310 - Tech with Littles! - with Sarah Kiefer & Brittney Priore

As instructional coaches, we sometimes work in specific grade level buildings. Other times we are serving the entire district, including all grade level bands. It can be a mystery in what edtech strategies we should implore in the elementary buildings. However, our littles are excited to learn and use technology, so we need to work with our teachers to get them using it! And that is exactly what a coach and teacher duo have been doing here in southwest Ohio! So let’s talk with Sarah Kiefer and Brittney Priore on ideas for allowing our elementary students to use more edtech in their learning!

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Podcast Team
Hosts- Katie  Ritter & Justin Thomas
Editing Team- Michael Roush, Justin Thomas 
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Creative/Content Team- Justin Thomas, Brooke Conklin
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Transcript

Brooke Conklin: 0:00

Calling all instructional coaches join Forward Edge coaches camp in summer 2023. Coaches camp is 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 district. There are two opportunities to attend coaches camp in the summer of 2023. You can join us virtually June 12 through 14th or come visit us in Cincinnati on July 27, and 28th. Please visit forward hyphen edge dotnet slash coach camp to reserve your spot today.

Katie Ritter: 0:39

Aloha I'm Katie Ritter.

Justin Thomas: 0:40

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

Katie Ritter: 0:50

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

Justin Thomas: 0:55

We are continuing on with our little two part mini series here on how we can solve the mystery of using technology with elementary right so as instructional coaches, we sometimes work with specific grade level buildings. Other times we're serving the entire district including all grade level bands, but as I mentioned, sometimes it's a mystery maybe for some maybe not for others, but we got some people on here to talk about it. But how do you attack tragedies with your elementary students, our littles are excited to use technology. So we need to work with our teachers to make sure that they are using the technology in the classroom. And that is exactly what our coach and teacher duo that we have on here today from Southwest Ohio is going to talk about so we'll talk with Sarah Kiefer and Brittany priori on ideas for allowing our elementary students to use more Ed Tech in their learning. So let me first introduce Sarah Keefer. After teaching in the classroom for 14 years Sarah moved into her current role is a technology integration specialist for ROS local school district where she works with teachers and students supporting all their techniques. Sarah loves educational technology and helping teachers and students include technology in meaningful ways. She has also a wife, a mom to three girls and two pups. She enjoys running, crafting, and do yourself projects around the house. She's also a Google certified innovator, trainer and educator, as well as an ambassador for several edtech products is proud to be a part of the shakeup learning training team with Casey Bell. You can also read her blog tech you can do and be sure to check out the T YCD Resources section, a weekly share of resources for you to try. And finally Sarah has also created the templates for teachers.com with Beth Kingsley to share their Google templates for all teachers. And our newest venture is Tech with littles a co created space focused on helping teachers use technology with our littlest learners. It can and should be done. You can find Sara on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and wakelet. All links can be found on her blog and also we'll share out her Twitter later on and also be on our bus route. So welcome in Sarah. Yes. Welcome, Sarah.

Katie Ritter: 2:58

So glad to have you here.

Sarah Kiefer: 3:00

Thank you. I'm excited to be here. Hi.

Katie Ritter: 3:02

And then I have the pleasure of introducing Brittany priori Brittany is has earned her Bachelor's in early childhood education from Mount St. Joseph University and her master's in reading science. She is currently teaching first grade at Three Rivers Elementary. Over the past few years, she has collaborated with an amazing technology integration specialist to create and implement useful and meaningful activities for her students. She uses small group center based math and ELA rotations in her classroom. And she is enjoying integrating tech activities into her existing frameworks. In her free time you can catch her anywhere outdoors with her husband, Michael and Son MJ. She enjoys shopping, traveling taking walks and wellness and you can follow her on Twitter at Britt priori and that is p r i o r e. So Brittany, we are super excited to have you I love when we get caught I love when we get non teaching guests on the show because I are non coaching. Sorry, coaching guests on the show because I think you bring an awesome perspective for for coaches who are our primary audience listeners to think about so I love having this coach, teacher combo here. So welcome, Brittany. Oh, yeah.

Brittney Priore: 4:13

Thank you. Thanks for having me.

Katie Ritter: 4:14

Yeah. And before we dive into Episode questions, I would just love how did you how did the two of you meet because you're not working together? And I don't believe you have necessarily ever worked together although I don't know that to be 100% True. So how did the two of you meet and really start like working and collaborating together on you know, helping teachers of littles use technology?

Brittney Priore: 4:41

Yeah, so we actually worked in the same school district for my first four years of teaching, okay. And Sarah very gently but forcefully came to me and asked me you know, what my goals were with technology and at the time, I was a brand new teacher, so I had absolutely zero goals I was just trying to survive. So Sarah really took me under her wing. And she came in weekly, she did lessons with my kids. She taught me the tools in order to help my kiddos with technology. So we just started very small, just getting to know one another. And then, you know, she was in my room on a weekly basis, pretty much from that point forward. And, and here we are today.

Katie Ritter: 5:25

I feel good. Well, that's a fun story. And I know, we have a lot of the questions in I think, Justin, you kind of got the idea after Ohio's like ed tech conference that takes place February of every year, and the two of you presented together there on this very topic, and I know that we had some coaches attend, and really enjoyed it. And I think it kind of helped give Justin the idea that we'd love to have you on the pod. So we're excited to learn and kind of hear more firsthand about some of the work that you all have been out there sharing with other educators.

Justin Thomas: 6:03

Yeah, so let's get right to it. Brittany, as we mentioned, you're a first grade teacher, and Sara, you work across all of key 12, but certainly with the littles as well. So let's just ask the big question here. Why is it important to Tech with littles?

Sarah Kiefer: 6:15

I'll start it off, I come from a classroom background, I taught fifth grade, and then I taught some of the eighth grade. And then I shifted into this role. And so very kindly, they put me down at the elementaries where I had no one. Yeah, yeah. And they were like here and help them with computers. And I was like, boy. So you know, I really wanted to do this. So I sucked it up. And I went down there. And I found that, like, I absolutely adore it. Those little kids, you know, I walk in and the kids like cheer. You don't you don't get that in your seventh and eighth grade classrooms. But so then, like just working with teachers, new teachers, like Britney was veterans, where, you know, tech is more or less dumped on them, and said, you know, you have to do all this kind of stuff. So building like relationships with these teachers, you kind of get like, who's more comfortable? Who's not comfortable? Like, who can you take a couple steps further like, and then it also helped me in a much bigger sense, because this is where all of our kids are starting. So you know, just think about the basics. How do you get a Chromebook out of a cart, you know, and until you like, know how to do that, you're lost, and you cannot do tech in the classroom. So I really started embracing that role and started thinking like, just like we talked about scaffolding with math and reading and everything else in a different but very similar sense. You've got to do that with all things technology, too. And then along with most of the curriculum, there's some aspect of a digital component, more or less in some way, you know, and bottom line too, is our littles take, you know, online assessments, that's a required thing. And if you I always tell people like the first time you go into a kindergarten classroom, first grades a little bit easier, but you go into kindergarten classroom, like be prepared to sweat, because you are your happen. And you know, and the more people the better, but it still is like who you know that it is really warm in here, guys. And you know, the kids just their hands are up, they're calling out and I will truly do love it. But it is very different from the older grades. So I love trying to help them build up to where, you know, like middle school teachers, get them and hopefully take them a lot further.

Katie Ritter: 8:46

Yeah, Sarah, quick follow up question for you before Brittany answers that one. But what was the biggest because I also came from like the secondary world. And then was coaching K 12. Tech Coach K 12. What was the what was your biggest aha, when you entered some of those, like younger classrooms for the first time with you helping them with technology specifically?

Sarah Kiefer: 9:14

So teachers would come and ask me questions. And it didn't matter if it was like, How do I do a Google Form? Or how do I use this particular program? But my brain was so wired to go on my seventh eighth graders, my Oh, geez, like a lot of these kids don't read yet. Like, yeah, you just you can't refer to things the same way. So, like, I use a lot of color words shape words, but it's like, you can't just say go to X program, because they have literally no idea. So it's like, it's not even just doing whatever the program is. It's how do we get in there? And that was to me because like my seventh and eighth graders would come in, and you could say open this up and log into this and they know Do it all. But these little ones until until you teach them and that is a very real huge piece to anything. So that was like my biggest like, well, we can't even do the technology until we can get into the technology. Yeah, so for me, that was just, oh, that's step one. Yeah.

Katie Ritter: 10:22

Well, I joked it, but it will be out by the time this one is released. But I joked with our first guest, Debbie, that might make my my vague like, oh, geez, I'm an idiot was like, can't they just log in? Or, you know, just log in? They don't even know their letters. Like, I'm an idiot. So yeah, okay. Sorry. Did I didn't mean to I hope I didn't derail your train of thought, Brittany?

Brittney Priore: 10:49

No, actually, that's exactly what I was gonna say. It's so important, because I think when we're thinking like, as a district, what can we offer our students, you know, each district is like, afforded these really great opportunities for their kids. But when you break it down, and you think about your littlest kiddos getting on technology, like you said, we have to get them logged in. And then we have to have enough time after we get them logged in to do named activity that we have, you know, access to. So it's, that's, I think, where Sarah and I kind of tag teamed, because I think a lot of elementary school teachers feel that just, you know, that wall, like, Okay, I have to get them logged in before I can even do the next thing. And then that's 30 minutes, and then how, you know, how am I going to fit this in with everything else I have to do in the day. So Sarah really helped me see like, how it was possible. She like simplified, and I wouldn't say dumbed it down for me, but like, showed me the possibilities. Like yeah, they can't type in, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.com, that's going to be way too much for them. And it's going to take your entire technology time. So how can we make this simple? How can we get a QR code login or make their login shorter? You know, that type of thing with it still being secure. But but more simple. So I think that that's a big, big step that I think a lot of people don't think about, they think about just using the technology and the applications that we have the programs that we have, but it's it says kindergarten teachers in first grade teachers man, like we're thinking about, you know, getting them on to the device, and, you know, how are we going to explain the steps to get to the activity, so, um, a lot of creative work. And I think Sara and I just like, work together, you know, she I think I watched her teach a lesson one of my first times and I was just in awe of her she's like talking to the kid she's like, find the skinny snowman in the right hand corner like skinny snowman like, genius, you know.

Katie Ritter: 13:06

The kidney snowman, I love that.

Brittney Priore: 13:09

They're like, Oh, there it is. And they click on it. I'm like, this lady, okay, I'm keeping her right, by me, I need her forever. So I think like the earlier you get them started and like just voting in those skills, like very, very simple steps, like, the more successful and like, the more you can use it daily, you know, so it just important to get them going. And it can be scary, like a lot of teachers even that I work with they they do what they're used to, because they're comfortable. But it can be easy, we can make this doable for even our littlest learners.

Katie Ritter: 13:45

Yeah, and I'm curious that when the two of you are working together, right, like that's great, right? I mean, Brittany, it sounds like you were maybe like Sarah's dream teacher to work with you are up for it, you're ready to go. That's just like helped me Hey, that's what we like as coaches somebody who's willing so I'm curious if you have found or Sarah if you're from your perspective, if you noticed, like by the success that you two found working together, if you found yourself in some like advocacy conversations Brittany around with other like teachers of younger students around like sharing your experience and it like advocating for the importance of it for all the reasons that you both have just explained. So I just be curious to hear like both of your perspectives on on that if it helped by you to working together and then maybe like how you approached some of those conversations like teacher to teacher because I do think that's a little bit different than coach

Brittney Priore: 14:50

to teacher Yeah, it definitely changed the way i i It was my last priority like that Chromebook cart scared me and I just did As a new teacher, I'm like, you know, doing all the things that I have to do? How am I going to find time to do this? So, with Sarah coming in and showing me the way like, that opened my eyes to possibility of where I could fit it in, it's not carving out time to do it. It's about integration. So how can I do tech in my already existing framework, so that it's not an extra time slot in the day, it's just embedded and incorporated in what we do. So she definitely helped me with that. I think it helped me then go to team meetings, talk to my my girlfriends that I talked with at the time, you know, if they were having issues, like, I'd be like, You need to go talk to Sarah, like, she can help you with this, like, I was her biggest fan, I think at that time, because she helped me understand something I just didn't. And now, you know, fast forwarding to today, like, I feel like I have such a when I'm creating an activity. And Sarah is like giving me praise on it. I'm like, okay, like, we have come pretty far here. I've heard, like wanting nothing to do with any of this. And I just, she tore down a wall, it was just I had no idea. It's what you don't know. And then once you find out that it's doable and manageable, you just need a little help to get there. It just it really did change my view on on the whole shebang on integrating and incorporating it. So

Katie Ritter: 16:25

that's awesome. And I think it's interesting to hear you say, Brittany, that you were, you know, a new teacher who looked at this chromebook cart and was really scared of it at first, because I think in the way that we kind of like bringing us back to sort of the point of this episode, like, I think a lot of times in the same way that we a lot of times hear people say like, oh, kids, like they know how to use technology. Like we don't need to teach them these skills. Like, that's not true. They might know how to like pull up YouTube or take a photo, you know, because they start doing it on like mom and dad's phone. Now from the time they can like, hold a manipulative object. But like, that doesn't mean that they know how to use it for education. I think we've also lumped like younger teachers into this category of like, we don't need to give them the training for new teacher or how to use it. All right, yeah, we don't need to go through teaching them how to use the LMS. Because they've like they're younger, they'll pick it up quick. So I just think it's an interesting tear. You say like, No, you needed that support in that connection of how to actually use that effectively. So Sarah, I don't know if you have a perspective on that. Like, if you think that was maybe like critical or helpful, the work that you were able to do with Brittany and maybe getting into some additional elementary teacher classrooms?

Sarah Kiefer: 17:41

Well, I send her a check every month, like thanks for referring. You know, I can build my business, right? Yeah. A lot of a lot of what I consider like my success in classrooms, because I've been able to get in there is Teacher word of mouth, you know, first grade teacher like Britney say, and like, Hey, Sara helped me out with this. Or, you know, in their team meetings, a lot of times you have to tackle EPS thing going on. And you none of us know how to do it. And well, okay, well, can Sarah come in and help because it's has to do with the Chromebooks. We had a an interesting situation, I think, Brittany, you were maybe there, I think when we went one to one in all of our kindergarten and first grade classrooms, and I remember the the teachers eyeballs just got like, huge, and they were like, What are you talking about? I was like, Don't worry, guys, go do it. We're gonna do it. And it was, it was fantastic. You know, I'll be there, you know, help you guys out walk this. Like, obviously, you know, you got to think kindergarteners. It's not meant for them to be on them all day long. But once you and I don't like I'm not gonna say that I'm a great judge of people. But there were a lot of teachers that would reach out and then thanks to them. It was, oh, well, Sara made that process really easy. You should have her calm, or they just shared that process. And then I get like, well, thanks for you know, helping out, Brittany because now I know how to do this too, because Brittany, you know, told me and it but it works that way, not just for the new teachers that works that way a lot for the veteran teachers. Absolutely. So it's, it's wonderful. And because I am split across buildings. What I really love too, was I could see what teachers that were comfortable what they were doing and say one of our buildings were small district, but they don't always have that time to collaborate across buildings. So like what 1/3 grade teacher was doing, I could come back and be like, Hey, are you guys aware of this? Like did you know this was on the report that you know you need to look at and so it wasn't just always how does the program work for kids to it was also helping our teachers like better understand what they had at their fingertips. Which, me being that go between, because literally I go between the buildings, you know, I can carry that information back and forth, or I know that like this teacher is really good at a particular program that one's struggling, like, hey, why don't you email this teacher and, you know, trying to help build those connections too. So I love that part of my job. But Brittany has been a, she's been a great little marketer. Yeah, me too. Oh, sorry,

Katie Ritter: 20:26

thanks for letting me take a left turn, I just think that I just have heard so often myself, working with elementary teachers, our team of coaches working with elementary teachers admin that we work with just like our little, you know, they can't do it, they don't need to be on technology, you know. So I just think this is such a unique niche that you guys have found some great work in. So just interested in all the tips we can share out there to help other coaches support other teachers of younger students.

Justin Thomas: 20:54

Yeah, especially because as you, you both kind of mentioned is something that came up with Debbie too. They they willing to learn, and they want to learn tech, or littles. But we also need to give them a little bit of guidance on how to do that, because we've kind of seen where like in high school, like middle school and high school, they, just because they thought they knew how to use tech doesn't necessarily know, they don't know some of the ins and outs of actually like being able to be efficient with it. So I think that's kind of where I was, with elementary teachers, finding those good ways to really integrate the technologies, you mentioned, Brittany, within the learning, you don't have to just put them on a computer, but you want to actually make it words meaningful in a way. And I don't know if they're, if you've kind of seen that as your ambassador role, as we like to call it going back and forth between the buildings where you've kind of seen some of those teachers that you've worked with the students that have come moved up in grade levels, they're more efficient utilizing tech as they get older.

Sarah Kiefer: 21:42

Absolutely. And one of the things that I try to remind myself, and when I have conversations with administrators, or with our media specialists that also do a lot to support our teachers. It's, it's not that they can't, that these littles can't do it. It's exactly like what you said, we have to instruct them. You know, and for a lot of them, like our districts, devices are not touchscreen. So our kids that come in, and they're, you know, trying to tap on the screen and know that guys, that doesn't work, you know, and the teachers, you know, they do in a way expect these kids to know, and I'm like, what are they using at home? Oh, my God, like Katie said, it's, it's fun, they're not like,

Katie Ritter: 22:21

background knowledge on display, right, they're like, we're

Sarah Kiefer: 22:27

in a large part, what I feel like, one of the things that I love doing is just having a conversation with a teacher, it's not that your kids can't, not at all, like, the the ceiling that we put on them is of our own making. Not they're making, you know, these kids, they, they just eat it up it it is work. Like without a doubt it is work and it is hard work. And it is very repetitive work before you really see any kind of results. But it's the same with teaching I'm reading it's the same with teaching them letters and math. And, you know, so I love having that, like advocacy role, you know, to remind them, teachers, admin, parents, even sometimes to you go, I mean, they're, they're six, they're still learning their letters Papes. Like, let's take a deep breath.

Brittney Priore: 23:17

Then Sarah always says to like, anytime we have conversations with others that, you know, are centered around technology, like we are in the best spot with this whole technology outlook, where we can take them where they come in, whether it they're having experiences where they are, you know, here's my phone, and you're on it for hours, or you don't know anything like we are in a sweet spot of teaching them at the right age, proper usage of technology. So even if they're at home doing whatever they want to do, if it's unsupervised, they're at an age where we can really show them proper usage, show them what's okay, what's not digital citizenship, all of those things that these little kiddos, they are roles, and these kids are straight up serious about their roles at this age. Like, okay, if I'm not supposed to be doing this, you know, and we can show them right from wrong, we can show them how to use it properly, and you know, when they should not be on it, or if they see something they're not supposed to see what to do. But if we don't capitalize on that, and use what we have at our fingertips and showing them then they're going to go on, and by the time they get to middle school, like they they know all the wrong things to do with their technology versus you know, hey, I had a really good experience in Elementary where, you know, this was modeled for me and I got to practice it and use it to further my learning and interests in a positive way. So I just think that, you know, for me, using it more and showing them this is a great way to use it or heard Doing research, like, Let's get your computer out, let me show you these things that you can access. It just they take it, they take it, they run with it, and they go home and they use it and they want to run back and tell you about what they did. And they just want to make their teacher proud. So I think it's something we you know, we have that we, as educators, like have to use more, more to our advantage. Yeah, that

Katie Ritter: 25:20

is such a great point. Brittany, I haven't you, you said it so eloquently. So I will try to capitalize on that. Excellent. Point. Point. Well taken there. Okay, breeding, I'm gonna actually I'm going to start with you on this one. But and then Sarah, pivot to you for your perspective, like at a larger scale with additional elementary teachers, but share some examples of some some lessons that have utilized technology, maybe in particular, like, wow, I didn't even think you know, like Sarah use or sorry, Brittany, you said at the beginning that Sara helped you kind of see like how to just embed it. So it was part of what you were doing not this extra like tech time? Maybe what what are some of those big like, Aha is for you that are now some of your go to ways that you're using it. And like I said, I'll start with you. And then maybe Sarah, some some great examples from other elementary teachers that you can share. Sure,

Brittney Priore: 26:10

yeah, I definitely piggybacked on anything Sarah gave me still do. But creativity wise, like I was not comfortable doing that in the beginning. So like, if she showed me something, or brought a lesson in, you know, a lot of it was like, build a something snowman, Turkey, like those holiday themed things, where it's like, super fun for the kids. But they're also she was embedding math, she was embedding like reading and writing. So it was like, this all encompassed, like, activity, where they're doing it all on one activity, and I was just amazed by it. So she would, you know, share those out. And I would use those in the classroom. I think, last year, for me, I finally, like sat back and was like, Wow, I'm using it, like I'm doing it, I I do center based ELA rotations and math rotations, and I'm really, you know, big into the science of reading and just best practice on, you know, making sure our kiddos are learning their phonics skills, you know, the proper way. So I created this slide show where they were recording themselves using mode, and then they were listening back to their sentences. They were, you know, segmenting their word out, they were able to drag chips up to, you know, show each sound in the word, and then they were typing it into a sentence. It was just this, this Baby of mine that I had in my brain forever. And then I finally like, realized, like, Sarah helped me do this, like, I sat down, and I did it by myself, you know, but like, I didn't know what mount was, I had no idea how to share slides, so that each kid was getting their own thing. And like, how to do that each week. I mean, she just really gave me the tools to do something like, amazing for my students. And that was last year. And I sent it to her, I'm like, hi, I think this is a good tool. And she's like, Yeah, that's a good tool, like a lot of teachers could benefit from. So you know, we added it to our blog. And it just, it just encompassed everything I've learned with her, you know, starting from making a Google slide to adding it to classroom making copies for each kid that all all of these little baby steps that she taught me over time, just all came together. And it's still a tool I use today. Like it's something that's just a part of my day, it's not an extra step. They do it when they get to that literacy round. It's one of their centers. And it's easy, it's no prep, I don't have to grade a paper, I just look at my computer, I can see their work. It's it's a beautiful thing. So I just like the aha for me, I saw that and I'm like, I can't believe I made this but it's all thanks to her because I wouldn't have known any of those skills without her you know, to be there to gently but forcefully teach me. And I, you just want more and more. It's just awesome. Yeah.

Katie Ritter: 29:08

I love that. Congratulations to both of you for you know, that moment of teaching, teaching someone how to fish and Brittany being willing to learn. Yeah, Sarah, what about you? What are some maybe some really like, cool Aha, things that are maybe like fun, fundamental in some classrooms that you've seen?

Sarah Kiefer: 29:28

Well, just to continue a little bit more of that story from Brittany, when she was explaining this sight word mapping activity at oetc. I was like, I had no idea that was even what that activity was about. Like I looked at how she had things laid out and and then she explained, I'm like, oh, that's how these kits are used. Like I had. I didn't know like, I don't know the science of reading, right? That's not That's not my right. So to hear her explain that I was like, I literally stopped and turned and looked at her and I said, Do you guys understand what she's asking? Her first graders to do right now. Yeah, like the dragging, dropping, moving from one slide to the next, recording their voices listening back to I mean, I said, You guys this is this is mind boggling for like a first grader, except she's done all the prep work leading to it and she's excited about the actual slide deck that she created. And I'm going, this is amazing learning for these little ones. And she just uses it on repeat, like over and over again.

Katie Ritter: 30:27

I know I held back tears a little bit. I gotta be honest, but I get choked up all the time. I'm like, Wow, that's incredible. Yeah.

Sarah Kiefer: 30:38

Like one of one of my favorite things is to use moat. Like when that came out a couple of years ago, I like hopped on board. And I was just like, oh my gosh, like, moat is one of like, you know, the best tools that has come out in a while it's embedded right in Slides, because that's, that's one of the biggest things with these levels is they need things repeated. Yeah, they're not going to get directions the first time. They're all learning to read. So you can't just put words down on a slide or a piece of paper. So when I truly grasped, like, what Mote could do, and I made myself an account, and all that kind of stuff, I started using that in any of the activities that I did. And a lot of them are slides based, you know, Google Slides, because I love how you can put things in the background, and then they can't delete unless they delete the whole thing. And then you just bring it right back. But but using Mote like capitalizing on the ability to have the speaker, which if you do any of these, you know, state mandated tests. For the little ones, there are speakers and until they know that the job of that speaker is for them to click it to read news that they hear something they don't know. So if when I go in and do these activities, if I'm constantly giving them speakers to click on their learning, like hey, that speaker and we always talk. Anytime you see a speaker, what do you do? And then like click on it, like you got it. That's right click on it, because it's gonna say something to you. Yeah. So doing that, but then I also put the text of it. Because I also want to support those kids that are maybe a little bit more high fliers that want to try to read. There are a lot of kids out there that want to try to, you know, piece those words together. But then you have audio with that. So one of my favorite activities is it's called Welcome to the farm. It's on our on our blog. So anybody out there can make a copy of it. But what I also learned with mode is you can embed sound like music. So I told the kids like we've done several activities, they've clicked on several of my speakers. And I said there's a surprise on one of these you have to you have to click right in these kids are not shy about clicking. No. So this was the first one that I ever did this with and they clicked on it. And they heard like little like foreign music. And then they're sitting in their seats. And they're just like a dancin, and some of them would click it again, so they could listen to it again. I mean, like that is probably one of my favorites is to sit there and watch them, like discover these things. Because then they turn they like tap their neighbor and they're talking to him, but they'll have like their headphones on. So then they talk really loud. I mean, it's it's like the cutest thing ever, in these classrooms to watch these little ones, like helping each other out and not being afraid to click. But like that, welcome to the farm activity and you know, the clicking and dragging, they're adding or subtracting all that kind of stuff too. But just embedding those little surprises for them to Yeah, it's such a fun,

Katie Ritter: 33:41

I love the idea of moat for all this stuff. If anyone doesn't know it's a Chrome extension, you can record audio, and then you can embed the link and attach it to Sarah, you're using a picture of a speaker and hyperlinking the picture to the mote recording that depending on if you have the free or the paid, it'll either open in another window or it'll just play right there within the slide.

Justin Thomas: 34:03

So it works in just about any Google integration as well. Right? So we're pretty big on mode two.

Katie Ritter: 34:11

Okay, we're going to take a quick break from our sponsors, and we'll be back to wrap up the episode.

Justin Thomas: 34:16

As you imagine the anytime anywhere badging program to learn edtech tools and strategies is now open for individuals to sign up. Whether you're an instructional coach looking for new ideas to share or teacher wanting to implement more technology in your classroom. Ed, you badges is the answer. Individuals can now sign up for both the free or premium account by visiting edgy badges.com And as a listener of the podcast, you can get $20 off your premium account by using promo code podcast. So visit edgy badges.com and begin earning your badges. Calling on instructional technology coaches Forward Edge has 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 Community and finding mentorship moving through the school year the network provides a place to casually seek resources for 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 are here with the restore recharge podcast the second of a two part series talking with how we can integrate technology with our elementary students. Just Thomas, Katie Ritter, we have a special guests, Brittany priori and Sarah kefir with us. And this kind of goes a little bit with kind of what you have with your presentation at oetc. But you're both doing great work with your littles. You've already heard about some of the amazing things that you're doing. But how are other coaches going to begin to fit into this story? And I know it drives a lot with being intentional with our technology, if I believe so. Right?

Sarah Kiefer: 35:53

Absolutely. When Brittany and I worked literally in the same place, right, like we could see each other on a very regular basis. And now we're in different districts. So you know, our means of communication, email, phone, text, all that kind of stuff. But any coach out there, at the very basic, and I know you hear this time and time again, it's all about the relationships, it's teachers, knowing that you're dependable, is teachers knowing that, like you're a safe person to come to. And teachers know that one of the biggest things that I always offer to teachers is look, I got two hands. And that's two more than what you would have on your own. Like you, you can do the lesson, you know, you can be the lead, I can come in, we could do you know, back and forth, like whatever you want. But like I can bring in my two hands. And that goes a long way with your primary, especially your primary teachers, that they don't have to do it alone, because our class sizes are not tiny by any means, right? So a lot of another adult in the room a lot of times just helps them take that breath and go, okay, like, I can try this, because she's going to be there to, you know, not not been there when things have gone south, like things have gone south. For me, I think it was the day that like, we just couldn't log into the Chromebooks there was an issue with clever, and the teacher looks at me, she was wondering, what are we going to do? And I was like, I'm gonna think really fast here. You know, like, it's, it's just knowing that you're not alone in it is a big thing for coaches to understand. And then when you do build those relationships, and you can have those conversations like Brittany, like, what do you want to do? Like, what is your next goal? What piece of your curriculum? Would you like to see, you know, be taken further. So like, that's where, like any coach of any grade level, can really fit into any story in any district, because that's what it all boils down to. Is it's a trust factor. It's a relationship factor. And then, like, Hey, I've got two hands to like, I can come in and be of help.

Katie Ritter: 37:57

Yeah, I like it. We just increase the number of hands you have. Yes, I 100%. Yeah, to help you out here. That's awesome. Okay, Brittany, I don't know if you had anything to add. From your perspective, that last question before I move on.

Brittney Priore: 38:15

Yeah, I just think like, having someone there, like, what to piggyback on what Sarah was saying is, I think a lot of teachers get a little nervous about feeling judged by another professional coming into their classroom and like seeing them not at their strongest point, right. So teaching content, we got that all day long that when you want to come in and help us do something we don't know how to do, we're just, it's just a little, you know, we get all nervous. So for Sarah coming in just what she just said, like, I'm just here to help you. I'm not here to show you what I know versus what you know, it's no competition. It's just, she was there as a support. And then once we had that relationship built then she was because, you know, of course, like those lessons that she came in, I had no idea how that was going to fit into my schedule. Like I'm like, you're just coming in to number one, give me a Okay, I'm going to take a drink of water and like sit down for a minute and she would just do these really great things with my kids. But then you do your wheels start turning like how can I make this intentional? How can I actually fold this into my day where it's it's not an extra thing. It's, it's a meaningful part of our learning, it's eating and what we're already doing. So it just kind of unraveled that way. It started off like just getting in, you know, Sarah got into the classroom, she built a relationship with me, she made me feel really supported. And then I saw technology as an importance in my classroom and then I wanted to then take that next step to make it meaningful and intentional and you know, part of my my day to day, so

Katie Ritter: 39:54

love it. All right, ladies, will we end all of our episodes sorry, loyal listeners. Ah, On top three tips, Justin makes this more fun than I do. But we will, what are your top three tips for implementing Tech with littles and Sarah, if you want it to take a little spin on, like helping teachers implement tech Feel free,

Sarah Kiefer: 40:20

you want to go first you want me to

Brittney Priore: 40:23

go first, I would just say, for the teachers listening, just don't be afraid to take a chance and let somebody in to help you don't, you know, try the new thing, try. If your current curriculums have programs, don't be afraid to explore them and use the tools at hand. And then if you don't have something that supports you, and what you're doing, like make it just make it it doesn't have to be flashy, or anything spectacular. If you have a goal in mind, like I want these kids to segment, three letter word, pull up your Google Slides and make it like you can do more than you think you can. You don't have to buy it, you don't have to borrow it, you can do it. So I feel like those are the the tips that I've kind of lived by and and still do.

Sarah Kiefer: 41:17

So mine match a lot of what Brittany said, use the tool, my probably one of my biggest tips is use the tools that are provided to you, before you go seeking out extras or the the peripheral kinds of tools. If you have a math program that has a digital component to it, use it, try it out. Like that's probably one of the safest spaces that you could go with your students if your ELA program provides books on the computer for them to listen to order some means of typing things like use that stuff first, before you bring in a whole bunch of other things that maybe you're not comfortable with. Because if you're not super comfortable with it, neither are your kids. And you know, we have to be mindful of the curriculum to another item. Another tip I would say is you've got to have like an understanding of where your students are coming from, don't make assumptions. Like I tried to kind of smooth the path. So constantly talking from one grade level to the next. And I tried to have conversations with what's gone really well this year, what's something you would like to see like your next group of kids coming in with the skills to do but be mindful those assumptions will really kind of ruin your day. If you go oh, well, I assumed you knew how to. And then you go Oh, half of you don't like go in with this idea of either you've talked to the grade level below. Or you've talked to you know, if you have a coach in your district, like what is where really are my kids functioning at? And if you're at kindergarten, don't assume anything. You really don't like these kids pretend like they're they've never seen a device before because chances are they've probably not seen like a computer like a laptop, Chromebook, whatever. So you can pretty much assume nothing. And then just start with the basics. And finally, probably the second biggest tip I could give you is build your routines early. Yeah. From day one, like don't, I'm gonna tackle that after Christmas. Yeah, just as you have to build those routines of how do you walk into the classroom? Do you put your book bag in your cubby or locker whatever first? Or do you go to your like any? Like, it's a lot about routines in any classroom? And it's no different when you're talking about technology. How do you get the Chromebooks out of the cart? Do the kids plug them in? Does the teacher plug them in? How do you log in? If you can build those routines very, very early. And I I see it. There are six kindergarten classrooms in my district. And if you build those routines in early at this point in the year like you're you're coasting. Like you can say you can use those words like go into Google Classroom, or log into freckle or Raz kids or whatever. And at this point, those kids already know they've already made those associations. You know, don't wait to build that. So those routines, I think for our littlest ones are they will save you in the long run. If you put in that time from the get go.

Katie Ritter: 44:31

Yeah, I think that's huge. Awesome. Well, ladies, thank you so much for it again. It's so nice to have this like Coach teacher, duo, especially both of you having worked together, it was really nice to hear about the successes that you both found working together. And most importantly, these awesome things that you're helping the kids be able to do.

Justin Thomas: 44:53

Yes, absolutely. Yeah.

Sarah Kiefer: 44:54

Thanks for having us. Yeah. Thanks for having us on.

Katie Ritter: 44:56

Absolutely. And obviously

Justin Thomas: 44:58

you presented this at Oh, TC this past year? Is there any plans to present at any future conferences? Or is that? Something that

Brittney Priore: 45:06

always Yeah. Yeah, we're always looking for opportunities to get out. You know, I feel like we have some good ideas and things to share. So for sure,

Katie Ritter: 45:17

awesome. And both of you remind everyone social media and blog address where folks can find you, and we'll link it in the show notes too. But for listeners, Sarah, we'll start with you. Any social media and blog, blog address that you want to share?

Sarah Kiefer: 45:34

So everything that I do, including social media, handles and all that you can find at Tech, you can do.com and you can find a link to Britney's in my shared blog Tech with littles where we share out our activities. So teachers are out there and they're going, What the heck are these ladies even talking about? If you go to tech, you can do.com There's a link up at the top for tech with littles and it'll take you there, along with templates for teachers, which I co created with a third grade teacher. We share some stuff out, but you'll be able to see my Twitter, YouTube and Facebook handles over on the right hand side. Right on there. Awesome.

Katie Ritter: 46:12

Thank you, Brittany, where can everybody find you?

Brittney Priore: 46:15

I'm just on Twitter. I'm simple, Brett priori, sprit priori. And then we also have our twitter you know, Tech with littles there too. And you can find it on Sarah's blog. So that's the best way to to get to us and communicate with us. But we'd love to hear from teachers that use any of our activities. They're free to anyone on tech with little so we love the feedback. It helps us to keep you know creating and offering more so awesome. Well thank

Justin Thomas: 46:43

you now they're two weeks we got another episode coming on and we're gonna have the return of John Smith from Book Creator. Yeah,

Katie Ritter: 46:50

we should have like some fancy music for like the

Justin Thomas: 46:54

well, I did applause that we should done that. That was the one time I should have hit the actual like jazz musicians music. That's okay, we got John Smith returning from Book Creator, he's going to talk with us how it actually might be okay, for certain ed tech practices and inflammations to just kind of die out at the end of the school year to make way for something new. So that's gonna be really interesting conversation the way we had talked about getting him on. It was very interesting in that moment, so I'm excited to hear him elaborate more on it for the podcast here. So join us in two weeks for that very interesting discussion. Yes, I'm

Katie Ritter: 47:27

excited to be sure to subscribe to the restart, recharge podcast wherever you listen to podcasts, or at restart, recharge podcast.com And of course, you can follow us on all the social media at our art coach cash

Justin Thomas: 47:40

and as Brittany mentioned, feel free to reach out to us if you're want to connect on social media if you got anything on your mind, let us know and we'll probably feature that on the restart recharge podcast as you want to make sure that everything that we talked about is pertinent to you.

Katie Ritter: 47:54

Yes, so press the restart button

Justin Thomas: 47:56

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

Katie Ritter: 48:03

attack coach collective

Brittney Priore: 48:10

well you guys are so good. You just kept going I'm like That's amazing. I'm leaving I can't do this.

Katie Ritter: 48:23

Yeah, no, Justin is like the radio voice from heaven. I tried to give everything to Justin I'm like no

Justin Thomas: 48:34

it is true. You didn't ask though. If we were recording you just said Are we all ready and then I got like really thrown off because you just started Do you feel like did you record looks like

Katie Ritter: 48:53

my fault because I didn't ask Oh, good. Oh good. Can you auto to me? GPS

Justin Thomas: 49:11

can try