Restart Recharge Podcast

501 Instructional Sync: Aligning Admin and Coaches for Success - Part 1

• Forward Edge • Season 5 • Episode 1

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In this episode, join us as we explore the crucial dynamics between instructional coaches and administrators in education. Learn practical strategies for aligning their efforts to foster a supportive, goal-driven environment for teachers and students. Featuring Tori Mollett, an instructional design coach, and Tyler Erwin, Assistant Director of Curriculum and Integration, the discussion covers goal alignment activities, effective meeting structures, and the importance of clear communication. Whether you're an educator, coach, or administrator, this episode offers valuable insights into enhancing collaboration and achieving success in your school or district.

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matth-us---katie_1_11-26-2024_091028:

Welcome to a brand new season of the Restart Recharge podcast. I'm your co host Matthaeus Huelse, and I couldn't be more excited to kick off season five with all of you, our amazing community of educators, coaches, and leaders. Over the past four seasons, we've tackled the challenges and celebrated the triumphs of instructional coaching, always with the goal of empowering you to transform education in meaningful ways. This season we're stepping it up with fresh perspectives, actionable insights, and of course inspiring conversations. We've been busy this break exploring all kinds of topics with some of the most entertaining and insightful guests we've had so far. Whether you've been with us since episode one or are tuning in for the first time, thank you for joining us on this journey. Together, let's continue exploring innovative practices, celebrating successes, and finding new ways to recharge the work we do every day. So settle in and get ready as we dive into our first episode of season five.

Matthaeus Huelse:

Calling all Instructional Coaches, Curriculum Specialists, Teachers on Special Assignment, or whatever they call you. I'm Matthaeus Huelse.

Katie Ritter:

And I'm Katie Ritter. As Instructional Coaches, we are often responsible for our own professional learning and can sometimes feel pretty isolated in our role.

Matthaeus Huelse:

That's why we're here, bridging the gap with a wealth of tips, tricks, and building a community of coaches.

Katie Ritter:

So hit the restart button with us.

Matthaeus Huelse:

Recharge your coaching batteries.

Katie Ritter:

And hopefully you'll leave feeling just a little bit less on your own coaching island.

Matthaeus Huelse:

Okay, cool. Well, let's get, let's get this party started. Yeah, that's it. That's the energy. I feel like I need to hear that from my guests.

Torie:

Woo!

Matthaeus Huelse:

There you go.. Okay, thank you very much for being here. Today, we're tackling a common challenge in education, how instructional coaches and administrators can align their efforts to create a supportive, goal driven environment for teachers and students. Miscommunication and mismatched priorities can stall progress, but this workshop bridges the gap with practical strategies and tools that bring coaches and admins onto the same page. From goal alignment activities to creating effective meeting structures, this program is all about fostering collaboration and achieving success together. Today, we're thrilled to host two incredible members of our team.

Katie Ritter:

Yes!

Matthaeus Huelse:

First up, we have Tori Mollett, an instructional design coach with a passion for helping educators bring creativity and innovation into their classrooms. Tori's journey has taken her through years of learning, teaching in rural districts around Cincinnati and advanced studies at Miami University. Tori brings a wealth of knowledge and a deep love for literature, travel, and the art of storytelling and education. She's also a fan of finding hidden treasures while antiquing. Maybe we'll even pick her brain about some hidden treasures for instructional coaching.

Katie Ritter:

Oh, there's your line, wasn't it? That's the line.

Matthaeus Huelse:

I was proud of that line.

Katie Ritter:

Love it. And welcome, Tori. We're so glad to have you on as a guest on the pod. And I have the pleasure of re introducing Tyler Erwin who is our Assistant Director of Curriculum and Integration here at Forward Edge and oversees our coaching team. With over 8 years of coaching the classroom, Tyler is a Google Certified Trainer and Coach who's been a voice for educational innovation on national platforms, including the National Teacher of the Year Conference. He's passionate about creating impactful learning experiences for educators and students alike, and when he's not working, he's exploring the great outdoors or cheering for those poor, poor Bengals. Tyler brings a dynamic perspective on leadership and tech integration, making him the perfect fit for today's conversation. Sorry, Tyler, to start it off on an angry foot for you with the Bengals. Laughter

Tyler:

who wrote that description? I mean, can we just

Katie Ritter:

I improvised a little bit.

Tyler:

that's what I thought.

Matthaeus Huelse:

Look, in all fairness, we're banking this episode. We don't know when it will air, so

Tyler:

That's true.

Matthaeus Huelse:

The Bengals might be doing great when this airs, so who knows?

Katie Ritter:

Or the season could be long over.

Matthaeus Huelse:

Or that.

Tyler:

That's probably more likely.

Katie Ritter:

Okay, so we, all know, and I think our listeners can empathize, about the importance of coach admin relationships and really ensuring that we're on the same page. We know from having conversations with our coaches here at Forward Edge, with coaches across the country, that sometimes coaches can feel a little bit between a rock and a hard place. About, you know, feeling almost at their wits end or like, what can they do to advance the conversation. So Tyler and Tori spearheaded a collaborative workshop with our coaches and the building and district administrators in the districts they serve to help better, align their work. And so that's as much as I'm going to say. Tyler, I'm going to turn it over to you I just want to lay that groundwork a little bit about the workshop itself. Could you please talk about some of the goals that we were trying to achieve that probably many other coaches can resonate with that are listening?

Tyler:

Yeah, well, we've just found that administrators all across the country are extremely busy. Principles have no shortage of things on their plate. And maybe far down the list, especially in certain districts, it may be the instructional coaching support that they have within their districts that helps their teachers. It's something they're not necessarily spending a lot of time thinking about or trying to make more or less effective. And so we wanted to create this workshop and this experience to help clarify those roles, help reestablish if it needed to be, reconnect. district administrators with the instructional coaches serving in their buildings every day. We also wanted to take the opportunity to have them create this really good, consistent channel of communication. If it hadn't been there before this workshop was meant to establish that and support it. then I think the last thing that we ultimately wanted to get from this entire experience is once the connection had been either established or reestablished, Once the role of the coach had been clarified, and once the administrator felt more comfortable with like the communication cadence and how they were gonna, you know, go back and forth, and reconnect throughout the year, ultimately wanted it to lead to the coach supporting that administrator. And they're building your district goals, Not only seeing like, okay, this is what the coach can do for my teachers, this is what the coach can do for me. The goals I'm striving to achieve the initiatives I'm looking to accomplish within my building. Taking it from, Hey, they're here for your teachers, out of sight, out of mind. If they're supporting great, um, to no they're not only here from my staff, but they can also champion the things that I'm trying to accomplish within the district as well. And I think that those would probably be the biggest outcomes that we were trying to achieve pretty lofty outcomes for a two and a half hour workshop. But, nonetheless, that was kind of the goal going in. And I think that It ended up being a pretty great experience for everybody who participated.

Katie Ritter:

That's awesome. And we're going to get into some concrete strategies and things that we did in the workshop that other people could take away but I'd like you to speak before we turn it over to Tori. I'd like you to speak what were, um, so those were the goals. What would you say? What were some of the administrator's reactions in the room. How do you feel like some of those goals were, or maybe were not achieved?

Tyler:

There was definitely some like aha moments of, wow, I didn't know that our instructional coaches could help with that. Or, what meets the eye is maybe not necessarily all that they're capable of or all that they can support. We showcased how, What on the outside may look like a non technology based goal, because all of our instructional coaches have a focus in technology. You know, what might look like a goal about community engagement? Possibly personalization, trying to help districts further their connection to the community of, you know, outside of the four walls of their building. That might not look like a goal that our coach can support, but our coaches can. There's so many different things that they can do that can support those goals to further, some like non technology related goals within the district. So there was an aha moment of like, wow, they are capable of so much more than maybe we're using them for. I would also say they were pretty self reflective and probably left thinking, I could do more. Maybe invite them to meetings I never thought they should be a part of, or reach out and see how things are going within the buildings they serve, maybe we haven't connected as often as we should have. I'd really like to improve that going into second semester. So I think it was good for both the coach and the administrators who attended because it helped both sides see, yes, I can stay in my lane and focus on instructional technology, but there's so many ways that that weaves into other areas of the building culture, the goals of the building, the ways in which they can support teachers and administrators. So I think it opened a lot of eyes and maybe helped them take a little bit of accountability for. how they can be a part of the coach's success too. So I

Katie Ritter:

I love that.

Tyler:

outcome.

Katie Ritter:

That makes my co chart happy.

Matthaeus Huelse:

Yeah, wonderful. And Tori, you were attending as a participant, but you were there with one of your admin from your district as well. So you got to see the coach's perspective a little bit more. Tyler mentioned a couple of aha moments. Have you had any, clear and obvious aha moments that came from there? That's like, oh, I did not consider this, or?

Torie:

I've had quite a few but one of the biggest ones that stands out is when you're in the hustle and bustle of the day, it can be a little frustrating when you feel like you're a broken record and you're saying these things, but from the perspective of, stepping into the administrative shoes it's not that they're turning a cold shoulder to you, it's that their phones are blowing up at all times of the day

Katie Ritter:

Mm hmm.

Torie:

the bathroom's closed, so and so lost their Chromebook, all these different things, so it's not that they're not tapping into your talent per se, it's that something that they might not have a full grasp of and they don't have the time to sit down and think about it. The whole experience was a lot like a factory reset for my admin and I to really sit down and get away from that hustle and bustle of the day and talk about how we can really collaborate and make coaching and the of the district work together for the good of the teachers and the students.

Matthaeus Huelse:

Yeah, that's awesome. I would like to go a little bit more into the concrete. What were some of the activities? What was maybe one activity, Tori, that you thought actually blew your mind and connected you all of a sudden and showed you something new?

Katie Ritter:

Blew your mind might be a stretch, but Okay.

Matthaeus Huelse:

Hey, it was a great workshop.

Torie:

It was a great workshop I think it was not so much for me because I've seen these things working in other districts. As Katie and Tyler have put them out there, but it was my admin. I actually had 2 admin there that know why I'm there, but kind of heard it from a different voice with all these statistics and data backing it up and showing why it's an important thing to do. thing, or why coaching works in districts. So having other people, other coaches, other admin from districts across the area coming together and being like, this is what it looks like in my district. This is what it looks like in my area. It really did feel like a retreat. Honestly, it felt like stepping away from everything and discussing the plethora of things that coaching can offer people. The aha moment was really, Pausing and listening to other people who have expertise on this.

Katie Ritter:

So Tori, it sounds like maybe getting out of the context of the school building or district office was a key contributor to allowing everyone to focus on the conversations around district goals and coaching. I don't want to put words in your mouth, but would you agree?

Torie:

You took the words right out of my mouth because that's exactly what I'm thinking. It was crucial to get them away from the fast paced lifestyle in the district so that they can focus on what's right in front of them. Their phones were flipped over on their faces so that they weren't looking at any notifications. They were like, the APs have handled. We're focusing on what we're doing right this second and what it looks like and how we can collaborate and really put the coaches to work. I think that's a crucial element getting them out of their environment and in a different one for the day to really focus on coaching and what it can be.

Katie Ritter:

That's awesome. And you said that you had two admin. One was the district level, and one was the high school principal, correct?

Torie:

yes, it was. We're doing some admin shuffling in my district, so we've got, like you said, the district level and then building level, so it was perfect.

Katie Ritter:

Okay, and then who would you say, if you had to say that it made a bigger impact with one of them or your relationship with one of them over the other, who would you say the biggest impact was for?

Torie:

Definitely my building level admin. The district level has been supportive from day one, but she is not in the building all day, every day.

Katie Ritter:

Yeah.

Torie:

she's handling those district level tasks. Having my building level admin step away and just look at me in the face and be like, Alright, what can we do? How can we support each other? That was so Eye opening for both of us, and it was like you could feel the difference before the workshop and after, and how things shifted. I was in his office Monday morning at 7. 05 the following Monday to crack out a plan to go forward, and everything's changed since then.

Matthaeus Huelse:

I love that.

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matth-us---katie_1_11-26-2024_091028:

Thank you so much for joining us this episode. We hope you found it packed with practical strategies and inspiring ideas to take back to your schools. And here's a little sneak peek. This is just the beginning. If today's discussion sparked your interest, you won't want to miss part two. We'll dive even deeper into the workshop and go into more detail about the exact activities and the things we did during this workshop that made an impact. Mark your calendar and make sure you tune in next time. As always, we'd love to hear from you. Share your thoughts, feedback, or any questions you have about today's topic on our social media or through our website. If you enjoyed today's episode, don't forget to leave a review. It really helps us reach more educators and coaches just like you. Until next time, stay inspired, stay innovative, and keep making an impact.

Matthaeus Huelse:

Thanks for spending time with us today. If you found this episode helpful, please share it with an educator friend.

Katie Ritter:

And connect with us on social media at rrcoachcast to let us know what you thought of the episode and what topics you want us to discuss next.

Matthaeus Huelse:

New episodes drop every other Tuesday. Be sure to subscribe to Restart Recharge wherever you listen to podcasts.

Katie Ritter:

So press the restart button,

Matthaeus Huelse:

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

Katie Ritter:

a Tech Coach Collective.

People on this episode

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Dr. Katie Ritter

Co-host
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Matthäus Huelse

Co-host