year to this year. So last year with my coaching cycles I had I overdid it. I had 16 people per semester that I was working with cycles, and then a lot and I just thought I thought it's fantastic because I was like all these people want to work, they want to talk they want to come up with equal new ideas and I and I really felt kinda like that I wasn't doing the job that I needed to do. I didn't feel like sometimes that I was necessarily The coaching, it was more of like a, like a Question and Answers type session or something like that. And so I after, you know, I've mentioned a couple times, but after that coaches camp that I went to, I just, I learned such a better strategy for being able to, to manage my time. So I'm working with fewer people, but we're able to dive so much deeper because of it. And I learned kind of a structure, which is kind of like a meet, and then like an informal observation, and then we meet again, and we talk and it's just a very fluid way of working with those people who, you know, want to participate in the coaching cycles. And I think because of me, kind of stepping back and say, let's work with, let's work with a smaller number of people, it opened me up to be able to do all of those other things that are kind of, you know, a part of the job of a coach as well, creating professional developments for people working with our building tech committees, and going to all of these different meetings where I can kind of embed myself in that conversation and keep everything relevant. So I think kind of slowing that down, like I said, with the number of people I was working with, that really allowed me to open up myself for the the other things that were necessary to keep all these initiatives going and to provide the support that those initiatives needed to really get off the ground and continue moving forward.

Katie Ritter: 31:23

Logan, do you have anything that you would add to any of that?

Logan Stanger: 31:27

Just from an administration role, just be open. There's, you know, the world of education is constantly evolving. And I think just we as building principals, and just district administrators, whoever's in an administrative type role, just be open. I know, it's easy to really get set in that level of comfort, but just expose yourself to just new and interesting resources, because the chances are, they're really going to take your building further than where you're currently at. And then if it's not, it doesn't work out. That's okay, retool it work together, and then see what other options you might have. I also told the building tech committee, it's a very tight knit group, I'd give them a shout out. Okay, so is that okay? Yeah. Shout out. Okay. So they volunteer their time, they do a fantastic job. Our building tech committee, Chairperson is Hannah Marshall. She's a Spanish teacher in our junior high does a great job. And then other committee members are Alex Branca Meyer, Corey Manning and Jordan lamping. And they do a great job, we meet monthly and just discuss how we're going to continue to take our, our building further. And obviously, Andre is at every one of those meetings, as well as part of our BTC. Really, we've talked about this earlier, just being consistent, consistent with your modeling. And just like I said, failure is going to happen. That's the only way we're gonna move forward. And you know, just embrace that embrace the change, appreciate failure, appreciate the attempt, and just kind of problem solve together. That's just a really the, the biggest thing that I would recommend is just being open as the building principal, just, you know, because change for the good is, is what we're seeing here.

Andrea Carovillano: 33:02

Yeah, I think Logan and I were lucky to because we actually both switched roles into these new these new jobs for us at the same year. So and we were also lucky, because when he was still teaching, he would come into my room and ask me printer questions all the time.

Katie Ritter: 33:19

I've come a long way. We had so come a long way.

Andrea Carovillano: 33:24

Because we already had that background, that relationship that was already like we're teachers together. And now we're kind of, you know, we're switching roles and things. So that made it really easy for us to just kind of continue on and, and have those conversations about what we you know, what we want to see from the building. But in cases where like, if I were going brand, like fresh into a district that I didn't know anybody, I think I would just try it. And for all those coaches out there that are still kind of struggling, maybe my suggestion, and again, I have a kind of had it easy, at least for the start of this. But I would think that just being visible, and kind of not necessarily being pushy, obviously. But just kind of inserting yourself into those conversations and say, you know, I might be you know, my title might be technology coach, but really, I'm here for instructional design. I am here for content for curriculum, it's not I don't need but when I walk around the building, I don't want to see a Chromebook in the face of every kid every second of the day, I want to see creation, I want to see all these types of things happening, where the technology is just supporting it. So I think if they go in, and they talk with these administrators and show that what the title is not necessarily the only thing that we're capable of doing, and just kind of making yourself known and putting yourself out there. I think that would that would help build some of those relationships as well, just to get started. So then you can have those conversations so that they know that you're there to support them as administrators as well as their staff.

Justin Thomas: 34:58

We've been having a really amazing time. Our session here. We're gonna take a pause for just a moment to hear from our sponsors before we come back and talk more about this coach and admin relationship. Looking for a program that reaches all teachers and learning new tools to integrate in their lessons, and you badges is the answer and she was in anytime anywhere badging program that is designed to take bite sized tools for instruction and teach teachers how to use them as you as received the is the seal of alignment for Educator Standards. And each badge in our expanding library is aligned to the ISTE standards and the Samer model. Learn more about the program that teachers call addicting and for hyphen edge dotnet backslash and you badges. Instructional Coaches support teachers, students, administrators, and really everyone in the district. In fact, research shows instructional coaching is one of the most impactful forms of professional development that results in improved teacher instruction and student achievement. But who is supporting the coach Ford Edge provides multiple year long mentorship options recommended by the Google for Education certified coach program to help you gain the valued support you need as an instructional coach, visit Ford hyphen edge dotnet to start giving PD to the ultimate PD providers. Welcome back to the restart recharge podcast we are here with Andrea Carver Solano and Logan Stanger. And they are both from Monroe local school districts. And they are talking about the coach and admin relationship. Justin Thomas and Katie Ritter, of course here on the restart recharge podcast, but continuing on, I think, kid, you had a really good question to start on our second half of this podcast.

Katie Ritter: 36:33

Yeah, well, um, Andrea, I think that you've touched a lot on like, really how the coaching has supported the adoption of a lot of these initiatives moving forward, of course, if there's anything that you want to maybe add to that, like, with the particular lens, like specifically, like how has your coaching, moved it forward, by all means at but I'm also curious for Logan, you know, and honestly, for both of you, like thinking, you know, I know that our team of coaches has, they hear time and time again, from teachers that this is the worst year of teaching for them ever, and that they're just so drained. And they don't, you know, they don't want anything new. They don't have the time. They don't want a screen in their face for you know, yet another virtual PD again. So I'm just so curious. Like, how have the two of you really worked to keep the staff positive? And Andre, you, you know, you mentioned so many things of like, celebrating the bright spots that you guys have been doing? And I imagine that's contributed to some of the positivity around the building. But I'm just so curious, like, what what have the two of you done, whether it's in your individual roles or working together, thinking about like, let's, how are we continuing to move the staff forward, even when they're facing these challenges of like being burned out and drained right now?

Andrea Carovillano: 37:50

Yeah, well, I will say this, I feel like a lot of the coaching side of things is really driven by our staff in the first place. And again, I think I'm lucky in that I was already a part of our junior high building and already apart kind of informally of the other buildings, you know, and my first five years of working here, and so they already knew who I was, and we already had, you know, relationships built and things like that. But I think a lot of times, our staff, even though we you know, we see that same exhaustion, that, you know, we're that I think every district is seeing right now, even though we'd still see that with our with our staff, we still know our staff still know that they're supported, not only by you know, myself, but also our admin. And I think in terms of just well, we'll put it this way. So like, this year, we decided to work with CMR, right? kind of mentioned that. When it comes to introducing that to our staff, we wanted to make sure that they knew and they understood that this is not something that is brand new, yeah, these are things that you already doing in the in the classroom. So the Padlet that we had created and started over. You know, prior to winter break, I used in one of our CMR trainings, I pulled examples that were right around from every you know, almost every building every year, or almost every grade level, every building have different ways that teachers are using technology, where they fall, and we were having these great conversations about like, look, this is something that you're already doing this is now just a kind of formal way of thinking about it or a more purposeful way of thinking about how the technology is integrated. So we try not to like pile things on and say like, Hey, here's a new tech tool. And here's this and here's that we wanted to make sure that while we are learning, it is still something that they're already doing, and that we were trying to celebrate those moments. celebrate those things that are already happening across the district. So they only not only felt like okay, I'm doing things right and you know, our team is doing things right and our building is doing things right but They were able to see those little moments where, you know, their, their, their activity, their kids, their students were up there showcased as in a great example of an activity where the technology supporting students and things like that.

Katie Ritter: 40:14

That's awesome. And we you explain that I am like privy to that Padlet having the knowledge before. But for those folks who maybe don't understand, I love this so much. We just give like super quick like, what is it? How did you get it out to teachers? And like, what is maybe hanging in their room for people to always see it?

Andrea Carovillano: 40:33

Oh, yes. Okay. So we have our we have another coach in our district. She's an instructional reading coach, she works out with our K to six students. And she's a part of a consortium of of reading specialist coaches and things like that. And she found this idea that was shared out in one of their forums for something called a cookie challenge. So she brought it to me and we worked together to basically bring it to Monroe. So the idea behind it is that we built a website that had instructional strategy ideas. One of the initiatives we've had for several years at Monroe is Kagan. Hagen's are, if you've never heard of Kagan, they're basically instructional instructional strategies and structures that essentially bring accountability to students collaboration and things like that. So we put in some Kagan strategies, we put in some edgy protocols, which I'm a big fan of, they're kind of like, you know, lesson frames and things for students to to, again, collaborate and create and all of those things. And we put in some other some other ideas, we built this website out with a bunch of different activities, a bunch of different lesson templates, and we put a challenge out to the staff and said, Hey, for the next month, try one of these, take a look, you know, look through the website, find something that you can use in your classroom, try it out, see how it goes, we then ask them to you know, maybe snap a picture of their kids or, or a video of their students in action or something. And they would then post that information to the Padlet, maybe a little blurb or something there. And we encourage everybody to comment and to say, like, you know, maybe tag somebody else who said, like, oh, somebody just did this, why don't you give it a try, you know, that kind of thing. So we tried to make sure that we have that collaboration where everyone can see what's going on. And we have really great feedback, because it's really difficult to get out of your classroom, you know what I mean? Whether we're COVID or not, it's it's hard to be able to see what others are doing, let alone in your own, you know, down the hallway versus across the entire building or across the entire district. So having those posts and things up, there was kind of nice for everyone to see. And we did have incentives, that was a big part of it, too. We wanted to make sure you know that. The teachers were rewarded for going and taking that risk and showcasing what's happening. We had some great building prizes and things like that. And we reached out to local businesses and things to provide baskets and little goodies for our teachers. But we had such great feedback from it that Beth Lee, our other instructional coach, and I decided we wanted to keep it going. So I designed a little graphic that is now posted in each room of our classroom across the entire district. It's even in our administrators offices, it just has little like shouted out thing, it's got a QR code that goes directly to that Padlet. And so the teachers as they're working, and as they're, you know, doing different things with their kids, they can snap a picture, go to the wall, scan the QR code really quickly, and post about it. And then we have seen a good uptake. We did a little, a little challenge for digital learning day. And we've seen an I mean, we have like an additional 30 posts in like an hour after I mentioned, hey, digital learning the challenge. Let's do this. And I mean, our staff just blows us away again, just with how much they're willing to share, and how much they're willing to put out there for others to see and inspire and encourage. So it was really nice to see.

Katie Ritter: 44:07

I love that. Thank you for giving everybody a little rundown of what that is because I think it's a super fun way to pull everyone together. Logon from your perspective in the principal role. How have you been managing this? You're keeping this like we're moving one to one forward? We're, you know, changing instruction, we're implementing Samer, like how are you keeping those things forward with your staff while they are also maybe more drained than that and kind of reaching this burnout at a rate higher than maybe ever before? Or within? Sure,

Logan Stanger: 44:38

absolutely. Right. Just as educators, you know, just what they do every day is phenomenal. I'm blessed to work with a really incredible staff here at the junior high. And I think it's just a message of I understand that you're doing a lot. You've invested a lot of time and resources in doing what you've already had. You know, we know there's tons of things that go into Lesson In prep and just data analysis and monitoring trends of student performance, it's really just messaging that what we're doing with Samar, and just the resources that we have, and the coaching cycles, all those items just really are in addition to and to supplement and just enhance what you're doing. It's not like this is a mandatory initiative that everybody's got to do, you got to completely drop everything you're doing, and you're converting to this, because that just leads to immediate shutdown, and I would have a terrible response. But even through this cookie challenge, Andrea just did a really good job breaking down, which was awesome, I haven't entered it in myself, just for some of the things that we've done. You know, if there's a prize, I'm definitely going to want to compete for it. But, you know, we had teachers enter into that, that may have probably honestly told you that they would never have done that before. But just again, it's it's been consistent, it's accessible, Andrea makes it very simple in terms of, you know, just entering your name and a hat, so to say, and using those resources and protocols, that, you know, has just really enhanced our instruction as a building and as a district. So thing, it's also just like modeling on my end to, you know, we talked about that, and just even and post conferences for observations, not saying like, Hey, you're getting damned if you don't use a, you know, a resource or edgy tag protocol that we talked about it, that's not the message at all. It's just like, hey, I love the way that you did this, you know, do you think maybe we could consider using this option, so you just know that you have both available here? Here's some things that that can provide you with. And that's really led to productive and meaningful conversations for myself and our staff members. So it's been great. Yeah,

Andrea Carovillano: 46:46

we've really just tried, we know, it's a tough year, we know, the last couple years have been tough. So we've really tried to incorporate as incorporate as many morale boosters as possible. And that's, that's kind of what the cookie challenge came from was just the idea that, you know, it's we're halfway almost halfway through the year, let's, you know, try celebrating some things. Let's let's, let's close out the first semester with a bang with, you know, some rewards and prizes and things like that. And I think that was a big part of it. It's just making sure that our staff knows that they're that they're cared for, and they're supported, and will be an extra hand in the classroom. Whenever they need Logan goes in. And he constantly covers for teachers. They want a week, right? twice, twice a week, twice a week, he goes in, and those teachers get an extra plan period, and he takes care of their classes. And it's just really nice to see that, you know, every admin in our district is really trying to support those teachers. And what is definitely the hardest year for teaching so far.

Katie Ritter: 47:48

That is awesome. Yeah, that

Justin Thomas: 47:49

is very impressive, too.

Katie Ritter: 47:52

I'm laughing because I'm just like, oh, my gosh, can we get that everywhere?

Justin Thomas: 47:57

All right, we in our episodes every time with the top three tips. So thinking about how other districts that are seeking to achieve a truly systematic and sustainable change here with this coach and admin relationship, what are your top three tips coming out of Hornet country,

Andrea Carovillano: 48:18

um, degree kind of, kind of mentioned all these things along the way. But I would definitely think that that has to start with that, that relationship between not only between the coaches and the admin, but the coaches and the staff as well, you know, showing that we're a big network, you know, everybody is connected. Everybody has a stake in what our students are learning, whether they're, you know, in an admin role or not. And, and I think just kind of providing that support network for everybody was kind of crucial to start with. I think after that, I would say probably the idea that it's important that everybody knows the plan, you know, so we have this great plan, let's say, Okay, if we create something with our district Technology Committee, and then we just shove it down everybody's throats, it doesn't really work out that way. We need to, you know, move slowly, when you want to check in with all the different people and just kind of make sure that everything's aligned and that we're rolling things out in a way that doesn't seem too overwhelming. So again, kind of scripting those moves that we want to see happen to push everybody a little bit long, maybe have some of that little encouragement that we need for some for some staff members to start making those changes, but kind of scripting those things and moving those making those moves slowly I think works out well, too. And then I think again, bright spots Yeah, just just celebrating what the changes that are happening. I know for me personally big goal of my for my own learning is is working on the change agent standard right now for like ISTE standards and things like that. And I think a lot of my emphasis a lot of my own work for myself and my coaching and you know the mantra that I'm working with at Ford Edge are really focusing on those change agent ideas. And I think that's kind of been a good way for me to start this year, and to start all these new initiatives, and including those bright spots that are going to help people see the change and encourage the change.

Katie Ritter: 50:17

Well, I'd say you're well, on your way. Yeah. Mastering agent standard.

Logan Stanger: 50:21

Yeah. All right. Well, one thing I would add to just from the building principal role, our partnership before it adds has been phenomenal in terms of supporting students, when we have tech malfunctions, I mean, that's just gonna happen as part of this process. But it's just been seamless this year, in terms of getting students back on back on track, if they have an issue with their device, they, you know, it's and that's just gonna happen, it's natural. But it's replaced, it's taken care of, we get the kids back up and running. And we just have a very, it's it's been a very pleasant rollout process. And I'm thankful to the team and just the partnership that our district has with Ford Edge. So that's been wonderful.

Katie Ritter: 50:59

Just to take this moment and say, they were not brought on this podcast to advertise for us, but we do.

Logan Stanger: 51:06

Not, that's not the purpose. It's because you guys are just fantastic partners. Yeah, absolutely. And then also, just from I know, we're talking about tips and take it away just from that building principal role. If you're looking for ideas to incorporate that like into your staff, like encourage, just for the Hotez 2.0 evaluation process professional growth plans, every teacher is required to have one of those, so maybe suggest something through edgy tech or some type of protocol or, and you know, maybe that's why their goal area for the year. And that's been really great.

Katie Ritter: 51:42

Yeah, and just for our non Ohio listeners, oh, Tez. 2.0 is the Ohio teacher evaluation system. It was updated this year with pretty heavy emphasis on, you know, using data in instruction and in lots of other things that are efficient

Andrea Carovillano: 51:57

and personalized learning. Yeah. So yeah.

Katie Ritter: 52:01

Achieve it without using technology? I think so. But what's

Logan Stanger: 52:04

what's really great about is that system, and I know other states might not have it, but they have, you know, attachments that you can upload screenshots and evidence in terms of what's being done. So it's been really great for us.

Katie Ritter: 52:18

Awesome. Well, thank you both so much. This I could literally go on for hours with this conversation. I think so thank you a

Justin Thomas: 52:25

lot of awesome things lately.

Andrea Carovillano: 52:27

Yeah. We have a great time. Yes. Thank you for having

Katie Ritter: 52:29

us. Yes. Yeah. Well, thanks, guys. We will be in touch with you soon.

Andrea Carovillano: 52:33

All right. Sounds great. Thank you so much.

Logan Stanger: 52:35

Thank you.

Justin Thomas: 52:38

And a reminder that you can tune in on March 29. For a final episode in this three part series as we are talking to a couple of coaches on how they have capitalized on their partnership with admin to create a culture of growth. So we've had a really good first two parts here with our mysterious first with Tyler and then this one here with both Andrea and Logan from Monroe local schools. And now we'll have another good one here to finish out this three part mini series.

Katie Ritter: 53:06

Yes, I mentioned that this was near and dear to my heart this series. I think I went on a Twitter rant the other day about it the same topic, but I am passionate about this. So it's just so important for a coach's success to really make an impact to have the dream bond that it looks like Andrea and Logan have helping to move their staff forward. So

Justin Thomas: 53:30

really yeah, they're the coach admin UI now.

Katie Ritter: 53:33

Um, so I think that's probably about it for today. But before you leave us please be sure to subscribe to restart recharge wherever you listen to podcasts. And follow us on twitter instagram and facebook at our our coach

Justin Thomas: 53:47

cast and don't forget to reach out and connect with us on social media and if there's any topics that are on your mind, please let us know and we will be happy to bring it on as an episode to discuss this season. So press the restart button recharge your coaching batteries and leave feeling equipped and inspired to coach fearlessly with the restart recharge podcast

Katie Ritter: 54:06

a tech coach collective okay as oh god sorry, just got my water all over and for those not watching Oh, editing seems gonna love that. So