008 - Stepping Away from the Blue Light

Listeners will walk away with suggestions for making time to read and what to read for professional growth during unstructured “down time” this summer or anytime.

Links mentioned in the show: 

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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 to recharge those batteries Aloha everybody, my name is Katie Ritter.

Justin Thomas: 0:33

And I'm Justin Thomas. And this is the restart recharge podcast, a podcast for coaches by coaches, we bring you all tips and tricks for you everyday work as an instructional technology coach or you know, whatever they're calling you out there.

Katie Ritter: 0:48

So hopefully you leave this episode feeling just a little bit less on your own coaching Island.

Justin Thomas: 0:53

And for today, we have a really great podcast today, we are going to bring you tips and suggestions for making the most out of your summer reading so we can make some time for reading and what to read for professional growth as you are enriching that unstructured downtime for the summer really anytime altogether. So we have two coaches here we have Tracy Keough. We have Michael Welsh. And I'll introduce Tracy real quick so Tracy is a classroom teacher for 11 years before making the role of any technology integration coach last year and a half Tracy is taught second grade and fifth through eighth grade. It's the highlight of the career so far was teaching in the Innovation Academy where students were in personalized one to one learning environment where students could excel with online curriculum and hands on learning. Currently, Tracy is a coach for two different districts, both having multiple school buildings and are spread out amongst a large area. As a coach Tracy has worked with the blended learning hybrid schedules, virtual schedules and face to face schedules along with the virtual academy for one of the districts.

Katie Ritter: 1:58

Glad to have you back Tracy. And I have the pleasure of introducing Michael Roush. Michael has specializes in educational technology, assistive technology and universal design for learning. In addition to serving as a Florida Technology Integration Specialist Michael serves as an adjunct professor of education for Wilmington College, Michael and his wife, Angie live in rural Southwestern Ohio. They have four adult children to in grade school and one grandson, Michael's passion in education is helping every student learn to be able to define and achieve what the highest level of success means for them. So welcome back, Michael,

Michael Roush: 2:36

thank you very much.

Katie Ritter: 2:39

And for those who don't watch our YouTube channel, this is the first time that we are recording in person, thanks to COVID vaccines and all of that goodness, allowing us to get back together. So we're excited to be here in person.

Justin Thomas: 2:53

As Anna Maria said, we are now seeing people 3d. Yeah.

Katie Ritter: 2:58

Like 3d podcasts today. So all right, so we probably got a short little episode here for you but hoping to help jumpstart your summer with some good books to read maybe some some fun nonfiction fiction, some things to help you in the job some some murder mysteries, or whatever you're into ya young adult literature, whatever you like. But we're gonna dive in and kind of thinking, you know, of course, now at the time that this episode is being released, it's summer, so there's plenty of time now for that. But during the school year, when and how, if at all, are you guys able to find time for reading anything professionally?

Michael Roush: 3:41

Yeah, that's, I don't think maybe part of this is a part of this is a job or this is being a parent. You know, my wife has a full time job as well. I don't think I find the time to do anything. Make time

Unknown: 3:58

that's going to happen.

Michael Roush: 4:00

Especially with with something that's important, but doesn't really feel like it has the urgency sometimes, you know, that professional reading has to it and and honestly, I, I had to come to grips a long time ago with the fact that I'm, I'm really not a good reader. I don't, I don't read fast. I don't read giant volumes. It's really easy sometimes to like look up to people who are those kind of like book a day people and you think they're like, Oh, I gotta be able to be like that. I want to I want to be one of those people who reads so much and is on everything. And then you start feeling like kind of failure because you're not at that level. But, you know, it's gotten Opal ride in college figured out really good. I'm just not good at reading There were some at least some tips, some tricks that you could learn to figure out because I was one of those people who I got stuck at that point of when I read, I was still like, reading to myself. And you know, think thinking of the sound of every word as I was reading, and that just like slowed me down so much. And so just like, you know, if you're going to do a diet or an exercise program, or something like that, it can help to have you know, a coach or some expert advice on, on doing some of that it helped me to actually get a little bit of expert advice on read, and some ways to kind of speed that process up and help me with some of that. So

Katie Ritter: 5:39

do you have an expert's number?

Michael Roush: 5:40

Because because, you know, you get to a point, I was still one of those people that like I said, I know I read a word, I think the sound and help out as I read the Word. And, you know, in college, I just, you know, most people hit a point where, if you're reading that way, you are going to spend hours and hours a day just to get through the reading materials you have. Thankfully, I had a professor Dr. Jim Girdwood, who recognized that out of some of us and just kind of took a group of us and said, Look, guys, if you want to learn, you know, you need to learn how to read a little little more effectively, a little better way. And you know, every kid goes from that stage of their instead of you know, they go from reading letters to reading words. And most of us kind of stop there. And he said, he it was some of it is like speed reading tips and tricks kind of things. But it's some of it's still just good reading techniques, you can you can learn to go from reading words, to reading phrases, to reading lines, you can perceive an entire lot your eyes, your brain can perceive an entire line of text, and then sort it out and figure out what it means a little later. Instead of just reading two words and trying to say, Okay, what does that mean? Okay, and then go on to the next and go on to the next. And it's not, it wasn't easy. I mean, it took work, it takes work for me to kind of bring it up and do it again now. But it got to the point where I can, when I start calling that stuff up, I can actually read a little more effectively, a little more efficiently. I don't recall every word that I read, but I get as much out of it as I do if I go the slow route before,

Katie Ritter: 7:23

saying, Well, I wish we would have had this conversation.

Michael Roush: 7:30

Yeah. But it was, you know, it got to the point that I didn't need more time to read, I just needed to get more reading done in the time that I had.

Katie Ritter: 7:40

Another good quote from Mike, you know, Brooke said the other day, on our team set, can we get a cardboard cut out of my goal, that just is like holding a sign and we'll do interchangeable clothes.

Tracee Keough: 7:51

It's worthwhile. And I agree with Michael like, it's not about finding or like finding the time, but making the time to read and picking out what's important to you. And to piggyback off of like finding that time or making that time sometimes that work really well, are those busy times for teachers. So testing seasons, when they don't really want you in your room, you're just an extra body at that point. So those might be a good time to pull aside a book or have something available. Before after school. If you are like me, I like to read on my lunch breaks, because then I'm off the computer and I have some rest for my eyes. So I'm not overusing those and looking through computer stuff or worrying about ruining my computer from eating over it. So those are ways that like I make time and then you just kind of have to make it a priority. If it's important to you, then you're gonna do it. If it's not like Michael said diet and exercise, it's not a priority. It's not someone coaching you, you're not gonna do it. Yeah. Like I forced time.

Michael Roush: 8:48

I'm one of those people, I don't want to I don't want to put myself in a place where I feel like I have to be in a book all the time, either. Yeah, there are certain times of the year that I know, I'm going to be so busy that there's other stuff like that, and just kind of give myself permission to like, you know what, I don't need to be reading a book in September. All that other stuff going on. You know, December might be a great time to read a book. June, July may be a great time to catch up on some of those books, but not to feel like okay, if I I didn't I didn't finish a book this week or this month. So I'm a failure. And there's some months that it's just not gonna happen.

Katie Ritter: 9:26

Yeah, you know, I feel like failure every day. And not. Luck is pretty low on the list right now.

Tracee Keough: 9:32

And he talks about like, especially with professional books, it's nice to kind of have a choose your own adventure thought process to them. So as you come to certain chapters, you're like, yes, doesn't really apply to where I'm at right now. Or I kind of already understand this topic. So I'm going to jump in like and just even if it's not written that way. You just kind of choose your own adventure in the chapters and make it what you need it to be at that time. Yeah.

Katie Ritter: 9:53

So you don't Yeah, cuz I know our team book study that we do every year helps like, keep me accountable and actually like having other people to do it with and talk about in them. You know, I know that Brooke usually organizes it for us, she does a great job with actually making it like, talk about it make it relevant, you know, we dig in, like, how are we actually going to apply it so that that is helpful for me during the year where I think feel so crazy. Yeah,

Justin Thomas: 10:25

and I really enjoyed it too, because then, you know, all four of us can read the book and get different things out of it. So then talking about it as well, from a book study, always sorry, nice as well. But when you do find time, or shirts and make time for yourself to read, what are the type of books that you are reaching for what is usually kind of your topics of interest.

Tracee Keough: 10:42

So for me, if it's not professional, I'm very much a young adult reader. Like I like to get lost in fictional worlds that I can form pictures in my head and get lost in characters and kind of drift off to a non reality space. As a very busy mom of four and coach and working professional reads, I'm typically lead reaching for things where they've been recommended by fellow coaches or teachers that have really loved them. Or St. Recommendations, I've got a couple on my plate that I'm really interested in from is your recommendations that they have done book chats on Twitter, or Twitter recommendations that just kind of spark something in them where it's like, hey, my teachers can really use something like this, and maybe it'll benefit me. So those are the ones that I'm reaching for.

Michael Roush: 11:29

I think I'm getting the most out of this kind of neutral app. I'm getting the most out of like biographies, or personal accounts. I used to hate. I used to just hate reading biographies. But I think I figured out that that was mostly because I was expecting them to be written, like a journalist would write like, like an unbiased account, and they never are. They're detached observers when they're writing those things. So no, I kind of know, I go in understanding that there's that implicit level of bias, but I've still got, there's still a lot that I can learn about the situations, the perspectives actions. And you know, they don't have to strictly be about educators or about, you know, people that you would study academically to do that. And so there's always in those biographies, there's always some story of a struggle that they faced, and what the barriers were, and how they approached it, and how they resolved it. And as coaches, we do everyday struggle multiple times a day. And so just being able to draw from the stories of people who go through that same process. And this is no surprise to anybody here at the table, I think a lot in analogies. Really, yeah. And so just being able to, you know, to take somebody's somebody's story, and, okay, you know what, I've, I've never been on stage in an auditorium in front of 40,000 people. But I get what he said. Jagger is saying

Katie Ritter: 13:25

why was singing that to Michael, because, you know, from like reading people and stories like that, I mean, as a coach, that would even translate. You know, when we give presentations and talks, it's so much better when we embed stories like we know, people remember stories, and it's sometimes hard to connect a story to how people forms for formative assessment, you know, and sometimes you'll have them sometimes you won't, but anytime that we can embed that story, so you're really kind of broadening your you know, you're great at telling stories throughout your presentations and connecting that. So that's a good tip, I need to pick up on

Tracee Keough: 14:01

that. And I know we talked about with that storyline, keeping in mind, like I was having this conversation with my mom with books, she does not read because she doesn't form pictures in her head when she reads to her. They're just words on a page. So really taking into account especially as coaches like as you're giving those stories, not only painting the picture, but also being able to give relevant examples so that those people that don't have that ability can still relate to something because there's too, like Michael said, there's also types of readers. And if you're just painting one picture, then you're not reaching your whole audience or the teacher you're trying to coach because you don't know they may not even know they don't create that atmosphere in their head.

Justin Thomas: 14:38

I think that's huge to help the teachers we work with them paint that picture of what this actually could look like for your classroom when we're working on it. It's actually different than us just seeing you're talking about and you're looking at, it's gonna look really awesome when you use it with your classroom. You got to help them kind of paint that picture for some teachers, it's easier than others but they once they really get that visual image they know that can work with Well,

Katie Ritter: 15:02

Mike, I didn't mean to cut you off, I want to make sure that you're done with your, what

Michael Roush: 15:07

you were, I was saying a little bit about, you know, not necessarily having to read biographies of educators or, you know, I, there are things that I'm interested in, outside of I kind of threw in McTaggart. Like, what you're reading a biography by Bob Dylan. You know, there's some performance that goes into any of this kind of stuff. Songwriting that goes in goes into all of this. And so it's, it's not a bad thing to pull some of that kind of pulse on that kind of stuff. And, and, you know, I love the recommendations that I get from history or from ASCE or places like that, but you know, sometimes it, it's something totally afield of that, that still kind of speaks to me.

Katie Ritter: 15:58

Yeah, I love that. I love my philosophy, I think like, sometimes I'm just burnt out on education. But I think kind of, like you said, Michael, back to the beginning, like you feel like, if you're not doing it, you see these things out there. And then you kind of feel like failure of it. Um, so my take, like, I have read a lot of not necessarily, you know, biographies, or you know, kind of the route that you're talking about, but just other books that are not necessarily about education, but I have pulled so much from them that I have applied in this role. As a coach, like I know, you know, our team, read the book switch, how to change when change is hard. By the Heath brothers, that one I would highly recommend to any coach that has nothing to do with coaching or even education specifically, but think of how much our team has got about how to help people change these, like long standing mindsets. And I read the originals and the end of average, those are two great ones that you know, there's a couple of education examples throughout, but it's really not geared for specifically education at all. So I like that take. That's kind of the take I used to it's just kind of step out of education, because I think, for us to creatively problem solve it requires, like creative thinking, and we've got a pool from so many different other places for that. So Tracy, you kind of mentioned it, I think the next question that I was going to ask you guys, where you are finding your next book, when you finally make the time because time is precious, so you don't want to waste it on something that stinks. Um, you know, Tracy, you mentioned like, maybe some Twitter chats is C respected colleagues, I don't know if you guys have anything to add from where you're finding those next reads for that US professionally.

Michael Roush: 17:47

Yeah, I keep kind of a list of there's some professional friends to kind of use that as my triage. Like, I know, they're gonna read a ton of books, so they can just kind of tell me what the good ones are. So that I can filter that out a little bit. Yeah. So yeah, some folks that I tend to lean on for, you know, if they like, if they really like a book, I'm gonna like it, if they really like part of a book, and I can know that you would go to that part of a book like that, that's some of those some of those professionals close by and far away are, are kind of where I go. And I also, I've also tried to make a really conscious effort to vary the perspectives that I reading. I'll read something from someone that I don't know, in a part of the world I've never been to, and then I'll maybe try to go to something that's a little closer, a little closer, maybe even something somebody I do know, that has written something and I somebody challenged, this was part of a Twitter challenges that happened to you a while back, this uptake lists like the last 10 authors that you've read. And then like, look at who they are. And if they're all like from a particular field or all from a particular place, or there's something very like too similar about those 10 What's not in that list? And who can you go read that's not in that list to kind of open up some, some newer you know, open up some different avenues, some new perspectives, instead of just kind of keeping the customer when you like, certain thing you may want to read everything that they've that they've put out. And it may not be bad stuff, but you may just be missing out on some perspectives. And so I really do especially with I can get, I can get bored with reading really quick. And that helps you to very excited to the styles and genres and the perspectives that you're that you're looking at with your reading. Yeah,

Tracee Keough: 19:55

I have a girlfriend or teacher colleague that I used to work with me came in author. And so she does everyman the wheel of reading. And so it's like a roulette wheel that she spends in each little colored space has a different type of reading genre. So can a young adult, it could be more, it could be fiction, it could be nonfiction. So she lets the wheel kind of pick the next book genre that she's gonna read. So make sure she's continuing to grow her mindset in that sense. So that's I love that

Katie Ritter: 20:24

she also feels like someone who makes me feel like a failure now.

Tracee Keough: 20:29

That is now her job. She's Yeah, she left education to become a full time reader or writer. So to do that to be successful, you have to be reading multiple types of genres to understand what goes into great novels. Again

Katie Ritter: 20:48

letting your kids pick

Tracee Keough: 20:49

so they got to your bookshelf and had certain spaces they were allowed to pick from.

Katie Ritter: 20:57

Okay, so a follow up question to that. With your with not only are we talking about like finding and making the time for the reading in like, Okay, where are you getting it from? That's great when you finally have the time to do it and read it. But then how do you guys make sure that that actually translates from words on the page ideas in your head to actual implementation into your practice.

Tracee Keough: 21:22

So for me, this one one, like highlights in my head was I read, I want to say it was Teach Like a Pirate or talk like a pirate from the Dave Burgess publishing company. And I honestly, like the whole all of them. I haven't like all saved in my Amazon wishlist.

Katie Ritter: 21:41

Who's ever hit.

Tracee Keough: 21:43

They're all there. Every time I see him lose weight I have to keep track of. They're just were there, I can always go home. But I had gotten really excited about a plant like something that that was explained in there. And I put together a whole PD Plan. Based on Hunger Games, each quarter was a different. So the second Hunger Games, they're in like a clock situation, every time it moves, something else happened. So I put together Euler plan. Sorry, for those of you that have never seen. I apologize.

Michael Roush: 22:14

Yes. Rosebud was slammed right.

Tracee Keough: 22:21

Back to my voice, I'm sorry. We each quarter became a different challenge for the PD schedule. And beginning we did like teams and they had team flags that they created. And we got really excited about it. But by second quarter, their excitement had dwindled, because they didn't understand where it had all built from. So I learned that in that experience, you have to kind of give the experience to them as well, like this is where this came from. This is why and spark the energy there as well. But that was me taking something from a book that really resonated and turn it into something that would help my teachers. And currently, in situations, I'm reading another book that is helping me kind of put together a PD Plan for the summer, for authentic experiences for other teachers to use, as well as creative ways to be productive as a teacher, because we all know there's times where we get just completely behind in life.

Katie Ritter: 23:16

Yeah. So you're just kind of like naturally picking out the best things that you like, and like, turning around, maybe tweaking them, but actually like implementing that,

Tracee Keough: 23:23

yes. Okay, or pulling what I'm seeing, like what my teachers are talking about, what do they need, what are they expressing needs for and trying to find ways to help?

Michael Roush: 23:31

Yeah, that's what Chris is talking about is so it's so easy to forget, you've you've put all this time into reading a book. And it's, it's kind of simmering in your head, and everything's kind of covered. And then finally, at some point down the road, there's this flash, and you've got this idea of something that would just be fantastic. And you're so charged up about it. And you go in front of a group of people who you've just started seeing about this, they 30 seconds ago, and you want them to be as charged up about it as you are and you forget all of the time and all of the prep work that went into you getting to this point. And that doesn't just automatically transfer. And so being able to put in some of the time, some of the effort, like you were talking about what we were talking about the book study before, if you're the only one who's reading the book, nobody else is coming in with the same background the same or parents that you are so having other people reading some of those books, or at least part of that stuff at the same time as you is huge. I think just that ability to okay, I've got this book, I've got some great ideas out of this. We're going to start by just kind of get some that low hanging fruit, some things that we can accomplish quickly with a minimum of effort, so that you can start building some of that same juice some of that same energy that got built up in you as you were as you were reading that material.

Katie Ritter: 24:57

Yeah, I used to so I typically I read from my iPad, like just with the Kindle app or whatever. So I would, you know, highlight ideas that I love. And then I had time to read anything other than what is assigned to me. I always try to write like a short blog post and like pull out those ideas. So there's always faster for me to go to like what I said I was really into the tried to like, page all the way through the book. So I don't know.

Tracee Keough: 25:26

Make sticky notes of things that as I'm going through my book, like this is a great PD topic or this is a great badge conversation and worth treating a badge off of So yeah, that sticky note goes out. Yeah,

Justin Thomas: 25:38

yeah. Awesome. Well, we want to know what both of you are reading right now if there is anything but first, we're gonna take a momentary break for our sponsor. Looking for a program that reaches all teachers and learning new tools to integrate in their lessons. And you badges is the answer he was in anytime anywhere badging program that is designed to take bite sized tools for instruction and teach teachers how to use them. He has received the is the seal of alignment for Educator Standards, and each badge in our expanding library is aligned to the ISTE standards and the Samer model. Learn more about the program that teachers call addicting and for hyphen, Edge dotnet. Backslash and you badgers. Welcome back. All right. So we want to know what exactly is going on for your reading material right this instant. So is there anything that right now you got in your backpack or right there at your nightstand or in your car, maybe every time you had a red light or traffic or something I don't know. But you know, you never know what you're getting into.

Tracee Keough: 26:40

Not that much trouble. I'm currently reading Adventures and authentic learning 21 Step by Step projects from Ed Tech coach by Kristin Harrington. This was a sad, like, book chat for Twitter that was recommended. So I'm finally getting around to reading it after the Twitter chats over. But at least I'm getting around to reading it. I'm going through and highlighting and sticky, noting things that I feel like are super important or that I can roll into PD sessions or help specific teachers I know, kind of utilize. I love this one so far, because not only does she break down the topic, and what they're talking about in the chapter, but then it also leads into specific lesson plans. So how to how as a coach to walk in and say, here's a plan that we can use, the things that they need, how to approach it, which even as a veteran coach out call myself that really is eye opening as another way to approach different situations. So that's my current

Justin Thomas: 27:42

professional read the title and author one more time,

Tracee Keough: 27:45

adventures and authentic learning by Kristin Harrington.

Katie Ritter: 27:49

Cool. We will link to that in the show notes of the episode. I'll have to add that to the list. I know Kristen, she's a wonderful coach. Yeah.

Michael Roush: 27:57

I am reading Kwame Alexander's the right thing and right is spelled W R I T. Over the past few years at the school where I work, there's been kind of a common theme. And it's really solidified more this year, from some teachers that their students in general struggle to express themselves, either academically or in social emotional contexts. They struggle to express themselves in appropriate ways. That comes through in lack of performance academically, that comes through in behavior issues. That result in you know, at some point even may result in suspensions, expulsions that just wreak all sorts of havoc with you know, at a point you get to a point where you're only concerned with, you know, students safety instead of being able to provide, you know, the education that we want provided these days. But the flip side of that is that I know that there are really some amazing stories in those kids, they have rich, full experiences. They know a lot of things when they have the opportunity to engage deeply. With content, they do so and they can really do some amazing things. And so that kind of led me back to some of Kwame Alexander's work in this book that he has written, which basically leads you through the process of creating a writing workshop for kids. From concept to completion, and by completion of the book. The book actually goes through the whole process of not only the kids writing their own material, in this case, it's poetry, but they they write their own material they collected they edit it, they revise it, they publish Should. And so you. I mean, part of the whole process on this too is this, that there's, you know, there's an author site, and you bring people in, and the students read their original work in front of people, they have books there that are just full of the material that those kids have have done. Amazing. Oh, and it combined, it combines new expression with writing, with social emotional learning with project based learning, because all this stuff that goes together to kind of make this happen, and, you know, we need to be able to address students ability to present coherent thought. We need to be able to connect with them in these, you know, social emotional ways. It combines all this this great stuff. And so I'm at the point now I'm rereading the book. I've reached out to a couple of folks internally there to figure out okay, who else wants to read this book? Who else kind of wants to get on board this train with me? Honestly, I don't care what subject matter. They teach. I just want to find, I want to find a couple of teachers who will get as excited about this as I would want to be to make it happen. I don't know. I don't know once once they start reading the book once once you once you watch Kwame Alexander's TEDx talk on the power of Yes. Once you once you get once you get through some of those things, yeah, it's it's hard not to just really jump in and jump on board with some of that stuff. And it turns it turns that that constant, oh my gosh, these kids, they just don't know how to write. They don't know how to they're just off the hook. Okay, wait a minute. We're identifying problems let's, let's do something. Let's let's really, you know, that's really address six. So that's what I'm reading right now. For the the my and my, my thought process behind it is I by the end of summer, I want to have a group of teachers that are ready to come in day one and make this our goal for next school year is to make a group of students at classes students, I don't know who it's going to be, but to make them published authors by the end of next school year.

Katie Ritter: 32:27

Oh my gosh, okay, more to come on that content. A call up podcast here

Michael Roush: 32:38

is the right thing w r i t e thing by Kwame Alexander is a redo of his original work that was called the page to stage workshop. This is the kind of a new updated version of it.

Unknown: 32:51

And we're excited for some more content coming later. Right?

Katie Ritter: 32:54

Yeah, go throw it on. Yeah. So okay, so that's what you guys are reading right now. What is the number one? Every coach is listening to the podcast? What's your their main recommendation? What do they have to read? To help them in their role as a coach?

Michael Roush: 33:10

Geez, this one was so easy for me.

Unknown: 33:13

Anytime this question comes up anything like it's, this is the one that pops up. And

Michael Roush: 33:17

everybody I think I've bought every one of you. I know. Kevin Carroll's rules have a red rubber ball. That is just that's number one for me. No matter who you are, what you do. It's just all about the passion behind why you do what you do. It's such an easy book to read. I'm an awful reader. And I can sit down and read it within, you know, an hour or two. You know, I can I can get that whole book done. I try to read it every year, just for that particular purpose. In that book. I got to give another shout out here. That book was actually originally recommended to me by Dr. John Morris, who was a superintendent locally in this area for a while I think he just became superintendent at Dublin City Schools. So he's still here in Ohio. Yeah, he recommended that book to me years ago. I got it, I read it and instantly just totally fell in love and like, I don't know how many copies of that book I have over the years to give to other people. But that's the one.

Tracee Keough: 34:25

Crazy I struggled with this one a lot more because I love all of the tech like a pirate Teach Like a Pirate the imagination behind that one. But listening to Michael talk, I would say oh the places you go. Dr. Seuss is another one of my favorites purely because it inspires imagination, creativity, thinking outside the box and remembering where you started and where you can go and all of the possibilities in between. For me, it's something I pull out every year and we read at the end of every year at home and each one of my kids have a copy that goes to schooling assigned by every one of their teachers that they've had so far and every coach. And it is something that was given to me when I left my last district. So it's like, just constantly remembering you've come so far. And there's so much more ahead of you. And I feel like this year especially, it's a great reminder to all of our coaches and teachers that they've really tackled an incredibly challenging year. So I love that how inspirational

Katie Ritter: 35:24

Yeah. Really good. I know, I'm not throwing mine out now. Oh.

Justin Thomas: 35:34

My goodness. Well, I'll toss one out if you want to call someone out as well. So I read this book back when I was in grad school shaping school culture. It's by Terence dill and Kent D. Peterson. And it's really cool book because it really kind of opens your eyes, I'd say every school is a different type of school. It's not just no cookie cutter school, right? So you have to kind of put your own little blend on the culture there. And that's something that I think is huge, because I think that's one of the number one things for why people think a school is a bad school is because I think culture is bad or something like that. So this is a book that I think is kind of weird. Anyway, teachers, tech coaches admin, really anyone within the building, or the district to really kind of see how you can kind of help create really good school culture and make ties with the community and things like that. So that really kind of an impression on me for my my grad school. But I do like both of your choices.

Katie Ritter: 36:24

So the name of your title and

Justin Thomas: 36:25

author, one more shaping school culture is by Terrence EDL. And Katie Peterson.

Katie Ritter: 36:31

Yeah, I, I don't know, I have a lot. Um, I would throw out I was wondering what that, um, I've always had one, um, I'll throw out Jenny Mackerras courageous adventures. Um, that one gave me so many tangible ideas that I was able to like almost every chapter, every page had something that you can take back and implement from tips. So like, as a teacher, you might want to get like power strips in your class, kids HR advice to these larger, you know, larger initiatives that you know, I use, even with district admin and different resources. So that one to me was awesome. And I think it's pretty popular now, especially Google's certified coach curriculum has drawn a lot from that book, and it's included as kind of an optional book study. So for anyone who's going through that, I definitely recommend that courageous Ed ventures Ed Ventures by Danny Matera. Awesome, and she's just my edu hero

Tracee Keough: 37:43

and dream guest to appear on our podcast. Thanks, Tracy.

Katie Ritter: 37:49

Jenny. There you go.

Justin Thomas: 37:53

Yes, I'm just for fun. Now, we've talked a little bit about some of your educational reach professional development. We talked a little bit about what you're just reading, even if it's not necessarily that but do you have like a go to book or biography or series or something out there that you feel that our listeners should maybe pick up in their time that they've made to read something that's maybe more on the relaxing, recharging side,

Tracee Keough: 38:19

I'll start I jumped on the bridgerton bandwagon. I've watched the Netflix series twice in full. But to buy the books, they're completely sold out, because everybody else jumped on the bandwagon. So I went the Kindle route and have been reading the bridgerton series. Because I like to see the comparison between the novel and the how closely they're related. And I was mad because the series the season one is over and there's nothing yet moving forward. So I needed to know how the rest of it went. So that has been my guilty pleasure on the side. Okay. might have picked that up.

Michael Roush: 39:01

Yeah, I just ended up reading a book called losing my voice to find it by a guy named Mark Stewart. Mark Stewart was the lead singer for a a band a actually a Christian rock band called Audio adrenaline. And, as the title of the book might suggest, he ended up with a vocal condition that basically caused him to lose his ability to sing and threatened his ability to talk. Now, the reason one of the reasons I really enjoyed the book and probably the central reason that I even picked it up to read it in the first place is I actually went to college with those guys. So the early parts of the book are stuff that happened that I was allowed for. Oh, that's cool.

Katie Ritter: 39:52

Now I know what you said or people I know earlier.

Michael Roush: 39:58

Oh, come on. We Do you start looking up books that were written by people that live in your area or that are about your area or people that, you know, you will find stuff that's been published by people that you know, or the people that you know, are from your area. And so, you know, when I when I say that, you know, this book that this, you know, losing my voice to find it by Mark Stewart, okay, most of the people who are listening to this, maybe maybe you've never heard of him, maybe you have zero interest in any of that. The reason it rang, the reason it really resonated for me was because of the personal connection. And there's, there's no way to two, to say to two, there's no way to put too much emphasis on the fact that that's important. If you want if you really are reading to to be entertained, to be recharged to this kind of get something about a personal connection, whether it's to a place, whether it's to where you live or to where you a favorite place that you've had visited a favorite time or something like that. Something that absolutely connects you with that is going to is going to really charge you want more so than than just some random choice or some random recommendation from someone

Justin Thomas: 41:17

awesome. I think there's a lot of really good book ideas out here now for everyone to check out when you make that time. Also make time for next Tuesday, June 15. As we dig deep with two first year coaches, we're going to provide tips on how to transition from a teacher to other roles in education to the coaching role. So moving from as an educator into becoming a coach, we had to have our first year coaches that are going to come on and talk about what that process looks like for them. It probably was different for everyone else as a coach as kind of shifted over, but there's at least some commonality.

Katie Ritter: 41:57

So we'll see you again in two weeks and in the meantime, be sure to subscribe to restart recharge wherever you listen to podcasts, recharge, restart, recharge podcast.com Let me say that again. Restart recharge podcast.com And then please follow us on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook at our our coach packs.

Justin Thomas: 42:21

Make sure you follow us make sure you reach out and connect with us because what do you want to know what's what's on your mind if there's any topics that you want us to discuss we'll be happy to pass them to the content team to get them on the

Tracee Keough: 42:34

air to look on Instagram and Facebook for the book list that our team has put together for other recommendations.

Justin Thomas: 42:42

So press the restart button recharging coaching batteries elite feeling equipped, inspiring to coach fearlessly with a restart recharge podcasts,

Katie Ritter: 42:50

a tech coach collective

Unknown: 43:01

action I have the face for radio now.

Tracee Keough: 43:06

Let's do a filter