Summer Sandbox: Reflection & Fun

Celebrate the end of the school year with Celine and Katie as they step out of "survival mode" and into the Summer Sandbox. In this episode, they are joined by Kaitlyn Frederick, an instructional coach who shares her journey through a year of breakthroughs and strategic pivots.

Transcript

6/9 Summer Sandbox: Reflection & Fun 

Speaker: [00:00:00] Grab your gear and prepare to ignite your coaching at the Forward Edge Coaches Camp this July. Join us in Cincinnati, Ohio, July 22nd and 23rd, and dive deep into topics such as powerful coaching cycles, AI for coaches, and creating sustainable change. Invest in yourself. Register now to build your coaching community. 

Go to forward-edge.net/coachcamp and use the code Early Camper to receive a discount. See you  

there! 

Katie: Calling all instructional leaders, curriculum innovators, and dedicated classroom coaches, or whatever they call you. I'm Celine.  

Celine: And I'm Katie. As coaches, we know the path to school-wide growth can feel isolating with big responsibilities resting squarely on your shoulders.  

 Welcome back to the EDU Coach Collective. The end of the school year is officially here.  

Katie: Woo.  

Celine: You might be running on pure caffeine right now, like me, [00:01:00] but today we're inviting you to step out of survival mode and into the summer sandbox. So, before we head into break, we're reflecting on this year's wins, and getting inspired to play with some fresh coaching strategies for the fall. 

And joining us today, we have Kaitlyn Frederick. Kaitlyn is here to talk about her biggest breakthroughs, her favorite pivots, new ideas, and testing out what might be next. So, grab your coffee if you have it, or maybe you're just relaxing and on the beach or something, and let's end our year together here with Kaitlyn. 

Katie: Awesome. Welcome, K-Fred  

Kaitlyn: Thanks for having me, you guys. I'm excited to be here.  

Celine: Yes.  

Katie: Is this your first pod episode?  

Kaitlyn: I've had one more in the past.  

Katie: Okay. Yes. Awesome. Now we're just banking some episodes here. And also- Exactly. Yes ... I love how you added in hope- maybe you're on the beach listening. 

I hope for all of our listeners that you're on the beach listening. Yes. So, um, okay, yay, happy end of school year, Kaitlyn. Um, so let's jump right into it. Looking back at the, this past school [00:02:00] year, right, there's always, like, a good time for reflection. It's like now and New Year's are, like, the reflective moments- Mm-hmm 

I feel like throughout the year. Um, so looking back at this past school year, what was, like, a major breakthrough or moment for you that you had in your coaching practice? Tell us about that.  

Kaitlyn: I was really able to make some big breakthroughs with connecting with building admin. So for context, for listeners, I'm on a coaching team with three other coaches. 

They've been pretty well established at the district that we coach at, and this was my first year on this team. Um, so the district relationships with those administrators, great, talk to them really frequently, but the building administrators are all over the place all the time. Really hard to nail down, I think like most admin, right? 

Um, but it had been kind of a more consistent issue in the past of making sure, you know, we're keeping tabs with their needs and communicating what's going on with us as coaches, and I was finally able to get a consistent month-to-month meeting with this administrator, [00:03:00] and it was a game changer. It made all the difference in planning PD days throughout the year, getting tips on who to check in with, like, you know, on a month-to-month basis, so and so's trying this, or so and so needs help with IXL. 

It was awesome, and I think what made it work was I kept it short and sweet. I'm talking 15, 20 minutes on the fly in between lunch bells. I think this administrator in particular is kind of all over the place, and so finding a lengthier stretch of time is just a no-go for them. 

Yeah. Um, so once we found a day of the week that worked and a time that worked, I kept it consistent. That same day and time last week of every single month, recurring invite, and I sent multiple reminders. Like, they were getting a reminder the night before, they were getting a reminder the hour before, and they were getting a reminder 10 minutes before. 

So, like, if something came up, they had the opportunity to let me know ahead of time, so that way I could at least try to reschedule- And you  

Katie: just set that up, like, on the calendar invite- Yep ... the recurring invite itself, smart. [00:04:00]  

Kaitlyn: Yeah. That way they were getting all the notifications and reminders about it. 

It was always on their calendar, so a month out, you know, if they're trying to schedule something, that's at least already blocked off and ready to rock and roll. Um, and something that also really helped with it was using building blocks in Docs. So I used, I think, the meeting agenda building block, and that helped me stay on track because 15 to 20 minutes is a really short amount of time to try to update all the ongoings from the previous month. 

Um, so I just kept it to a couple quick sections, bright spots of what was going on, schedule changes that were coming up with me. If I knew I was gonna be out or had to go, you know, maybe to a different building on a particular day, I had a spot to let them know that, and then following up on maybe things that they had passed along to me or things that the district had kind of passed down for me to reach out to this administrator on. 

And it felt really good to finally get some consistency with that, and it, it really did make a huge difference in my practice.  

Katie: That's amazing. Mm-hmm. What was... What do you think is, [00:05:00] like, the one thing that finally made them come to the table to have that initial meeting with you?  

Kaitlyn: Well, being on a coaching team, I'd kind of framed the initial meeting as, "Hey, one of the other coaches at the other building is doing something that I think could really benefit our building," and almost kind of adding like a little competitive edge of, "Hey, they're doing something cool. 

Don't you wanna get on this, too?" Yeah. And then once we had that initial meeting, saying, like, "I'd really like to do this once a month, keep it short and sweet. Here's what, uh, you know, the talking points that I kind of want to talk about each time we meet," and that, that gave me my in.  

Katie: Yeah, I love that. Yeah. 

And even if our listeners are listening that don't have a coaching team they could lean on, you can still lean on, "I'm doing this with... at this other building" Yeah. Mm-hmm ... or, "I saw this other person do it." Like, you can, you can even kind of make it up. It's not lying. Yeah. You're just, like, bringing in some evidence from maybe somewhere else to lean  

Celine: on. 

Exactly. Yeah. Yeah, and I love the idea of using building blocks in Google Docs. Like, if you've never used that as a coach, such a [00:06:00] game changer. Mm-hmm Like, is there a certain format you kind of stuck to when you're utilizing that? I, I'm sure some people are not familiar with that tool or feature in Google Docs either. 

Kaitlyn: Yeah, so if you've never used, um, building blocks before, if you, I think, just hit the @ symbol, it pulls up the sidebar menu, or it's, like, one of the menu options in your toolbar at the top, um, probably insert or something, and you can drop down and hit building blocks, and they have... 

It's basically a template. They have all these different templates of, you know, things that you can plug in, and again, I think I used meeting agenda or meeting notes just to kinda section myself off so I'm wordy so I didn't, you know, go off track and talk about things that didn't need to be talked about in the short time that we had planned to meet  

Celine: Yeah, and just quickly use it. 

Yeah, I love that. Yeah,  

Katie: I  

Kaitlyn: like the timer  

Katie: chip.  

Celine: Yes. Yes. Uh, keep everything in line. Like, okay, we're just gonna quickly do this. You can see the time, 'cause I feel like admin are always on the go. Yeah. Thinking about a ton of different things. Yeah. So it makes it a little bit [00:07:00] easier to navigate the conversation, too. 

Katie: Yeah.  

Celine: So outside of that, when you're thinking about some of the tools and then addition to that, some of the strategies maybe you use on a daily basis, was there any point in time, um, where you had to kind of make a pivot or kind of change something that wasn't working throughout your year this year?  

Kaitlyn: Oh, yeah. 

Um, I started off the year with a big idea. I was like, "I'm gonna do this building wide challenge. It's gonna be themed. We're gonna have challenges every month. They're gonna submit, you know, PD attendance or meeting with me to earn these points and get all these inse- incentives." And it was not a flop. I had people that did it, but it did not get the same amount of traction because what staff member has this much time on their hands to go to this website and click on this Google Form and put all these details in about what they did to earn these things? 

So I had, maybe a couple consistent people that were doing the monthly challenges or going on and, logging for their points. But after a while, I just kind of took my foot off the gas, and I [00:08:00] started doing things just a little more passively. So instead of sending out these big building wide challenges, I might send out smaller bits of information throughout the month, or I might take some of that information and put it on my Learning on the Loo. 

Um, or instead of having the staff members go and try to log all of their information to earn their points on their own, I would just do it for them because I just finished up, you know, meeting with them. I wanna keep track of this for my own personal reasons anyways. I might as well just take that off their plates and do it for them. 

So really just kind of shifting the amount of responsibility with these building wide challenges throughout the year and taking some of the stuff off of the staff member's plate and just doing a little bit more of the backend work myself really worked a lot better. And honestly, I feel like I got more reach doing it more passively. 

Like, putting some of these tips in Learning on the Loo, people would then stop by and tell me how much they liked it or enjoyed it. I'm like, "Well, this information was there before, but if you like it this way, that works. If you're gonna read it that way, then we'll just [00:09:00] keep up with it and, and keep doing that." 

Celine: Yeah. And I'll have to shout you out. And I'm hoping this is you, 'cause I'm pretty sure it was. But if it wasn't- Using the context clues ... just take the credit anyway. Yeah. But, uh, the Halloween, tech treat, like trick or treat- Yeah ... was... Okay, that was you. Thank goodness. That was me. Um, so thank you for sharing that because that was such a hit in my building. 

It was just such a easy way of you putting different tech tools, and I kind of plugged my own in- Mm-hmm ... for the three different, uh, pieces of tech to give them, um, for our Google training that we were trying to do throughout the year. Um, but it was such a cute and easy way 'cause they Literally grabbed all the candy that I put out, by the way- Mm-hmm 

'cause I was like, "Here's your tech and treat" All the candy was gone. But you know what I mean? It was a really fun way that was themed. Yeah. It kind of aligned with what you were trying to do still, but it was such a quick and easy way for teachers to get information. Yeah. Yeah.  

Katie: Love that. I love it, and I love that, like, you're being really reflective and, you know, 'cause sometimes it's hard as coa- as coaches, you put all these thoughts and [00:10:00] plans, right? 

Mm-hmm. Just like when we were in the classroom and you plan a great lesson, and then it's not going great. Mm-hmm. But, you know, we're always, as coaches, asking our teachers to be reflective and think about things. So I just, I love the, the acknowledgement of like, "This isn't working. We've gotta make the shift to, to make this work for people." 

Um, what's one big thing you're looking forward to trying out next year, whether it's like a, a whole, like, coaching theme or program- Mm ... or like a new strategy? What, what's like your big thing that you're looking forward to for next school year?  

Kaitlyn: So I recently attended the Wayground and Forward Edge Edcamp, and they have different presenters throughout these different time slots, and you usually just pick one, and then you can revisit their resources after the fact on this incredible spreadsheet with just tons of knowledge. 

And I was going through, and I had clicked onto another ed tech specialist, um, presentation link, and instead of just posting their presentation with all the slides for somebody to read through, click through, whatever, they included a talking head in their Canva presentation of them talking about the different [00:11:00] materials and information on their slides, and that just blew my mind. 

I was like, "There are so many different ways I wanna use this." Like, you know, doing a passive PD like the tech and treat that Celine just talked about or, you know, just making previously used PD materials more accessible. Mm-hmm. Or, you know, if I pop into their classroom and teach them about something and, you know, they don't remember everything I said, what an easy way to kind of record a quick tip and send it off to them, so that way they don't have to read through a bunch of stuff or get distracted. 

Like, it's easy for them to grab and listen to on the go, and I just thought that that was so innovative, and I'm really excited to try that out next year- Yeah ... and, you know, see if that helps people kinda understand more of what I can do to help them, you know?  

Katie: I'm about to steal that and use that.  

Kaitlyn: Yeah. 

Yeah. I  

Celine: love that. I- That's so smart ... I feel like I've done that before, but it wasn't me. I used a Shakespeare head-  

Kaitlyn: Ooh,  

Celine: I like that, though ... and had me do, talk in this accent, and it was just Shakespeare talking. It was very AI focused. But yeah, [00:12:00] I love that feature on Canvas. Yeah. So I think that'd be so fun. 

Yeah. There's so many things you can do with that for sure.  

Katie: Yeah, I love that  

Celine: Yes. Well, this has been a great time with you, Kaitlyn. We really appreciate  

Katie: all  

Celine: the time. Oh, we're done  

Katie: already? Yes. It's been so long. It's  

Celine: been so long, so long, so short.  

Katie: Okay. Well, I wanna- But- ... shout out Kaitlyn, though. Yes. You're gonna have to tell us where people can find you- Yes 

and connect with you, but before you do, I wanna make sure that all of our listeners know if you are going to ISTE, first of all, stop and see our team in the Google Activation Space. Um, but also, Kaitlyn last year brought the house down in the EdTech Karaoke- Ah ... to Gaga, if anyone remembers. Yes, that girl. 

And we are going to make her try out again this year. Yes. And she will undoubtedly make it again. Yes. So definitely come to EdTech Karaoke to see Kaitlyn bringing the freaking house down again.  

Kaitlyn: Well, thanks for the shout-out. I appreciate it.  

Katie: Yeah.  

Kaitlyn: Hopefully  

Katie: that happens again. Where can people find and connect with you outside of the episode? 

Kaitlyn: Um, you can find me on Instagram [00:13:00] at kfredtech. Um, I post some of my tips and tricks on there, um, just little updates about, you know, things going on in the coaching world or things going on in my coaching practice. Um, so you can find me there. I'm also on LinkedIn, uh, just Kaitlyn Frederick. Sometimes I'll share some of my, you know, materials and, and wins on there as well. 

Um, but mostly I'm on Instagram.  

Celine: Yes. Awesome. Perfect. Well, thank you so much Kaitlyn, again, and thank you all for joining us for the first time we've been all together.  

Katie: Yeah. I feel like we're- Okay, well- ... taking Kaitlyn's tip of- Yeah ... keeping it, keeping it to 15 minutes.  

Celine: Yes. Yes. We did it quick and simple and easy, but we really appreciate you all listening, and we hope that you've enjoyed today's episode, and 

we'll talk to you again soon.  

Katie: Bye. Thanks for listening. 

Kaitlyn: That's a wrap on another incredible conversation. 

Thank you for being a part of the EDU Coach Collective today. If you found value in this episode, the best thing you can do is share it with another educator [00:14:00] or leader who needs to hear it. Absolutely. You can also connect with us on social media. Just look for the EDU coach. Network and let us know your biggest takeaway or what topics you want us to unpack Next 

Speaker 4: new episodes drop every other Tuesday. Be sure to subscribe and leave us a review wherever you listen to your podcast so we can reach more coaches just like you.  

Kaitlyn: Remember, you are not on an island.  

Speaker 4: You are part of a powerful movement.  

Kaitlyn: Now, go coach Fearlessly.  

Speaker 2: Heading to ISTE? Come connect with the podcast team. Find us at the Google Activation Room, the Expo Hall, and the EdgeU Badges booth. Let's talk ed tech. We'll see you there.