212 - An International Journey through Coaching - with Amy Garrett

As coaches, we work tirelessly to support our teachers and students in the classroom. There are coaches all across the world that provide this support everyday! Today, we take a look at one coach’s journey through multiple countries on multiple continents and learn how coaching is both the same and different throughout the world.

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Podcast Team

Hosts- Katie  Ritter & Justin Thomas

Editing Team- Michael Roush 

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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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: 0:42

Aloha, I'm Katie Ritter.

Justin Thomas: 0:44

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

Katie Ritter: 0:56

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

Justin Thomas: 1:02

And we're gonna go international today for our episode because as coaches we work tirelessly to support our teachers and students in the classroom. But there are coaches all across the world that provide the support every day. Today we're going to look at one coach's journey through multiple countries on multiple continents and learn how coaching is both the same and different throughout the world. And we have Amy Garrett as our guest today Amy is an international educator, coach and leader, a wife, mother and artists. Originally from the Midwest in the United States. She has worked and in international schools and Cairo, Mumbai, Shanghai and Istanbul throughout her career and roles ranging from primary art, secondary design, technology and more. She is currently living in Hong Kong with her husband, also an international educator and seven year old son serving as an instructional technology coach at Hong Kong International School. Amy loves living in Hong Kong, where her daily commute home is a refreshing hike through a mountain forest trail that has stunning views ending up at one of the many beaches near her home. She is a passionate about her faith, her family food and furniture. Welcome in Amy Garrett.

Katie Ritter: 2:07

Hi, guys, thanks so much for having me. It's great to be here today. We are so glad to have you and I am like listening to your bio. I am like where am I going wrong? My life? Because I stayed stuck in the Midwest.

Justin Thomas: 2:23

Yeah, same here, Midwest

Amy Garrett: 2:25

is a great place to be to ever really. The grass is always green somewhere.

Justin Thomas: 2:31

Hey, but some of those mountain trails and the beaches. That's gotta be nice. But overall, Amy, let's be honest, you've been all over the world and various different countries, very different languages and things like that. But how did you first decide to make that jump into working internationally? Can you also explain what an international school is? On top of that as well? Since you've worked in many of those?

Amy Garrett: 2:54

Yeah, so I grew up in Iowa and small town, Iowa and as many people do, you grow up and graduate and return back to the same area, quite commonly some kind of that odd duck that started in the Midwest and then fled really far away. But it's amazing how many international educators come from the Midwest, actually, there's a lot of us overseas. I think when I was growing up, my family moved around a bit, all within Iowa, but it was changes nonetheless. And it kind of sparked this desire to travel and this ability to adapt and change. And so I started traveling and university intentionally mostly with like college missions and service trips and working throughout Guatemala and different schools and taking my art, teaching screenprinting and Chile at universities to practice my Spanish going for immersion programs. At that point, it was just so fun to teach and to travel. When my university advisor asked me and recommended that I complete my student teaching abroad, I was like, wait, I can do that. It was like a whole nother world opened up and I was so hooked. I was really excited. So I really went through that process as a student teacher kind of doing my final practicum in an international school. And I went through the interview process at a fair and all of that, to get my placement and ended up in Cairo. Really, there's international schools all around the world. And some of them are for profit. Some of them are not for profit, profit. Some are really large, some are really small. They have all different curriculums, and they initially started kind of as an exclusive way to serve expat communities in a location. So you might think of like Department of Defense schools or, you know, schools for consulate families of diplomats who are placed abroad with their families. It was kind of a way to like soften the expat experience and just provide a home education that was familiar, especially in places where maybe the language is a really big barrier, or the local school system was just so different than you know, where they would have gone to school in the US. And so that's kind of how they started but they've grown in popularity, and there's been a huge boom In the last decade, I don't know the statistics, but it's just expanded so rapidly. Now international schools can be found pretty much in any international country, capital, large city, even remote places are sometimes popular, because of the lack of access. They serve generally really affluent communities, generally, they're kind of expensive to attend, there's usually a high tuition fee. And they usually are pretty good examples of like an international community. So there's usually like a variety of nationalities or languages kind of that you'll find within the staff and the students. And we used to joke at my school in India, that we were teaching the future body of the United Nations, because in my second grade classroom, I could have 18 students with 24 nationalities represented quite easily. And so it's just really an interesting, diverse kind of microcosm. It's, it's interesting, having worked in big schools and small schools, every school is still different, but they all kind of have that thread of like an international global mindset. There's usually a pretty transient population as well. And so that comes with amazing benefits, like living next to a beach and hiking through mountains on my commute home, but it's also extremely challenging, like navigating your life in another country, often in another language. Oh, my gosh, I can't even imagine. It's just it's super fun. I mean, you guys know me, I could talk forever about this. I just love it. But I think it's really an interesting kind of niche that's expanding and growing to serve people who are living outside their home country. Yeah.

Katie Ritter: 6:36

That is amazing. Okay, Amy, thank you for sharing that amazing story. First, kudos to you for being what are we when we're student teaching like 2122. And deciding that you were brave enough to like, pick up and go student teach in another country? That's amazing. And so you we learned in your bio that you started out as an art teacher is that that's correct. Was that your okay? So you started out as an art teacher, and you have now transitioned over the course of many countries in different roles, and you're now serving as a tech coach. So talk to us a little bit about that journey and kind of the decision, like what landed you here today as a tech coach?

Amy Garrett: 7:20

Yeah, that's a great question. I love being a coach, because I feel like I get to really use all my strengths really well. But I did originally study Spanish and art education. And so that's what started my travels in Central and South America. That's where my first teaching jobs were. But the school I worked at, early in my career in Mumbai, I was just immediately surrounded by coaches, and I wasn't aware of coaching at the time, I actually don't know if I was aware that I was being coached Well, to be completely honest, I was so new in my career, but it really just became a natural part of how I taught and how I grew as an educator. I had Maggie who was my tech coach, who was just so phenomenal at helping me recognize how to set goals and how to get to them how to really, as an art teacher, you're kind of isolated. And so just having a thought partner to think through new ideas and implementation. I didn't have like a team necessarily to do that with and she was just always there. And I really grew a lot thanks to her. And I, I think when she left the school is when I really felt it, I was like, Oh, my goodness, that was, you know, so life giving. And then I had another teacher at that school, who was a very experienced grade level teacher. And she was trained in cognitive coaching. And she was just always talking about coaching and mentioning it. And she to this day is one of the teachers I admire most Tracy is now in Singapore at at shs But, but she just they both really modeled what coaching could do for a teacher. And I think for me, that was just really foundational at my early in my career, right to be surrounded by that kind of support. And really strong female coaching role models was was really great. I think that naturally, I'm a person who is creative and loves to think about, you know, outside the box ideas, or you're an art teacher before innovations, right. And so that, that creativity, and that design thinking really comes into play a lot when I'm a coach, actually. And it's, I think it's kind of helpful that I that I have a specialist background because I do approach conversations with classroom teachers a lot differently than many of them are expecting and it's usually quite a quite a nice dynamic. So I think that gradually as I moved on, I left that school being you know, really well coached being really attuned to what that looks like and just really having a heart of service to and so all along I've just always loved to be in community and love to help people and build capacity. And so I think I didn't even know coaching was a path when I started teaching but as I left that school, I realized that that path suited me really well. So I kind of informally was like a coach you know, similar to my mentor teacher. As I moved on, I I taught middle school I taught different grade level. across the school, I worked with leadership in different capacities, building my leadership profile, started taking coaching courses. And eventually yeah, now I'm here in Hong Kong serving as as an instructional coach. And I just think back. And I think we can all reflect on our past and our journeys and think about those moments that kind of made us who we are, or, you know, built our own capacity as coaches. And I think that serving in each of those schools and those different roles has been really formative for me as a coach. It's really fun. I love it. I think it's the best of both worlds like I, I love teaching art, but I really love working with adults, and I really love helping people. And so I think it's been really fun to be able to thrive in this role as a leader.

Katie Ritter: 10:43

Hey, love it. Well, you know, you as you are describing yourself as an art teacher, I haven't thought about it like that. But I feel like the way you described it feeling kind of, you know, on your own island a little bit, right, like, that's what we say at the beginning of the podcast, because that's how coaches feel. So I feel like maybe you were like destined to be in a position that can feel like it's on its own island, and navigate the waters.

Amy Garrett: 11:05

And you know, Katie, it's interesting, because one thing I've always advocated for is coaching specialists. And I think it comes from my background as a specialist. And it's an area that's often overlooked, like how many times has a school had a PD day, really focused on like the reading or writing or math curriculum, and then all the specialists are like, well, you can see if this connects to what you're doing, or you can go into planning period, you know, and I just feel for that teacher that wants that support and craves that support and doesn't even have a team to do that with. And so that's actually really been part of my like, core beliefs as a coach, too, is that everyone should be coached.

Katie Ritter: 11:42

I love it. If I had any idea how to work this little podcast recorder machine, and aka if I had it, and it wasn't just in South, I feel like we need to hit the applause button on that.

Justin Thomas: 11:52

I think. There we go. Oh, yeah, it comes in for a moment. There we go. Hold it. Hold it.

Katie Ritter: 12:02

Applause button. Gosh, they do. We've actually talked about that on previous plot. Before Amy, I was like, Hey, we're gonna put all these teachers in a room tech coach and plan a PD for them. And we're like, what? So yeah, I hear you. But I, one thing you said I'd like to revisit for just a second you. You said that because of your background as like a specialty teacher, you approach conversations differently with teachers, then maybe you would have we talk about that a little bit more, and maybe give us an example like, what does that look like? What what could another coach take away from your approach to conversations with teachers?

Amy Garrett: 12:36

Yeah, I guess it depends. I mean, I'm lucky here to be on a team of coaches where there are content area coaches, and then there's me. And so it's like, there's a literacy coach, there's a math coach, there's a stem coach. And so I think people go to coaches with content areas saying, Oh, I'm working on my literacy unit and have questions about these literacy standards, or this literacy assessment. And I want to talk to a coach and they'll go to the literacy coach. But I've really been kind of stretching people's thinking and being like, hey, let's work together on that literacy unit. Because there's things that I may, you know, that I may surface, there's questions that I may have, because I don't have the same in depth attachment to the content area. It in some ways that allows you to be more open minded about the unit to and you're not maybe as tunnel visioned in on it. And so the collaborations I've had with, for example, our literacy coach or other areas have been really, really exciting because teachers start to think, a little broader about their teaching and learning. And I feel like that's when the magic happens, like when we when we think about inquiry, and we think about units that cross you know, transdisciplinary skills, things like that. It is hard when you're really focused in on one specific area. But when you've got a broader view and a creative view with that, I think it really helps to think about new ways to do things. And I also think that I come up with questions that maybe sometimes I probably should know the answer to, but I'm just not in that cycle as often. And it's really refreshing. Teachers are often like, oh, yeah, I hadn't thought of that in a while. That's a really good reminder of what this feels like for a student or what this looks like from the outside. And so I don't know, for better or for worse, I think that it just helps teachers to explore possibilities they hadn't considered, I think you can get the work done with any coach. But I think what I really enjoy is when teachers are wrestling with a new idea, and sometimes they don't get to that new idea without really new perspectives being brought in.

Katie Ritter: 14:30

I love that what a great way to think about approaching and talking with teachers will stick around with us, everybody. We're going to have a very quick break from our sponsors. And then we will continue the conversation with Amy

Justin Thomas: 14:43

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 she has received the sdcos alignment for educators standards, and each page 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 for dads 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. Welcome back. We're talking with Amy Garrett. She is in Hong Kong right now an international coach. So we've gone international here on the restart recharge podcast. But as always, I'm Justin Thomas, we have Dr. Katie Ritter. And Amy, we wanted to talk a little bit about your experience in coaching educators and students that are from various backgrounds and nationalities you kind of mentioned earlier that you were, you know, kind of prepping the next United Nations. So what is it like to really work with those educators and also with the students that are from so many different backgrounds and so many different nationalities in these international schools?

Amy Garrett: 16:22

Yeah, that's a great question. I think it's one that is surprising for people the first time they go abroad, like I remember just really being amazed when I arrived a student teaching in Cairo and, you know, my middle school students were fluent in four languages. And I was like, Oh, my goodness, I think that there's kind of that initial surprise. But then there's just such appreciation. And now it's like, totally a day in a typical life for me as an expat. And I think that our schools model, the reality of a lot of our world is that more and more cities are becoming really international. And that, you know, there's all kinds of race and ethnicity studies right now, and bias and things like that. And like the exposure people to have to other cultures is actually growing rapidly. And so I don't think it's going to be that unusual in years to come. But I think for the most part, it's really just learning to appreciate and understand a lot of cultures, it's really hard to have considered how I could have, you know, really understood how people live in another place until I've lived there at some level. And I studied Spanish, and I thought I studied it well. And once I got to Guatemala, I realized I couldn't speak it at all. And that's why I went to Chile to do a full immersion program. But it's kind of that awareness that just grows with experience. And so I think that there's different approaches to teaching and learning. You know, some systems like the British and American System tend to be more content focused, the day tends to be blocked off into like, this is the block for math class. And this is the science unit time and things like that. Whereas some cultures are really focused more on inquiry, that international baccalaureate, the IB, schools, are really, really connected in inquiry based teaching. And that's really common in New Zealand, for example, most teachers that I work with from New Zealand are just naturally trained that way. And so there are some interesting differences. But I just think it makes my life and my teaching so much richer. For the most part, I think that both my colleagues and my students have really just opened my eyes. You know, in India, it's a melting pot of cultures. Actually, my family is a project product of this where I met my husband, when I was teaching in Mumbai. He's also an international educator, and he's from India, born and raised. And so just, you know, now India is home to me. But when I moved there, it was just this artists haven of color and texture and sound and visuals and fabrics and smells and foods, it was like just this amazingly overwhelming place where you could walk down the street. And you could just see 50 people that look completely different from each other, or have completely different approaches to life, all walking on the same street. And I feel like, for the most part, my upbringing was fairly homogenous, culturally. And so it was just really interesting to start to experience that, and I think I, quote, unquote, jumped into the deep end by moving into India for my first teaching contract. But I also think it was such a great way to start understanding the world and seeing it and so what I've learned, you know, in, in China is also living in a communist country, which is a very different experience. And I moved to Istanbul, which is a largely Muslim nation. So I've been in some really diverse settings from my own upbringing, and I just think that that's helped me to not think twice when someone's different than me, it's helped me to pause and consider, you know, is this the best time to be working with this teacher? Are there things going on in their life or their beliefs that might impact their work? Are there things that I should be remembering and humanizing and celebrating with them and so it's just kind of getting to know people and and who they are? And what matters to them. Our son was born when we were in Shanghai. So he always loves to tell people he was born in China, which always gets some chuckles and some laughs. He'd been to 20 countries before he turned three. And he had this little world traveler t shirt, we were on every flight that always got people laughing when he walked on. And now he's lived in Istanbul, where he learned Turkish when he was first learning how to walk. And now he lives in Hong Kong. And so that's just his world. And so I think now to me, it doesn't faze me for a moment to meet someone from another place or to work with him from another place. But I think it's just that building of that understanding and the respect. His best friends live all over the world. We've got friends right now who have left Hong Kong even and right now they're scattered between Singapore, Istanbul, Budapest, London, New York, Dubai. And every once in a while when we talk about traveling, he's always talking about traveling to a country to visit a friend. Yeah, that's the way to do it. Oh,

Katie Ritter: 20:59

yeah. Right. free place to stay if you need to. Oh, that was amazing.

Amy Garrett: 21:05

Yeah, I think once it's, once you're in it, it just kind of becomes who you are, and how you operate. So I really don't think about it much anymore. But we we do. I do joke that the Indian population in Iowa doubles when we go home in the summer. And so it is it is interesting, like just being in a really highly diverse area. But it's also made me really appreciate when I go back to Iowa to because there's diversity in different ways. And it doesn't. I think that no matter where you're working, there's people that you're working with that are different than you. And so I think at the core, that's what it is, right? We all we're all teachers, we're all educators, we all love kids, and that's why we're doing what we're doing. And so no matter where you're from, or what you teach, like, I think that's the common thread that makes it all kind of the same at some level.

Katie Ritter: 21:51

Oh, I love that. I love that seriously, so much. And I feel like maybe you just kind of answered the question that I was going to ask you a little bit. But I'm still gonna throw it out there. Because I feel like you'll you'll be able to build on it if you would. So, you know, it was really interesting to hear your perspective, because I just feel like it's all so much of this is like I had no idea. I had no idea. I had no idea. Right? So like thinking and like how the education systems are structured, whether it's like actual, like, how do we do teaching and learning or just the cultures that you've been in all of these different places, from kind of like all of that collective knowledge that you have, if there was one thing that you could share with other coaches who are serving a similar role as you like, you need to know this based on like your your world travels, what would it be? No pressure. I know Sorry, that was a biggie.

Amy Garrett: 22:47

You know, though, I really think that it's not anything new. Like as much as I've learned from traveling, I think we all know that coaching is all about people. And I think that whether you are coaching at a small private school, or a large public school district in the States or an international school, I think you just have to focus on the people. And so that's the teachers that you're coaching, it's the students who are serving the administrators you're working with. And so for me in my context, that means, you know, understanding that some of my colleagues have different native languages, it means that some of my colleagues have family in places where they're really worried about them right now, it means that some of my students have parents who are traveling for work all the time. It's just knowing the people for who they are and what what's important to them. Really. I don't know it's not that profound. It's

Katie Ritter: 23:41

is though, because it's, you know, for our listeners who you know, some of them maybe like never even left their own state or alert left the the states right, like the continental US, just Justin's waving.

Justin Thomas: 23:54

Oh, yeah. I've lived in Ohio my whole life, but I have left the United States. Yeah. So just to the Caribbean.

Katie Ritter: 23:59

Yeah, I mean, I've let Yeah, I've been on like a couple of very brief vacation. So I think for most people, at least in the United States, I would say like, that's maybe more than norm, like, we are just still an educated and uncultured feeling when it comes to things like that. So hearing your perspective of like, it's about the people, I think that's going to be comforting. To just know, like, we're on the right track, like if you if you care, and your heart is in this work, and you are like truly caring and in getting to know and being there for the people that you're serving, like you're on the right track, it doesn't matter where you are located on the planet. So I do think it's more profound than you're giving yourself more credit for.

Amy Garrett: 24:44

Well, and also give yourself more credit to because I think that the United States is fascinatingly diverse, and I think even if you've been in Iowa, Ohio for you know, your whole life or things like that you've you still interacted with people and I think, you know, it sounds scary. Ready to move abroad? It sounds thrilling. It sounds like oh, she's on a vacation in Hong Kong. And she happens to be teaching, right? There's all kinds of perspectives on what this really looks like. And it's scary. Like, it's, it's not easy. It's a bit terrifying now that I have a child in the picture, it's the thing that keeps me up at night, right? When Yeah, when do you decide to move on? And how do you make that decision as a family? And what impact does that have on all of you? And I'm sure it's not. Not easy in that sense. But I think that it's just really opened my eyes to the diversity everywhere, right. And so I think that, mostly it comes from a fear of unknown, right people that you don't know what you don't know, until you know it. And so more exposure to different cultures just brings that quickly in a different way. But like, I look at my sister and my sister in law in the States, and how they're raising their families, and I'm just so blown away by how much they take on and how much they're responsible for. That's different than my life here. And so there's just different things we learn in different ways you grow everywhere. So don't be too hard on yourself, either.

Katie Ritter: 25:59

Yeah, we're all giving and taking our own advice here tonight.

Amy Garrett: 26:05

A bunch of coaches are what

Justin Thomas: 26:07

we are, yeah, given building the relationships. Right. And as you mentioned before, it's I mean, it really is about the people. And Amy, I know you've I mean, this is like another level up from building on the questions. But we end all of our podcast episodes with the top three tips that our coaches are kind of giving for an overview of the episode. So what are your top three tips for any coaches looking to get into coaching internationally, or for those that are already working internationally?

Amy Garrett: 26:39

Alright, well, this doesn't even count as one of the tips, but feel free to get in touch. Because I talk to people all the time that are thinking about it or excited about it, and I'm on Twitter, and I'm sure you'll be able to find my contact info with the podcast. But I will take it

Katie Ritter: 26:52

take a second before you dive into your tip. Since we're talking about getting a hold of you on social media, why don't you go ahead and share what your handle is right now, too. Okay,

Amy Garrett: 27:00

yeah, so this isn't really a tip. But people can totally get in touch with me on social media. I'm on Twitter at a garret 1212. And I'm just happy to chat with people who might be interested in learning more, or seeing what it looks like for them. But if I was to come up with three top tips, the first thing I tell anyone, because I've talked to many people about this is just to be flexible, and open minded. I think that when you start thinking about teaching abroad, and you've never done it, or you've never experienced it, you think, oh, it'd be so fun to go teach in Paris for a year or I'd love to go to London for a year. And you know, everybody focuses on Europe, it's more of a comfort zone. But the world is huge. And there's tons of international schools everywhere. To be honest, thanks to COVID, the markets really saturated with people leaving certain locations and seeking certain locations. And Europe has always been a really competitive market generally. But being open to places that you never have even heard of is the best advice I can give anyone and I, my husband and I have interviewed at schools around the world we've interviewed at one point in our search. In one of our moves, we had interviewed and we were finalists in Manila, Jakarta and Dakar and Dakar had never been on my radar. And I was like, Where is the car and I was like looking it up. It's this frantic research. It's a fantastic school community. They're on the beach as well. There's a great, great, great community there. And so I think it's just be open to being surprised and and just be open minded to things that come across your path. Second tip would be that it is the best teaching lifestyle ever. But it's not a holiday. And so I think that if you love traveling and you love teaching, it's there's really no question as to whether or not I'd recommend you give it a try. You get to explore a new country, you get to live in a new country, which is very different, as you'll learn them being a tourist, in good ways. And in hard ways. You get to travel every holiday like most of the schools I've worked in, you get to fall break, you get a week for a fall break, because everybody gets on a plane and go somewhere. Now, it's not been our reality, because of COVID Recently, but part of the reason we moved to Hong Kong is because we knew we could fly to Taiwan for the weekend. We could go to Singapore for a long weekend, we could go to Vietnam, Cambodia, Philippines, all quite easily for a week trip. And that's the norm like we also always used to joke that there should be a shuttle bus from school to the airport on the Friday of a break because everybody's off to travel. And that's really exciting. And it's fun. It's tiring, kind of expensive, but your package is also really great. And so your salary is really great. You can accommodate that. I've always been provided housing flights home every year to see my family insurance is covered. Usually my local taxes are paid to and so it's really it can be a cushy gig if you're at the right school to had generous PD funds where they flown me. They defy me from India to Australia to get my IB certification and they apologize as if it was an inconvenience status. actually sending me to Australia for free. So it's really like there's some really incredible travel opportunities. So if you're someone who likes to find new places and see new places, you can still do what you love. And it's the best combination. And the last one, I guess this is probably when I should plug contacting me but I would, I would recommend you network just get connected to people. You can connect with me on Twitter, my handles a gear at 1212. That's actually how I got in touch with these guys here on this podcast with Katie and Justin and Megan, and it was through it was through Twitter. And so just connecting with people starting to learn more about other schools, asking questions, even just growing your professional learning network and learning how things are happening in other places, getting ideas, getting support, my Twitter PLN is just massive. And it's actually how I originally actually connected with some people to get where I am today in this role. And so you just never know where eye contact might lead you. And so I recommend it to help you grow professionally. But you also just never know what doors may open, based on who you're connected with. So probably just to be open minded and flexible. To know it's the best lifestyle for teaching and traveling. But it's not a holiday, and to network and connect with other people. Are there educators and coaches around the world just to start building ideas and building dreams of what could happen. I love it. Thank

Katie Ritter: 31:23

you for sharing those. Those are great tips.

Justin Thomas: 31:26

Those really are. And just for a fun plug here. What What were some of your highlights? Like what was the best part of living in some of these different places?

Amy Garrett: 31:36

You know, everyone always asked me what was your favorite place you've lived because I've lived now Guatemala, Chile, Egypt, India, China, Turkey, back to Hong Kong. It's a lot. And it's some of the biggest places in civilizations history, right? Like when you think about just like really pivotal and influential places. I always say that they were always the best place for the season we were in. And I'm really thankful that I've loved them all. It doesn't always go well. Some people love their locations, and they move on after a couple of years that happens. But I would say some of my highlights. My son took some of his first steps of walking when he was just over 11 months on the Great Wall of China, like my parents had come to visit. And we had traveled to Beijing. And we were we were visiting the Great Wall and my first photo of him walking on his own is on the Great Wall. So that's like a pretty cool memory. Right that yeah, like

Katie Ritter: 32:32

he's like maybe like a child prodigy or like the eighth wonder or something. It's like the wall was made for him to his first step.

Amy Garrett: 32:41

And I would say another one was living in Turkey I. So we actually when we got married, we were living in India, and we flew to Iowa for the summer. And we had flight issues. And we had a layover unexpectedly in Istanbul. And it was so funny because it was we didn't have any laptops with us. We had like gone like off the grid. I don't even know how we I don't remember traveling like that. But I remember winding up in Istanbul and we have not researched it at all we didn't know anything. We didn't have any way to like Google what to do, because our phones didn't work there. And we just literally set out foot walking one night or 24 hour layover, and just fell in love with the city and we we left the next morning, we were like, we have to come back. So when the job opportunity came up in Istanbul, we were like we are there right now. And what I didn't expect was how much I would love the whole country like Istanbul is incredible. And there's history and it's beautiful, the people are wonderful. But it's also like an incredible country where the most beautiful beaches I've seen are in southern Turkey and the friendliest people that are so child friendly. And so I think just being so pleasantly surprised by Turkey as a whole is something that I've really appreciated from from my travels, but the list could go on and on like festivals in in India spending the night in a tree house in menar India and having an elephant passed by at night. Like those kinds of things are just dotted like all the international teachers you'll talk to will have stories you know, data with memories that are very similar and it's just a really really fun way to live life.

Katie Ritter: 34:11

Me I feel like I could listen to you talk forever but for two reasons I'm not going to one is because you're just making me so jealous. Choose because I know everyone on my team listens to this podcast and I don't want them all to go apply for international Oh my goodness.

Justin Thomas: 34:29

Well, Amy, I will say your son is going to have whether it's you know, the World Cup for soccer, or rugby or cricket or anything he's gonna have multiple countries you can cheer for, as his like home nation, right? So that's always a cool, cool aspect too. But anyway, this has been I mean, a fascinating conversation just with where you've been able to go across the world and apply what you love to do in different kinds of settings and really build those connections with everyone. Is there any final thing that you kind of want to mention? Do you know anything or, I mean, you've covered so much already in this podcast that, you know, I'm sure there's more Absolutely, but any kind of final tips or just thoughts that are on your mind on it.

Amy Garrett: 35:11

Um, you know, I've just been reflecting a lot on how fun it was to share all this. So thanks for having me on the podcast jointly has also changed a lot with COVID. And I think it wouldn't be fair to say that this has been my life for the last two years. We haven't traveled out of Hong Kong since we moved here in July 2019, which, prior to that, my husband and I had been on a plane every month, our whole marriage to another country usually. And so I think that COVID has changed a lot of things for a lot of people change priorities, changed habits, it's harder to travel. But I also think it's providing more consulting opportunities for PD, a lot more virtual coaching opportunities and things like that, too. So while I do totally love this lifestyle, it there there are still, like, insane challenges. We did book flights home, we're going home to Iowa in two days, I will be in America in two weeks, just so excited for because it's been four years since we've been there. And so there's glamorous, amazing parts of it. But there's also really, really big heartbreaking challenges with it too, at times. And so I just think that as long as you find what you love, and you find where you can do it, I think that you're gonna rock it as a coach. And so I'm so grateful for the coaching community. I'm grateful to be collected connected to you guys, and I look forward to keeping in touch after this deal.

Justin Thomas: 36:33

Absolutely. Thanks again for connecting out with us and joining us here on this episode for the podcast once again. Thanks again, Amy.

Katie Ritter: 36:41

Yes, Amy, thank you so much. And enjoy your time back home to enjoy all the time with family. Thank you so much for joining us. Thanks, guys take care.

Justin Thomas: 36:50

Well, we'll be taking a little bit of a break ourselves from the publishing new episodes. In July, we're gonna give our team a little bit of a break, especially because we have st and the coaches camps that are all coming up. So we will be taking a break in July, but then we will be back with new episodes coming up on August 16. So make sure to look out for us there. But in the meantime, you can always check us out on social media.

Katie Ritter: 37:15

Yes, and be sure to subscribe to restart recharge wherever you listen to podcasts. And then follow us on that social media that Justin's talking about. And don't forget to follow our guest today too, as well. So once you're finished listening here, hit the pause, head over to social media. You can follow us on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and we call it the Tick Tock or just tick tock Megan. We have Megan who helps us run the Tick Tock on the podcast you silently muted shaking your head are no disgrace at me right now.

Justin Thomas: 37:47

I say we try and point it like the Ohio State University

Katie Ritter: 37:51

Tik Tok and our our coach caste

Justin Thomas: 37:54

and make sure that you are reaching out to us and after you subscribe. Let us know what topics that you want to hear if there's anything that is pressing on your mind. I mean we are ecstatic when people reach out and want to connect with us and talk with us. So be sure that if there's something on your mind reach out to us and it may be featured in an upcoming podcast

Katie Ritter: 38:12

press the restart button,

Justin Thomas: 38:14

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Katie Ritter: 38:22

A tech coach collective

Unknown: 38:27

started messaging with you Amy. I took like a screenshot of your profile and send it to Justin I was like we need to get her on this recording

Katie Ritter: 38:42

it is I just pushed record and I didn't ask are we?

Justin Thomas: 38:45

I was like oh I'm actually gonna push the record button.