415 Instructional Coach Watercooler Talks

This week, we bring you some “water cooler talk” with Roxy Thompson, lead instructional technology coach for Peoria Unified School District. With over 13 years of experience in education, Roxy shares how she amplifies her coaching impact across 44 schools and fosters a culture of blended learning.

Roxy discusses the creation of “TechItUp,” a professional development program that empowers instructional leaders through digital badges and friendly competition. She explains how collaboration with other coaches has led to more engaged teachers and dynamic classrooms.

We also hear about Roxy’s work on Arizona’s AI guidance for schools, where she provides insights on approaching AI with ethics and a focus on powerful teaching and learning. Finally, Roxy introduces the Arizona EdTech Coaches Community, an initiative aimed at supporting coaches across the state.

Tune in for an insightful conversation as Roxy reveals her strategies, successes, and top advice for instructional coaches everywhere!

Follow Roxy on X and check out her other outlets!
Roxy Thompson on X
bit.ly/roxiEdTech


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Transcript

Matthaeus Huelse: 0:01

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

Katie Ritter: 0:09

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: 0:17

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

Katie Ritter: 0:23

So hit the restart button with us.

Matthaeus Huelse: 0:25

Recharge your coaching batteries.

Katie Ritter: 0:26

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

Matthaeus Huelse: 0:34

Hello again, dear listeners. Today, we want to engage in some water cooler talk with you. Do people still say that, Katie?

Katie Ritter: 0:41

I say it.

Matthaeus Huelse: 0:42

Do you say water cooler talk? Yeah, I don't know.

Katie Ritter: 0:43

You guys have been making fun of a lot of the words I've been saying lately, so maybe don't go by what I would say.

Matthaeus Huelse: 0:48

I wasn't sure if that was going to land. We will tackle this year's Trends in Teacher PD, talk a little bit about AI, and get caught up on the coaching tea. Our guest today is Roxy Thompson, a seasoned educator with 13 years of experience. Roxy began her career teaching social studies before transitioning to an edtech coach role, where she redefined the position to focus on coaching rather than training. Now, as the lead instructional technology coach for Peoria Unified School District, she spearheads Efforts to integrate technology into teaching and learning. Roxy believes that professional development should be reflective of the dynamic and interactive learning environments we work in, and when she's not coaching, she enjoys running, hiking, and spending time with her husky Mac. Welcome to the pod, Roxy!

Katie Ritter: 1:35

Yeah, welcome back, Roxy!

(FIXED) Roxi Video + Recovered Audio: 1:38

Thank you. I'm so excited to be here.

Katie Ritter: 1:40

We are so excited to have you here. So today I, Matthaeus and I talked about having you on the pod because you're just doing so many wonderful things in so many different areas. So I feel like normally we have more of a focused theme for the episode that we don't have today, cause you're just. All over the place doing awesome things. So this episode theme is really just let Roxy talk about all the amazing things that she does to help other coaches everywhere. So

Matthaeus Huelse: 2:10

that's a really long title. I don't know if I can fit that in.

Katie Ritter: 2:12

I know you're going to have to shorten that up. But

(FIXED) Roxi Video + Recovered Audio: 2:17

Sounds like a Taylor Swift song. You'll have to use like the first letters and make it like it.

Katie Ritter: 2:21

Oh, love that. Yeah. Thank you, Roxy.

Matthaeus Huelse: 2:24

We're entering our Taylor Swift era. Okay, let's go.

Katie Ritter: 2:27

I love it. I'm here for it. Okay, there's a couple of things that you have done that I would just love for you to speak to a little bit. Because a lot of times, especially when it's our coaches on episodes, a large district here in Ohio is nowhere near the size of your district that you serve. And I don't even know if your district would be considered large compared to some other coaches that we've talked to in different places. So I love the perspective that you're going to bring just in terms of if you could first start, like, how big is your school district? How many Schools do you serve? And if you could also talk about the structure of what coaches look like in your district too, just to lay that foundation of understanding for our listeners.

(FIXED) Roxi Video + Recovered Audio: 3:15

Yeah, absolutely. I am in a district that has 44 schools. We're a K 12 district. I serve all of them. I'm not assigned to any particular school, so I work at the district level. And then so there's about, I think, 2, 000 teachers in our school. We have Different sets of coaches. We have content coaches. There's about, I think, 10 to 12 of those in the major content areas. And then we have instructional coaches that are assigned to specific campuses. We don't have one at every campus because they're only assigned to Title I schools. So I think maybe 20, probably about half of our schools have an instructional coach. And then we have another group of, they're called strategists, but they basically do coaching, and so that's our exceptional student services department. So those are like English language learners, gifted, and special education. So all of these amazing educators in some way or another coach and support teachers one on one and then also are in charge of leading the majority of our professional development sessions.

Katie Ritter: 4:20

And then you are charged primarily with the support of the technology integration Blended instruction for all of the schools, as you mentioned, which is a very tall task. Could you speak to I, I just love the way that you have approached duplicating yourself with how you've partnered with the, all those other coaches that you've described. Could you talk about, A little bit about what you were tasked with when you were hired by the district and how you have worked with the coaches to amplify your impact across all of the schools in that way.

(FIXED) Roxi Video + Recovered Audio: 4:59

Yeah. What was nice is that this year, because it was a brand new position I had a lot of freedom to kind of shape this role into what I thought it should be. I don't know if I would have done as well without my first year coaching, but because I've been coaching for a while, I had a lot of ideas and opinions on what I thought it should look like. So it worked out well, but, the first thing, like you mentioned, Katie, that I realized was like I, cannot do all this alone. This district is huge. And so what I did have access to was this group of coaches every week. They meet in something called coaching collaborative, everyone gets together and there's usually like a topic they're focused on some sort of PD topic and then some time to just collaborate together. So that was the first thing I cued into was like, okay, there is a space already set aside for when we come together on a regular basis. And so I started trying to think about how could I utilize that space and just how could I start building relationships with all of these coaches to act as like my little octopus arms into all of the different, groups of teachers especially thinking about my, those instructional coaches who are there on the ground at those schools every single day. That was The first step was getting to know all these coaches, figuring out where, how they felt about technology, things they were already doing, and then where were those places where I could come in and support them and in the most impactful this year.

Katie Ritter: 6:28

And what do you think what has that translated to for you? What, in terms of so you're using that time where they're working to, what has been the topics or the focus of how you have been trying to tap into them?

(FIXED) Roxi Video + Recovered Audio: 6:43

Yeah, so the first thing was to get on the same page about blended learning because that is a, an initiative for our district is, to. to help our teachers use best practices for blended learning and technology integration in general. And so we, my very first session with them was just getting an idea of what was their past understanding of blended learning, because obviously I'm not the first person to come in and say, hey, people should do blended learning, right? So we had all these different ideas of what it meant. So it was trying to establish that vision for us of what that was going to look like looking forward. But then a lot of the conversation has been about, okay, how does our professional learning model for our teachers what we want that to look like? And that's just, that's been a big conversation that we've been having this whole year is just like, how do we, how are we, modeling the things that we want to see? And some of that came out of the National Ed Tech Plan that came out this year. It was good timing in everything that was going on because they had something to really anchor into that wasn't just my opinion. It was, like, a sort of call to action for, like, why there needed to be so much support in this specific area of really helping our teachers understand okay, now you know how to use the tool. But like they're still struggling with like now how to take that knowledge and those skills and really weave it into their lessons. And we talked about how we could be the models of that in our professional learning because those are like our little classrooms, right? And so we can show them? what that should look

Katie Ritter: 8:17

I love that. So it's just so smart. Because I do think so often we're just like rowing in our own little boat up our own stream and we're hoping everyone else is like on the same page and coming along with us. But then so often so many other instructional leaders in the district, whether it's like, principles who are tasked with being an instructional leader, whether it's the curriculum director who has no idea about like latest technologies because that's not what their focus is or other partner coaches where maybe it's different content or general instruction or the tech coach, right? And we, don't even, Talk and speak and approach things the same way, which really provides very conflicting messages to our teachers and overwhelms our teachers even further. So I just I commend you for recognizing that and starting there because it is it is a need that we have across education, so I would challenge any of our listeners to think about if you are in a larger district, if you do have other coaches, whether they're doing the same type of coaching role as you, or they're coaching something else, make sure that you're all on the same page first. Because if it's one person's telling you to go left and the other person's telling you to go right teachers just end up feeling Like they're in this little tug of war. Okay. So my last question here, because something else you've done in support of your district has been to build a new professional development program that I have loved and you're like sharing it out on LinkedIn and bragging on these people and it's amazing. I would like listeners to hear it straight from your mouth. So would you explain what the program is and what's all involved with it?

(FIXED) Roxi Video + Recovered Audio: 10:12

Yeah, so this is TechItUp, which probably wasn't like the most creative name I could have come up with, but we'll get it. We'll get it better the second time around. Yeah, I think I actually probably asked ChatGPT for some help with that, but it really came out of those conversations we were having about how we could really model the tech integration that we wanted to see. And once I for our teachers, and so once I knew everyone was on board yes, we, we believe that we are in we know that we have to model this, then the question became, okay, what kind of support do you need? So that you feel confident and comfortable integrating technology in your professional learning sessions. And that could be like formal PD sessions. We have early release every Wednesday. And so that's when the majority of those PD sessions happen. But then there's other things that happen, PLC, things that happen at other times of the week. There's about 40 to 50 of those coaches that we meet regularly. And there was a big group of them that were like, we need ideas on how to use technology in our PDs. That's just not something we've been doing a whole lot. And it would be great to have some concrete ideas. You can go out there and find a lot of ideas about how teachers can use it in classrooms, but they weren't really sure how that translated to their own PD session. And, also, I think, thinking about, they knew they would have teachers that felt confident with technology, then they'd also have teachers that didn't really know how to use it, so how did they navigate that in those PD sessions and supporting teachers? So I came up with this program we had our last quarter and I'm like, I don't want to wait until next year. I want to get this going and have this like momentum build into next year. And so it was really three parts. Yeah, it's sometimes you can get teachers to try new things after testing. There's that like little window where they're feeling bold and adventurous. It was three main parts. The first part was I chose five tools a mix of new things and familiar tools that were approved in our district, and I started recording just a series of videos that teachers could watch at any time to get some ideas about how to use them in PD. For example, we're a Microsoft district, so one of the tools was Microsoft Whiteboard, which I learned just through casual conversations. A lot of people didn't even know existed. So I recorded a, an intro video that was like a five minute, here's what this tool is, and then one specific idea for how teachers could use that in their PD. So I would say, Hey you could have them share their prior knowledge on a topic at the very start of your PD. So just some like real simple ideas of what that could look like. So there was the collection of videos. And then I set up five optional in person sessions so they could come and get some hands on support and ask some specific questions. And then the final part, which was my favorite part, was the digital badge system. I'm not even sure where I, where that came from. I know I've been looking at the EdgeU badges. I know people have been sharing about trying some badge things before. So I'm like, you know what? I'm just going to get into Canva and see if I can make something. So I made a very simple version. Graphic design is not a skill of mine, so these are really simple looking. And then I sent it over to our PR department, our graphics person, and explained to her like, Hey, I'm trying to do this program. I really want to shout them out on social media. I would love to hand out badges, but this is what I'm working with. Can you help me? And so she took them and she made them so beautiful. I love them so much. And so every time a coach tried a new digital activity in their PD, they just filled out this really simple form and just told me what did they try? And then how did it work for you? And that was it. And then every time you did, you tried a new a new activity, it didn't even have to be a new tool, just a new activity, you got like a new badge. And I wasn't sure how it would go over at first, would they be like, who even is this girl with her little digital badges? But it was so much fun and they got super into it and there were some friendly competitions of people that were like, I want to earn all five before that person earns all five. And I had one girl that like printed it out or I don't know what she put on and they had on a sash and wore it to one of the meetings. So People put them in their signature lines. It was so much fun. And I already have people asking me so what are we going to do next year? Or I got all five badges. Are you going to make some new badges? It was awesome. Really awesome. And, The in person sessions started off with me being like, here are some things you can do. And then by the second or third one, it was just this like group of people like sharing all these ideas. And I learned things from some of them that I didn't even know you could do with some of these tools. So it really just morphed into this space where a bunch of us that were like nerdy about tech stuff, which it turns out is not just the tech coach. It involves a lot of the other coaches. We're just sharing things. I have coaches that are some of them took the things I put in the videos and then use them. And so that was awesome. But a good number of them just ran with it and did their own things. And so I had a math coach that does these cool escape rooms with her teachers. I have a group of teachers that love ThingLink, which I hadn't seen, I don't think, since like coaches camp. And so they create these really fun, like station activities for their teachers. And so it's just been awesome learning. All the cool things they're trying. And then the feedback they're getting from teachers teachers that are like, this was so much fun and I want to try to do this with my students in the classroom, which is obviously that was the ultimate goal, right? You want to build up our coaches skills and get them feeling comfortable, but really what we want is to see that then translated into the classroom. So yeah, it's just, it's been so

Katie Ritter: 16:09

I love that so much. It's like the most beautiful success story. And I also think it's a great thing for people to take away to think about. As coaches, we're often so focused on directly supporting the teacher, which is ultimately what we're there to do, but I think this is a great way, especially for coaches in really large districts that like, there's no way you're going to support every teacher in that district. They're barely going to make a dent if you only focus on individual teachers. I just think it's such a good example of how you can target support for To those instructional leaders, to other people who have the ability to make more granular impact and support them. So I love that because I think we leave a lot of people in those positions out of the fold when it comes to training and support, i. e. here's this podcast to provide support for coaches because a lot of times they don't get it elsewhere. Love it. You are just a freaking rock star.

(FIXED) Roxi Video + Recovered Audio: 17:09

I was trying to think of okay, going into next year, like what's going to be the next thing in the first quarter? And I happened to be listening to the episode you had on about the tech madness. And I was like driving her in the car and I was like, Oh, my God, I literally want to pull over right now and pull my laptop and see this thing. Cause they were talking about it. So when I got to work I pulled up and saw their little basketball court. And I was like. This is amazing. Yes I can do a version of something like this for next year. So I've got, I got my wheels turning already about how to maybe repackage that and do a different theme. But I, I loved that

Katie Ritter: 17:44

Oh, I love it. They'll be honored to hear you say that.

Matthaeus Huelse: 17:48

Yeah. That's such a wonderful experience. That's great. Thank you so much for sharing that. Okay. So back to the water cooler, cause I have questions now too. I want to talk a little bit about another big trend. You mentioned next year. I'm just

Katie Ritter: 17:58

happy to hear you say back to the water cooler.

Matthaeus Huelse: 18:02

That's how I framed this in my head. Anyway, um, You mentioned next year, preparing for next year. And I think one of the big things that is on everyone's mind is AI and the role that it'll play next year. And you have been working on setting up an AI guidance for many Arizona schools. know that's something that a lot of the schools are doing and thinking. What was the process like? What, how did it start? And then we'll learn a little bit more.

(FIXED) Roxi Video + Recovered Audio: 18:33

Yeah, so back in the fall, I started seeing some of the states were coming out with AI guidance that was coming out of their Department of Education, and I just started posting about it, and I wonder I really was wondering, like, how, why is it that some states are getting out ahead and trying to lead, and some states are waiting behind, which is the same dynamic we're seeing with districts, right? There's some that are, like, getting out there and doing things, and then Some that are just in that wait and see so I've been posting about it and one, a colleague that I knew just from the EdTech world Dr. Leanne Lindsey, reached out to me and said, Hey I'm gonna write, do you want to write state guidance with me? Was like the the text I got. And I remember having this moment where I was like, What's, I don't know any I can't write guidance someone, I, when I said someone should write guidance, I meant someone knowledgeable, yes someone that's been studying AI for a decade, or I don't or is doing their district is really spearheading something, so I was I don't think, I don't think I'm the person that should do this. And then I thought, you know what she knows I'm not an AI expert. That's obviously not why she reached out to me. Like she knows what I do. And so there must be some perspective that she thinks I could bring to this. And if I sit around and wait and hope that other people step up and do this, it might never happen. So I was like, yes, I'm in. So she created a, she works out of one of our universities. Northern Arizona University. So it's like a little it's part of that university. So it's not coming from our State Department. However, we did have someone on the team from the State Department, so it has a little blessing to give it a little bit of credibility there. But we we did a survey to see what districts we're really looking for. And a lot of them were like, my own district right now. We're not saying no. We don't have things blocked, we see that this is in in the future and we're thinking at what I always say is we're having conversations about having conversations, right? But it felt like we were waiting. For someone at the state level to just give a go do it or a thumbs up or a something where they would feel a little bit safer taking those first steps. And once we did that survey and got some feedback, we use that information to guide our thinking and we, met together for 2 full days and this little room and. Just talked about what we thought education should look like in the future. How we thought about AI. Just these like amazing conversations, that we had about what we hoped for the future of education. And it was just, it was really inspiring. The team had just amazingly brilliant people on it. So that was, a little intimidating for me at first but it was such a great learning experience. And then we each kind of took a section and then it became clear okay, now I get why she asked me and like where I could provide some guidance. And So I worked on the teaching and learning section, which included teacher use cases, student use cases, stuff about academic integrity. And I remember at one point saying to her I'm really struggling with trying to write this without getting on my soapbox about what I think, and she was like, Basically said Roxy, this is the time to get on your soapbox get on it, and we're making guidance say what you want to say how you think it should look, and then I was like, okay, all right, I got it I just unleashed, like, all the things that have been spinning around in my head, that was great, and then we got some, we got different groups of people to review it, and then we made some edits and it launched, I think this was last week, I can't even remember now, in the last couple of weeks, We had the official launch and so we had this in person event where we were on a panel and kind of talked about like our favorite parts and then this big webinar to launch it out to the rest of the world. So it's been really great. My, my district was really excited that we had someone that I was on there. So they're got put a Peoria as part of this project. 1 of my board members was on the webinar launch and was like, oh, this is exciting. Excited to see next steps. So I'm feeling really optimistic that this will work. was what exactly what I hoped it would be, which would be the little nudge we needed to get the right people talking, to get the right people excited to get this information into the hands that needed to get into. So it's been great. And the funniest part is my boss knew I was on this team. But it's not something I broadcast to the rest of the district, right? So as it's been making its way through districts, I sometimes get emails now from people that are like, hey, have you seen this? They don't know that I helped write it. So they'll just be like, hey, you should check this out. This would probably be really helpful for you. And I'll be like, yeah, I will look at it. Thank you. for sharing that. So that's been really funny too. But yeah, I'm just, I'm excited. I feel like I, I feel like we're ready now. We feel okay about making those first little steps to start getting our teachers and our. Are students ready?

Matthaeus Huelse: 23:43

So before I ask you a little bit more about advice you'd give a coach or someone that is going to this position of starting to do this, I want to ask you joining this conversation, before being part of the process, what was your opinion and did it change? After going through that process, what was your opinion about AI before and did it maybe change or did you learn something new during that maybe impacts or maybe something that a teacher might feel too?

(FIXED) Roxi Video + Recovered Audio: 24:09

Gosh, that's really interesting. I think I was a little I was excited about its potential. I think like a lot of us in the EdTech sphere a little wary of, I don't know. It felt, kind of deja vu ish and like all the sessions that are like 20 AI tools that can do this thing, right? So there are a lot of ways in which it didn't feel that different from other, Other moments and technology advances where I, really just been waiting for okay, can, when can we shift that conversation and start talking about how it could change education? So I don't know that it, changed my opinion Overall, I'm feeling, I'm just feeling a little more confident when I talk about it. Like the conversations we had in that room, I felt was like a really good preparation for some of the conversations that are going to happen, I think, at the district. And so just feeling more comfortable about navigating those, and, some of the areas that I know teaching and learning as a coach, but some of those other things about like the ethics and the bias and that like some of those things, just being able to feel a little bit more confident talking about that. I think also, maybe I hadn't thought as much about the need to have teachers and students. Be AI literate, and by that I just mean understand how it works when we introduced Google Classroom, I didn't think about telling them the science behind it, right? It was just how to use the tool, and so I definitely think I feel a little bit more of an urgency or a to make sure people understand. Obviously, they don't need to be AI experts. I'm not an AI expert, but the more we can build our knowledge about the science behind it, how it actually works, I do think that is important. And I don't know that I was thinking about that as much before, before this experience.

Matthaeus Huelse: 26:06

Yeah. And that reminds me of like how we all

(FIXED) Roxi Video + Recovered Audio: 26:08

Yeah. Yeah.

Matthaeus Huelse: 26:13

right? It was just there and you knew how to use it. Nowadays, I think if you ask someone if that is a good Google search or a bad Google search, they will tell you like, Oh, you're not going to get what you're looking for with this question. And AI, it's the same, right? We still learning how, to interact with it and get the most out of it. So if you had to give me like, like pillars or cornerstones of that AI policy. What are like the two, three most important things for that, that you would give?

(FIXED) Roxi Video + Recovered Audio: 26:38

Yeah, we, start off with what I think is the, we had this running joke about which section was the best section And which one got the best graphics. But the very first section, we really start off with the powerful teaching learning is what we call it. And that's where we have the, whole philosophy behind how we think it should be used, how it can be used, really plant the seed for that idea of Yes, we know people will be focused on efficiency at 1st but really where the value is, when we can use that time to really create those engaging student centered lessons and some of the academic integrity and then, there's also a whole section on ethics that I think is really important especially if if coaches in a district where you're starting to think about these or putting out guidance just how we can do that responsibly and ethically. And then it wraps up with recommendations for implementation. Luckily, someone was on, in our group. was at a district that is really probably I think for the state, been the leader. They really jumped all in. And so they had a lot of great tips to share about the implementation. they've been also really great about sharing, not just like the things that went well, but they've been really, good about sharing here's something we didn't think about. We launched just all in on this and some things to think about. So I think that's been really helpful, too, is as having these different districts that are at these different levels, sharing the things that are working or things that they, looking back now, they're like, this probably would have been better if we had done this thing First.

Matthaeus Huelse: 28:20

Last one I want to know what is the advice you would give a coach that is maybe in a district that is a little bit slower to the process? They're like, either or not maybe they're ignoring that problem till now, or they're still missing things.

(FIXED) Roxi Video + Recovered Audio: 28:32

yeah.

Matthaeus Huelse: 28:33

What, could you give as like a tool or a tip to a coach that is, a district in that situation, or how to have these conversations with with teachers?

(FIXED) Roxi Video + Recovered Audio: 28:44

Yeah I think it's so funny because Leanna, the woman that led the group always jokes about Roxy kept on complaining on social media. So I reached out and added her, and I'm like, it's so funny. I really was, without thinking about it, just like poking the bear. Like, when's someone at ADE our state's department going to do something? So I think there is some truth to that is, there are a lot of ways in which just sharing thoughts and sharing ideas and sharing articles you're reading, I think, can help. You make connections with people that I, think will help you in ways you maybe didn't think about. And at least it shows that like you're someone that's interested in this. So if an opportunity does come up, maybe you are someone that will think about reaching out to be part of that. I really felt my district, and I think this is similar to a lot of districts, was waiting for something at a state level to come out to give them that go ahead. If there is any way you're a coach in another state that you can make connections with someone at that state department or some other organization and just see who's, talking about this, who would be involved if this was going to happen. Are there committees that are starting to be formed? Can you Put your name on a list to stay in the loop. So I think just reaching out to those different organizations and finding out who's, interested in this and where is the movement happening. And then connecting with people in other districts where there is movement being made and just asking them like, what how did this happen? Who, decided this? Like, how did those conversations start? That was the conversation I had with, the educators that were at that one district that was really leading the charge. I was like talk, to me about . this start? Like how did you get this going? And so that was really helpful. So I think just reaching out to people in other districts also to just see if there are things that you can either replicates in your district or just get a sense of the kind, the people that need to be in the room.

Matthaeus Huelse: 30:50

Yeah, realizing who needs to be in the room is really important too. Like your group contained so many different kind of characters and people that were involved in many different aspects of this.

(FIXED) Roxi Video + Recovered Audio: 30:59

Yeah.

Matthaeus Huelse: 30:59

Just realizing who needs to be involved in this conversation is a huge, part. That's a great point.

Katie Ritter: 31:06

And Roxy, we're going to go to a break, but before we do that, I just I hope you realize that you're one of those amazingly brilliant people too for all these things that you bring to the tables. Don't sell yourself short. There is a reason you were in the room and at the table. Okay. So hang with us just a little bit. We're going to take a quick break from our sponsors.

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Katie Ritter: 32:41

alright, welcome back to the ReStar ReCharge podcast. We have Roxy Thompson here. She's amazing. We're talking all things Roxy the Rockstar and just taking the conversation in a left right turn everywhere we go.

Matthaeus Huelse: 32:54

Roxy the Rockstar? Did you just come up with that or is that like a thing that I didn't know of?

Katie Ritter: 32:58

I would assume people have called you this before.

Matthaeus Huelse: 33:02

You heard it here first

(FIXED) Roxi Video + Recovered Audio: 33:03

That's my professional name. Yes. Marked

Katie Ritter: 33:09

okay, taking, so we talked about all of the work that you're doing to support your very large district, the coaches, you're really building capacity starting from the top of instructional leaders, the amazing PD program that you implemented, again, focusing on instructional leaders to trickle down your work at the state level with AI. I'd also like to take a pivot and talk about, again, some state level work that you've done with Putting together the AZ EdTech Coaches Community. So tell us about it. What is it and where'd the idea come from to bring this group to fruition?

(FIXED) Roxi Video + Recovered Audio: 33:47

Yeah, I have been wanting to form a group for Ed Tech coaches for a while, and I think it really became a priority when I made the move to this district this year, because I am the only technology coach here. I didn't have my my, my little team like I used to have and another shout out to a podcast put someone that was on the podcast, Emily Heller I remember was on an episode and she was talking about all the amazing things that she and her coaches are doing in her state. The the certified coaching program and everything they're doing to advocate for coaches and support them. And I was like, all right, this is the sign this is it is time. And it's time to get up and do something. And so it was good timing because there was a person from ADE. She happens to be, her name is Alicia, to be the same person on our AI guidance team that I worked with on our section. And she had put together something called the EdTech, Arizona EdTech Leaders. So this is a big group. It's based there's CTOs, there's, Instructional coaches, EdTech trainers. Everyone that kind of has a foot somewhere in the EdTech world at their district is in this group. And so it was great because then there was like already this group to pull from and to throw out this idea too. And so I talked with her about it and she's yeah, that sounds amazing. I'd love to, to come to the meetings. So I threw it out there to the group and was just like, Hey would anyone else be interested in this? And I really wasn't sure if I was the only one feeling this way or if that group, the leader group already was feeling the need people had to get together. But it turns out there were a lot of coaches across Arizona that like were really excited about the idea of forming this group together. So The trickiest part, honestly, is like finding a time when not many people can all meet. So we tried I sent out some surveys and got some feedback and we tried to do a vote. But our very 1st meeting we decided we would do monthly virtual meetings to start out and see how that went. And so our 1st meeting was the beginning of. January. And in preparation for that, I actually reached out to another coach, Nicole in Illinois, right? But she runs, yes, so she runs a group for coaches across her state that she's, and she's been running that for quite a while. I think since before COVID, maybe. So I reached out to her and she was so kind and we met virtually and she talked about how she set that up. Just the logistics and invited me to the meeting so I could see how that looked and how that worked. And her like interactive agenda, actually we, use a very similar thing. It works really well. So I got some great ideas and advice from her. And so we had the first meet, and I remember sitting there in my office 10 minutes before I was supposed to start, and it's like throwing a party as a kid, and you're like, is anyone going to show up to my party? So I was just like, please people had, registered. And I was just like, hoping we would have a good enough group where this seemed like we could actually like keep this going. And as people started to trickle in, and we're all excited it was, really exciting. I was super nervous that first meeting. And but people were just like really kind. So people that I knew, especially in the comments were like cheering me on Oh, Roxy, like you're doing great. They were so cute. Like coaches, coaching, right? Like you can't like stop, you can't stop the coaching and the positive feedback.. A lot of the first meetings were just getting an idea of what people's roles look like in their different districts. Some things just are you housed in IT or are you housed in curriculum? How does that affect those relationships you build and things like that. Just getting to know each other and, it's been amazing. We share resources it's been a great way to talk about some of the things people are doing around artificial intelligence, especially when it comes to trying to figure out some professional learning as we're moving into next year, what different people are doing in their districts. We have our new Arizona EdTech standards just came out, and those are based on the ISTE standards for students. We've been talking a lot about that. Like, how are you working with your content areas trying to bring those in and just sharing really great ideas. So it's been so much fun. It is one of my favorite things every month. Like every time it's time I get like really amped and I'll tell my office my little teammates, I share an office with two people and I'd be like, all right. You're going to hear me nerd out for an hour. I hope you're ready. Put some headphones on. Yeah, it's just, it's been so much fun. And I'm really excited to see, we're taking a little summer break, but I'm really excited to see where we can go with this group into next year. And I actually just had a I reached out to Dr. Ashley McBride, who's also doing work with coaches in North Carolina. And we met and just talked about the ISTE standards for coaches because it's something that, I'm, very passionate about. I love those standards. I think they're so helpful, especially when you're just getting started as a coach, but even thinking about how to keep growing. And so I was talking with her about how she uses that and the work she does with coaches. And I am in a couple of weeks, we have we have this ADE, State Conference. And so I'm actually leading a session on the ISTE standards for coaches and just get them there, getting them out into the world. But also thinking about, like, how these can help us really bring those new EdTech standards for students into fruition, right? Because yes, we will have some teachers that learn about them on their own and run with it. But there's so much. That needs to happen in the background, right? Set the stage and set the foundation, for, allowing teachers and empowering them to bring those standards. And yeah, so I'm really excited about that.

Katie Ritter: 39:44

just truly so in awe of what you've been able to accomplish. You should just be so proud of all of this work that you are doing. Roxy for Secretary of Education. Yeah, absolutely.

Matthaeus Huelse: 39:55

We'll spearhead that campaign. Alright, Roxy, we always end our episodes with the three takeaways for our coaches at the end of the episode. A couple of things that they can take away right from here. What you got for us?

(FIXED) Roxi Video + Recovered Audio: 40:08

One, I'm gonna give a little hat tip to Katie because I think you posted this. I think maybe it was like an anniversary of like, a job anniversary, but it was this quote about doing things before you're quite ready to do them. And I've really been thinking a lot about that quote this year. I felt like it's really. Been the theme is just like the the AI guidance, the AZ EdTech coaches group, like these were all things that I had a moment where I was like, my is this, am I the right person? I'm not sure there are people that know more about AI or that have been coaches longer or whatever. Is this really something, but I, every time I was just like, nope no, no one else is doing this. You're gonna step up and do this and even if it doesn't go perfectly you're gonna, you're gonna learn from that and grow from that. That's one tip I would give is just do things before you're, you feel quite ready to do them is the gist. The second thing I would say, and I think this maybe comes from like a coaching camp session years ago, is just this idea of like, when you're, we're hitting a place where you're like, not moving things in the way you would like to see them go, is to really start listening and cueing into, How your goals align with other people's, right? People that you're trying to convince to do something, and I think about AI things listening to what matters to the people above you that need to give the thumbs up or need to sign off. What do they care about? What are they passionate about? What gets them moving or what's driving them crazy? Whatever. And how can you align what you're trying to do with that and present that as a solution or a way to address this problem? And I think that can be really helpful when you're not, when you're going at it in one way and that's getting you nowhere, just stop and start listening and, think about how you can get that aligned. That's been really helpful this year also. And then the last thing, and this kind of anchors back into the Tech It Up program and the badging is just try to bring some joy and fun into professional learning as much as possible. People are stressed, there's a lot of stress and a lot of anxiety and people are just, feeling a lot of things right now. And so I think, Whenever we can bring some fun into professional learning, even if you look silly doing it or maybe not as someone's rolling their eyes at you somewhere just, make it as fun as possible. We want our classrooms to be places where you Students are really excited to learn, where they're enjoying themselves, where they're having having fun, I think would be great to see in our classrooms, alongside some really great learning, but I think we need to start prioritizing that in our professional learning also and just making it a, an enjoyable experience for our teachers so that they, will want to come and learn more, right? If they think they're gonna, they're gonna have an enjoyable experience. So I think just trying to find ways to bring that fun and joy any way that you can.

Katie Ritter: 43:23

might be my favorite top three tips of all time, and it has nothing to do with me because your first included me, but I do live and breathe by that, so I think those are awesome tips and I'm glad that you took that advice. Because you have been the absolute right person to, be leading these charges. You are always an inspiration to me, to other coaches, to our team. So thank you for being on. Where can people find you? If they want to connect with you outside of this episode, how could they get in contact with you or follow you or connect with you?

(FIXED) Roxi Video + Recovered Audio: 43:58

I am on Twitter. I'm also a little bit more on LinkedIn these days. You can find me there at Roxy Thompson also. I'm on Facebook. I'm on Instagram. I'm on all the things. And if you want to see a little bit of Husky cuteness, then Instagram, say, is your, that's where you should

Katie Ritter: 44:14

Yeah. And Roxy is R O X I, just for clarification, as people are going to tell you.

(FIXED) Roxi Video + Recovered Audio: 44:19

R O X I.

Katie Ritter: 44:20

Okay,

(FIXED) Roxi Video + Recovered Audio: 44:22

Yeah. What was nice is that this year, because it was a brand new position I had a lot of freedom to kind of shape this role into what I thought it should be. I don't know if I would have done as well without my first year coaching, but because I've been coaching for a while, I had a lot of ideas and opinions on what I thought it should look like. So it worked out well, but, the first thing, like you mentioned, Katie, that I realized was like I, cannot do all this alone. This district is huge. And so what I did have access to was this group of coaches every week. They meet in something called coaching collaborative, everyone gets together and there's usually like a topic they're focused on some sort of PD topic and then some time to just collaborate together. So that was the first thing I cued into was like, okay, there is a space already set aside for when we come together on a regular basis. And so I started trying to think about how could I utilize that space and just how could I start building relationships with all of these coaches to act as like my little octopus arms into all of the different, groups of teachers especially thinking about my, those instructional coaches who are there on the ground at those schools every single day. That was The first step was getting to know all these coaches, figuring out where, how they felt about technology, things they were already doing, and then where were those places where I could come in and support them and in the most impactful this year.

Katie Ritter: 45:51

awesome. And then I also want to give you a shout out too. You've written a number of Edutopia articles recently, which is like huge deal. And again, just like making waves and changes all over the place. Also go check out some of Roxy's Edutopia articles too, to stay up to Yeah, thank you. you. I feel like you've written on a variety of topics. Most recently, it was about a PD program and some strategies that you were Using.

(FIXED) Roxi Video + Recovered Audio: 46:17

Yeah a lot of things about choice and PD. I will say if I, when I look back and I'm like, oh, there's a theme here. A lot of I have a lot of passion about providing our educators with choice whenever Possible.

Katie Ritter: 46:32

That's awesome.

Matthaeus Huelse: 46:33

Roxy, thank you so much for being here, for talking to us. You've been so knowledgeable. You've given us great advice. Best water cooler talk I've ever had. Probably the only one I've ever had. But listeners, if you want to follow us you can find us on Spotify, Apple Music? Podcast? Apple Podcast? That thing. And yeah leave us a review and say hi to Roxy anytime. Thanks.

Katie Ritter: 46:57

Thanks, Roxy.

(FIXED) Roxi Video + Recovered Audio: 46:58

Thank you.

Matthaeus Huelse: 47:02

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

Katie Ritter: 47:08

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: 47:16

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

Katie Ritter: 47:22

So press the restart button,

Matthaeus Huelse: 47:24

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

Katie Ritter: 47:31

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