019 - Holiday Hacks for the EdTech Coach

Join us as we dive into holiday hacks that utilize your technology skills beyond the classroom. Brooke Conklin and Tracee Keough will share some of their favorite EdTech tools for getting organized, saving money, and staying on top of the holiday rush.
 
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Podcast Team

Hosts- Katie  Ritter & Justin Thomas

Editing Team- Megan Whitacre, Mallory Kessen, Michael Roush, Mark Gumm,

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

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

Producers- Tyler Erwin & Katie Ritter

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Transcript

Justin Thomas: 0:00

Calling all technology coaches join for an edge this summer for a two day coaches camp packed with high quality professional development exclusively for you. Attendees will work with like minded coaches on creating strategies for teacher relationships, executing coaching cycles and building a culture of coaching and tech integration within their school district. There are two opportunities to attend coaches camp this summer join us either June 25 and 26th in New Orleans prior to iste 2022 or in Cincinnati on July 28 and 29 please visit fort hyphen edge dotnet slash coach camp to reserve your spot today

Katie Ritter: 0:37

button to recharge those batteries Aloha everyone, I am Katie Ritter,

Justin Thomas: 1:04

and I am Justin Thomas. And this is the restart recharge podcast a podcast for coaches by coaches. We bring you the tips and tricks to help you in your everyday work as an instructional technology coach or whatever they call you in your school district.

Katie Ritter: 1:17

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

Justin Thomas: 1:24

and for this episode here today we want to talk a little bit about diving into some holiday hacks to utilize your technology skills beyond the classroom. So we have Brooke caughlin and Tracy Keough here to share some of their favorite edtech tools for getting organized, saving money and staying on top of the holiday rush. So this might be a little bit more geared towards just you as the coach for your own personal gains throughout the holiday season here. So let's go and introduce Brooke and Tracy both rejoining us from prior episodes, but Brooke is a former middle school teacher turned instructional design coach. She serves primarily in pre K to 12th grade public school district. Aside from coaching Brooke is a mom of three and a home project connoisseur. Hello again, Brooke.

Brooke Conklin: 2:08

Thanks, Justin. Happy to be here.

Justin Thomas: 2:10

Excellent. You ready to talk about some holiday hacks,

Brooke Conklin: 2:12

I am psyched to talk about some holiday hacks site. Hopefully

Justin Thomas: 2:15

Tracy has the same kind of energy here. As Tracy was a classroom teacher for 11 years in second grade and a fifth through eighth grade setting before taking on the role of an instructional design coach for the last two years. And with a focus on technology in the classroom. Currently, Tracy is a coach at a more rural school district here in Ohio. As a coach Tracy has worked with educators to help them achieve their classroom and educational goals through coaching and mentorship. Welcome again, Tracy,

Tracee Keough: 2:40

thanks, I'm gonna have to step up my energy here. Brooks got it all bottled up over there.

Justin Thomas: 2:45

Yes, she does. And talking about energy. Sometimes you might have a lot of energy heading into the holiday season, but then it starts to drain real quick, when you start to think about everything that you need to do. Obviously, with this episode coming out, it's the beginning of November. So you're gonna have Thanksgiving coming up, and then you got Christmas coming up. And really November, December. I feel like it's somehow the two months but really turns into like, just like one month somehow, especially because we already got Christmas decorations out, right? I don't know what's going on with that. But let's talk about how you can stay stress free throughout this holiday season with some different holiday ideas for some holiday hacks. Let's first talk a little bit about getting organized for the holidays, because I know that's something I always struggle with.

Brooke Conklin: 3:27

Sure. And Justin, I have to say like I never really realized how much work the holidays were until I became a mom. It really takes a lot. I won't say it's not fun, but it is less fun. There is a whole lot of responsibility to make all the magic happen of the holiday season. And it can be a little bit draining. So we Tracy and I are we are pros,

Unknown: 3:52

I will say I would say so experienced

Brooke Conklin: 3:55

pros at our holiday shopping and holiday planning. So we know as coaches coaching is like one of the one hat of many that you wear. But aside from coaching, and especially during the holiday season, there's a whole other wealth of responsibilities that you have to take on. And Tracy and I have found some creative ways to use our job skills for good

Tracee Keough: 4:17

that we have. And it helps. Like Brooke was saying we're both moms, we're both wearing multiple hats. Even if you're not a parent, you still have to figure out how to organize like who's doing the secret elf project, or are we doing family trades and what what all that is gonna look like

Brooke Conklin: 4:31

what do you get for your boyfriend's dad? Right? How's everything?

Tracee Keough: 4:34

Yeah. Do you get something? Also the question? So when we were thinking about this topic, we really think about like, well, first off, you have to be organized. You can't just go to the store like Brooke always says from our colleague Michael, you just don't throw the tools in the backyard and hope it turns into something. So this is kind of the same thing. You have to be organized to go to the stores and figure out what you're going to buy because trust me if you don't have an organizational skill Do you buy a lot of stuff that your family probably doesn't need? Like the crock pot I bought one year that we didn't need. So nice to

Brooke Conklin: 5:08

spend hours in the store and walk away with nothing in crowds of people

Tracee Keough: 5:13

or walk away with too much where you're like, they don't really need this, but I don't know what else to get them. So we're just gonna take it because it's here. So the first thing we were thinking about with getting organized, this is something that I do is usually utilizing Google Sheets. So this is a skill we use as edtech coaches, we work with our teachers, we can work with students on Google Sheets, but in your personal life, it's a great way to stay organized with family gifts, and different things like that. I know, for me, I put together a Google Sheet every year, and I color code my kids out, and then list the items that they have circled repeatedly in whichever target Walmart magazine has shown up early. And then color coded and send it out to my family. So my parents, my brother, my sister all have access to the sheet. And then they get to go in with their color, and market that they've bought that item. So we don't have duplicates that show up and we everybody knows what they're getting, I put the price next to it, where we got it, whether it's Amazon or whatever, to really help organize it. But then it's not constant phone calls of well, who got this because we're all spread out across the country. So it's nice to have one location to go in and see what they're getting. So I know what I can get

Brooke Conklin: 6:20

helps. Yeah, that would be immensely helpful, Tracy, and I'm gonna, I'm going to share a little bit about my brother and sister in law because I don't think they listen to the podcast. But and I know that many of us are guilty of this. But often, as like the heads of household, you get asked like, what does so and so want for Christmas, or whatever holiday you're buying for. And with my brother and sister in law, they often give like a list of five things to 10 people. So inevitably, there's duplicates, inevitably, we're calling each other behind the scenes trying to figure out who's getting what, which Briar horse. Yeah, they already have which bridle horse they want. And it just leaves a lot of like ambiguity to the process. And when you're doing that for like 20 cousins, or multiple parents and parents in law, it can get pretty chaotic. So I love the idea of a Google Sheet Tracy. Yeah,

Tracee Keough: 7:17

color code that and make it work for everybody share it out, helps organize it all, which is nice. And I can always go back and be like, oh, yeah, I told them, they could get that. So I can't grab it today.

Justin Thomas: 7:27

Yeah, you're the master facilitator here on what all your kids are going to get for Christmas. And then you can choose the best gifts, right? The ones that they've been wanting the most? Or do you save that for other folks?

Tracee Keough: 7:38

Um, I think for us, I try to push that out. I'm not gonna lie to some of the more expensive ones, I'll put on specific lists. So that grandma, and my grandpa can buy that or whatever. Or we know that like, okay, we're doing this big present. So we can put the little ones out here. So that it's just more equitable that way, the nice thing is because you can have sheets on your phone, then I have it with me everywhere I go, and whatever store I'm at when it's like, oh, I should look and see if they have this. Yeah, it's always nice, too

Justin Thomas: 8:09

much better than like a hardcopy list where you know, then you lose it in the first week of the holidays. And then you're like, shoot, I don't want to go ask them again. What do they want for Christmas? Yeah, we have a we have like a Google Doc that really was actually set up by my in laws. I'm like what to get because I am the worst. your in laws. techy people know, right? I'm the worst person to shop for, I will admit, because usually, like Chelsea's asking me, What? What do you want for your birthday? What do you want for Christmas? And I always just give her the same answer, which is team shirts.

Unknown: 8:41

anymore? Can you get them? Well,

Justin Thomas: 8:43

that's the that's the I think I can get plenty more. But Chelsea thinks that maybe I don't need like an, you know, 100 100 Ohio State shirt. But anyway. So you know, I'm like, I don't know. And then I never really think about it that much. So like, I mean, we've already put out the list now. So now I'm like, obligated to put some information on there what I need for Christmas, because it's usually one of those things where there's things that I need, but I don't really think about it until like I needed at that moment. Like, well, I could really use this. So then we got the Google doc out there. I was supposed to just like think about it, like, Oh, I knew this. And then you'd run and like put on there. But you know, like you said, get that drive down there and put it on your phone. It's

Brooke Conklin: 9:20

the great thing about Google Docs or sheets for apps is that it's like a living live document. Because I know my kids are guilty of as soon as the next holiday catalog comes out. There's something new they want. So you don't have to like send a separate text or you can just add it on to the Google Doc and then everybody has access to that. One thing my family uses our shared Amazon lists. So I would say a large portion of our audience probably uses the platform Amazon, probably probably. But on Amazon, you can make different lists. So if you didn't know that, you can go to your Amazon account. You can I think by default, you have like your wish list. But you can add multiple lists. So I have one for each of my kids, I have one for myself, my husband has his own list. And then you can add items to that list from Amazon. You can also add things not from Amazon, which I'll share in a minute. But anyways, you add things to that list. And then I just share the link out with my my friends or family that are trying to purchase things for us. And they can save it to their own Amazon account. So then, when they go in, they go to their lists, there's an option to see your friends lists, they can click on that, and then they can see all of our families lists. When you purchase it, it automatically takes it off that list, which is really awesome. So if like Aunt Laura buys a doll or something, it immediately comes off that list. You don't have to worry about duplicates, which is really awesome. And then the other thing is we my family lives in Arkansas, and then we have family out in Washington, DC. Probably other places I'm forgetting right now. But so Anyway, point being with family kind of all over the place that we may or may not see for Christmas. So with the Amazon list and purchasing things through Amazon, our home address is tied to that list. So if a person purchases something from the list, then they can choose to have it shipped to our house. So they don't have to pay for shipping separately, which is really nice. Yeah, that's

Tracee Keough: 11:24

what I was thinking because my brother and sister in law live in California and grandparents are out in Arizona. But having that Amazon list where it like can just ship right to you makes life a lot easier versus they have to go buy it find a box that fits and I swear shipping prices are higher during the holidays. Oh yeah, it's kind of ridiculous. I went to ship a toy truck last holiday and they were gonna charge me $300 To send it from Ohio to California. Like it's a$20 toy?

Justin Thomas: 11:50

Was it was an 18 Wheeler. No,

Tracee Keough: 11:53

it was a dump truck like a Tonka dump truck. Well,

Justin Thomas: 11:56

you know, those are pretty heavy.

Tracee Keough: 12:01

So I love the idea of like using that Amazon wishlist creating them for everybody and sharing those out capitalize

Brooke Conklin: 12:07

on that prime account, right? Oh, yeah, yeah, they're my Ed Tech coach, friends, we're all pretty familiar with extensions, we probably have a set of our favorite extensions. And we're going to talk about couple today, I think but one of them particularly helpful for the Amazon lists. If you do want to organize your holiday shopping with list, there is an extension, it's called Amazon assistant. And it adds it to your Chrome Web bar. So in my early years of using Amazon lists, I did become frustrated because I wanted things from like Crate and Barrel or Pottery Barn, and you couldn't add them from Amazon. So with the Amazon assistant extension, you can be shopping on any shopping website that you want. And if you find an item that you like, click on that Amazon assistant extension. And it automatically pulls up like an Add to List option. So you can add items from other stores to your Amazon list, and you can designate which list you want it to go to. So that has been really helpful. And just making sure that like we're able to utilize other things than just what Amazon has in stock. The thing to note about that is a little bit different though is that if someone purchases an item that you've added using the Amazon assistant live, so like an item from a different store, it doesn't automatically take it off the list. So they will have to like Mark that they purchased it. But it is a really handy resource. I think it also might do like a price comparison and run the prices to see if there's a lower one. I'm not sure on that. But I think I've seen that on there.

Tracee Keough: 13:50

I will say she showed me this last week and I was mind blown like it is simply a click of a button using your extensions. And you can have any website, attach it to your Amazon keep it all in one spot, which again goes back to helping organization or those random like one off, you can only buy it through XYZ and how to get it onto that list. And it was like she just did to do it was done.

Justin Thomas: 14:14

List and with it being a extension on your Chrome. I mean you could be somewhere else and just need to you know, maybe borrow someone's computer sign in get your chrome set up and then from there, you know so can you shop and continue shopping because I know that's for me it's in one ear and out the other unless I do it really quick. So awesome. Those are some really good hacks there for kind of getting things organized for the holidays.

Tracee Keough: 14:39

I will say we have one more that our co host Katie does regularly is she likes to keep a running note in her phone. Oh yes. So whenever an idea comes for someone that she whether it's her nieces or nephews, or other family whenever there's a great idea of like Shopping present for birthdays or holidays. She has a running note in her phone. So she can just tell Siri to add it to whatever list or go into that note and type it in. And then there's always there. Right on your phone as like you said, Justin, when you're not really sure. But in that moment in July, we're like, this could be really great. I don't need it now. But and, you know, if you're like me, you forget within a week. Yeah. So you put it on your notes, and you always have it to go back to it does

Brooke Conklin: 15:24

seem like my father in law always comes up with things he wants in June. Right? Like November, I have no clue what they were.

Justin Thomas: 15:32

Yeah, yeah. The fact that people are coming up with that kind of stuff in June or July, and like the fact that you see you put on the notes and you're like, What can I get for Christmas? And I'm like, oh, yeah, they said that like three months back? Yeah. Now we can put it on there that is

Brooke Conklin: 15:46

and then you're the favorite daughter in law because you remembered right and you remember it all it

Unknown: 15:50

was was a little take notes to note on your phone? Absolutely. Yeah,

Justin Thomas: 15:53

see Chelsea, Chelsea, my wife, by the way for everyone out there. But she does the same thing with with various things like the grocery list and stuff. But she also will put that on there. And she's way more organized than I am. And I'm willing to say that. Awesome. So we got some really good ideas on organizing things. But now let's talk a little bit about something that everyone wants to do. And that's save money, because you don't want to spend that much money shipping a toy truck out to California, right. So there's some hacks that you guys have figured out here on our ed tech world that you can save some cash money with.

Brooke Conklin: 16:26

Sure. Um, so when I think that all of us use regularly, it's another extension, it's called Honey, if you haven't heard of it. I use this all the time, I think that my husband gets annoyed sometimes by it, but honey, it is both an extension. And then there's also a smartphone app that you can use. But it kind of runs in the background while you're shopping online. And when you go to check out. So you put all your stuff in your cart online, go to checkout, honey searches the internet for like any possible coupon code promo code that's out there. And it automatically like well, rapid fire, plug them in, and it picks out which one saves you the most money and then automatically applies that to your cart. So it is particularly particularly successful with like Walgreens, if you're ordering like your Christmas cards through Walgreens, or holiday cards. And then Panera normally has a coupon code out there that you can get through honey, there are tons of them. But you don't have to worry about like remembering what the banner said at the top of the website for you to enter in holiday 25 or whatever. Honey will take care that for you automatically apply it to your cart and save you money.

Tracee Keough: 17:45

Wow. Yeah. And then just going back to the other extension that Brooke mentioned with the Amazon assistant and how easy that is to, like you said any device that you're on with your Chrome can just use that assistant on there to bring things into Amazon lists from other websites and other sources to keep things all in one location for easy storage. And remembering, which is great. Saving money as well. Both Brooke and I talked about this is something we do going back to Google Sheets. So not only can you utilize it to organize, and share out with families of what tools or what toys or whatever you're trying to get, you can also use your sheets for a budget. So we both do this. Setting up a price budget for each one of our children at this point. And then being able to kind of calculate it out as far as this toy is going to cost this this will be this. Okay. Do we have even amounts of stuff going? So it's a great way to organize and, and budget

Brooke Conklin: 18:41

within sheets? Yeah, you guys might not believe this out there. But the podcast and tech coaching has not made us multimillionaires. Yeah. So we, my husband and I will typically set down we start in I think the end of August is when we normally do it, but we use using Google sheet we map out like all of the people that we expect to buy gifts for exactly how much money we're budgeting for all of them. And then we will have like a separate column for how much we've spent using a really basic formula. We also plug in for a third column that that tells us how much money we have left remaining for them. And then we will kind of take how much money we need starting in August and then we'll we'll start kind of putting that away and budgeting from August to November and Google Sheets makes that super easy to keep track of and make sure that like Tracy said you're not overspending everybody has kind of budgeted and spent how you expect to and then it's also collaborative. So it's something that my husband and I can both access and keep

Tracee Keough: 19:48

tabs on. I will say I'm really impressed. You start in August. Yeah.

Brooke Conklin: 19:52

Like I said, we are not multimillionaires.

Tracee Keough: 19:56

We aren't either, but I'm like a no November when like oh yeah, we have to get is ready to go kind of a person tower family roles but good for you. That's awesome. Yeah I mean start early guys

Justin Thomas: 20:06

talk a little bit before this I mean I'm like oh it's you know it's the week of Christmas I probably should figure something out here pretty quick because I knew you guys were like August and like beginning November different strokes for different folks.

Tracee Keough: 20:20

I will point out Justin said he's old school and likes to go walk through the mall week of Christmas to find presents which is probably one of the worst locations oh yeah and I

Brooke Conklin: 20:31

am picture I'm Dustin putting on those like white old man sneakers Was that like a new ballot grow? Yeah, they'll grow new balance with this team shirt walking through a mall power walking.

Justin Thomas: 20:42

I don't talk in the teacher but maybe I should. Maybe you should. I felt like I got clowned on that on here on the on the on the podcast thing I just like to look out you know, I've picked up some things online because hyperlinks to is really simple. Easy. I mean, maybe that was something you guys are going to talk about next segment. But the idea is that you know and that Google Doc, okay, I find you know a bangle shirt that I like just linked that straight into the exact one you want. Exactly. It's not like saying like, Oh, I want this specific black bangle shirt. This is Cincinnati Bengals football on it, and then you're walking around of course there's like 30,000 of those out there and then maybe it's not exactly the one but you know, obviously hyperlinks are Yeah, yeah, something yeah Ctrl K Ctrl K. All right, let's take a moment to hear from our sponsors. But when we come back we'll talk about staying on top of the holiday rush. Looking for a program that reaches all teachers in learning new tools to integrate in their lessons and you badges is the answer and you as in anytime anywhere badging program that is designed to take bite sized tools for instruction and teach teachers how to use them edgy has received the STC of alignment for Educator Standards. And each patch in our expanding library is aligned to the ISTE standards and the Samer model. Learn more about the program that teachers call addicting at Ford hyphen edge dotnet backslash and you badges. Instructional Coaches support teachers, students, administrators, and really everyone in the district. In fact, research shows instructional coaching is one of the most impactful forms of professional development that results in improved teacher instruction and student achievement. But who is supporting the coach Ford Edge provides multiple year long mentorship options recommended by the Google for Education certified coach program to help you gain the value and support you need as an instructional coach. Visit Ford hyphen edge dotnet to start getting PD to the ultimate PD providers. Welcome back to the restart recharge podcast Justin Thomas here flying solo on the hosting duties. But I do have Brooke Conklin and Tracy Keough here, we're talking about holiday hacks. And using those edtech tools here for your coaches on what you can do to make the holiday season hopefully a little less stressful. And we've talked a little bit about staying organized, getting organized with everything, including budgeting as well. So saving a little bit money out there for you, folks. But let's talk a little bit about how you actually stay on top of the holiday rush. Because I always feel like it's one of those things where you know, boom, it just happens. It's like this tidal wave of the holidays. And we want you to be able to surf that wave and not, you know, just be drowned. Yeah. So what are some ideas that you guys have on staying on top of that holiday rush using our edtech tools?

Tracee Keough: 23:29

So I know we both talked about this, and kind of trying to figure out what are some great ways to stay on top of that rash. And like you said, it just kind of shows up, and then all of a sudden, it's time to have presents and 30 seconds later, you're done. So we talked about pre planning your order. So especially right now with the world the way it is there's going to be shipping delays, everything's kind of pushed back. Even if it says it's going to arrive by this date, expect probably a week or two later, to some degree depending on where it's shipping from. So to Brooks, great ideas here. Planning starting in August will really be helpful. Obviously, we're in October. So maybe getting started in the next week or two to kind of look at those things. If there's specific toys or specific T shirts or whatever that are going to be popular. Starting to jump on that bandwagon and get those things ordered. So at least if there is a shipping delay, you're not hoping that it shows up on time. But you can find a place to stash it and really make sure and I think a lot of websites are doing a really good job right now of like posting, if they're shipping delays or if they're having trouble getting things so that you know, that might not be the best option or get it early, just in case.

Brooke Conklin: 24:40

Yeah. And if you're using a Google Sheet for your lists, you could easily add another column for kind of like a projected by date. So we tend to know or have like a general idea of which things are going to take longer. So like for instance, one of the things is on our list this year is the ever so popular nugget couch for toddlers Tracy's looking at me like she doesn't know what it is no good couch,

Unknown: 25:07

I see a chicken on my head. People in our audience

Brooke Conklin: 25:09

will know what a nugget couches.

Unknown: 25:11

But it's cool to see that we will social media team walk in all right.

Brooke Conklin: 25:17

So the nugget couch for those who are now curious is a it's for like littler kids. It's just a piece of flexible furniture. So it has like a couple of cushions, some different like back support, okay. But you can like rearrange the pieces of the couch to be all kinds of different things. So you can make them into a forte you can make them into a couch, you can make them into a bed.

Tracee Keough: 25:42

It reminds me of like the mats at toddler gym. So if you've ever been at gymnastics, these are like the wedges that your kids might play on. But they're made to be more like a couch. Yeah.

Brooke Conklin: 25:51

Okay. So now that very important point has been clarified, the nugget couch does typically take a little bit longer to ship out. Because everyone wants one everyone. Everyone knows what they are. Everyone wants one ship was so with Google Sheets. So with Google Sheets, I know that that's something that I probably don't want to wait until like December 20, to put my order in for. So on my Google Sheets, I can try to like prioritize the items that I'm wanting to buy for different people and put like a buy date or, or however you want to set that up. But with sheets, you can do filtering and sorting. So you can quickly see like which items you need to buy this week or next week and kind of set schedule a timeline for yourself. You could also use like conditional formatting to highlight items in red that are like past due to buy things like gift cards, you know, are going to be pretty available. So those could be low priority on your Google Sheet. But yeah, that that I think would be a helpful thing to help stay on top of it. Absolutely. Yeah. The other kind of idea. And we've started doing this in our house, too, is using Google calendar reminders. So especially for those like super critical things that you want to make sure that you buy that you can't just walk into a store anytime and get. Maybe it's something that has like customization and you have to order it way in advance. You can set up a reminder on Google Calendar to remind you when to do it. Cool thing about reminders is that they won't go away unless you mark that you have done them. So even if you like go past that date, it'll keep showing up on the following days that you need to take care of

Tracee Keough: 27:33

that. Yeah, I love the Google reminders piece. I don't utilize that enough for sure. But it's also nice, like books that it doesn't disappear unless you tell it to go away. So it's constantly nagging in the background, if you don't get to it on the day that you were hoping to Yeah, which is also very helpful. So So yeah, staying on top of that holiday rush, just making sure that you're keeping track of when things are due using your Google Sheets, using Google calendar reminders. Sharing those reminders with another person in your house might also be helpful, so that everybody can make sure we're getting what we need.

Justin Thomas: 28:09

Yeah, awesome. I'll share a little a little holiday hack that my brother did. So last year, the one soccer teams like Columbus Crew, they won the MLS Cup, a bought me a scarf, but it was so backordered that it didn't come in in time. So what he did was he hopped on, you know, on Google and went and found some images of the logo and the MLS Cup. And then he printed those out and cut them out and and slapped them on a just a normal scarf. And I was a little confused. When I pulled it out. I was like, wait, what? And he's like, Well, I didn't come in time. This is this placeholder. So you know, if you have any, that's another holiday hack in a way using technology to you know,

Tracee Keough: 28:45

recreate what you are buying because it didn't show up in time. Exactly.

Justin Thomas: 28:48

Yeah, I was a little confused when the colors you know, it was like green and gray instead of you know, black and gold. But yeah, so that's another little holiday hack that I'll toss out there as well. Is there anything else that you know, you kind of had on the back of your mind for a different type of holiday hack? We kind of talked about some of the I think some of the key ones here?

Brooke Conklin: 29:07

Yeah, I would say I mean, depending on um, we've talked a lot about like shopping but I think another part of the holidays that we all get wrapped up in is food planning,

Tracee Keough: 29:19

which we use a Google Doc for. So What day are especially when we know there's multiple family members coming into town, like okay, Friday we're eating this what do we need as a grocery store Saturday reading this and really planning out and writing down everything that you're going to need for that meal so that you don't forget something because the grocery stores are crazy. Yeah, like any other store during a holiday

Brooke Conklin: 29:41

season. shared document is also a great way for different people in the family to write out what they're going to bring so you don't end up with five green bean casseroles and one chocolate pie because that's the ratio no one likes. Yes. chocolate pie in that ratio for sure my family tend to be the opposite. We go like overboard on desserts and then nobody brings vegetable.

Justin Thomas: 30:04

jerky, we're gonna have a couple of rolls and then we'll dive into dessert here. Yeah, absolutely. So

Tracee Keough: 30:09

yeah, shopping with food and kind of organizing travel plans and having all of that available all on those tools that we're already using to help teachers, and then to turn around and be like, Hey, I know you're super stressed about this, because we all are like, Have you thought about using it this way? So can you help not only yourself, but your teachers with all these things, too.

Brooke Conklin: 30:30

Sometimes we just have to put our skills to use for our own good. There's a time to be a little selfish, my fellow ed tech coach friends,

Justin Thomas: 30:38

that there is, and the time is now for the holiday season.

Tracee Keough: 30:44

And if you're like Brooke, and you started in August, congratulations, you are ahead of the game. And that is great news. There's always next year, there's always next year

Justin Thomas: 30:51

or if you're like me, you still got another bout another month and a half before you really dive into the holiday shopping. Our

Tracee Keough: 30:58

goal is now that Justin has learned all these ad tech hacks. We're gonna get him started on November 1. Yes, yeah, too much too far. And I

Justin Thomas: 31:05

really really needed this episode to work out some things now I'm gonna have to hold you to accountable for setting those up for me. And then maybe just doing it for me as well. We'll just teach

Tracee Keough: 31:15

you how to set them up. But we think you can handle the rest of it will loop

Brooke Conklin: 31:19

Chelsea and she'll hold you accountable. There we go.

Justin Thomas: 31:21

Well, there you go. Cuz I think she might be able to do that. Yeah. Guys, see, I seen you using your I take you're helping other you know, coaches and teachers and things like that. Awesome. Well, hopefully this has given you a little bit of some new ed tech ideas on how you can conquer those holiday situations and keep that stress at a minimum, we actually are going to be moving into our final episode in two weeks. So make sure you tune in for that. I can't believe that we've already hit the season finale here for season one. It's been a lot of fun. And we've had some really good, some really good cast stone to talk about some awesome ideas. So make sure you tune in for this final episode, which will be taking a little bit of a break after that till about next July or excuse me next January, July, I got my J months mixed up there. So you're talking about how you're all set in like July and August and that's stuck in your head stuck in my head there. So next January ish is when we'll be taking a break here after season one but make sure you tune in for this final episode. It will be a good one we're going to be talking about the importance of storytelling. So Michael Roush will be on to explain why storytelling with our schools is so valuable. It will have special guest Ryan Mclean on as well. He'll join us to talk about his book, your school rocks, so tell people both are great storytellers. And we are excited to have them here on the season finale. So I'm excited to see see what they both have on slate for talking about the importance of storytelling absolutely should be a good one. So be sure to subscribe to restart, recharge wherever you are listening to podcasts, who follow us also on Twitter, on Instagram and on Facebook, at our our coach cast, make sure that if you have any ideas for the upcoming season that you are reaching out to us talking about those and we'll get those on slate for the next season. As always, make sure you feel free to reach out to us about any topics or any ideas and just reach out to us and say hello, we'd like to

Unknown: 33:21

see I'd love to interact with everybody out there.

Justin Thomas: 33:23

Oh absolutely. So press the restart button recharging your batteries and leave feeling equipped and inspired to coach fearlessly with the restart recharge podcast

Brooke Conklin: 33:33

at Tech coach collective