Restart Recharge Podcast

408 - Prepping for the End of the Year: Reflecting and Organizing

• Season 4 • Episode 8

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As the school year winds down, Rachel Porter and our hosts, Matthaeus Huelse and Katie Ritter, explore practical strategies for instructional coaches to help teachers reflect on the past year and prepare for the next. They discuss the importance of feedback, the use of AI to organize and analyze responses, and the value of having a coaching buddy to gain different perspectives.

Whether you're an instructional coach feeling isolated in your role or a school leader looking to inspire your team, this episode offers valuable insights into managing the stressful end-of-year period while setting the stage for future success.

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Twitter/X: @RachelP3333



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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:

Hello and welcome, dear educators, tech coaches, and visionary school leaders. Today we're going to talk about something that many of our teachers and educators are all excited about. The end of the school year. As we edge closer and closer to another chapter of our educational journey closing, it's time to reflect on our achievements and recalibrate for the future. Whether it's reflective practices or strategic planning, we are here to help you harness your experiences from this year to fuel your growth into the next. Get yourself ready and your teachers ready to get excited for the new year.

Katie Ritter:

I feel like we need one of those, like, paper chains.

Matthaeus Huelse:

Paper chains.

Katie Ritter:

For this episode. And we can like, cut it off.

Matthaeus Huelse:

I like that.

Katie Ritter:

Oh, that's right. You probably didn't do Okay, we're going to circle back around to that after you introduce

Matthaeus Huelse:

I told you. Okay. Let me introduce our guest really quick. Joining us in this pivotal discussion is a dynamo from Cincinnati. Rachel Porter. With 24 years of educational experience under her belt, Rachel has journeyed through teaching from kindergarten all the way to 12th grade, most notably in the high school English classroom. Currently, she's channeling her vast experience as an instructional coach here at Forward Edge, where she lends her talents to support over 700 educators across 11 buildings. Welcome to the pod, Rachel.

Katie Ritter:

Welcome, Rachel!

Rachel Porter:

Thank you so much. Hey, thanks. Thanks.

Katie Ritter:

Glad to have you back.

Rachel Porter:

Thank you. Good to be here

Katie Ritter:

rachel, you know what the paper chain thing is that I'm talking about, right?

Rachel Porter:

Like the calendar?

Katie Ritter:

Yeah,

Rachel Porter:

talking about?

Katie Ritter:

Yeah! The countdown chain.

Matthaeus Huelse:

Where you cut the last piece.

Rachel Porter:

absolutely.

Katie Ritter:

Yeah, You make construction paper, circles, links, like a chain, and then you cut it off for a countdown. Oh,

Matthaeus Huelse:

as in, like, chain. I did this with my parents when we were about to fly to Florida, to Disney World, when I was like seven. And we made a big paper, and we just cut the last part.

Katie Ritter:

Yeah. That's it.

Matthaeus Huelse:

That's okay. No, that cultural piece I connected with. Okay.

Katie Ritter:

I didn't even think about that.

Rachel Porter:

Exactly

Katie Ritter:

you maybe didn't do that growing up in school.

Matthaeus Huelse:

That's a good catch.

Rachel Porter:

Yeah, we have 26, I think 26 days left in the school year. So they call it A to Z countdown in the district where I'm serving and they've started it.

Katie Ritter:

Oh, is there like a fun theme on every letter or just like to signal the letter You have left.

Rachel Porter:

no, I just think. Yeah, learn the alphabet.

Katie Ritter:

Okay. All right. Well, thinking about how the school year is, it feels like slowly approaching, but gosh, with 26 days and I'm sure some districts have a little fewer, some have a little more but that light is definitely at the end of the tunnel. And as we are really excited to wrap up the school year, we know that we'd be a little bit remiss if we didn't stop and do a little bit of reflecting. on, you know, what went well, what was maybe a total disaster? What do we want to continue, stop, start doing next year? So can you talk about a little bit of your reflection process, Rachel? What does kind of this closeout time of year for you look to kind of also reflect at the same time before you start thinking forward?

Rachel Porter:

Yeah. So for me, there are really just a couple things that I'd like to share. The first one being the, the coaching program evaluation that we send out to our districts here at Forward Edge. And Looking through that data that you get back from teachers, administrators, paraprofessionals, anyone who takes time to fill out the survey and it especially, I mean, you get, you get quantitative data for sure about how they feel about your availability and all that kind of stuff that you can sit and process. But the thing I like to look at most is the just free comments that they leave in the chat. And this year, specifically, I tried something different than what I've done in the past, and I used AI to help take those comments and put them into categories so that I could just see trends And see where I needed to step up my game or areas where I am strong and affirm, you know, affirm what I'm doing or what I think I'm doing right. Look for any kind of blind spots through that and found that to be super helpful. So just asking teachers for feedback in, in some way, whether that's something you create yourself or if your district has something for you to send out. I find that to be extremely helpful in the reflection process,

Katie Ritter:

Great use of AI help you like cut through the, the trends and the, , the kind of commonalities that were coming out of there.

Rachel Porter:

yeah, it was super helpful and insightful, honestly, a lot of repeat things. And of course I sift through them all anyway, but just putting them in categories was, was kind of a new thing and, and, and really helpful. The other thing I would say that I have found to be valuable is we have. Kind of a buddy system at Forward Edge where we, we get a person on our team and we are essentially buddies throughout the course of the year. And every month we have some kind of tasky thing to do together, but that really just fosters I think, I think that's just intentionality to maintain a relationship with your colleagues and to. Take time dedicated out of your calendar, out of your busyness to talk through things. And in March we were talking through exactly what I was just saying. This, this evaluation or the surveys we got back from teachers and kind of looking at each other's feedback to. kind of just see, hey, maybe, maybe you could think about this or what happened when this happened, you know, whatever. And having those conversations is so important to get someone else's input into your world. And you know, my particular buddy right now is at a couple different smaller school districts, which is a different experience than I have. So she has insights into things that I might not be able to see. And that's really extremely helpful. That time factor is, is important in the reflection process to take time and just be quiet and reflect. So those would be two things that I find extremely helpful.

Katie Ritter:

I, I would have not thought if I was just working on my own, I think as a coach to like, Ask for a third party perspective on the feedback that I'm getting. So I think that is really smart advice to give other coaches. What do you think, what would you suggest to a coach who may be right? We always talk about like, we feel really fortunate to have a team of coaches on this team. Because we know a lot of coaches are out there on their own island and, you know, don't necessarily have a team of coaches surrounding them. What would you maybe suggest to someone who's like, Oh, I love that idea, but I don't have another coach to run this by? What, what would you suggest to them to get that same benefit that you got from that conversation?

Rachel Porter:

Yeah, I think, I mean, I really think any, any colleague that they trust that they feel safe with and can be a little vulnerable with I think anybody can serve that role. They wouldn't have the same hat as, as a coach, but also, I mean, we have coaching cohorts we offer and, you know, get involved in some, some kind of cohort on social media or through Forward Edge, even, you know, getting involved with other coaches who have nothing to do with your district or. What you do, but there are other coaches too. So a non coach can give you insight that a coach might not be able to even give you. So either one would be valuable input or both?

Katie Ritter:

Great ideas.

Matthaeus Huelse:

Yeah. So after you reflected and you, you thought about these things and you maybe have gotten some insights from the information that you've gleaned and thanks to AI that might help you with the categories and I love that what are some steps that you do after this? So now that you have maybe done some insights and you've learned something about, about your, like last year, what do you want to do next after that?

Rachel Porter:

Well, I am a planner, so I don't like things creeping up on me, and so I think. You know, we're only in April, but I'm working already on next year's schedule. I mean, my particular situation is probably a little different cause I'm not in one building, but I, I start working on where based on the, the data I've collected and based on my reflection, like, where am I going to spend my time next year? Where do I need to spend more time? Where do I need to spend less time? And start working on my schedule so I know where I'll be when, cause I feel like. Communicating that as early as possible. I think, you know, teachers, administrators appreciate that. And speaking of administrators, like I think that's another piece of this planning for next year. Meeting with administrators and asking them, you know, what do you think went well, or what are you hearing with your ear to the ground, what are teachers saying and chatting with them about what are some goals they have next year? Where do they see, that I could be best plugged in or utilized and just letting them, especially, I would say have those conversations after testing when they're kind of in the home stretch and they can actually process and think,

Katie Ritter:

Take a deep breath.

Rachel Porter:

be, yeah, yeah. Being strategic about when you meet with them so that they feel like they're winding down or have the capacity to to sit with you and spend some time chatting back and forth. So having some, you know, some questions for them, just generic and specific, having them give you their input. And, you know, one thing that I've learned in my experience is to be a good listener because even If you're a good listener, if you're intuitive, you're going to hear things even that they're not actually saying. And, and read the room and, Utilize that in helping you kind of move forward for the next school year., one example that I actually just was, I'm in, I'm in the middle of a coaching cycle right now with a middle school social studies teacher and. I think there's no time like the present to reflect on something that might not be going well or maybe it, maybe it is going well, but you want to tweak it. And I find that at the end of the year coaching cycles that I have, it's usually with teachers who have just completed a unit of study or something like that. And, They are like, okay, I want to do this different next year. Help me plan this for next year. So they're looking a year out and I was helping a social studies teacher yesterday who's in charge of the building's hope squad, like suicide prevention group. And she said she was drowning this year. It was her first year doing it. And she really wanted just somebody to help her figure out a plan for next year. So that's exactly what we're doing over the next four weeks. We're sitting down and we're plotting out her next year so she can walk in on in August and have at least a skeleton of a calendar. And so I think turn that on myself. Like I need to do that too. I need to sit down and say, you know, what went well? What do I need to change? Let me figure out where I'm headed next year.

Matthaeus Huelse:

I think that is such a good point too, especially talking to someone that's been in the position for one year. Cause I mean, I learned that might be some anecdotal evidence, maybe some people will agree with me, but it takes a year to learn any kind of job, right? You need to go through all four seasons once to have like, so sort of an understanding. The end of year one is such a great opportunity to come in and support someone that is reflecting over the year and is trying to set up for the next year. I think that's . My only question about that is, and this is a hard one too, you are having to do both, right? It's the end of the year, it gets stressful, teachers get stressed, coaches get stressed and yet you want to do so much for the future while like the immediate issues are still there, right? You're still so freaked out about what's currently happening. How do you balance that, right? I mean, sometimes I want to spend more time just planning as opposed to doing what I'm supposed to.

Rachel Porter:

Right. And I think as a first year person doing anything for the first year, that is really important. You know, I would say almost impossible to juggle and do it well. The more experience you have, I think that gets easier because you go through the motions of what you've done and you can, you can survive the end of the year, I think in testing season, you know, if test prep is done and now you're just kind of on autopilot with testing, and I know so many of our districts are doing, you know, standardized testing right now. They are on autopilot and they actually do have a little more capacity. They've done the work, they've prepped their kids, now it's time for their kids to do the work. So, they have a little more time, in a weird way, to sit and reflect and plan. But it is a juggling act, for sure. And there's no right way but most of the teachers I work with in April and May say Scheduling the time, forcing myself to give up my plan bell once a week or what, however often forces me to do what I know I need to do, what's best practice, and they appreciate the fact, they feel like that time was well spent. And I do a lot of question asking, you know, what's working this year? What, what have you done that you don't think is working well? And I take. Really good notes, and then I provide those to them when we're, when we're chatting. So they have that to reflect on over the summer as they're planning to.

Matthaeus Huelse:

And those are notes you keep throughout the whole year that you keep checking in with them.

Rachel Porter:

Yep.

Matthaeus Huelse:

That, that's great. Do you, what do you use? I mean, I'm sorry, this is like such a non typical question for us, but I'm like just curious. I mean, this is a very like organizational feature. I'm like,

Rachel Porter:

Yeah. So it depends. It depends on the teacher, but sometimes I use Google Docs that we just share back and forth and we mentioned each other and tag each other in there so we can see feedback. We use Connect Hub where I document all of my interactions with anybody I meet with, teachers. Paras, admin, whatever, and kind of take notes in there. And I'm kind of old school, to be honest, I start on a spiral notebook and then I transfer stuff over to Google or whatever. But I take notes in the moment and encourage them to take notes as well. And so we have that as a running, you know, running record of all of our interactions. So all three of those

Matthaeus Huelse:

yeah, that really, I'm sure that helps also like guide the conversation each time, pick it up and make it useful throughout the process.

Rachel Porter:

Yeah, yeah. And I look back through those notes right before I'm about to meet with them next because I, I, work with tons of teachers and so trying to remember where we're at isn't easy. So having good notes is important

Matthaeus Huelse:

that could be really good source for AI to, to help out. Because it can read a lot of text. Anyway I think this is a great opportunity for us to take a quick break. Hand it over to our sponsors. And then we'll be right back with Rachel talking about end of year procedures and how to help teachers prepare for the end of the year.

Katie Ritter:

I'm glad you always remember that.

Matthaeus Huelse:

I know, right?

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Katie Ritter:

Welcome back to Restart Recharge. We are talking with the wonderful Rachel Porter about all things end of year. So first half of the episode, we are really kind of looking at the coach reflection, right? And kind of personally wrapping up the end of the year, reflecting, thinking about long term planning for the next school year and what we need to do. But we also know as a coach that the end of the year is kind of a crazy time for the teachers that we serve. Right? All of the things that they need to wrap up and close out. A lot of times it's saving curriculum materials that they built to make sure they don't lose them for the next year. Maybe their digital filing system's gotten chaos and out of control like mine has. So end of the year is maybe a good time to get cleaned up before moving into the next year. So just thinking about all All of these things that our teachers have to think about. Rachel, what do you do to help assist your teachers through the end of year process to ensure that they kind of go into the summer, peace of mind, and are able to start next school year a little bit smoother?

Rachel Porter:

Yeah, I I love this question and there are tons of answers of trial and error on my part. Like I said earlier, being a good mm you kind of when you've listened to, to what they need even if they're not exactly explicitly saying what they, what they need, they may not know as an educator, you know, you they're finishing out the year. They need to get their ducks in a row and they, they are not thinking about August right now. They're thinking about surviving. So if I can do some of that thinking for them and provide you know, tools, and I'll talk about that in a second, that they can kind of go through. They will, come August, they will appreciate the April or May. That I thought for them

Katie Ritter:

Planting seeds a little appreciation down the line. So.

Rachel Porter:

yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, yeah, but you know, I, I, I really never had anybody doing that for me. And so. I want to, I want to do that for them. Take a load off of them for the future that they don't even know about yet. So some of the things we use or that I've used in the past are just like one pagers checklist. Our school is a Google for education school. So you know, getting them to clean house as far as their Google drive or their Google classroom. Having them just check off a to do list for that kind of stuff. Archiving their emails, archiving their classes in classroom clearing out any files that they don't need, putting a vacation responder in their email, like setting all that up. You can do that now for June, you know? And and then sending them things that are just value added that they are like, Oh, I didn't know I needed that. I'll send out a quick newsletter monthly, or I'll put some of like, I've done PD on the potty where in the, in the teacher bathrooms, I'll put little tips for the end of the year. And I get texts and emails like, thanks for that. I really use that, you know, that kind of stuff. So just. Plastering things everywhere where they just might see it or sending it out. They they take you up on that. So you can also not just the checklist, that's a little more passive, I guess, but sending out a survey or a Google form at the end of the year, like. Have you done these things? And then you have some data to look at too, if they fill it out. That, that hasn't been as successful for me in the past, but I can see where that might be successful for some, depending on the district, depending on the culture in your district could be super helpful. And then asking administrators, like, what, what do you need from me right now? You know, what would help your teachers the most if, you know, maybe you think, you know, but asking them, they may, they may actually say, help me get organized. So that's just another idea, but just giving them the tools to, to make sure they have their ducks in a row when they walk back in the classroom in August, cleaning up their fixing any, any documenting any thing that's broken in their classroom, maintenance requests, that kind of stuff, you know, just have all the to do lists, if you will.

Katie Ritter:

That's great. I like the, it was such a small thing you said, but I like helping them with a vacation responder, right? Especially for tech coaches that might be supporting something like that. I think that's a big one because I don't think most teachers do that. But I think that that can be really helpful to share like the frequency in which you may or will not be checking your email over the course of the summer. It can be really helpful if people are trying to reach out to you. So, that's a good little tip.

Matthaeus Huelse:

Yeah, and I'll add to the survey component because surveys seem to be scary to be sent out end of the year because that is not the time where people are going to have the capacity or the bandwidth, but maybe depending on, you know, the regulations and things like that, I have sent out one during proctoring times at points where like testing was happening and I knew that some teachers had smaller groups that were not testing and they had time to sit. And Those were opportunities. It's just kind of, you have to look for the right moments here and there, I know this and be very aware of your environment to know the right moment to send those out. But I think it's possible.

Rachel Porter:

Yeah, for sure.

Matthaeus Huelse:

All right, our last and final question. We always end on this looking at the end of the year. So what are three tips that our coaches can take away straight from this episode directly to their districts and buildings? Three things for our coaches.

Rachel Porter:

All right. So I would say the first is keep your ear to the ground. Be a good listener, know where you're needed most, be able to read the room. Because during this time of year, you cannot always depend on people to tell you that. So you have to listen. And then really tagging onto that is Taking good notes because you too are busy and you are scrambling at the end of the year. And so if you don't write, well, if I don't write it down, it's not getting remembered. So you might be listening, but if you don't document what you're hearing, you're not going to, you know, it's not going to be as effective. So that taking good notes ensures that when school's out for you or when things slow down for you as the coach, you have something to fall back on. To prep and plan and prepare for the following year. And then third, I would say let let things go. Like you're not gonna get it all done and it's okay. So get done what you can do and do the things you can with excellence. Doing less with excellence is better than doing, trying to do everything and doing it. Not so great.

Katie Ritter:

Amen.

Rachel Porter:

Those would be the things I would say.

Matthaeus Huelse:

That's great. All right, Rachel, thank you so much for talking with us about the end of the year and how to support teachers and how to reflect. First your chance to shine, to, to brag. Anything exciting you want to tell us about? Where can people find you?

Rachel Porter:

Oh, goodness. This is a hard question. Matthaeus, I don't even know my stuff, so you don't want to ask me that.

Katie Ritter:

You're Rachel P. 3333,

Rachel Porter:

thanks. You can find me on X, Rachel P3333. There you go.

Katie Ritter:

Rachel, thank you so much. It's always such a joy to get to learn from you and all of the work that you do. You are just a phenomenal coach and educator.

Rachel Porter:

Thank you so much, Katie. I appreciate that.

Matthaeus Huelse:

Yeah. Well, have a great day and thanks everyone for listening. 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.

Matthaeus Huelse:

Not one to wear just one hat, she's just one. Not one to wear just one hat. She's also driving

Katie Ritter:

See? Too long.

Matthaeus Huelse:

Well, I'm being trying

Rachel Porter:

you can be done.

Matthaeus Huelse:

I can be done!

People on this episode

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Dr. Katie Ritter

Co-host
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Matthäus Huelse

Co-host