213 - EDU Coach Network

As a coach, you may work alone or on a small team in your district. However, this is the age of globalization! It is easier to connect with people across the nation and world than ever before. But this can seem daunting when you aren’t sure where to start. That is why Forward Edge has created the EDU Coach Network, an expansive platform with resources and communications with other coaches! Learn more about this awesome network and find out how you can join and begin making connections with other coaches!

Join the EDU Coach Network!

Follow EDU Coach Network on Twitter!

Follow Brooke on Twitter!

Podcast Team

Hosts- Katie  Ritter & Justin Thomas

Editing Team- Michael Roush, Justin Thomas 

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

Creative/Content Team- Justin Thomas

Producers- Justin Thomas

Edge•U Badges
Edge•U is an anytime, anywhere professional learning platform made for teachers by teachers!

Coach Mentorship Program
Year-long mentorship programs to support the ultimate PD provider: instructional coaches!

Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.

Transcript

Justin Thomas: 0:00

As the school year begins, don't forget to earn your badges with edu The website has a brand new look for the upcoming school year. navigate easily across the new interface to learn strategies for using your favorite edtech tools in your lessons, check out the new curated collections and climb the edgy leaderboard, visit the new look edgy badges.com Today

Katie Ritter: 0:28

Aloha, I'm Katie Ritter.

Justin Thomas: 0:30

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

Katie Ritter: 0:41

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

Justin Thomas: 0:47

As a coach you will may work alone or on a small team in your district. However, this is the age of globalization, it is easier than ever to connect with people across the nation and world. And this can seem daunting, but when you aren't really sure where to start. That's why Ford Edge has created the edu coach Network, an expansive platform with resources and communications with other coaches. So today we're gonna learn more about how this awesome network is going to go about and how you can find out how you can join and begin making connections with other coaches. So we have our very own Brooke Conklin here, she's going to be the director of the edu coach network. So we're gonna talk with her a little bit more about how this is all going to kind of come together and how you can join so keep that in mind. But let's first introduce Brooke here. So Brooke is the Assistant Director of coaching programs at Ford Edge. She oversees the Ford Edge coach mentorship program and organize the edu coach network professional learning network for instructional coaches. Prior to her current role, she served as instructional design coach for schools in southwest Ohio area. She played in lead sessions for Google for Education certified coaching programs webinar series last year and authored curriculum for the program pertaining to the use of Google Classroom to promote professional learning. Her passion for professional learning has resulted in the planning execution of multiple professional book studies and mentorship of other instructional coaches. Her work as a teacher and instructional design coach is fueled by the belief that teachers deserve to teach with confidence, and students deserve an education that opens doors. So welcome in Brooke.

Katie Ritter: 2:22

Welcome, Becky.

Brooke Conklin: 2:23

Thanks, guys. I just decided that my next bio is going to have more run on sentences. So I can see if I can get Justin even more out of breath.

Justin Thomas: 2:32

Running there, we were talking about I gotta get back in podcast shape here, because I know it took July off we did. But we're back now. And we're raised to go here. So let's talk a little bit more about this edu coach network. So Brooke, can you give us a little bit of a background for why this network was started? And what overall? Did you see that was missing for instructional coaches? So where did this kind of idea formulate here for the network?

Brooke Conklin: 2:55

Yeah, well, first of all, I'm super excited to talk about the network. Finally, it's been a big project in the works. And I'm really excited for just how it's gonna benefit coaches this year. So background on the edu coach network, I think first we have to kind of take a little look at the landscape of education right now and kind of leading up until where we are. And as we, as instructional coaches know, there is a great need for coaches right now. Because teachers are up against a lot, maybe more now than ever. I feel like we say that every year. Maybe we're not adding more to the plate, maybe things are just getting different. Yeah, I don't know. But teachers are up a whole up against a whole lot. So some of the things that we might work with as educator as instructional coaches and helping teachers combat are things like learning loss this year, chronic absenteeism, lowered teacher retention and digital inequity. So those are really big problems for teachers to face alone. So the need for coaches is greater than ever. And to combat those needs. We really do need well trained and well supported teachers keyword being supported, they need coaches. So there when we think about like the need for coaches and where coaches come from, and how we can support these teachers that are out there fighting the good fight. Most of the time coaches come from maybe a teaching background, hopefully a teaching background, it's good to walk the walk if you're gonna talk the talk. But a lot of times coaches aren't necessarily like trained, or given an appropriate community for the level of support that they provide. So I like to feel

Katie Ritter: 4:40

like we just had a lot of people in their cars like Yeah,

Brooke Conklin: 4:44

yeah, so I think about like my own trajectory into coaching and I consider myself super lucky because I have an amazing team of coaches around me. But I was a teacher as I'm sure many of our listeners are or were and I guess I was considered a Good teacher, because I was plucked from the classroom to help other teachers become even better teachers. But I also really didn't have any training before I stepped in. And I was kind of like thinking in my head about it like, I'll give a T to Justin here with this baseball analogy for like in baseball, like you don't pluck a second baseman and ask them to like train the rest of the team to be a good baseball player, right? Because there's a vastly different skill set that's needed for teachers, and then coaches as well. So a lot of times, these teachers are coming into the role, and they're experts at the content. They're fantastic teachers, but they're not really trained on how to develop other adults into good teachers too. So that's kind of the the landscape, the need, we have all these like major, major fights that these teachers are fighting, they're trying to achieve and advance instruction. And we are supporting them with coaches that might not be well supported. So that was kind of the background of this edu coach network and how that came to be. We saw a need to connect coaches, to a support network, especially in our schools that are more rule, and maybe smaller school districts. Coaches can be like the one coach serving multiple schools, we actually, I'm gonna get a small shout out to one of our coaches that just attended coaches camp that we were talking to out in Wyoming, but she was a solo coach, she had two elementary schools she served and they're 80 miles apart, like literally. And we know that she's not the only one out there that is just kind of trying to advance her teachers and change instruction and make an impact all by herself. So we wanted to provide a space that coaches could connect with other coaches. And then we also not only providing a space to connect, but we also wanted to provide like relevant high quality, professional development just for coaches to develop that skill set that is very different from like the teachers skill set. So edu coach network was born. It started out as kind of a Twitter community that we would go and connect with people on Twitter, we would share our resources, we would connect coaches with resources from other coaches connect them to trainings for coaches and blog posts and articles that could support their practice. And the Twitter community really took off and has been like thriving and growing, it's super fun to like, watch members tag the network in their posts, to ask for ideas and resources and exchange tips. And then that evolved into a biweekly newsletter. That was more of like a long form, support for coaches. So that morphed into, like sharing blog posts and resources and tips and tricks and also just connecting coaches with like conferences that might be in their area that they could present at or attend, or podcasts that might be relevant to their work. So that was kind of the birth of the edu coach network, podcast, just trying to create a space and community for coaches to connect and support each other together.

Katie Ritter: 8:23

I love it. And I, I have been very fortunate to get to like work with so many coaches over the years across the country. And you just like really hit the nail on the head. Brooke, I can't tell you how many times when St still had PLN specifically like the tech coach network, and how many times we'd be at the conference. And it was just like masses and swarms of people that would come up and we'd be like, Are you a tech coach? And they would even just kind of like look at us we're like, do you help people use like technology in their instruction and be like yes, oh my god, I just got put in a roll. And I have no idea what I'm doing like please help where do I start? What do I do? You know, and we're just finding even like the longer that you're in the role like you still need other people I mean, the you know education landscape has changed just as much for coaches as it has for like teachers in the classroom over the past few years. So I just I love seeing this space. Fortunate unfortunate that you know ISTE got rid of their appeal wins specifically for for coaches that won because I think they left a big a big gaping hole for this place for these like professionals need like very much need a place to work with other people that do the same job as we do because we're on an island. So hopefully this will serve as a new place for folks to be able to go to get that kind of like nourishment professional nourishment from third colleagues. So okay, so talk to us. We're so excited to get to like announce this and finally share it with The world, you've been incredibly hard at work for many, many months now putting a structure in place. So what does membership look like for coaches?

Brooke Conklin: 10:07

Sure. Um, so like I said before, our goal is really just to create a space for coaches everywhere. And not just edtech coaches, but instructional coaches in general. I think that we all have our different expertise, whether it's technology, or literacy, or math or data. I'm sure there's many other niche areas that I'm leaving out, but but coaching is coaching at the end of the day, we're trying to change the behavior of people and of educators to impact learning. So we all have that commonality. We're all we're all out there trying to achieve the same thing through through our own expertise. But

Katie Ritter: 10:45

well, I think that's sorry, I don't mean to interrupt you. But I do think that's a good point to hammer home. Because, like, I think that as coaches like we still get in attend, I think we're more often leading the PD on whatever the content is that you're coaching on. But like we're always seeking, like the tech PD, so we can take it back to our teachers or we're like attending or leading like the next grade to like literacy strategy, or the this new curriculum program to implement into this content area. But the piece that is, I think, always left behind is the like working with adults and changing people. Absolutely, yeah.

Brooke Conklin: 11:21

When in the coaches camps that we've led, this is getting off, going on a tangent of a tangent. And working with our coaches that have came to coaches camp, no one's ever asked me like, how do I get teachers to use Flipgrid? And that's never the question. It's never like, how do I get more tech? The questions are always like, how do I push into this reluctant teacher's classroom? How do I use data to back up what I'm doing? How do I? How do I get my my colleagues to collaborate or trust me, and these are questions that are like universal across coaching, right. So we really wanted to create a space that would provide support for all of those that were really inclusive of, of all coaches, regardless of like, maybe your niche area. So as far as the membership goes, we want to create a space, to access community and to access high quality professional development. So like I said, this began on Twitter, Twitter still exists with that community is thriving and active, and we absolutely love it. So if you are interested in connecting on Twitter, I'll share again at the end. But all of our handles are just at edu coach network. We have a Twitter community, anyone can jump on and follow along, we'll push push out all of our events and announcements on Twitter so you can stay up to date there. It's also a great place to connect with just anybody that has a Twitter account, that's a coach and is connected to the network. So you can use use that profile.

Justin Thomas: 12:53

Do you want to drop that Twitter handle just

Brooke Conklin: 12:55

one more time you got it? And the hashtag and the hashtag? Oh, yes, the handle is at edu coach network. And the official hashtag is hashtag edu. Coach chat. So if, if you want to connect with the community on Twitter, that is a great way to do it using the handle and the hashtag. We also are going to start Twitter chats monthly. And these are open to anybody and everybody. Yeah, we're super excited. And I am one that I would consider myself a medium Twitter chat experience level. It does like the fast pace SNESs is a is a lot sometimes. But I absolutely love it. And it's it's a great way to connect with with people from from everywhere. So we are starting our monthly Twitter chats the first Thursday of every month at 8pm. Eastern time. And you can follow along, those will come out of the edu coach network Twitter profile, so you can follow follow there to see the Twitter chats on Thursday, first Thursday at eight and then use hashtag edu coach chat in your responses, and we'll push out more stuff on Twitter before that. So you're well aware, but as far as the community goes, you can expect those Twitter chats open to anybody monthly as a space to grow and connect. We'll still have our newsletter and those. I can't anticipate what your email is. But I would love to add you to the list. So you do have to actually subscribe to get the newsletter. But there is a link to that on the Twitter profile as well. So that's a great place just to stay in the loop of what's happening in the world of instructional coaching, with the conferences that are happening all around the nation that you might be interested in plugging into resources and blog articles and just kind of the latest news and instructional coaching. And then also as part of the membership, part of that access to high quality PD our webinars those week quarterly we're gonna offer and these are designed specifically for instructional coaches. So my tagline here is that it's a webinar, you'll actually want to attend. I am super guilty of of kind of registering to get the recording and then letting the recording set. But these webinars are going to be cool because they're not only going to be just for instructional coaches, but they're actually going to be created by coaches that are actually coaching in schools. So these, this is material that's coming from people that live, live the life every single day. And I have their boots, muddy in the fight today. So we're super excited about those webinars. And those, if you are subscribed to the newsletter, you will get information about the webinars through the newsletter, so those are kind of the the biggies that are coming in the works. But we also have some options. If you are a coach that you are really craving, maybe a more personalized learning experience. You're craving a deeper community, a smaller group of coaches to surround yourself with, we want to create that opportunity for you too. So outside of these kind of like big public Twitter chat forums, these anonymous newsletters, and then these webinars, we have some smaller interactive options too. So for coaches that are wanting a more personalized learning experience, this edu coach network is going to have workshops are virtual workshops that you can actually like jump on in in a small group setting like create and discuss and collaborate on coaching resources that you can take and use right away.

Katie Ritter: 16:41

And Brooke, that's something that you'll kind of be like facilitating, right. So there'll be like someone there to help make sure we're moving it along. Yes,

Brooke Conklin: 16:48

yes, yes. So it's kind of like a mix between a webinar and a PD, you could say. So it's a lot more interactive than a webinar. But we want to make it accessible to everybody. We can't fly everyone to Cincinnati, Ohio, although we know you're all

Katie Ritter: 17:03

dying to get here.

Brooke Conklin: 17:08

But those those workshops will be a virtual call. But then we'll actually like be facilitating the building of like coaching resources and like kind of discussing, like maybe what we want to put on them and what uses they might have how to implement them. So it'll it'll be pretty comprehensive. And we're super excited just because those are going to be really tangible, like actionable things that you can take and use right away. So I think those will be super cool. This next one is one of my personal favorites. But we are also going to be hosting book clubs. I love a good book club, as my team will attest

Katie Ritter: 17:47

is the book club extraordinaire.

Brooke Conklin: 17:50

Yeah, I, there's just there's so many great works out there. And I, I am a avid reader, audiobook listener, whatever your vibe is, you can do them either way. But our book clubs will happen throughout the year kind of on a rotating basis. Approximately every 10 to 12 weeks is what we're aiming for. Some of that might just depend on like the volume of the book. But what what that will look like, we'll kind of collectively have a title that we're reading. And I will provide like some reflection questions and some thoughts like guided reading and some activities that you can do or not do, but just something to kind of facilitate your own personal learning. And then towards the end of the book club will actually have like a live meetup where we'll have like I say, live virtual life. We're bringing live meetup, where we will get together and discuss and collaborate and kind of dive into our thoughts and exchange over what we just read. So I always think that book clubs are a great opportunity for professional growth and love any chance that I can get to carve out some time and have my husband watch the kids for a few hours?

Katie Ritter: 19:04

Well, I think to Brooke, you do a really nice job with book studies being that you'll be the one facilitating this. So for those that don't know, you, you do a really a nice job of taking a book study and actually making it like tangible into like our work and how do we actually take these cool ideas and brainstorm and build on them, but actually make this applicable to me. So I'm not just left with like, yeah, great, but no one else in my district sees it this way or wants it this way. And like so. So you do a really nice job with that. So this community will be lucky to have your expertise at the helm of that too. Thank you. I appreciate that. Yeah.

Brooke Conklin: 19:40

Yeah, I really think that learning occurs for everybody in different ways. And we all have different preferred modes and I know books and literature rank higher than others and some prefer the live hands on webinars and some prefer discussion. So as we're like planning all of these things for the edu coach network, it's been really important to like Consider how how coaches want to learn what they have capacity for in time. So, with all of these things, we're trying to serve coaches in the way that best fits them. And I do love a book club for that. Yeah.

Katie Ritter: 20:12

Well, and I think one thing, and I'm sorry if I like missed it as you were describing all of those things, but there will be like an online space for this work to happen beyond just Twitter. Do you want to kind of like, highlight what that looks like for folks that maybe aren't on Twitter? And are maybe just picturing this, like, logistically? Where do they where will they virtually gather?

Brooke Conklin: 20:33

Yes. So as we like, create the space for community and collaboration. Twitter is great, if you are well connected, and have an active PLN. And I think that that's something that I kind of like stumbled into as a coach, like I would see coaches, throw a question out on Twitter, and they'd get 100 different responses, or 100 Different volunteers 100 different answers. And so I was like, Great, that sounds wonderful. I put my first thing out on Twitter, I think it was on behalf of a teacher trying to like, maybe connect a language arts class to another language arts class. And I got like zero responses. Oh, it was just totally not beneficial for me. And it was because I did not have a very large following or like an active PLN on Twitter. And I know a lot of coaches are probably in the same boat. I'm sure we have tons of coaches that are very well connected and can get 100 responses. But we wanted to provide a community that was maybe separate from that Twitter space that coaches could reliably get information, and advice and share on. So as part of the the All Access version of this community. There is a private discussion community. So it is isolated from Twitter. So if you don't have a Twitter account, if Twitter scares you, that's okay. It is a private discussion community. In it, there's virtually like zero learning curve, it's it's very simple. But you can think of it as like a classic discussion board, that you can post questions, you can share resources, you can share links, you can share pictures, images, files, whatever you want to exchange with other members. You can tag things with like a topic. So they if if you're interested in like learning about formal coaching cycles, or you have very specific questions about formal coaching cycles, you can look through other threads and comments about formal coaching cycles, you'll be able to search the community. So if you want to see if there has been maybe a coach that was struggling with the same problem as you, you can actually search and, and find, like, comment history and stuff. So and that is available exclusively to all access. Because we do really want to make it a space that's going to be utilized. We want coaches to be able to feel like they can put their questions out there and it will get answered and there will be active conversation versus like a very public large Twitter Boram.

Katie Ritter: 23:04

Yeah. And to that point, I do just want to share, Brooke, you've put together a link tree, which if you don't know what link tree is, it's essentially one URL that allows you to kind of compile multiple URLs which we actually learned from someone in our Twitter community. But so that for those folks who might not be on Twitter, and you'd like to get signed up for the newsletter, that has lots of great tips and tricks in it, it is just link li n k, and then T r dot e forward slash edu coach network. And if capitalization matters, that EDC n is capitalized, but it may not actually be capitalized. So try it, try it. But also, we'll be sure to include that link in our show notes for this episode, too. Yeah, so

Brooke Conklin: 23:55

that's kind of the the wrap up of what this network is going to involve. So it's, it's really just a space and a place for coaches to connect and grow together. Because the end of the day, we're all after the same thing we want student learning to be impacted for the better. We want our teachers to teach with confidence and we want to be able to support them. And if you've been an instructional coach for more than one day, you know that there are a diverse group of teachers out there that have vastly different needs and you are only one person in a certain community that surrounds you can be immensely beneficial.

Katie Ritter: 24:31

Love it. Well thank you, Brooke for introducing us to EDU coach network. We're gonna take a quick very short break from our sponsors. And come back to hear more from Brooke on what this awesome network will be hold.

Justin Thomas: 24:43

Looking for a program that reaches all teachers and learning new tools to integrate in their lessons and you badges is the answer. He was in anytime anywhere badging program that is designed to take bite sized tools for instruction and teach teachers how to use them as he has received the SDS. seal of alignment for educators standards. Any expansion or 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. I'm Justin Thomas, Dr. Katie Ritter. And we have Brooke Conklin which, by the way, I forgot to mention her Twitter earlier because I just ran out of breath. And then you know, no oxygen to the brain is never good. But you can follow her at Twitter at Brooke Conklin. 19. So that's B ROKECONK. l i n 19.

Katie Ritter: 26:12

Thinking to the right, okay. Sounded right to me.

Justin Thomas: 26:14

All right. All right. Awesome. She's not telling me that I did wrong. So I think we're all good. But Brooke is here with us as well. We are talking about the new and awesome edu coach network. And we kind of talked a little bit about what all it's going to include. But Brooke, we're kind of interested to know, what are your overall goals for the network? So what do you hope that other coaches are going to receive by joining as a member?

Brooke Conklin: 26:35

Sure. Um, so before I go into my, my goals all share a little bit about like my experience in coaching, because it's helped to kind of inform my personal vision and goal and goal for this network. So whenever I started out as an instructional coach, and if you've been to coaches camp, I might have shared on the podcast, you've heard the story before. I started out as an instructional tech coach coming fresh out of a middle school classroom. And my very first day I like, Well, my job is to push technology. Here it goes, the pushing of technology, went door to door on teacher planning bells. I walked into this language arts teachers room, she was a first year teacher as a first year Coach, what could go wrong? And I said hope. She's like, Hi. Are you? Is it? Have you heard of EdPuzzle? She could tell like, she's just totally confused. I feel like

Katie Ritter: 27:33

her name was foreshadowing.

Brooke Conklin: 27:39

Yeah. And she's like, No. Great. Do you have five minutes for me to? Like, remind me never to go into sales?

Justin Thomas: 27:49

Hello. Brand new tool?

Brooke Conklin: 27:52

Yeah, would you like to save 20% on your car? So I proceeded to show her EdPuzzle she's like, that's great. Okay, bye. And that was like, kind of the end of the coaching interaction. So that was, if I were left to my own devices, the rest of my coaching career may have been like that everybody in that school would have been using, probably about it that I accomplished. But what really made the difference for me, was the team that I was surrounded by, I knew nothing about Google Sheets. I knew nothing about Data Studio, I knew nothing about Google Classroom, I knew 25% of the functionality of G Suite. Was that G Suite,

Katie Ritter: 28:33

Google workspace today in 2022, then the past

Brooke Conklin: 28:41

time appropriate label there. But whenever I would have a question, or I'd have a teacher that had a question about Google Sheets, or I have a intervention specialist that was looking for a tool to help her student access learning, I would have a private discussion community on our team that we used at the time, and I would be able to throw it out to them and we were at. At the time, there weren't very many of us. So maybe five different schools. Now we're at how many different

Katie Ritter: 29:07

many 20? Depending on the year, yeah.

Brooke Conklin: 29:11

Many different schools. But regardless of where we were, like in physical proximity, I had an answer in like maybe a couple of minutes and not only like an answer that you would find, like on Google search, but like a very personalized, this is what I do. This is how I had success. This is the resource I used. And it was just great to have that support from somebody that was also in that same role that had a different expertise or different knowledge base than I did. And it made me an immensely like better coach and it really helped me to grow too. So as I was we were beginning this network and thinking about what we wanted to achieve what we wanted to provide and support coaches with like that has always been at the forefront of my mind is I want every coach regardless of if you're in Wyoming and driving at my Ella's between your two elementary schools or you are in a massive school district on a team of 15 coaches, that you have a place that you can ask a question and that you can get an answer from somebody that has been there done that or is doing that. And so that has been the mission. That is the goal. Not only that, but also, like I said, having PD, we as coaches are typically the ones providing the PD. Very rarely do we get professional development on our own. And I know from my experience my before, this role, my last training in the world of educational technology was my my college ed tech class where we were asked for a final project to save 50 Google images to a folder that we might put on a USB drive and use later in our teaching career.

Katie Ritter: 30:52

I job security.

Brooke Conklin: 30:57

So just having a place for relevant up to date, PD for coaches, is goal number two, so community relevant PD. And then ultimately, our goal with this network is that student learning is impacted for the better because teachers are better supported by connected coaches. So that is the mission. Those are the goals. And we're just super excited to get it off the ground and support coaches the school year.

Justin Thomas: 31:28

Awesome. Yeah, that's great.

Katie Ritter: 31:30

I'm Brooke what else before Justin moves us into our final segment with top three tips is there anything else that you would like to share about the edu coach network with our listeners,

Brooke Conklin: 31:41

I think we've gone into a lot of it. But I do want to just formally invite every one of you that are listening to join, so you can join for absolutely free. We want to provide this this access this community for free. If you are interested in like having a smaller, more personalized network and learning experience, we will have that available. For a small fee. We're actually the full price will be $50 annually. However, it has officially launched yesterday as of this recording. And for the first 100 coaches, we do want to offer you half off so first 100 in the door, it will be $25 annually for the all access if you want like the the more personalized learning the private community in the interactive workshops, and book clubs, like for book club.

Katie Ritter: 32:37

And more to come. I know Brooke has a lot more ideas. So she that doesn't sound small, but she's biting off small at first to get things off the ground and running. So more to come with all of that. That's awesome. Anything else that you want to add? Like just to share out you shared the social media. But is there anything else that you want people to know right now

Brooke Conklin: 32:57

they probably want to know how to join

Justin Thomas: 33:03

take it from the top got the invitation now she's gonna tell you how to join.

Brooke Conklin: 33:07

Yeah, you're invited to the birthday party. Here's my address. Yes. So whether you are wanting in on for all the freebies, and the free webinars and newsletters, Twitter chats, all of that stuff. Or if you are wanting to all access both of those, you can sign up for@www.edu Coach network.com You'll find both those options there.

Katie Ritter: 33:35

Great. And that was E D. U coach singular Network. Awesome.

Justin Thomas: 33:44

I think there's a little easier than going through, you guys did a much better than I do with her Twitter handle, spelling her name. But as Katie alluded to a little bit earlier, it's the coming to the end of the show here. And you know that we'd like to ask our top three tips. So Brooke, yes. What are your top three tips for joining and using the network?

Brooke Conklin: 34:07

My first tip is just in general to join my first tip, regardless of if you join the network or not, we really hope you do because it's just going to be a great, awesome community to be a part of. But my first tip for anybody out there is just to surround yourself with people who inspire you. It is it can be a lonely role coaching you're kind of in the in the gray area between teaching and admin. And it can be tough to navigate sometimes, especially in our climate right now. So tip number one is just to surround yourself with people who inspire you. We quick plug do have many of those people in our network. I would love for you to join us our second or my second Tip is to carve out time for your own growth. And this is something that I really struggle with, I tend to be a taskmaster, and take a lot of pride in the amount of work that I can get done in a day. But to really serve your teachers to the best of your ability, you have to grow yourself too. You have to stay relevant, you have to stay current, you have to, you have to build into yourself, to build up your capacity to serve others. So carve out time for your own growth, your own professional development, your own book club, it is no judgment for you to sit down and read a book for work sometimes. And then my third tip is to sign up for the edu coach network. And we would absolutely love to have you be a part of our journey, and connect with you.

Katie Ritter: 35:51

I love it. And I will like throw in a sidebar tip to that. I think that coaches typically do a really nice job of participating but like, once you sign up, like don't be afraid jump in, I know for the newsletter or the biweekly newsletter that you send, it's been fun seeing like some of the tips and resources and different things that people are submitting. So this is definitely something that I think you really want to prop other coaches up, not just share, like resources that our team has come up with. Because like the power of the room is the room. So I would just like encourage, like once you're signed up, participate, throw your ideas out there because you never know what idea that will spark for someone else.

Justin Thomas: 36:33

What's funny is you started saying, Oh, I have a sidebar tip. And I was like, oh, I need to get a tip now. But then that was actually what might spur the moment tip.

Katie Ritter: 36:41

Jointly had that sidebar tip.

Justin Thomas: 36:44

He did not have the credit on that. But I will I will gladly take it. Appreciate it. All right. Well, this has been an amazing conversation with you Brooke on talking about the edu coach network. So make sure that you get out there you join in, you participate in all of the amazing things that we have going on with it. Brooke here is going to be having a lot of awesome ideas that's going to be put into it and we definitely know you know if you've listened to the podcast before you know that Brooke has always got some really awesome creative ideas. So I'm excited to see what's gonna happen with the edu coach network. Tune in next time for a great episode on getting started in the school year. We're going to have a coaches returning to their district and one that is jumping into a new district. So up all the bases covered with ideas no matter what situation you're entering for the coming school year. I know most of you buy it right now in the school year. Gonna take a little time to let you get situated and then it you have some ideas too.

Katie Ritter: 37:37

So right after you press pause and you go join the edu coach network. Yes, make sure that you subscribe to restart recharge wherever you listen to podcasts. You can also find us at restart recharge podcast.com That's where we post all of our show notes. So you can get in there as well. And be sure to follow us on social media are on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and the tiki Toki at our our coach cast,

Justin Thomas: 38:06

you know who else is on the tick tock.

Katie Ritter: 38:09

Edu coach network. We're trying to talk

Unknown: 38:15

American agency coaches out like a free part time job, that'd be my

Katie Ritter: 38:22

free time job. You work for free

Justin Thomas: 38:26

for free. It is 100% free for you. There you go. Yeah, overall make sure that you do reach out to us any social media channels as well. If you have any ideas on any topics that you want us to discuss maybe a certain topic that's on your mind we'll be happy to discuss in store recharge podcast

Katie Ritter: 38:43

Do you have a tick tock idea?

Justin Thomas: 38:44

Maybe so I'm all I'm all ideas on all the trends of trying to stay up to date? Yeah,

Katie Ritter: 38:48

so press the restart button

Justin Thomas: 38:50

recharge your coaching batteries and leaping equipped and inspired to coach fearlessly with the restart recharge podcast

Katie Ritter: 38:57

attack coach collective All right, we did it we ran out of breath to start over

Unknown: 39:18

again.