001- What is a Tech Coach?

In our very first episode we will attempt to define the role of a tech coach! This is a great episode for aspiring coaches to understand the role, current coaches to make sure you're on the right track, and for building and district leaders to understand how this critical role can support all of your educators! 

Links mentioned in the show: 

Tweet containing responses to coach job titles

Kraft research article: Kraft, B. (2018). The Effect of Teacher Coaching on Instruction and Achievement: A Meta-Analysis of the Causal Evidence. Review of Educational Research, 88(4), 547–588. https://doi.org/10.3102/0034654318759268

ISTE Standards for Coaches

Future Ready Coaches Instructional Framework

Google Certified Coach Program Webpage

Podcast Team

Hosts- Katie  Ritter & Justin Thomas

Editing Team- Megan Whitacre, Mallory Kessen, Michael Roush

Social Media/ Promo Team- Annamarie Rinehart, Lisa Kuhn, Molly Lutts

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

Research & Logistics Team- Mark Gumm, Tyler Erwin

Producers- Tyler Erwin & Katie Ritter

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Transcript

Katie Ritter: 0:04

hit the restart button recharge those batteries. Hi, thanks so much for tuning in. I'm Katie Ritter.

Justin Thomas: 0:31

And I'm Justin Thomas. And we're tech coaches at Ford Edge curriculum and integration team. And basically what we do is we're in the schools, helping teachers learn a little bit more about education, and educational technology. So every day is kind of different for each of us. We're in a number of different districts, about 20 different districts all across the Cincinnati region, and even into Columbus as well. And we're expanding, I think we got one in Northern Kentucky as well. So two states now, if you're counting, but basically, we are all from different backgrounds, I mean, we have people that have been in special education, people that have your English and social studies, people that are primary teachers, people that were secondary teachers, we are all across the board. And there's 15 of us. And what's so nice about it is that we are in the schools working with teachers, but we also work really well with each other. So you know, if there's something that I see with my school, and I'm having a little bit of difficulty trying to wrap my head around it, I know I got 14 other people that can easily go and talk to, and kind of get an idea of what's going on out there different schools. So that's one of the really neat things about our team at Ford Edge. And I know Katie, being the director, I think, I think you've hand picked us pretty well.

Katie Ritter: 1:43

Well, thanks, Justin. No. No special interest there. Right? Um, yeah, so we, everyone on the team, we're all former classroom educators who have turned technology, integration coaches. And so we our passion is really working with teachers and really trying to help make a difference in transform across the board on that classroom level to impact those students. And we've recently had a growing passion, growing out of helping teachers and administrators in the schools that we serve in really kind of shifting to help grow and develop and coach coaches. Some of that comes from, like Justin mentioned all of our support with one another on our team, we understand the importance of coaches finding that support and other coaches. We also know that most coaches are off on an island all on their own. And so they don't have that the fortune of having that network for support. So we've really been interested in helping to support and grow and develop other coaches. As part of that we are really excited to be one of the very few global recommended coaching partners as a part of Google for Education certified coach program that launched this past summer of 2020. And so we are recommended partner for that. And along those same lines, we also lead a global webinar series, all around coaching on behalf of Google for Education certified coach program. And so through that, we got an opportunity to meet and support about 600 different instructional coaches, from about 56 different countries all around the world. So that was such an incredible experience for our team to get to participate in that way. Some of that content and those Webinar recordings actually live in Google's coach curriculum now. So some of these things have just really kind of lit the spark under our team, to again, just grow and support other coaches. So that is what this podcast is going to be all about growing and supporting you on your journey as an instructional coach, in particular, an instructional technology coach. So with that, we're going to kind of kick it off and dive right in.

Justin Thomas: 4:08

Yeah, diving right in look, first of all, I'm gonna say it's crazy when you jump in on a zoom, and like a pm at night, because you got to talk to people all across the world, time zones are crazy. But what we want this episode to be about is trying to reach out to all of you on the roll and benefits of a tech coach. So maybe your tech coach right now and you want to just make sure that you're on the right track. We're here for you to talk through some different strategies and ideas. Maybe you're someone that's considering becoming a tech coach, maybe you want to know a little bit more about what kind of role this is within a school district. Maybe you're someone that's serving as a supplemental tech support, you know, kind of provide some tech aspects here and there. Maybe it's not your full role, but you know, you're the tech person that people want to go to. And you're still teaching half halftime. Yes. Sometimes you know, you're kind of doing a whole lot of things on your plate, but you get it all done. And then also to maybe you're an administrator and you just kind of want understand, okay, what is the importance of a tech control? Maybe you're thinking about trying to move someone into that position, and you want to maybe make a case for it, see what kind of what you need to have with this person and the importance of it, because it's a really important position that has started to become more and more involved through school districts. And especially in this day and age, when things got really hectic last year, it I think the position would just insurmountable how important it was for school districts.

Katie Ritter: 5:32

Yeah, Justin, I feel like hectic putting it nicely. Yeah, and I don't know about you, Justin. But um, I feel like when I, you know, when I would be introduced into a new district as their tech coach, and working with them, even for years at a time serving, you know, the same district as their tech coach, I can't tell you how many times I was consistently clarifying and re clarifying my role. I can't tell you how many times I was confused with being break, fix support and asked to come in to fix the smartboard or the projector, or whatever was wrong with the computer. And I don't know how to do that. So I was constantly clarifying that, I can't tell you how many times I was known as you know, the Google lady or the Schoology lady, or, you know, just whatever lady that was not my title. I just happened to know things about those tools. And got pigeonholed whether it was by teachers or administrators into kind of this role, because they didn't understand the role of a tech coach. So and I know that our team spends a lot of time just talking about, especially when we have a new coach on the team, or when we are going into a brand new district. So they're getting a tech coach, for the first time we spend a lot of time talking about how do you clarify your role with those teachers and administrators to make sure that they're really utilizing you for what you should be utilized for. So with that kind of spirit in mind, that's where we wanted to kick off our very first episode of restart recharge, and just sort of defining the role of a tech coach to begin with, and kind of building on that same idea. You know, if you say that your second grade teacher, let's say, pretty much everybody knows what you're doing, right? They might, they might know every single one of your standards, but across the board, no matter where you're at, you know, in the US, if you're a year two teacher, if you caught something different in another country, pretty much we know, kind of the same basic skills that you're doing, right? You know, I was a secondary person. So it's a little bit of a mystery to me what you do in second grade, but I still get it for the most part, right? And, you know, let's say you're an algebra one teacher, you know, or a high school math teacher, again, I was not a math person. So again, it's still a little bit of a mystery, the ins and outs. But but you know, in generally speaking, I mean, we still know what you're doing, we still know the concepts that are taught in the course, even if it varies a little bit, from state to state standard to standard country to country still, generally, we know what you're doing. Same thing goes, if you're a principal, right? We know, we know, the general things are involved in that role in a superintendent, right, we can, we can say, a title for so many roles within education. And one, we can go to a school's website and look it up and find who serves in that role based on the title. And generally speaking, the titles are fairly similar across the board for those roles, but the same cannot even be said for a tech coach. So not only are we a unique breed, who is sort of trying to define what we do and how we do it, but we're also just trying to get people to understand who we are, you know, by title, so to speak, right? And no matter where you go, I just remember, I was really lucky to serve on STS, a tech coaches PLN leadership team for a lot of years. And being at the conference, there was so often when people would walk by our like, PLN, social hour, and we'd say, Hey, are you an A tech coach? And they'd be like, what is that, you know, kind of almost like a dog that tilts its head sort of and looks at you a little bit confused. And you'd say, Do you help support teachers using technology? headwind tilt right back up? Yes. Oh, my gosh, I need your support. Right. So our role falls under so many different shapes and forms in titles. And so just something a little bit fun. A few weeks ago, in preparation for this very first episode, I actually sent out a tweet and we'll link the tweet in the show notes so you can see all of the responses. And here's what I said. I just said, calling out educators who support instructional use of technology Gee, what is your title tech coach dot that dot instructional tech specialist Tosa innovation coach, question mark, question mark. And within almost 24 hours, there were almost 200 responses to that tweet, in almost every single one of those 200 responses was a different response and a different title. So some of them are really funny. Some of them are going to kind of catch you off guard. So Justin and I are gonna read just a few of these responses to you just to give folks who are listening sort of a general idea of the various titles that are out there for essentially serving the same or very similar roles. So to kick it off, and I would like to apologize ahead of time for any mispronounced names. Feel free to tag me on Twitter and correct me I would I I'd want to do your name justice. But beylin career Ria, I know I said that wrong. And I'm sorry, I'm at belly BELECARREI are a that's her twitter handle from Argentina says that she has no official title, because it isn't recognized as an official position, but often called like an ad tech support position.

Justin Thomas: 11:22

I'm sure she's still as busy as ever. Yeah. Some other ones that we had, we had an event which is at YC Lee Jones, she said she's a digital learning lead for K through 12.

Katie Ritter: 11:36

I like that and just I'm very impressed with your pronunciation skills you did much better than me. So feel free. Anita waters who is at Dr. Anita waters on Twitter, she is a professional and digital learning coordinator.

Justin Thomas: 11:54

So you did really well with the pronunciation on Dr. Waters

Katie Ritter: 11:57

there. Thank you. A lot easier for me.

Justin Thomas: 12:03

Trisha Lewis at ta Lewis she says that she is a technology integration professional or a tip and she did add a winky face on there.

Katie Ritter: 12:14

Good emoji $10 emojis. Yeah, Tim Stevens at Atticus eight says he is a coordinator of digital pedagogy. I like that one.

Justin Thomas: 12:28

Susan K s Grigsby which is at SK Grigsby she says she is a teacher librarian and feel like there's a couple different media specialists or librarians that are kind of expanding into this role as well.

Katie Ritter: 12:42

Yeah, I feel like that was one of the more I wouldn't say there were a lot of common responses on this. But that like teacher library or something that included librarian was a pretty common response. Among the among all the tweets that they got. So then, Emily Burke at Tech underscore edu underscore Burke. She said I'm focused on Makerspace tech integration into all instructional areas and content. Her title is makerspace, integration technology specialist or a myths because we do love our acronyms in education.

Justin Thomas: 13:18

History do we got a tip we got a mitts? That's awesome. Michael goto at SNDV l underscore AZ is the Associate Superintendent. So this sounds like this falls a little bit more under his realm as the Associate Superintendent of that school district.

Katie Ritter: 13:36

Yeah. And there were there were a small handful of responses for of like principals, so superintendents, assistant principals, things like that, that kind of fell under more of that administrative title. You know, lots of people wearing lots of different hats that fell under that role. And then Heidi Samuelsson she is at swamp frog first said that her title as a technology integration support person is fourth grade teacher.

Justin Thomas: 14:04

Oh, okay. So we're adding that into the fourth grade teacher might not have known that was gonna be there. We talked about, you know, you know, what's going on in your second grade teacher around about a fourth grade teacher.

Katie Ritter: 14:13

She is the instructional tech support, and there were to a handful of varying grade levels, but a handful of teachers who are having to, you know, teach and serve this role at the same time.

Justin Thomas: 14:25

Absolutely. So true. Bruce Armstead. At Ofsted is the director statewide engagement. That sounds pretty important statewide engagement here with med tech. That's really cool.

Katie Ritter: 14:39

Yeah, I like it. And then my personal favorite. There were a couple of responses very similar to this. But my first personal favorite was Chris Tarrant at Mr. T teaching. And he said that his title is Chris is in. Go see Chris about that. And Chris can sort that out with you. And then he added sorry, I know that's not what you're looking for. But I am title lis. And actually, Chris, that is exactly what we're looking for. Because that is so often the case that you and not that you need a title to do something or to lead, that's not what we're trying to express here. But so often people are, you know, also teaching full time, fourth grade or part time and having to serve this role, or, you know, maybe you're getting a small stipend, maybe you're not, and you're just the guy who the guy or the gal who knows, you know, was pretty known for being pretty tech savvy. And so people come to you. And that's kind of the point that we're trying to make is that within all of these different titles, you know, if I'm, if I'm looking going to a school's website, and I'm looking for their technology coach is kind of what we're going to call that all encompassing title for our purpose here on this podcast. But if I'm going to look for someone, where do I even start with searching a person's title? Do I search for teacher? Do I search Chris? Do I search, you know, Superintendent? Um, you know, so where do we even start to find that support person, and kind of, we sort of just wanted to start with this and highlight that as a field, you know, some of these names are really cool. And you know, but but the work that we're all doing is even cooler. And so we've really got to bring awareness to the role itself. And so that, you know, so that all districts have access to this type of support position for educators because it is just so crucial. And we're gonna get into that a little bit more and actually defining the role what all of those titles actually do here in just a minute. We've got a quick 32nd break so stick around and we will be right back after this message from our sponsor.

Justin Thomas: 16:56

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Katie Ritter: 17:27

Okay, welcome back. So thanks for sticking with us. If you're still here, we're gonna dive into actually kind of defining the role of a tech coach. So, you know, we've talked a lot about it's an important role. You know, we've shared a lot of different titles that people have, but you know, really, the important the kind of the meat and potatoes is what the heck does this role of a tech coach do. And so a lot of times when I am meeting with a group of teachers who I might be coaching that semester or that year, particularly if they have never worked with a tech coach, I always start by sort of defining, you know, who I am and how I'm there to support them. And the way my favorite way to do that is I'll usually start with a slide up on the screen, and it will have a number of different famous professionals on it. So athletes, actors, actresses, singers, so you know, it'll be like, you know, Tom Brady, Kerry, Washington, Adele, Tiger Woods, just these really well known famous professionals. And I started in the middle of the slide, it just says, What do all these people have in common? And I just take, you know, open responses from them. And, you know, teachers always share, they're all professionals. They're all famous, they're all rich usually points out. They're all the best of the best. They're you no top of their game, they're, you know, really well known for what they do. And so I kind of let them go on. No one ever points out, though. Oh, you know, and then I flip to the next slide. And I say, yep, that's all true, but they also have a coach, right? And then coach is really big in the center. And then we just kind of talked through and I acknowledge that, yes. You know, everything that you all said is true about these people, yet, you know, they are top of their game, they are famous, they are professionals. They are the best of the best, and yet they all still have a coach. And they still have that someone who works side by side with them to help them continuously get better at their craft. And a coach can help you see things that you can't see yourself in the moment when you are actually doing whatever it is that you're doing. And so that a coach is not to be looked at. That is deployed for someone who is, you know, really bad at what they're doing. It's not just a strict improvement plan. And really coaches not that you shouldn't use them to help support and grow people who are maybe struggling. But that's not just what they're for. And it shouldn't be a symbol of, you know, sort of a dismissal in a way out the door, if you will, if you're working with a coach, it should be seen as an awesome opportunity to have this extra set of hands continuing to work with you and help you grow and develop. And so I wanted to share really quickly, just a little bit of research that I came across. And we'll link this article in the show notes as well, too. But this craft article around it was a meta analysis around instructional coaching. And they examined 60 different causal studies related to instructional coaching, and improved teacher effectiveness and student achievement as a result of the instructional coaching. And so across these 60 studies, every one of them had a different definition for coaching, and exactly what the coaching program looked like and different models of coaching that were deployed. And so the sort of the through line, and the identifying features that this article came to define a coach, I just, I really liked it. And so kind of these five characteristics, sort of define a coach based again, based on this article. And that is that coaching is individualized, meaning that it's one on one time between the teacher and the coach, it's intensive, meaning that the coach meets with the teacher at minimum every couple of weeks, it is sustained, meaning it takes place regular meetings over a duration of time, whether it's, you know, a quarter, a semester, a year and an academic year. It is context specific, meaning it takes place in that teacher's classroom based on whatever their needs are. And it is focused, meaning that it is practicing a specific set of skills that the coach and teacher are working on together. So I thought that was sort of an awesome kind of culminating definition of a coach there.

Justin Thomas: 22:10

Yeah, I think those are all excellent points on on some of the things that a coach does, with teachers on an everyday basis or, you know, throughout the entire school year. So I think that really is a really good awesome article, that you've kind of found their Katie to really kind of embody what the what the coach does. Thank you. Obviously, st is a huge part with educational technology. And they do have coaching standards as well, for future ready instructional coaches, they have a framework, we'll link that also into the show notes as well. So you'll be able to find it there. But SD does have these really cool coaching standards that are really nice to kind of check in and they go way more in depth than just kind of the ones we're going to talk about each one has kind of levels that go underneath it, but just kind of give you an idea, get your mind kind of going on them. Some of the ISTE standards here are to be a change agent, to be a connected learner, a collaborator, a learning designer, professional learning facilitator, data driven decision making, and then digital citizenship advocate as well. So I think that all those are really important, especially in this day and age on really helping not only just teachers, even students in admin, and everyone involved in school district to become really good in all of those facets as well. The frame the framework as well, you can highlight your instructional coaching supports, or the broader district leadership team has come in areas of curriculum instruction assessment, to personalize PD, to budget resources to the use of space and time and more. So this can really go across any sort of department that you have within the district, that is very important that you'll you'll need to go along with that Google certified coach program. So Google has a certified coaching program, as well knows along the lines for the instructional coaches that work one on one with educators to tackle classroom challenges with these technology based strategies. So this is working with teachers to kind of find new ways to use different technology based strategies and using this technology within it. But this should not be in evaluative role. This should not be something where teachers feel like they have to be evaluated on a teacher's kind of because, you know, as a teacher, it's always interesting, we have the admin in the room. And it's not like you do anything different per se, but there's just the added eyes on you, you know, you've been evaluated. And that's not what the role of the tech coach, really, we want that to be wanted to be a situation where teachers feel comfortable talking with us, letting them letting us know some of the struggles they're having, but also some of the great ideas that they have some of the cool strategies, some of the ideas that they have in their lessons and really working with the tech coach kind of help maybe choose the right tool to use with those students. So this really expands the importance of that teacher and coach relationship and It really helps to make that really awesome relationship with those teachers and with other people within the building as well to really escalate educational technology in the classroom.

Katie Ritter: 25:12

Yeah. And Justin I love you know, you mentioned is the coaching standards and future readies instructional coaches framework. And I love using those. One when I was a brand new coach starting out, they were in different iterations at that time, of course, but it really helped me help me kind of understand what my role was right and kind of helped get me out of, oh, I'm not supposed to be also like fixing people's computers, just because I'm trying to be really helpful. And I do know a couple of troubleshooting tips, right? Like, you know, I'm supposed to be helping with instruction, and I'm supposed to be able to not only help the individual classroom teacher, but I can really be utilized at the building level or district level for planning committees and planning purposes. So for me, it helped me kind of define what I should be doing. And then in the role that I serve now for our team, I, when I was writing a job description, you know, once once the team outgrew just me, and I was ready to hire our First Person. Shout out to Michael. But I actually to write that job description, I actually use those standards. So I think that though, I want to kind of circle back to that what you mentioned and re point that out for anyone who's listening, who maybe is not a current tech coach, and you're trying to advocate for developing the position within your district. Anyone who is an administrator who's listening in, you sort of know, you need to provide your teachers with support, but you don't really know what that looks like and what that person should look like to fill that role. Or just someone kind of newer, and you're fumbling through because no one gave you PD on how to be a coach, they just said, Hey, you're the techie teacher do this now. So you don't really know what to do those standards are really excellent way to help define the role of a coach to guide the work that should be done by instructional coaches, particularly instructional tech coaches, and then also to help you craft up a job description and even try to hire people, if you are in that position to do so. So I think those are, for sure, excellent roles that I would highly recommend. And then, you know, Google certified coach curriculum, I think is an excellent curriculum. There's not again, there's not a lot of resources out there that teach a coach how to be a coach, right? There's plenty of resources that teach us how to use this tech tool in the classroom that we then translate to our teachers. But there's not a ton of resources out there, let's say, Hey, you, coach, this is how you coach, other educators, right? So that curriculum is a great place, that if you haven't checked it out, I highly recommend checking that out. And then I can't just, you know, iterate enough on what you said about you know, that a coaching role should not be evaluative, so more on relationship building, I'm sure to come in another episode, but it will, if teachers feel threatened or evaluated and that they can't be vulnerable in any way, you know, I say teachers, but really humans, who's going to want to open up right so that that coach role cannot I cannot stress that enough should not be seen as an evaluator in the district as a rule of thumb. So

Justin Thomas: 28:36

really glad you elaborate a little bit more on that too. And I think that now that we have these ideas on kind of what we are as a coach, who we are, it's important to know, okay, I'm excited, I'm ready to get going here and coach somebody, but But who am I going to coach, right? Who are the people that we help? And to be honest, yeah, Put me in coach and ready to play, right. And the idea here is that really, it can be anyone, it's not even just limited to teachers, it can be admin, it can be admin assistants, it can be anyone across the board, really the best way that really think to kind of explain this, and this is probably my social studies background coming in here. But I really feel that as a tech coach, you're an ambassador between the teachers and admin, between teachers, and maybe athletic director just between kind of everyone in the building because you are working with everyone and having conversations with everyone on a regular basis. And I think that's the thing that you know, you might be bounced around might be talking to a teacher for one Bell and they might have something that is kind of come up and you talk to another teacher and you start to see a pattern here, maybe that's something you go and talk kind of with admin say, Hey, we're having a little bit of an issue with connectivity or something like that and kind of work through so then that really helps kind of make a problem that might be never relate back to admin, remember, maybe helping kind of in that situation. So I think that's a really cool kind of position to be in. You participate in department meetings. Offseason for

Katie Ritter: 30:00

you. But something you just said, Sorry to cut you off, something you just said to with your example made me think, you know, not only are tech coaches serving as ambassadors and kind of that conduit between teachers and administration, but also between maybe even teachers administration and the technology department, right. So you know, your connectivity example, you know, we know that sometimes, you know, perception is reality, right? So the stats may show to the tech team that we're connected and connectivity is good. But if the perception back in the classrooms is that no devices won't connect, it's really slow. Things aren't running, that's kind of their reality. So a tech coach is a really great sort of mediator in between those situations to kind of help investigate, understand what's going on, and then work with all groups to sort of problem solve and move past whatever that is even like you mentioned, even beyond just, you know, the teachers and, you know, the education, obviously, that's happening and the the teaching and learning in the classroom.

Justin Thomas: 31:07

Oh, yeah. And kind of continuing on with it. I mean, participating in department meetings, right. So that even helps with maybe the science department is having kind of an issue with something they're trying to figure it out, work it through. And then you're in a meeting with the Social Studies department, they want to do something or think, Oh, we just did this with the science department. And this worked really well for them. They got student engagement, things like that. So sitting on this department meetings really helps as well, your PD days, maybe it's you're running the PD, right? You're coming out with something. So being that Ambassador talking with teachers, you kind of get a feel for what teachers really need and use. And that's important as well. Building and district leadership team meetings to to strategize on a larger scale, you're meeting with the admin at the building, but also within the district for big plans, maybe you have a new school building that's being built, or something along those lines, where you kind of trying to help kind of paint that picture for what Ed Tech can look like with that. And I mentioned this before, but really, you're working with all staff in the building. Just a couple stories for me this year, I've worked with the athletic director, and getting some different video boards kind of program that he wanted throughout the gymnasium. So we're working on some different things with the the Chromebit. And with kind of Google Slides and things like that. And even to with the nurse, I was working with a nurse on a situation where you know, we had to do the wellness checks coming in. And what's the best way to do that. So we work together and create a Google form where teachers can easily just fill out the form with getting a QR code, walk in the door, boom, there's a QR code send you right to your Google form, you fill it out real quick. And you're all set. So

Katie Ritter: 32:38

I love that. I'm a techie nurse.

Justin Thomas: 32:42

All right, she was excited about

Katie Ritter: 32:44

this, but I just thought

Justin Thomas: 32:47

she was like, you know, I kind of knew how I kind of had an idea how to do this. But I'm glad that we're kind of talking through it. One of those things where, you know, she wanted to do something that was gonna definitely save her a lot of time. And it worked out very well. And that in that manner.

Katie Ritter: 33:00

I love that I mean, the more that we can get, like everyone within the school system to become more technology literate and more comfortable with these practices. And these skills. I mean, the better it is for our teachers in really the point our students, right, so that's awesome.

Justin Thomas: 33:16

Yeah, and even something that I've talked with the athletic director about. And I can't take full credit on this, because he actually worked at a different school were one of our colleagues, Tyler was working. But Tyler helped him create a kind of facilities checkout list. So they had different facilities that basically if you wanted to, like rent it for practice, or something like that, Tyler helped him create a sheet where you could type in the you wanted to reserve it, and then it would basically tick off in the calendar that it was not open anymore. So that's something on the horizon there. But really, it's not just focused on teaching students, as you've kind of seen, there's different stories all across the buildings, and I know all of our colleagues have different things where, you know, they've jumped in to help someone that isn't specifically a teacher. So you're definitely not always working about or having the mindset for teaching students. Although that is a primary goal of helping coach teachers to use edtech. In their lessons, you might be kind of helping out in edtech strategies all across the board for our district.

Katie Ritter: 34:13

Yeah, and I would say that really, I mean, you know, and hammer on what you just said, like it is the primary goal. I mean, that is our primary audience is the coach working with teachers, I would say that takes up maybe, you know, 7580 plus percent of what we're doing is working with the teachers, but then there's that other you know, 2515 whatever percent where it does allow you to attend department meetings to attend building leadership team meetings to attend district leadership team meetings and help with the visioning to work with the admin or admin assistants to get things up and running. You know, every other support staff within within the building council. I've done a lot of work with counselors but For. So, you know, to your point, Justin. Yeah, I mean, the educators are the primary audience and helping them use technology meaningfully and effectively in the classroom is really kind of the primary goal but but helping everyone else and everything from just kind of random pop ins and talking with with different people and different teachers or administrators to actually having formal coaching cycles, which we will dive way into, on another episode, maybe even a series of episodes, the formal coaching cycles to leading professional development, but it's really, you know, coaching is also really a lot about culture change, too, right? And, and that's kind of where that mindset comes in, of working with all these different people to help the culture of the building or the entire district support these innovative practices, and just not even innovative, in some cases, just modern practices in a way of functioning. And so through kind of that vein of like, transforming the culture, focusing on lifelong learning. As a coach, you know, like Justin said, you could really support anyone and everyone within the district. Yeah. You know, so it's a really kind of exciting role. Where I know that I know, for me, it's always been every day is a little bit different, and what that looks like and who you're working with, and what what projects you get to dive into,

Justin Thomas: 36:30

oh, yeah, and just kind of going with that too. Just to mention, I mean, we've talked about our team of 15. Members, we're in schools all across the region. And they're all different shapes and sizes, they're different. You know, you got rural school districts that we work with, we also work with some suburban school districts and urban school districts, we got schools that, you know, have maybe 700 students total, and then schools where maybe that's just one grade for the you know, for the entire for, like, the ninth grade is the same size as the entire school district elsewhere, their work when so they range in all different shapes and sizes, and everything all across the board. So we kind of get these cool perspectives, we're working with different people inside different school districts. And kind of seeing though, when we come back together, some things do work across the board for all of these schools. So that's something that's really cool, too.

Katie Ritter: 37:20

Yeah. So um, so you know, kind of, we've we talked about the different titles and how we have to define who we even are within a district and what our role is sort of, you know, what the role is, who the role can support in addition to classroom teachers. But then also, you know, the importance of the role of a tech coach and I have really loved watching the transition, or what I, at least in my opinion, what I perceive the transition to be, over the past, I don't know, eight years ish of the role of a tech coach, where, you know, when I my first couple of years of being a tech coach, it was really seen as a more of like, a luxury position within a district or an individual school. And it was like, Yeah, great, if we can afford it, we'll put that support position in place, but if not, teachers are going to have to figure it out on their own. Right. So and, you know, and and I don't mean to, like completely minimize the, you know, the stress that is involved in deciding budgetary decisions and staffing decisions within a school. But it really wasn't something that was seen as like a crucial piece of this education puzzle, that I feel like really over the past three or four years is when I noticed a pretty heavy shift. And districts were really starting to realize that in order to be successful, we've just spent millions of dollars on our infrastructure upgrades on going one to one and putting devices in classrooms and students and teachers hands, and really making these things available. And then oh, shoot, we forgot about the training piece. And then oh, shoot, we realize that a few days of professional development around using these tools really isn't enough to sustain change in implementation into the classroom. And the natural response to that was Instructional Technology coaches, right. So I've definitely seen that shift. I feel like coaching is really seen in a lot more districts now again, not as a luxury position, but more of a crucial piece of the puzzle to making sure that we are teaching our kids in relevant modern ways and giving them opportunities to engage in practice skills that they're going to need to have through use of technology. And so that's been awesome to see. It's not an across the board thing though. And so they're you know, with with the digital use divide that being now that by no means is it perfect but with with the digital divide a handful of years back that was that whole idea of you know, kids don't you know, kids don't have the same level of access, whether it be an actual device or reliable internet at home. And by no means is that problem solved. And I think maybe we thought it was more solved than it was until COVID happened so that I think is even really brought to light just the digital divide as is. So I don't mean to say that problem is solved. But with E Rate other programs and funding it that problem is minimizing right. And now the problem is that even even students who could live next door with the same level of access or lack of access, and go to the same school in the same grade level, if they have two different teachers, one only uses technology for really passive use consumption of material. And then the other teacher is giving kids an opportunity to solve problems that don't have solutions. Yet. They're creating materials. They're engaging in hands on experiences, they're producing videos, they're publishing content, they're engaging with experts, they're, you know, blogging and sharing their, you know, what they're learning with the world. And they're getting these really awesome opportunities that, you know, technology is supposed to provide, those two kids, all other things are created equal, except the two teachers that they were given. And they are getting completely different education experiences. And so that is the digital use divide. And that is, you know, in my opinion, why having a technology coach and someone to support your teachers is absolutely critical. Because, you know, it was already a problem before COVID. And, you know, COVID, and school closures just exacerbated that digital use divide and that need for teachers to receive that training. And, you know, not to go like down a soapbox here, but I don't fault the teachers, they have so much on their plate that they are responsible for, that they need someone to help them dig through the hundreds of 1000s of tech tools and websites and things that are available to change their instruction. So to me, that sort of all of these things that a tech coach can do from, you know, working individually with a teacher to use a particular tool to more like problem focused, you know, strategies and exploring technology to support solving that problem, to working at the district level to help with a vision of technology integration, that that is why having access to that support is just so important for for educators today.

Justin Thomas: 43:01

Yeah, and that's something to just to kind of go along with that. Sometimes I see that kind of as a role where teachers have so much they might have a you know, they want to use a certain edtech tool, but they don't know where to start and kind of what I can show with teachers about is, you know, I'll take a look at it, see kind of what's going on. And then I'll kind of bring you what are some of the highlights for how I think you can really use this in your class, I'm kind of like the Explorer, in a sense, because they don't necessarily have time to try go exploring on this tool when they have their students and they're trying to make sure you know, they're up to date on what they need to do for reading and things like that. So I'll take the time to kind of explore the tool and really pick out what I think will work best for them, and then go back and talk with them. And then that's another reason why the relationship that you build with these teachers is so important. Because, you know, you kind of get an idea of kind of their how their teaching style is. So you can really help kind of fine tune their skills by doing that as well.

Katie Ritter: 43:52

Yeah, so doesn't I don't know, if we, um, I don't know, if we've like really defined the role here. I feel like it's so difficult to define because it does look so different. Even the same coach in the same district, I think, I think a lot of our coaches who have been with their districts for years would say that, you know, this year has been really different. And they've been doing really different things, right? Just like every other educator or human in the world. But um, you know, so it's definitely difficult to define. I don't know, I almost want to throw out a challenge to our listeners. And I would love to hear like what are your definitions of a tech coach? And if you can fit it in a tweet bonus points, right? So define a tech coach in a tweet. Tag us at our our coach cast so we can see it. But I would love to see what you have to say. But to me, I think in short, it is a dedicated position in support personnel that is focused on helping support educators with effective use of technology primary only for teaching and learning, but really again, across the board to just change the culture and move the whole system forward. And we do that through building relationships. We do that through a number of ways, whether it's, you know, formal PD structures or informal meetings. But but our whole goal is focused on really just really kind of innovating and bringing everybody up to speed and 2021.

Justin Thomas: 45:28

I think you did a very nice job summing that up.

Katie Ritter: 45:31

I don't know about that. Tweet, that's for sure.

Justin Thomas: 45:36

We need more characters to be allowed. Come on Twitter.

Katie Ritter: 45:39

Yeah, I know. They I was so happy when they upped it, but maybe again, not enough anymore. Yeah. Um, okay. Well, I don't know. I think that might be it. So guys, thanks so much for listening to our first episode, so be sure to subscribe to restart recharge podcast, wherever you listen to podcast and follow us on Twitter and Instagram at our our coach cast. Also,

Justin Thomas: 46:05

feel free to reach out to us we want to communicate with you guys, right? And let us know if there's any topics you want us to discuss. You know, we got kind of an idea of some things that we might want to talk about. But maybe there's something that everyone funnels our way and we're like, oh, this is big time right now let's let's get down to it. So make sure you reach out to us on either Twitter or Instagram with your thoughts on different topics for the upcoming episodes.

Katie Ritter: 46:26

For sure. So press the restart button,

Justin Thomas: 46:30

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

Katie Ritter: 46:38

a tech coach collective. Okay, first one in the books.

Justin Thomas: 46:45

First one in the books. I think that we're pretty pretty well