220 - 20+20 Vision: 40th Episode Celebration!

We have reached the end of Season 2 and that means this is our 40th episode! To close out the season here around the Thanksgiving break, Katie and I wanted to talk a bit about some of our favorite tips and tricks that have come from the previous episodes over the last two seasons! We’ve had a lot of great topics and fantastic people on, but just in case there was something mentioned before that you may have forgotten about, we want to bring it back into the light so you can use it through the rest of the school year!

Top 3 Tips:

1. Have fun with it and be yourself

2. Be okay with learning and listening to yourself

3. It takes a village, a great team!

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

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Transcript

Justin Thomas: 0:00

The Google educator bootcamp is a 13 week comprehensive series that will prepare educators to complete the Google for Education Level one or two certification. This series provides teachers with professional development on their own time to complete tasks that are built around showcasing their proficiency and understanding of the Google workspace for education tools. For more information on the Google educator bootcamp, visit Ford hyphen, edge.teachable.com, and begin earning your Google certification. Aloha, I'm Katie Ritter. And I'm Justin Thomas. And this is the restore recharge podcast, a podcast by coaches for coaches, we bring in the tips and tricks to help you in your everyday work as an instructional coach, or whatever they call you at your school. So hopefully,

Katie Ritter: 0:54

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

Justin Thomas: 0:59

And we have reached the end of season two. And that means that this is our 40th episode. So to close out the season here around this Thanksgiving break, Katie and I decided we're going to talk a little bit about some of our favorite tips and tricks from previous episodes over the last two seasons. So we've had a lot of great topics and fantastic people on but just in case, there was something mentioned before that maybe you forgot about or you missed an episode, we thought we'd bring it back to the light so that you can use it throughout the rest of the school year,

Katie Ritter: 1:28

I can't believe we've had 40 episodes, Justin, that's kind of crazy.

Justin Thomas: 1:32

It is crazy. It's, it's been a lot of fun. And we've learned

Katie Ritter: 1:37

a lot about different sound systems,

Justin Thomas: 1:39

we have, we have learned a lot about different sound systems. And obviously we are we are now going to just be chatting with ourselves, we were talking about how this is kind of weird. There's no one else here and there's not like a zoom call, we have the setup or something like that. So

Katie Ritter: 1:53

I know, it hasn't been just the two of us since the very first episode of the very first,

Justin Thomas: 1:57

so we're gonna kick it off with 149. No. So

Katie Ritter: 2:01

for those listeners, that should be a super quick episode just to kind of rejuvenate yet, earmark some episodes that you want to get back to when you get back from some time off with friends and family. But I don't know if we've ever really talked about it on the podcast before where the podcast came from. But our team of instructional coaches here at forward edge, we were feeling some of the burnout and the stress throughout the pandemic and trying to do everything we possibly could supporting our teachers. And we really kind of needed a creative, fun outlet. And we, you know, felt like we had a lot of great knowledge on the team, we knew we could find some other great coaches out there beyond our team to share their wisdom and knowledge. And so we wanted a way to kind of start helping support other instructional coaches out there. And while kind of at the same time having a creative outlet for ourselves. And here we are two years 40 episodes later, and it's growing strong. And we love hearing the things that you like about the episodes. We love connecting with some of you and seeing you at conferences. So it's really just become like a really fun, awesome way to connect differently with coaches all over really has

Justin Thomas: 3:19

and like you said, I mean, we want to make sure you feel a little less on our coaching islands, especially because some of us out there or, you know, kind of on our own, we have, we have the ability here that we're on a team. So that's always kind of nice, but happy to always reach out and talk with other people there. So obviously, we've had some good episodes in the past. So I thought we would just go ahead and talk about some of these 40 good episode. Episodes. Yeah. Because we already know this one's gonna be awesome. So we don't have to worry about getting it done first to talk about it. But you know, this is a topic that comes up I think a lot. The fact of how do you kind of track your interactions? How are you tracking your data in which you are working with the educators and making that impact? And this one that we had actually someone the unit was able to bring on, I think was a really good one to kind of figure out a way to do just that. Yeah,

Katie Ritter: 4:09

Susanna Summers was in our first season episode 14, collecting data as a coach and she is the founder of Connect hub, which is transparently what our team uses, but that episode, Justin's right, I mean, it's something that, you know, we talk about all of the time, and we also get questions and see other coach communities talking about this coaches are always asking, how are you tracking your time? How are you showing your impact? You know, how are you keeping track of it for yourself to know where you're spinning your wheels? And I was really excited that we were able to bring Suzanna on because that was something that it took a few years for our team to ultimately, you know, come to and find her solution that she had developed. You know, and we we went through a lot have pain points and struggles. So that episode was fun to get to share something that you know we believe in wholeheartedly and how it helps impact our work. And hopefully, we saved some folks a little bit of pain by by learning from our mistakes through that episode.

Justin Thomas: 5:17

And she's like a data guru, like a genius. I mean, I don't even know how you can even come up with that concept, and then actually implement it into something like connect up. It's amazing.

Katie Ritter: 5:27

Yeah, well, and I think one of the things from that episode, one of my favorite things that came from that was her whole concept about not only do you have to collect the data, and no matter what you use, like your own platform, you're a different thing doesn't even have to be connected. But regardless of coaches, you know, we need to be collecting the data, we need to be able to understand the data. But the piece that I think we forget about sometimes is like telling that story with the data. Yeah. So I liked how she kind of painted that picture in that episode about the importance of actually sharing that data and being able to tell kind of the story that's going on with it from the people to the environment to the impact to you know, next steps. So I think that was great. So definitely go give that one a listen. 114 collecting data as a coach for tons of tips there.

Justin Thomas: 6:16

Yeah, I'm glad you mentioned the the episode number there because that was something I realized, as you were talking like, Oh, we got to make sure we actually tell these folks what episode is to be able to go find it but keeping Ryan track with that that was episode 114. Which by the way, she's also super, she's got was The Bachelor, the Bachelorette, one of those two that she's got, like a whole. I mean, that's yeah,

Katie Ritter: 6:36

she's both she has a whole social media account bachelor data. So she she's big and famous now with her data.

Justin Thomas: 6:46

Most people wouldn't go that route, but she's gone with it. And she's been awesome with it, but keeping on track with, with that being one episode or episode 114 We started a little bit of a mini series following that one. It was episodes 115 116 117 and 118, in which we talked a lot about coaching cycles. And we had Tyler on or excuse me, Tyler Irwin with us. For for those all for those episodes, but we had some other people rotating in and including Emily Cowen and Marie Reinhart and Tracy Keough and Brooke Conklin, just talking about coaching cycles overall, and how you get it started to actually co teaching co planning and then having the reflection period and then celebrating what that teacher has done. And I thought that was a really good series, because it's kind of hard sometimes, especially if you're new into a district to kind of how do I get this often going? And even if you've been there for a while, and you haven't done something like that, how do I get this started? Now here in the middle of the midpoint,

Katie Ritter: 7:42

yeah, and kind of some background of where that, you know, kind of inspiration came from our team. And that's something that, you know, personally, having done this for 10 years coaching now, I, and working with a number of different school administrators across a lot of districts, trying to get coaching cycles off the ground from both myself in the early days from some of our other coaches, you know, when they would start in a district, it was something that was really hard to convince district admin to implement coaching cycles, because it does take up so much of the coach's time, for a far fewer number of teachers that you can support when you're when you're dedicating and you're getting that deep. So from their perspective, like resource management, it didn't seem to make as much sense because the coach wasn't supporting as many teachers. But from our standpoint, I mean, we just saw time and time again, just the the actual transformation that would take place, not only in that individual teacher, but obviously the learning experience for their students, was dramatically changed. And oftentimes, we would see that ripple out by that teacher, like sharing their experiences with other teachers, that would then you know, start to work with us too. So we've always been pushing really hard and believe very deeply here at forward edge that coaching cycles are the way to to transformation. But it can be hard to convince your admin and then once you convince them and you've never done them before, you're like, What the heck am I doing? So anyway, that that series, I think, was awesome. If you've, whether you've already done coaching cycles, or you're trying to get them started, go back and listen to that coaching cycles series from season one. There's just so many beautiful gold nuggets that our team shares with you from what, again, learn from our mistakes. So go back to that one.

Justin Thomas: 9:42

Exactly. Especially with you know, obviously, you kind of winding down into usually this is the second semester and then once you come back from kind of the holiday break, then it turns into third semester and that might be or excuse me, the second semester I'm trying to add semesters in school, you're talking about quarters, talking about semesters here, so you come back into that spring semester might be a good idea to try and kind start implementing some of those. They're one of a kind of wrap up season one and some of the episodes that we highlighted here. But the very last one, it was episode 2120, to be exact, and that was telling your story, taking control of the narrative. We had Ryan McLean, who is co author of the book, your school rocks, so tell people, we also had Michael Roush on with us. And Michael is a master storyteller and himself. And I thought this was a really good episode talking about how do you get all of that amazing things that you are doing in your school out there for people to see. And Ryan did a really good job of talking about how, you know, he was just making sure that the community knew what was happening in the school, what everyone else in the school district was, and even propelling that out through across the state, and across the nation is just so important that I mean, there's amazing things are happening at every one school, I guarantee it. But a lot of people don't know that. And it's just trying to find those ways to really tell your narrative because they both made the point that if you're not going to tell your story, either no one else is going to tell it or someone else is going to tell it not in a very good way.

Katie Ritter: 11:08

Yeah. And what I loved about that, too, is I really liked having Ryan a part of that series, because he was serving at you know, he was a principal for a number of years, he was an assistant superintendent at the time that we had him on that episode. And he's now currently serving as a superintendent. So I think that that's a great episode to maybe share out. You know, a lot of our coaches are sometimes more willing to at least help share the teacher in the school story. Even if you're not, you know, you're a little too humble to share your own story. You're at least sometimes maybe more willing to help share the story of others. But I think having that admin perspective on that episode might really help. So share that episode out with some of your principals or your your district admin teams. It's a it's an easy Listen, those two guys are really fun guys, very down to earth and relatable, but can really help you kind of propel and share that message about sharing your story for other people who may need to hear it.

Justin Thomas: 12:12

Absolutely. So that I mean, that was the season finale for season one. I mean, as we've mentioned, we're in season two finale now. But starting back with season two, we had an episode it was episode 203, the FTTC recap. And really, this one was just kind of a recap of what all we saw at the the future of education technology conference. That was down in Orlando, Florida. As myself, Mike Roush Megan Whitaker, you were down there as well. But you were doing some other things. But we just kind of overall talked about what all was happening kind of at the conference. And and really, I think it was just kind of a fun episode. There wasn't like, you know, too many crazy things, just talking about presenting at conferences, talking about attending conferences, how do you select sessions? How do you get the most out of going to a conference, but I felt like it was a really good episode just to kind of combine all of these things. Because especially with this episode, airing, we have several conferences that are going to be coming up FTTC tcaa oetc McCall coming up and kind of that spring, you know, and that's just the ones around here that we are attending. There's obviously tons of conferences that are happening all the time, but just one that I thought was kind of a fun lighthearted one and talking about, you know, presenting at a conference attending sessions, like what do you do, especially a large session, large conference like that, like, how do you figure out where you're supposed to go and just also networking with so many of the different people that you might have had some of these, like Twitter interactions with? Yeah,

Katie Ritter: 13:37

and I think that's a great point, you know, conference season, right, really kind of already started. So this episode will be airing kind of right in the middle of the madness, but a good time to kind of help you make the most you know, it's a very big financial investment, either you're spending on yourself or your district is spending to send you so really making sure that you're getting the most out of it. So that episode will certainly help you with those tips. But I also loved the the story about the bus driver and Dr. Jay Wright. Yes, it was dark. I'm not gonna give it away what it is, but you gotta go back and listen for just like the most heartfelt I think I probably cried in that episode. That'd be interesting to know how many episodes do I get weepy? I'd

Justin Thomas: 14:24

love to go back. The good news is that we only had video for like the first couple. So yeah,

Katie Ritter: 14:29

yeah, well going into these conferences, and I do just want to give a little plug. Be on the lookout for our team. forward edge. We are doing the traveling Google for Education, adaptive learning lab. So that is coming to a number of conferences around the country. We hosted that in put that on at ISTE this past summer in New Orleans. And now we're traveling around to a number of conferences. So if you are at a conference and you see the Google for Education Shen adaptive learning lab on the agenda, please sign up and join us. And that's our team leading it. So hope to see you there. So just had to give that little plug, since we're talking about conferences with conferences and right around the corner.

Justin Thomas: 15:12

Absolutely. Yeah, you gotta check that out, because that was a lot of fun putting that on. But it also you could see how many people that came through that also just had candles, light bulbs going off with all the amazing features that Google had in that. So definitely check that out. Because it's a lot of amazing, cool Google for Education features in there, too. We also talked about in episodes 204 and 205, the importance of the admin and coach relationship. We talked to Tyler Irwin, a little bit about that, and 204. And then 205, we actually had one of our one of the coaches that we've kind of worked with in some different facets, Andreea, Cara Vilano. And she also was on with one of our administrators, and Ryan Stanger in an area school down here in southwest Ohio. And they were just talking about that importance between the coach and admin relationship there. So it's cool, because you know, every single one of our schools that were in, that's a huge aspect is having that admin coach relationship. And it was cool to kind of have another outside perspective as well. I mean, that's such a vital, vital importance and to really your success and coaching hack.

Katie Ritter: 16:15

Yeah, and that is like speaking to my coaching heart. I have again, I've been doing this for 10 years, I've done it myself in a number of districts and then watching our team of, you know, 17 Plus, coaches serve a number of districts in various cities working with other coaches across the country. And I, at this point in my career have become just such a firm believer that a coach can either find success by leaps and bounds or they can just run into wall after wall after wall, preventing their success if that in particular building leader does not understand that coach's role does not understand how they can be utilized most effectively, especially our instructional technology coaches, since that is kind of such a newer role within the coaching world and the tech confuses people but instructional coaches in general, that admin coach relationship, if you've listened to any of our episodes before, you know, you know, that's my soapbox, but spend the time in making that a good relationship spend the time in clarifying your role with those admin and if you're hitting roadblocks keep trying because it will really pay off in those two episodes give a ton of great ideas. Andrea and Ryan have like the most dream coach, admin coach principle relationship of all time, but that's just truly so important for to help contribute or hinder to a coach's success. So just can't stress that enough. And that was a really great little mini series there to help support that work.

Justin Thomas: 18:00

Absolutely. Let's go and take a moment's pause for our sponsors.

Unknown: 18:04

Calling all instructional coaches join forward edge for coaches camp in summer of 2023. Coaches campus packed with high quality professional development exclusively for you. Attendees will work with like minded coaches on creating strategies for building 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 in the summer of 2023. You can either join us virtually June 12 through the 14th or come visit Cincinnati on July 27 and 28th please visit forward hyphen edge dotnet. Slash coach camp to reserve your spot today.

Justin Thomas: 18:41

Calling on instructional technology coaches for dashes launched a new hub for coaches to find strategies and resources to use for their coaching. The edu coach Network provides a place for instructional coaches to come together for Coach specific professional development, building a community and finding mentorship moving through the school year the network provides a place to casually seek resources or joining with book clubs, Twitter chats, webinars and workshops along with much more join the edu coach network by going to EDU Coach network.com and join the coach community today. All right, welcome back. We're talking about a lot of the episodes from our previous two seasons here since we are in season two finale, some of the ones that kind of go back and check mark and highlight and re listen to for some really good ideas. And one that I think is a really good one you actually just heard in the sponsor break but episode 213 The edu coach network and that's what broke Conklin and I really think that is such a vital resource for coaches out there because you can listen to us but obviously we're not on 24/7 You know, just constantly out there in the in the Twitterverse and things like that but the edu coach network is so definitely one working you know, talking with Brooke about it just the amazing features that you have at your disposal a community board, also webinars and workshops Some things like that, and Brooke is very talented. She's got a lot of really cool ideas to help really bring in all the coaches. So you're not just out there on your own.

Katie Ritter: 20:08

Yes. And that has also been something incredibly near and dear to my heart. I mean, it's the whole intro of this episode, right, we're trying to help coaches not feel like they are so much on their own island. And over the past 10 years, that's all I hear over and over is coaches have been plucked out of the classroom, because they were really great at math are really great at teaching literacy, or they're really techie teacher, then they're stuck in this role of a coach, they get no training, and they're the only one in their building or district. And so that is a really scary place to be. My doctoral research focused all on this topic. And, you know, networking is really the best form of professional development for a position like instructional coaches, it's just so important. So I love our edu coach network, it has already helped coaches, really all over the world, already. And so that's been an exciting thing to see thriving. And we're, you know, gosh, not even six full months into it being watched. So really excited about the future of that if you're not a part of that community, definitely go back and listen to that episode to 13.

Justin Thomas: 21:20

Absolutely. And even speaking about Brooke, and FTTC, from earlier. So this is actually a session that Brooke attended FTTC and was like, Whoa, this is awesome. We have to get this guy on the podcast, right. And that gentleman is Ben Song greth. And he had an amazing session about coaching across the generations. And it was just really eye opening. I mean, even when we were talking with him, we're like, Whoa, that we never really thought about things like this. But him being a former history teacher do believe that, you know, that holds near to us as well. But the fact is that he was looking at coaching with different educators from different generations, and you can't just treat everyone the same. So he was kind of talking about how you have to look at kind of the background for each of those generations to really be able to actually coach them in a way that is actually going to help them grow and success.

Katie Ritter: 22:11

Yeah. And that was one of the episodes and a conversation that I had that really like truly made me think differently about things that I do and say and how I've approached things in the past and how I can approach them moving forward. So definitely, you know, especially if you've been coaching for a while and you're looking for something that's not just an echo chamber of kind of the same ideas over and over. Definitely go back and listen to that episode 207 With Benson Groth coaching across the generations,

Justin Thomas: 22:41

absolutely. And we have I mean, there's been so many great episodes, right. But a couple that we do want to just like mention, briefly, and then you can go out and listen to them to, you know, the one that we just had to 19 Talking with Emily Cowan and Anna Marie Reinhart about creating spaces because not everyone's got the time to just sit down and have a PD session. But there's other ways that you can actually really facilitate and use the entire school district or school building I should say,

Katie Ritter: 23:07

Yeah, and we know a lot of a lot of coaches are struggling with that right now finding the time for PD with their teachers when teachers are feeling a little bit initiative overload. Oh, yeah.

Justin Thomas: 23:18

And then a couple other episodes 208 importing joy with Jill Dubois and Marie Reinhart just talking about how you can utilize little facets of joy and bring that out to the educators just to keep things you know in a good mood in a positive light. And then also to 10 and to 16. We had John Smith on from book reader sit down with with Lisa Cooney and I was talking about different ways that coaches can use book reader in coaching cycles with educators and just how amazing of a tool that is but also to we had tissue at Richmond, Angela boys on for talking about Canva and how coaches can use that along with educators as well.

Katie Ritter: 23:56

Yeah, and shout out Brooke also just did a webinar with John Smith's right. So if you haven't seen that on book creators, webinar series, go go look that up the recording is available, with lots of great ideas kind of building even beyond the episode with Lisa and John, specifically about how you might use Book Creator for coaching cycles.

Justin Thomas: 24:18

Well, obviously we have this is the 40th episode. So there's plenty of awesome episodes out there. These are just a couple of the highlight ones that we thought we'd talk about and mentioned some of some of the fun ones that we've been able to do. But I mean,

Katie Ritter: 24:31

feeling a little a little strange. We don't have top three tips.

Justin Thomas: 24:35

We don't have top three tips. Should we do top three tips for

Katie Ritter: 24:39

starting a podcast and getting through the first 40 episodes? Sure.

Justin Thomas: 24:42

Absolutely. Absolutely. The I'll drop one out. Okay, so a top three tip here. The first tip is, I think to just have fun with it. I think that we do a pretty good job of that. I think in terms of, you know, not

Katie Ritter: 24:58

really having fun, whatever I'm doing Well, yes,

Justin Thomas: 25:00

yes, but we don't take ourselves. I mean, we take this very seriously, but we don't take ourselves too seriously. And you know, if we mess up, we just pause, we go back, and we edit and things like that. And, you know, obviously, you've heard the bloopers at the end of these episodes. So clearly, we're okay with, you know, having ourselves just kind of, you know, those moments were like, what did we just do? Those are on a lot of those episodes, too.

Katie Ritter: 25:21

Yeah, I think my tip would be get over listening to your own voice. Like the fact, it's like my nightmare, and every episode I listened to, and I have a new complex about something I'd say or do or how I'm saying certain words and sounds I'm making. But I think you just got to get over it. And, you know, it stands to like, try to be better and get rid of the arms in the pause placeholders. But definitely, you know, if you're looking into getting into something creative like this, or starting it for yourself or with your teachers, definitely just get over that, because you're focusing way more on it than anyone elses.

Justin Thomas: 26:05

Oh, yeah. And we need a third, don't we? We do. How about are you got one? No. Okay. All right. Well,

Katie Ritter: 26:12

I mean, I have a lot, I don't want to narrow it down, I think I would say it is, it has taken a village to pull it off. You know, you hear Justin and I are on every episode as the hosts, Justin really owned. Right now. I'm planning the episodes and everything. But we have restructured how we've done that on our team. We have a number of our coaches who serve on our social media team to divide and conquer that work. Prior to Justin kind of planning and mapping out the episode, we had a team, another team of coaches who did that from a content perspective we had, and still have it smaller now but a team of coaches who do the editing, and then not to mention just all of our coaches who are willing to like give up extra time to come be guests. So you're getting a lot more perspective than just hearing from Justin and I. So you know, not everyone has the luxury of having a team. But I think definitely, I don't know how it would be very difficult. I feel like to pull something like this off alone. So having a team regardless of how small or big you know, a fool. Can't say thank you enough to our team who has has made this happen week after week.

Justin Thomas: 27:36

Absolutely shout out to all of them, because they really do help keep this thing moving in a positive direction. So absolutely. Look at that. We got three top three tips just off the cuff right there. There we go. All right.

Katie Ritter: 27:48

I'm excited for some of our guests lineup for next season. Justin. Yeah,

Justin Thomas: 27:52

we got a really good one to kick off the premiere of season three, we're gonna have author Jimmy CASAS on to talk about his new book, recalibrate the culture. So get excited for season three. But as always, you can listen to any of the previous episodes that we've discussed here today or the others that are out there. They're always out there waiting for you to just drop in and get a listen but definitely excited for the start of season three with having Jimmy Costas on

Katie Ritter: 28:16

Yeah. And we're we are going to take a little bit of a break throughout the holidays here and through the end of the new year, but that season three episode will air in January. If so, get all caught up on all these good episodes we've highlighted for you today and then we'll be back with brand new episodes in January. And in the meantime, be sure to subscribe to restart recharge wherever you listen to podcast, and follow us on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and Tik Tok at our heart coach cast

Justin Thomas: 28:43

and feel free to reach out to us on any of those social media platforms because we are planning for what season three looks like. So if there's something on your mind, please let us know and we can make eight episodes. Yeah, so

Katie Ritter: 28:54

press the restart button

Justin Thomas: 28:55

recharges your coaching batteries and leave feeling equipped and inspired to coach fearlessly with a restart recharge podcast

Katie Ritter: 29:02

attack coach collective. It's just me and Justin I felt like an empty nester. Nobody else was getting started, kick it off.

Justin Thomas: 29:20

Do kick it I'm usually a good

Katie Ritter: 29:23

one else here.