Restart Recharge Podcast

209 - Goal Setting to Get Results

May 10, 2022 Forward Edge Season 2 Episode 9
Restart Recharge Podcast
209 - Goal Setting to Get Results
Show Notes Transcript

Often, we know where we want to end up. We know that we want to lose weight, learn a new language, or pay off our debt. However, as time goes on we find ourselves engaging in the same routines with little progress to that ambitious “someday we’ll get there” goal. The same is true in coaching. Whether it is integrating technology effectively, mastering a new literacy program, or building a culture of innovation- we often start with the best of intentions and slip off the wagon sometime between 2nd & 3rd quarter. This episode explores a few strategic ways that instructional coaches can use targeted goal-setting to crush their personal coaching goals AND the larger goals of the school or district they support.

Links mentioned in the show:


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Podcast Team

Hosts- Katie  Ritter & Justin Thomas

Editing Team- Michael Roush & Mark Gumm

Social Media/ Promo Team- Annamarie Rinehart, Lisa Kuhn, Maggie Harris

Creative/Content Team- Brooke Conklin, Emily Cowan, Tracee Keough

Producers- Justin Thomas

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Justin Thomas:

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 foreign hyphen edge dotnet slash coach camp to reserve your spot today.

Katie Ritter:

Hello, I'm Katie Ritter.

Justin Thomas:

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

Katie Ritter:

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

Justin Thomas:

Just reminder, you heard that information on coaches camp at the beginning of this episode. So please be sure to reserve your spot at the Ed Tech camp fire today using that promo code our our podcast in all caps. Well, we have a really good episode here today because often we know where we want to end up. But we also know that despite whether it's trying to lose weight or learn a new language or paying off our debt, sometimes things go a little right right as time goes on, we find yourself engaging in the same routines with little progress. So then ambitious, someday we'll get their goals starts to kind of go off the rails. So the same is true with coaching. Whether it's integrating technology effectively mastering a new literacy program or building a culture of innovation, we often start with the best of intentions and start to slip off the wagon sometime between that second and third quarter. So this episode explores a few strategic ways that instructional coaches can use targeted goal setting to crush their personal coaching goals and the larger goals of the school or district they support. We have Tyler Irwin and Tracy Keough on and I will introduce Tyler Irwin here so you've heard Tyler before he is the Assistant Director of Curriculum and Instruction, and currently supports a couple school districts here in the Greater Cincinnati area. You last heard him on the first episode of our mini series on the coach and administrator. Excuse me, the coach and administrator relationship. If you didn't notice that episode was for some reason flagged as explicit. Oddly enough, but we aren't really sure why because obviously there wasn't anything explicit in there, but we'll try to make sure Tyler stays a little PG on this episode here. So welcome in Tyler.

Tyler Erwin:

Yeah, I'll definitely try my best guys. Sorry about that.

Katie Ritter:

Yeah, we took a big risk and biting you back on the pot here, Tyler.

Tyler Erwin:

I really appreciate you guys having me back.

Katie Ritter:

And I have the pleasure of reintroducing you to Tracy Keo. She was a classroom teacher for 11 years in second grade and a fifth through eighth grade setting before taking on the role of an instructional design coach with us here at forward edge for the past two years. Focusing on helping teachers use technology in the classroom. Currently, she is a coach in a more rural school district in Ohio. And so as a coach Tracy has worked with educators to help them achieve their classroom and educational goals through coaching and mentorship. As a coach constantly on the go with four extremely active kiddos, she listens to restart recharge to fill her time. So thanks for being a loyal listener and guests. Tracy.

Tracee Keough:

Thanks, I'm excited to be back and talk about how we can set some goals for everybody.

Katie Ritter:

Okay, so welcome back, Tyler and Tracy, we're super excited to have you and we're going to dig in to some goal setting. So thinking about your own goals that you have as a coach, we're kind of wrapping up the end of the school year. So I know like on our team summer is often when we start to think about setting our own kind of personal goals coming up. So that's right around the corner. I know for sure for us. But thinking about your goals, kind of as we wrapped up this school year heading in to the summer to think about setting those goals. What strategies do you put in place? Or, or you know, kind of how do you decide what goals do you even want to set? Where do you start with those goals that you set for yourself? And how do you kind of lay the that groundwork for the goals that you're setting for yourself as a coach?

Tyler Erwin:

Yeah, I'll start off with that one. I feel like thankfully, now I have a couple of years of coaching under my belt. So I've probably changed in the way that I treat the end of the school year, and how I set my goals and how I kind of prioritize, you know, the must haves and sort of maybe the wants for end of school year and into summer. But I feel like the big things that I've learned is you want to prioritize communication and collaboration with the administration, and then your other important stakeholders. So if your district has technology leads or instructional leaders, you know, you want to make sure that you form some goals around meeting with those folks. There's to make sure you're all on the same page going into summer. And then I feel like one The big responsibilities we have is technology coaches, you know, instructional design coaches is just making sure that like they're ready for the end of the school year, they're ready to close out for summer. They feel confident in, you know, not only closing down shop and their LMS, but making sure that they have everything ready for next year as well. So for me, I wrote down a couple of different things that I most definitely prioritize, we already mentioned communication and meeting with the administrator. So I normally like to do that twice. That's one of the things I've found that's been really beneficial. I used to only maybe meet with them once. But now I do it twice, one to review the progress that we've had in this previous school year in this current school year that's coming to a close, and then also one to look forward to next year. And so that can be to talk about all sorts of stuff, whether it's, you know, initiatives that are coming down the pipe, or possibly even like changes that I want to make to the coaching program, but setting us up for success. Because, you know, hey, over the summer, people are hard to get a hold of, and you want to make sure you have all your ducks in a row before you leave. The other thing that I have started to do as well, when it comes to like strategies, or things that I prioritize this time of year, is I want to evaluate my own program. And so a forward edge, we have this really awesome coaching program evaluation that we do. That gives us a lot of tangible data we can look at, I feel like that's helped me out so much. I've looked at some of the teacher comments and some of the teacher feedback. And it has caused me to make direct changes to how I structure PD, or how I allocate my time in the buildings, or even like what we focus on in some of the trainings or some of the coaching that I do with them. And I feel like without that data without like allocating the time right now, end of school year to make those changes, that maybe next year just wouldn't be as successful. So those are some of the big things that I found that it really helped me and some of the goals that I have right now, to make sure not only myself, but everybody that I work with feels good going into summer.

Katie Ritter:

Awesome. Tracy, what about you,

Tracee Keough:

I pretty much everything Tyler said is things that I'm looking at with the district that I'm currently in this is the first year we've been in the district. So it's a lot of communication with admin. As far as like how the year went, what expectations they have moving into the next year. And what they have a PD day, the second to last day of the official school year for teachers. So we have a lot of conversations of what those days are going to look like how we can best set the goals of those sessions to be sessions that are looking towards the following year, and maybe some reflection on the current year, instead of hammering out a PD session that they're not going to get to apply in the near future. So a lot of conversations around that. And then, like Tyler said, looking and reflecting back on myself as a coach over the year and coming up with some things that I would like to either do differently, keep change, or throw away moving into the following year as a coach in the district. So

Katie Ritter:

yeah, a quick follow up for both of you thinking about like, so all of that is, you know, everything you said wonderful and definitely has huge impact on the districts you serve. But when you think about like yourself, personal goals that you sell for, you know, set for yourself for your own growth as a coach, how do you kind of think like, Okay, what's what's next for me? Is there any kind of like strategy there? Or how do you go about that?

Tracee Keough:

So I know for myself for that some of those goals, especially like between school years are moving into the following school year, I look at what is the district goal? Or how can I best support my teachers? And what areas do I need to learn more in. So I know engagement has been a big part of some of the conversations I've had with teachers this year. And so I'm looking into resources or books that I can then come to the table with fresher ideas than, hey, let's jump on this gaming activity. Let's use Kahoot, let's use Google slides in a different way, and really bring something different to that session moving into next year. So I'm looking at those pieces that have been asked a lot of by the teachers to me, and then how I can grow and bring fresh material back next year. Awesome.

Tyler Erwin:

Yeah, that was pretty similar to what I was going to say I just look for, like personal blind spots. You know, where I felt like throughout the year, when I've been asked a question or presented with, you know, maybe a topic for PD or a training request, wherever it may be felt uncomfortable wherever I had to seek out help from my colleagues. And like, Why did I have to do that? Was because like, I was just maybe out of ideas on that day? Or was it because like, I really didn't know where to start. And so if you think about where some of those blind spots are in your own coaching practice, think that can help you with like a self improvement plan to set some small goals, to look out for some ways to sharpen your own skills over the summer PD opportunities for yourself, whatever it might be. And then I also just think it's really important to when it comes to like setting your own goals is to look out for like upcoming trends and patterns. Because like Tracy mentioned, you know, education is always changing, there's always new opportunities that you can bring to your district new digital tools that may support the work that's going on there. And so along with like looking for your blind spots, you also want to look out for the new stuff that can bring value to the district that you serve. And then of course, you got to learn about it and add that to your tool belt as well. So those would be kind of the two areas I look at when I'm looking to set my own, you know, self improvement goals over the summer.

Katie Ritter:

Awesome. Love it.

Justin Thomas:

Yeah, both of those are really great. And you kind of both talked a little bit about it. But let's talk about your experience with goal setting. So in working with teachers, how have your strategies evolved, as you've progressed in your coaching career? And do you usually look kind of a long term goal or you add the short term goals along to that? Or do you look at something more shorter and have that kind of evolve into something a little bit more long term?

Tracee Keough:

So I'll start with that one, I think it kind of works both ways, depending on the teacher that you're working with. So sometimes you're going to focus just on those short term goals, that will eventually lead to a long term, outcome, whether the big picture is differentiation or student engagement. But you can't accomplish that in one quick goal setting piece. So it's going to be a lot more of those smaller goal setting pieces. But there are teachers that sit down and know exactly where they want to be at the end of the year. And that is their goal. And so you are helping as their coach throughout meetings and different coaching pieces, help them reach that goal by putting in smaller checkpoints along the way. So I think that question kind of depends on the situation, the teacher the moment that you're working in, when it comes to setting, whether it's a long term or a short term goal. I think personally, for me, as a coach, going back to kind of what we were talking about with like, how do you as a coach, look for that some of those, finding that long term goal, and then figuring out how you can break that goal down into those shorter goals. Because for some people like myself, long term goals are really hard for me to achieve if I don't have set markers. So like quarter one, I'm going to accomplish the these three things and make sure they're done, which will lead me to this quarter two goals that will, so forth and so on, then I can check things off the list, because I like to know that I'm accomplishing something along the way, then getting to the end of the year and be like I think 80% of my kids need that. But if you can have little checkmarks along the way. And each quarter, I think that helps, too.

Justin Thomas:

And there's something so satisfying about scribbling something off or racing or check mark or something like that, like something?

Tyler Erwin:

Yeah, it does, it feels really good. I feel like very similar to Tracy, you know, long term goals can be tough as a coach, are often put in a scenario where like, our initial goal is just to get to know the teachers. And then once we get to know them, then you're right, we do have to vary our approach. I know for me early on in coaching, I always felt like I was kind of the one, like really leading the goal setting, even though it wasn't my goal. It was for the teacher. But I didn't really know how to have those conversations. So I would lean a lot on maybe what the district initiative was, maybe they're working on student engagement. And maybe they just purchase a subscription to like a new digital tool. And so that was like a real nice crutch for me, you know, oh, well, what do you think about maybe working on student engagement with your students like using this new tool the district just subscribed to right. And that was an easy go to for me. But I found that oftentimes that didn't really meet the teachers needs, that really wasn't even something at times they were passionate about. And so there was some, like fatal errors in that approach. And so I found that like, now, with a little bit more experience, I'm definitely keeping the goal setting very teacher centric. At times, it may be like pulling teeth, to kind of get them to come out of their shell and mentioned some things that they want to work on, or they want to improve, or these wild hair ideas that they've always wanted to try, but they've never had time for. And then other times, like Tracy mentioned, you're gonna have teachers who they're very self directed, they know exactly what they want to do, and when. And so the more you can kind of keep that part on their plate. I think that's just way better when it comes to goal setting with a teacher. And then personally, you know, I think anytime you can set milestones for yourself, that's just going to keep you going and you motivated, it's going to keep you productive. And I found that it's kind of the same with teachers, even if they have a long term goal. You know, if you set up some milestones, it keeps your conversation with them productive. It keeps kind of your meetings with them, giving them a purpose, and your conversations kind of have like a rhyme and reason to them when you have those little checkpoints. So those are all definitely things that have helped me out a lot.

Tracee Keough:

Yeah, just add to that, and I don't know if Tyler does this too, but after that first year of getting through coaching and really figuring out how to direct the conversation of goal setting with teachers, it becomes a lot more question asking as a coach and trying really hard not to leave that conversation. So The constant questioning you feel kind of like a toddler like, Well, why do you want to do that? And how are you going to do that? Just constantly getting them to really think through the process. So that's one of the things I know as more of a veteran coach. Now going into my third fourth year, like the questioning, release played out a lot more.

Justin Thomas:

Yeah, so important. And even to if you refer back to one of our previous episodes, this season with Ben songcraft, on how to kind of connect with some of those teachers kind of plays into a little bit of their goal setting and how you can work with them. Moving forward, do you have any antidotes about working with admin to help them kind of stay set on goals for either the administrator or even just district or building goals?

Tyler Erwin:

I think the big I don't know if like a specific anecdote, I mean, there's a lot of pretty similar experiences with admin, where you just have to keep the communication like open and consistent for them. They ever said in all of these different episodes, if you've listened before, you know, they have a million things on their plate. So the things that we can take charge of that we can lead, continue to bring that to the table with them, continue to update them on progress, hey, here's how this is going, Hey, this month, I had you know, 12 people attend my lunch and learn, it's a little down from what we've had, you know, in the past, but looking to make this change to it so that we can, you know, increase engagement and participation with it, I just think that the more consistent you are with just even short little check ins with them, walking down the hall with them updating on them on how things are going that you're doing, that's just a huge value add to them, because they feel confident that you're kind of in line with what the district is trying to accomplish. And you're giving them those little pointers that they need to just let them know that like you're doing your job, you're taking care of business. So I think that's like a real big thing for newer coaches. Like, don't be afraid to just walk next to him in the halls, give them a short little update, shoot a quick little email out on a Friday afternoon, send them a text, you know, hey, check out what this teacher is doing. That's just a great thing you can do to kind of keep them in the know, with some of the goals that you've set for yourself and your teachers.

Justin Thomas:

Do you think that on that trace, you're kind of the same,

Tracee Keough:

definitely the same kind of structure and thought process there. The one thing I would say, that seems to be helping conversations and goal setting with my admin is having data to back it up. So for certain things, if I'm able to do like a learning walk with a focus that they're really driving hard on, that's not evaluative, and just gives us a clearer picture. I've noticed if that if my admin is very math based and my math minded, giving them data to show them like, Okay, this percentage of our teachers is really moving forward with this topic, or this group is struggling without calling anybody out specifically really helps them continue to move in that goal as well. Well, I

Katie Ritter:

think I'll add on, I think, everything you guys said, those are all really great points for coaches to think about something that I've done to from that admin, more of like the district perspective, setting a big goal, you know, we're implementing a new LMS we want you know, everyone doing this, or using these tools or instruction to look like this. I think, you know, Brene Brown for all those Brene Brown fans out there, she has a saying that I really like and she says to paint done, right, and like get people to paint what done or what finished looks like so for us to, you know, say that we've achieved our goal, what would that look like? And then really, you know, you guys kind of touched on it for your own are like working with teachers to help them. So set those checkpoints, I think you have to have those with admin from a district perspective to right so being able to work backwards to understand, okay, if by the end of the school year you want everyone doing this or it to look like this, then where do we have to be by you know, Tracy TierPoint, those quarterly check ins for us to check off and then what supports have to be put in place for us to get there by those points. So for me, I always like to kind of paint done and then work backward from there to understand everything that has to be involved and where we have to be by certain points and and what we have to do to get there

Justin Thomas:

especially helps because you can actually really visualize what the end goal is going to be and then how you can take those steps to get there. Well, we're gonna take a quick break to hear from our sponsors. We will come back with more great content on how you can start to keep track of your goal setting looking for a program that reaches all teachers and learning new tools to integrate in their lessons and you badges is the answer and using anytime anywhere badging program that is designed to take bite sized tools for instruction and teach teachers how to use them. He has 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 knows 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 getting PD to the ultimate PD providers.

Katie Ritter:

Welcome back to the restart recharge podcast. Thanks for sticking with us through that short little sponsor break. We've got Tyler Irwin and Tracy Keough here with us today. And we are talking about goal setting and things that you can do as a coach to keep your own personal goals. And to help those educators and at the district level, keep those goals on track and keep them moving forward. So guys, next thing we'd like to ask you is, you know, once the goals have been set, you've got things moving in place, you've got all those checkpoints outlined? You know, what are some of the things that you do to really help hold yourself accountable? Or whoever it is that you're working with? Whether it's the individual teacher in their coaching cycle, or it's, you know, this big district initiative? What are those things that you're doing to not only hold yourself and others accountable, but also to really track that progress? You know, I know, we've mentioned the checkpoints a couple of times, which are great. But if we could just dig in a little bit deeper, how do we keep those things moving in the day today?

Tyler Erwin:

I would say the big change I have made this year in my coaching practice, which is why I was glad I got brought on this podcast in particular, is I've switched over almost any sort of content that I create, share, whether it's a professional development session, whether it's a screencast, some sort of cheat sheet, I try and use a tool that has some built in analytics to it. And I feel like that's helped me out a lot just to be, you know, honest with myself and say, Are people even looking at this? Are they utilizing it? Are they opening it when I send it to them in an email or posted to the LMS. And so that's one way that I do keep myself accountable. There's so many tools out there that do it now. I mean, you know, Google workspace has it built in, I'm thinking of Screencastify, and the awesome analytics that are built into that, I use more for my newsletters, and you get analytics on that. I mean, the list just goes on and on and on. But you can kind of think about, you know, that's one of your goals to have so many people come to lunch and learns or to get so many views on your newsletter that you send out every month. Well, in the past, maybe it was hard to track that and figure out if you were actually reaching those goals and meeting those metrics. And so if I can, I've just switched over to things that allow me to track that. So that would be one thing, I would say a second thing that's really helped is just being better about note taking. So if things are qualitative, and it's hard to quantify, you know, having those little anecdotes the context that I can connect to a teacher, things that I'm noticing changes over time, things that I can share with the administrators. So I kind of carry around this little moleskin notebook with me, and just put the date at the top of every day I'm on site, and then just add little bullet points throughout the day. And then at times, I'll then put that into connect hub, which is how we track all of our interactions with all of our teachers and administrators. So that's really helped me to just make more out of the interactions that I have with teachers. And now instead of just being like, Oh, what did I talk with that teacher about last week or two weeks ago, you know, I have a little bit more to go off of to continue that conversation and make it more impactful. And then I would say maybe if there's a third one, when it comes to doing that, it's just like, maybe before, all of this is just making sure I have everything in place. So having a solid schedule, knowing where I'm going to be and when knowing how to better prioritize and allocate my time. I think those things helped me keep track and stay on top of the goals I've set as well. Because there's less like wasted time throughout the day. Everyone knows where you are. And when. And I think when everyone's on the same page, your coaching program could just kind of take it to the next level.

Tracee Keough:

I would definitely second the note taking I'm big on note taking whether it is in my you know, five subject notebook, I write at the beginning of every school year and hold on to or using Google Keep because I have the app on my phone. So even if it's a short conversation with a teacher in the hall, I can quickly jot down a note with the date. And I have notes set up in Google Keep for like all of my high school teacher interactions and different things like that. So if it's in the middle of just walking down the hall or Stockton, in the library or whatever, I have those notes available. So that really helps me stay accountable for some of those goals, making sure I'm checking in with teachers or helping them meet their goals. The other one for me, which was more of a learning curve to get there was utilizing Google Sheets. So it is not a tool that I'm excellent at but I am learning more and more, which was one of my goals was to just feel more confident utilizing that so I'm tracking my goals through Google Sheets where I can then kind of put in a column that I want, you know, quarter one, these are how the pieces that are going to meet my bigger goal. And then once I feel like I've met 100%, I can then it'll change to green or conditional format. And so I have all four quarters broken down for each one of the goals that I want to in my Google sheet, which, again, being a Google workspace, I can access it from any computer, or I can access it from anywhere. So it helps keep me accountable. And then I have something to show teachers as well. For those moments where they're questioning Well, I had to write the SMART goal for school, but I don't have any way of tracking to make sure until the end of the school year, so that I have some evidence there too.

Katie Ritter:

Awesome. Thank you.

Justin Thomas:

You're like using a goal to accomplish other goals in tracking your goals those like weird, like, we went meta very meta. Yeah, exactly. Well, as you both very well know, it's personally my favorite part of the show. And we do at the end of every episode here, but it is time now for your top three tips. So Tyler, and Tracy, what are your top three overall tips for setting goals, or guiding others and goal setting?

Tyler Erwin:

You can mix No, let Tracy take the floor on this one, I'm gonna let her go first,

Tracee Keough:

I would say and this one came out of work with our team is we read a book about finding your why. And so that is one of my top tips for setting goals in the beginning is to figure out why you want to do something, what is the purpose behind it, because if you don't have a purpose, or a buy in, in your goal, it's not going to matter. So making sure that you have purpose have meaning, understand your why as the beginning of your goal. And then for me a second tip, a top tip is making sure that you have a place to track that goal. So whether it's a notebook, whether you are a bullet journal person and like to be able to color in that you've met so many things every month, you're using a digital tool, just find a way that you can support yourself to track your goals, that is easy for you to constantly remember, like don't pick a tool that you're not constantly on or capable of using. And then I think my top tip number three, whether it's for yourself or others is find somebody that can hold you accountable. That may not it may not have to be your coach, but find somebody that can hold you accountable for that goal, too. So those accountability talks every week, or posts or whatever you need to do with a partner to make sure that you're actually meeting your goal is very helpful to

Katie Ritter:

have that I always do better when I have a buddy. Hold my feet, but he's liars. Oh, yeah.

Tyler Erwin:

Those were awesome tips. Tracy, I was a little worried you might steal some of them mine. But I think ours are different enough. So Tyler,

Katie Ritter:

I'm super impressed. No one ever wants to go second and talk to No, they don't want their tip stolen.

Tyler Erwin:

Right. I figured you know what? Let's let Tracy go. I've got a few that I think we'll just kind of enhance the ones that she already said. So none

Justin Thomas:

of them are explicit. Right now. They're explicit. We're good.

Tyler Erwin:

No, no explicit stuff. I promise I'm staying more PG in this. Thank you. My first one is Aim small, miss small. So if you're a fan of the Patriot, you know, Mel Gibson is kind of a weirdo, but he makes movies. But what that really means is just like be targeted, be specific. So with your goals, whether they're with teachers, or goals that you set for yourself, like be specific. Don't say I want to have a successful Lunch and Learn program like how many people do you want to have a 10? How many people do you want to have come regularly, you know, if you're gonna do a monthly newsletter, or send out monthly, like tech tip videos, how many views you want, I think the more specific you can be, the better keeps us also very like in the data, and having things to back up and reinforce the value of our program. So that will be my first one. My second, I

Katie Ritter:

don't want to interrupt you, I just want to say I'm so glad that you brought that up. Because I feel like that's where a lot of goals go off the rails to actually like measure. And when you look back, you know, it's just, it can be very ambiguous if you just have this kind of pie in the sky moonshot that you put out there, like how are you actually going to make sure that you're getting there? So I think that from from, you know, the get go really making sure that it's specific that you actually know how you're going to say yes or no, I met this goal. So anyway, thanks for saying that. I think that's awesome.

Tracee Keough:

Well, you repeat that quote, one more time.

Tyler Erwin:

Aim small, miss small. Yeah. The next one. I think Tracy kind of talked about this a little bit. But I think it's important to whenever you're setting goals to invest time and understanding your environment. You know, what good is a goal? If it's like, completely out of context, what good is a goal if it doesn't align to what the district is trying to accomplish, what the teacher is trying to accomplish? Or, you know, what good is the goal if it's really not adding any value to you and your own practice in the role? So the better you can get to know your environment, I think the better and more purposeful your goals will be. So that may mean like at the beginning, maybe if you're a new coach, like you don't go right in with some of these pie in the sky goals, you learn what your district or what your school is like. And then you have like better material and better knowledge to go off have to then set some goals for yourself in the future months. So that would be my second one. My third one is see it through. And so we say this all the time with goals, but like see it through to the end. I can tell you just a quick little anecdote in one of my first years, I kind of stopped Lunch and Learns during the time of COVID. Just because people weren't attending. But that was one of my goals. Like that was one of my initiatives for the year was to do lunch and learns. And I kind of learned like, over the years, like, yes, not as many people were coming. But when I stopped doing them for a time people missed them. People were wondering, like, Did you do your lunch and learn this month? I don't think I saw it on the calendar. And so just see it through. You know, if you set a goal, it may not have the success that you thought it would, it may not quite go as you had planned. But I think if you set a goal, it's always best if you do if you do your best to see it through to the very end. So those would be my top three.

Katie Ritter:

One, you just gave everybody another tip. Like take it away from them and then the one that again, so if you're struggling with something out there and coaches just take it away, make it exclusive.

Tyler Erwin:

Yeah, provide that scarcity. So they think it's like a hot commodity. I love it.

Justin Thomas:

Oh, that's That's brilliant. That's actually brilliant. Yeah. So you know, take it away, add it back, no, whatever. Anyway, so obviously, these are really good tips from all three of you here. Because you jumped in to Kenya, that's why I added you here as a third, third option too. So you're welcome. So any final conclusions here that you want to kind of bandwidth or are you good with kind of what you said with your top three tips?

Tyler Erwin:

I think our tip said all Justin, I'm gonna leave my cards on the table.

Justin Thomas:

Perfect. Tracy, you're good to go. Good. All right, good. I want to make sure perfect. So as we wrap this episode up, I want you to tune in next time we have a fun one a creative one we have John Smith and from Book Creator so he's gonna be talking to us a little bit about some ideas that you can approach your teachers with for Book Creator at least Akun is also on that one as well and Book Creator also a sponsor for hashtag Fe camp 22 So make sure you reserve your spot today with that our podcast promo code

Katie Ritter:

so be sure to subscribe to restart recharge wherever you listen to podcasts and follow us on twitter instagram and facebook at our our coach cast and I think Justin tell the people what they want to hear

Justin Thomas:

we are now on tick tock so you can get to see the awesome content that we put out tick tock so it's that's also our art coach cast to

Katie Ritter:

Okay, thank you. And if you're like me, you're gonna spell it like Tic Tac Toe I think for the rest of your life. Get

Justin Thomas:

on tic tac.

Katie Ritter:

Stay tuned to see I don't know me and Justin dancing. What are we going to do on the TIC tock Justin?

Justin Thomas:

Or yeah, we could do some dances. I don't know. We'll find out we'll find out what kind of amazing content are out there but you're going to be very well

Katie Ritter:

so content TBD but entertainment guaranteed item.

Justin Thomas:

So make sure if you want to know any idea or you feel give us ideas for the podcast or apparently for our content on social media as well. Feel free to reach out to us connect there.

Katie Ritter:

So press the restart button

Justin Thomas:

recharging coaching batteries and leave feeling equipped and inspired to coach fearlessly with the restart recharge podcast

Katie Ritter:

A tech coach collective. Is it an art coach cast episode if I don't go Are we recording?

Justin Thomas:

It is not No it's like the trademark now. Tyler you always do great. Thanks, Justin.