417 Learning is a Contact Sport with Crissy Lauterbach

Supporting teachers through personalized coaching is a game-changer for both educators and students. In this episode, Matthaeus Huelse and Katie Ritter are joined by Crissy Lauterbach, founder of Contact Learning and Innovative Teaching and Learning Coordinator at Butler Tech, to explore how coaching cycles can unlock teacher potential. With over two decades of experience, Crissy shares her approach to guiding teachers at every stage of their careers, emphasizing the power of continuous feedback and tailored support.

In this episode we discussed Crissy's framework for coaching cycles, including how she personalizes the approach for each teacher, and the importance of involving administrators in the process. Crissy also shares insights on how to create a culture of feedback, vulnerability, and trust within the school community, highlighting the positive impact this has on teacher growth and student success.

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Chapters

• 0:00 [S4E17] Learning is a Contact Sport with Crissy Lauterbach
• 25:23 Commercial Break

Transcript

Matthaeus Huelse: 0:00

Hey dear listener, before we get started with the episode today, Katie and I have some exciting news to share with you if you are interested in becoming an instructional design coach.

Katie Ritter: 0:09

Forward Edge is currently hiring for instructional coaches in Cincinnati, Ohio. So if you're thinking, I could see myself doing that, stay tuned because this just might be the next step for you. Let's start with what coaching looks like on a daily basis for us here at Forward Edge.

Matthaeus Huelse: 0:24

No two days are the same. Coaching is a dynamic, collaborative, and impactful task. It's all about empowering teachers and elevating student outcomes. You may start your day by collaborating with teachers, one on one to plan lessons, or jumping into classrooms to give feedback and troubleshoot new lesson ideas.

Katie Ritter: 0:42

Later in the day, you could be diving into data, assessing what's working, what needs to be adjusted, and using that information to guide your coaching sessions. You're a partner in their growth, building that trust with teachers so that they see you as not just another observer, but as someone invested in their success, and most importantly, their students success.

Matthaeus Huelse: 1:03

And that's just a snapshot of the role. If this piques your interest, head over to Forward-Edge.net and check out the job listing. That's Forward-Edge.net

Katie Ritter: 1:16

you can also feel free to reach out directly to me on X or LinkedIn. On X, I'm at Katie underscore M underscore Ritter. And on LinkedIn, I'm just at Katie Ritter. And make sure to stay tuned for our next full episode, where we'll continue bringing you tips, tools, and strategies to recharge your coaching practice. Until next time, keep innovating, keep growing, and as always, keep inspiring.

Matthaeus Huelse: 1:42

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

Katie Ritter: 1:50

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: 1:59

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

Katie Ritter: 2:05

So hit the restart button with us.

Matthaeus Huelse: 2:06

Recharge your coaching batteries.

Katie Ritter: 2:08

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

Matthaeus Huelse: 2:16

All right, welcome back everyone. Thanks for joining us today at Restart Recharge. Today we are talking about coaching cycles, a process that might sound a bit technical but is really just a fancy way of saying how do we keep teachers growing and improving without feeling overwhelmed. As coaches, we are here to help teachers stay balanced, move forward, and sometimes, Give a little push when they hit a hill or they need a little bit extra pushing. But for teachers, coming in with worksheets, smart goals, and frameworks can be intimidating. So today we want to talk about how coaching cycles offer a chance for us to reflect, adjust, and keep momentum going with our teachers. So we are thrilled to be joined by Chrissy Lauterbach. I said that in a German way, by the way, so I hope that's okay.

Crissy Lauterbach: 2:59

It was perfect.

Matthaeus Huelse: 3:00

Chrissy is the founder of Contact Learning and serves as the Innovative Teaching and Learning Coordinator at Butler Tech. With over 24 years of experience in education, she's earned accolades like the White House Innovator Award and has been a keynote speaker across the globe. passion lies in mentoring teachers, both new and seasoned, by providing them with the practical strategies they need to thrive. Today we're going to tap into her wealth of knowledge and coaching cycles, feedback, and fostering a growth mindset in both educators and students. Welcome to the pod, Chrissy!

Katie Ritter: 3:30

Welcome, Chrissy!

Crissy Lauterbach: 3:32

Oh, thank you guys for having me. It's exciting to be here today.

Katie Ritter: 3:35

It is. It's really fun to get to engage and connect with you in this way. We've talked about, you know, PD and different things. You know, Butler, I don't think it was in the bio, but Butler Tech is in Ohio. Um, and they're actually right around the corner from us here at Forward Edge. So, we have had the privilege of working with you on some teacher facing projects. So, I'm really excited to kind of dive into this topic. that I don't know that we've had a chance to dig into too much, um, before about, uh, really hearing a lot of the work that you're doing. So I'm excited to hear that. So we'll jump right in. Um, Crissy, let's start by talking about the framework that you're using for coaching cycles. Um, can you share a little bit about how you go about that one on one work with teachers?

Crissy Lauterbach: 4:21

Sure, at Butler Tech, one of the things that we believe is that coaching is for everyone and that everyone can improve, right? If you watch Michael Phelps in the Olympics at any time, you watched all of his coaches come out and give him feedback and tweaks. And we see that now in our NFL season, how many different specialty coaches you have for every position. So we believe like to come in and to help you coach and achieve the best. I'm going to talk a little bit about how you can be successful as a teacher, as an administrator, as an admin assistant. So when we look at a coaching cycle, we really try to look at what are the goals the teacher wants to achieve and what do they want to accomplish. So a cycle could be very short. It could be three meetings if a teacher really just wants a one or two meeting. Item tweak on what they're doing, or if they're implementing maybe a new piece of ed tech, right? I might come back and visit and help them out two or three times. But if they're really looking for a full shift in their teaching, you might talk about a cycle that could last an entire year. If that's what the teacher wants. And it's all about setting right, those obtainable goals and pushing you to hit that first plateau of where you feel comfortable in your growth and what you're trying to change and letting you sit there and practice for a little while. And then figuring out your next plateau that you want to aim for and how we want to move you in that direction. So for our teachers, it's really a good ebb and flow. Back and forth in conversation. It's not pre described or a prescription for anybody, um, that would say like, Hey, you get three, here's what you're going to achieve at the end of three cycles or three meetings. So we really try to personalize it to match the teacher's natural flow of who they are, because anytime, right, you come in with any type of suggestion, if it doesn't match the teacher's core and who they are, implementation's not going to happen. And then the success isn't going to be passed on to the student. So we really try to get to know our teachers one on one and where they feel comfortable in their teaching and know how to push and how to prod them a little bit.

Katie Ritter: 6:30

Yeah, I'm curious how do you go about, since it can look so different from teacher to teacher based on the goal, I'm curious how do you position this engagement between teacher and coach to them, right? Like if everyone isn't going through a same length of time or a same number of meetings, what does that look like to share that information with the teachers so that they know what to expect when they're coming into this engagement with you?

Crissy Lauterbach: 6:57

Sure. As you know, Butler Tech is a huge organization in that space. And so we are lucky to have five full instructional coaches. And we kind of divide and conquer by territory, um, and by building. And so some teachers know that it's just a cycle, like, Hey, your name is up and this is the right time. Or some of it just naturally develops where they said, I really want to try two or three new things or whatever their personal goal plan is. Um, a lot of times a supervisor will say, Hey, I see in your personal growth plan, you want to increase engagement in your classroom. Why don't we put you on a coaching cycle and you can have a coach with you for the first nine weeks to help you come up with ideas, how to implement. So we really try to kick off every year framing coaching for every person in our district, but then sit down with our administrators and start walking through, Hey, who are we going to press this year? Who's ready for change? Who may have a change in their curriculum that opens the door to some new changes for them, whether it be tech or pedagogy? Who, who's in that space? Um, a lot of times. Every single one of our new teachers is automatically put on coaching. So when you come to our district, you could be a first year or I've coached somebody who's had 23 years of experience and they're just new to our district. So we want to get to know them and see what their strengths are. Um, so that's one way that we identify them.

Katie Ritter: 8:20

If Great way to like, level set the culture and the expectation, too, when they come to the district, right? So that everyone knows, hey, we all will engage with this coaching at some point. Um, we're going to introduce you right off the bat. I love, I love setting up new teachers to the district, um, in that way.

Crissy Lauterbach: 8:39

Well, in our own administrators do it like William Sprinkles is my direct administrator. And even when I'm giving a PD, he will give me feedback right in front of every single person. He'll say, Hey, I think you need to pivot. Maybe we need to cut this or it looks like there are times going a little too long. Like he will even coach us up and coach other administrators. And so we want them to see that the culture may not be always formalized in coaching, But the feedback cycle is continual for every single person in our district and that every single person can grow no matter if you've taught, like myself, this is my 31st year and I'm still taking feedback and I'm still learning how to do things that may be a little more efficiently or something with a little bit more justice or equity when I'm dealing with answering questions in a classroom. Or getting kids involved. So we really try to model feedback constantly, no matter who you are in our organization. And I think teachers feel like that's a leveler. If the CEO is going to take it and the superintendent and the CFO are getting feedback right from the audience, then I should be able to take feedback about my classroom and my space.

Katie Ritter: 9:46

Yeah, I love that so much. I've been separately, um, recently read the book Radical Candor and been doing some work like Across Forward Edge around providing more feedback and, um, in the moment. So my, my head has just been in that space of feedback and coaching at an organization level for a while now. So I've, I've been thinking and kind of comparing the juxtaposition of, you know, I've kind of lived in two worlds for a long time, like the business world and the K 12 education space. Um, and so I just love hearing that it sounds like you guys have really kind of achieved this space of radical candor within your own organization at the school level. Um, that I just don't think. Personally, I don't think we see that enough across schools and organizations, um, and I also love the kind of circular conversation you described that's taking place from, you know, coaches are talking about it, teachers are talking about it, but then also the administrators. are having the conversations with the teachers too around, Hey, I see this in your, your growth plan. Why don't we set you up with a coaching cycle? Um, could you speak to how you, Got to that place if, if, if you can, right? Like, how did you get everyone on board having these conversations and, and pointing to coaching? And I'm sorry, if you wanted to speak to something else, feel free to do that as well, too. Oh,

Crissy Lauterbach: 11:06

was just going to tell you that Radical Candor was our book study last year. So yeah, so we had, I mean, I think I gave out 150 copies of it and we had a great book discussion on it in that space. I think for me, I have always just been very straightforward. And so being in the classroom, even when I was teaching history in 1994, when a student would present, I would say, what's one thing they did well? What's one thing they could do better? And the question was, why, how did that impact you as an audience member? Right? Because we can stand up here and we can present all you want, but if it's not being listened to and heard and understood that comprehension part, right, we can listen and never really give our attention to something. If we don't know that impact, then we're not really moved to make a change. So I had a student do a PowerPoint and it was 27 slides and they only had eight minutes. So the very first thing the students told him was like, dude, you've got to narrow this down. You are, you're talking way too long in detail. Here's some things that you can do. And here's why it made me as an audience member, not want to participate. It made you Basically, tell me what you thought and felt the whole time. And you didn't hear my voice at all. So when people started hearing how that was framed, right, like you did this really well, can you lean into your strength to go ahead and clean up whatever wasn't going well? Can we do that? And so when I came to Butler Tech into the ITL position eight years ago, they started using the AIC, Affirm, Impact, and either Challenge or Continue model, which is how we give feedback. So for you, I would say like one, I'm going to affirm your journey that you called out that you live in two worlds, the business world and the education world. And boy, those are totally different. And it's hard to get your hands on both of those. But what I want to tell you is that impact is because you have that is why your business is successful and why we partner with you because you guys get it. And that's why most of education businesses fail is they don't either understand the education pedagogy side and they're not delivering a product that is needed or they can't manage the business side and do their books. So for you to have both, that's like what is making you so impactful. My challenge to you. Here comes that C part, is to continue to find out what really is being needed in the classroom and not to prescribe things from the outside or the newest tech tool. Continue to dive into the pedagogy because that leads us to better tech. So by, by doing it that way, right, affirming something that they're really good at, telling them what the impact is and what the change could be or what you want them to continue. Because they might be slaying it. So you want them to continue using those processes. Really builds confidence in the educator and uses that asset based language. Because we all know, right, in a moment of chaos, we're going to go to where our strengths lie, and we're going to go to where we can grab control. And if that control for you is you have good relationships, then how can I use your relationships with your students to maybe help you become a better planner? So we got to leverage that strength, see where that impact hits the student and that that teacher can physically see it. I mean, I'll be in a classroom and I'll say, come here, stand next to me, look at what your students are doing because you planned such a great lesson anchored in content, but it's hands on. Look at how they're leading themselves and they're asking more poignant questions. Now we're running about 20 minutes behind on this project. So where can we tighten that ship up? Right? I need you to start calling out vocal cues. I need you to start calling out timing, but that teacher will lean in because they're physically seeing the change or they're mentally hearing the change in their classroom and that's going to help them take a challenge or it's going to firm up something they're doing really well that they may not know. You know, those extra set of eyes of a coach in the classroom, I get teachers coming in with goals all the time. And they're like, Crissy, I need help with, you know, maybe teaching bell to bell. I need help with consolidation. And after you watch them, you're like, you literally had 45 seconds to spare. What do you mean you need help with bell to bell? They don't always realize or see those positive moves. So having somebody in there to tell them that it really builds confidence for our teachers to take risk and to connect with students.

Katie Ritter: 15:37

Absolutely. And sorry, I'm going to push this a little bit more. Um, on the admin piece that you spoke about, right, where the admin are a part of these conversations with teachers. So you may not even need, as the coach, to be involved with a teacher, but you've got your administrators who are helping connect dots to coaches. Do you, do you have any insight of, um, you know, was there any special work that was done with administrators? Do they participate in, um, coaching cycles with coaches, right? Like that, that is really kind of the way you described it, I think, is this, um, really ideal place that we would love to see, um, where admin have this understanding of the, the power of working with a coach. And they understand what a coach can bring to the table, that we just don't see, across the board so I'd be curious if there's any insight our listeners can glean on how you got to this ideal place where your administrators are part of the conversation, um, and they're essentially, uh, you know, like driving business to you as coaches, right? They're, they're helping make those connections and connect the dots for your teacher, even when you're not in the room.

Crissy Lauterbach: 16:43

Yeah. It really goes back and forth. I've been lucky. I've been teaching at Mother Tech for 23 years. So as an admin for eight years in that space, I know almost everybody in my district or have taught with them at some point in time. So when I shifted into coaching, there would be somebody that I could go and say, Hey, so and so really needs this push. Like, Just as their peer, I know this about them or I've co taught with them. So that might lead a coaching space, but for some admins too, it could be coming off of their OTES or their evaluations. If someone's placed on an improvement plan, then that administrator will sit down and set the goals for that person. And then they will go automatically on coaching with prescribed goals that the administrator has laid out. For somebody else, quite often, if it's not your rotation, we get requested a lot. I would like to be on coaching. So we sit down with the administrator and the teacher, and we'll talk through, what do you think are your strengths and where do you see areas of growth according to our nine teacher expectations? And so the teacher gives feedback, the admin gives feedback because they've been in their classroom. And we then set two goals that the coach and the teacher will then focus on for however many cycles it takes until the teacher is satisfied in that space and the admin. But every week we meet with our admins and we give a little bit of feedback and only positive feedback. I might say, Hey, Carrie, so and so is working on this as her goal. And this week, man, you got to see this lesson. She's got planned for Thursday. Or I was in there Tuesday and this is what she deployed in an amazing way. We. Only talk about celebrations because it's, we are not the gotcha people. We are not the evaluative people. We're there to really take those strengths and build for that teacher. So weekly we meet with our admins and we'll let them know if somebody's canceled a coaching session, that we might be falling behind because, you know, their children are sick or something happens. Or we will say to the admin, I'll see a lesson in the morning and I'll say, Hey, you need to go see that they're doing it again at six bell, get in there at 12 o'clock and watch it. So we constantly are just looking for ways to support that teacher in an ebb and flow. And at the same time, we make sure that any feedback to the teachers around that. The goals we've set. So the admin can't walk in if they know that they're working on engagement and bell to bell and all of a sudden start going after classroom management. They can only give feedback on that bell to bell or engagement that we've set. So that way the teacher is not getting 900 birds chirping at them. They're receiving feedback continually on one precise or two precise goals. So it's a constant back and forth.

Katie Ritter: 19:25

Yeah, that's really helpful. And I love to hear how sharing the, um, the bright spots. That's how we refer to them here on the team. Um, or those celebrations has led to so much success. Sorry, one last question for you. Sorry, I'm going totally rogue. Um, The, uh, you, when you talked about when a teacher is not on rotation, if you could speak to that a little bit more, I'm not sure if that was already in place before you started this rotation or, um, it's, I'm, I'm going to assume not given the length of time that you've been with the organization, how long you've been supporting teachers in this way. Was there any pushback, um, that you were able to observe or, or witnessed if it was in place before you started to this idea of a rotation and what did that kind

Crissy Lauterbach: 20:14

Yeah, um.

Katie Ritter: 20:15

and turn into?

Crissy Lauterbach: 20:16

Sure. So, um, the way that we coach is we try to assign every coach to either one of our campuses, and we have four campuses, and then we assign them to one of our satellite districts, and we have 13 of them. of those, excuse me, 13 of those. So that way our coaches learn how our entire campus moves and feeds, right? Because there's a difference of a student that you have from eight to three, and then a student in the satellite that you may only have for an hour and you're viewed as an elective teacher, right? In that space. So for example, I have nine teachers at Hamilton High School. Well, in three years, I've already coached all nine of them. So then we just started our rotation. Who's the last one we've coached? What, who else needs to be there? Um, and like I said, a majority of them really come from teachers coming to say, Hey, can I be on coaching next year? Cause I really want to work on, and they drive that schedule. Where the first year we did kind of, March down a rotation and say, okay, you're going to be at the high school. Who's another teacher that you could snag at the high school since you're physically going to be there. Um, and then being at D Russell Lee, our other one, we have 35 to 40 teachers. So of course, that's going to take quite a few more years to go through and make sure that you've coached every single person. And then the other caveat for us is we're career in tech. So a lot of times our teachers have just come out of industry and they only have 24 credit hours of college training to be teachers. So quite often they kind of move up the rotation because they've had the least amount of training. So they may go through two or three cycle where a traditionally trained teacher may only have one cycle. In five years. It just depends on the need of the teacher, what administrators are seeing in the classroom, if they see somebody who's really slaying it and they want to push them a little further, or if they see somebody who's really struggling at that moment and needs support. Whether it's planning support, it could be resources support, or it could be like, Crissy, show me how to lay it down in classroom management. So quite often, I'll go in with the teacher if they are on rotation or not, or if I'm just visiting their classroom on a weekly basis, which is what we try to do. I will model for them right in the middle of the class. And if they're, if I'm modeling something and maybe this teacher's struggling to pick it up, that might be a light. Hey, let's go ahead and put you on a short rotation for coaching so we can model this practice until you master it. So the ebb and flow of rotation isn't set in stone. It's really based upon the student need and the teacher need.

Katie Ritter: 22:53

Okay. Yeah, that's interesting. I've just, I've been hearing in a few pockets around the country , where schools are, um, really, I guess more at the district level where they are similar to what you're describing, but, um, where there is a set rotation and teachers do know, Hey, I'm coming up, you know, this year I've got to go through a coaching cycle. Um, and at first I was hesitant on, How I felt about that, but more and more, I'm just hearing a lot of positive things about this kind of set expectation that, hey, we're all going to go through this and kind of the level setting of what that does for coaching and just making it really a part of a culture. So I think that's a beautiful thing. And I also love hearing just. It just sounds like such a beautiful culture of vulnerability, too, that you all have created, right? Where I think teaching can be so lonely and you're expected to just be this expert in so many different things, um, that I just love hearing about how it sounds like people aren't afraid to be vulnerable around like, hey, I know I need to be better at this and I'm struggling, so please come help. Um, and then your coaching team is able to kind of come in to the rescue and, and help support this educator to have the. Confidence to tackle one more day with so many different things in front of them every single day.

Crissy Lauterbach: 24:15

Well, and you know, and I know, um, it's not about your own bias in the classroom. It's not about how you think it should be taught at all. It's really to get the best result for the student. So when you step next to the teacher, a lot of times I'll recommend things I've never even done in the classroom, but I've practiced, right? Or I've kind of, Let's give this a shot. Let's see where this goes. Cause it could be your solution and teachers trust you to do that with them because you're being as vulnerable as they are to say, Hey, I'm not so sure about this and let's just be honest. Um, I've had my administrator's license since 1999, right? And so. And I never wanted to use it after I got a taste of it at Lakota. I was like, this is not what makes me happy. Like I'm a pedagogy coaching kind of person. So a lot of times our administrators have only been in the classroom for three or four years and they've been out for 10. like us, we've got. I was in the classroom 23 years before I moved over. Another one of our coaches was in for 22 years. Another was at 15. You've got veteran teachers in there that hold a really good reputation in your district. And so teachers are more likely to follow that than an administrator who's been out of the classroom for 15 years, who's suggesting something to you that They've never tried in their heartbeat, or have never even seen it right in their own mind. At least things I try to suggest I might have seen another teacher do, or I've tried on another PD that I've led, or something. And I think that carries a lot of weight for them, that they're feeling like a teacher to teacher kind of connection in that space. And we know, you know, our administrators right now, we are so low at the state level that people are leaving the classroom very quickly to move into admin jobs. And so that lack of experience continually is someplace that, you know, every admin should go back and teach and every admin should be on a coaching cycle on how they present to their staff. There's a lot of them I've sent emails to and said, Hey, um, you're black and white. PowerPoint ain't going to cut it. You would not accept that from a teacher. You literally lectured for 45 minutes to them. You had no activity. You had no chance for them to reflect. That's not going to cut it in the meeting. So you can't be the one out there asking your teachers to step up if you're not stepping up. So our coaching has kind of leveled up and given people a voice in some spaces. They didn't expect the voice to occur.

Katie Ritter: 26:47

Yeah, that's great.

Matthaeus Huelse: 26:49

We will take a really quick break, uh, just enough time for me to read Radical Candor because I feel like I'm the only one that didn't do the homework today. So, uh, I'll, uh, jump into the book real quick and then we'll be right back.

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Matthaeus Huelse: 28:19

Welcome back to Restart recharge. We are here with Chrissy Lauterbach talking about coaching cycles. So one of. The next questions that I wanted to ask you. I wanted to drill down a little bit further into what actually happens. When you're sitting down with the teacher. So, um, what would be. Your preparation or if I were to sign up for coaching cycle, Michael, what should I expect in terms of why are we doing step-by-step and. And what would it actually look like going through a coaching cycle with you?

Crissy Lauterbach: 28:50

When you guys are talking about a coaching cycle, what normally happens is the administrator will contact the teacher and say, Hey, um, Matthaeus, it's your turn. You're up for coaching. And this is why. It could be like, Hey, I've seen you do some things in your classroom that I think you could do some guidance with. It could be like, you're doing this amazingly. I'd like you to get more structure. They'll contact the coach and we'll get together with them. The teacher and have what we call a launch meeting, and so it's a moment to celebrate them and their strengths, and they will go through and go ahead and mark out of our nine expectations, what they do well, and then we'll set some goals. Then I'll go to the classroom for a baseline, and I'll watch an entire lesson, and the teacher and I will then touch base and we'll talk about their goals. Are these the right goals that they should be focused on? Do we want to change them? Are there things that they didn't see come into play that they may not have noticed that they were doing? And once we firm up those goals, um, depending on how deep of pedagogy, then we kind of set up a meeting structure. I really like to refine those goals, give the teacher Two options or three options of things to try that I think fits their personality. And then give them like a week to practice or to naturally integrate them into a classroom lesson. Come back, watch them deploy some of the things that we've talked about. Give them direct feedback on those items that directly hit their goal. Maybe one or two things might have popped up that they need also assistance of. So I'll give them one or two things, other things to try. And then you come back another week later. We were on like a two week rotation and teachers said, can you come more? And can you like, can we get more visits in a short amount of time? Because I feel like I can grow as long as somebody keeps pushing me every other day. But when I have a two weeks in between our visits, it gets kind of hard for me to keep up the momentum. So I think what we tried to do is shorten down how much time is between each visit and really just try to narrow down on those two goals. Okay. Um, and it helps the teacher make some remarkable steps that they can implement, and then they can keep growing into the next quarter. At the end, after the cycle's done, whether it's three visits or ten visits, we bring them back with the administrator, and we sit down to celebrate what their growth has been. And we clap, sometimes we'll have a luncheon with them, and we'll bring in other people that we might be coaching, so that they can talk about their experience. And that's what shifted our culture. Some of our teachers who nobody would have ever expected to maybe latch on to coaching or to get as much value out of it, came forward and told the staff, this person changed my practice. They took what I was doing and gave me the words that I could ask for what I really needed. They came in and gave me suggestions and they didn't leave me. You know, they didn't just say, well, here you go. Bye. They were there to model it and to hold my hand and to push me. So we try to make it a really positive beginning and ending, but man, some of that work in between can get nasty and ugly for that teacher and for you as a coach, but you just have to keep reminding them. You're helping someone become the best version of themselves. And how would you react if somebody was helping you become the best version of You know, the best version of yourself. You've got to, you know, admit to some of the things that maybe you are not doing so well. And you've got to admit to some things that you feel are maybe a weakness for you. If you trust the person sitting across from you and you know that it's with pure heart, usually you're going to accept that feedback and that growth and those pushes with a kind heart.

Katie Ritter: 32:33

Yeah, really quick. I love, I love how the admin are involved in every celebration to keep them in the loop on, um, all of the progress that's being made with all of the teachers. I think that's fantastic. So I would encourage our listeners to think about, um, how, how could you do more of that, um, in the way that you're doing your coaching work. And then also quickly, you said at the beginning, um, when you were kind of setting the stage for the kickoff of these coaching cycles, um, that you look at the nine expectations. Are those, can you just speak really quickly, what are those expectations? Is it something that your coaching team came up with? Is it, um, like Butler Tech instruction expectations? What are those expectations that you referred to?

Crissy Lauterbach: 33:16

Sure, when we were thinking about the identity of teachers in our district, and because, right, two thirds of our teachers do come out of business, we were like, what are the nine things we would want every teacher to do? And one was in mindset, another one's in classroom management or policy and procedures, and the other one is that engagement or student relationships. And so we really operated underneath that for about Two years or three years and then decided, man, nine's too much. And we narrowed it down to what we now call the core four. So after that initial take of the nine, we really focus on relationships. The engagement continuum, like are kids just checking into school or are they becoming, you know, transformational leaders in that space? We also start to look at student voice and how is your student voice captured in that area? How are you grabbing that? And the student voice for us goes into Their social emotional, their cultural, their content, and then their metacognition. How are they thinking about their teaching and how are they handling that? So we really focus on the core four and try to keep things straight to that engagement level. And everything kind of rotates. So even our administrators go in and that's the only commentary they give is on the core four, because it is kind of the crux of what we believe as a district.

Katie Ritter: 34:36

Yeah, I love the, I love the connection to something tangible when the teachers are setting goals, right? To have this common language, this common, , Like goal and expectation that everyone is working toward. And I just, I like the way that, um, you described kind of having that out in front of them to help drive that initial goal setting conversation in a way that is in line with, um, larger, District initiatives and conversations so that these coaching cycles aren't seemingly disconnected.

Matthaeus Huelse: 35:07

And I think it's so encouraging to hear that this is such a collaborative process. You've got admin fully involved in it, and you are pulling this all together with a lot of big values for the institution. Now, my only question is not every. Not every school district looks like that. And sometimes coaches in our position have the tough job of convincing teachers to come and join you in their coaching cycle. So they might not get the support and the stuff they need in order to be successful or get pushed to by admin. So my question for you is how would you, how would you encourage a teacher or like, what would be your pitch to a teacher to say like, Hey, You should join this coaching cycle for me.

Crissy Lauterbach: 35:47

Yeah. Well, you know, nothing speaks better than to see it in action. So we do coaching walks every Tuesday with our admin. We go to see every single one of the teachers that we, you know, help with in that space. And it's on those coaching walks when you're right there with the classroom and you'll watch a teacher. Do something well that you can have that one on one conversation with. Or also what we do too is we, on our curriculum days and on our onboarding, we will get a group of teachers and we'll walk our buildings with them. And so once we start to walk the building and they walk into another person's class and they see that they're open, openly welcome and that the teacher's taking feedback right there. And sometimes right in the middle, I'll get a teacher to do a pivot in the The observing teacher will say, Oh my gosh, the entire class shifted. They're on a positive note or they're doing this. That's what coaching does? Yeah. So anytime that we can get physically with them and it's not handled over email, about 99 percent of the time, you're going to get a person who's going to say, okay, I'm ready for coaching. But there's always that 1%, right? And that's when you go with the data. We continually only talk data with our teachers, not, well, I'd like, and I think you should. It was, you had 18 out of 35 kids engaged. At that moment, when you'd give your directions again, the way I showed you, or if you tried to use this pivot, look, we are now at 30 engagement. Look at the difference in your classroom's noise level. Look at the difference in the exchange of content that they're having. So immediately when you come back with data with them and you're showing them, you know, you ask them, is everybody on task? Well, of course they're going to say, yes, everybody's on task. But you can say, I have four kids over here watching YouTube videos. I have two over here that are drawing in their books and not listening to you. So now 20 percent of your class is not on with you. Teachers are like, oh my gosh, I didn't see that. Yeah, because kids are good at switching back to new web pages or hiding their cell phones. So sometimes it is about just stopping and taking a minute of time to show what those small pivots and what coaching can do. And usually even the hardest hearts have come our way lately. I mean, we've got one or two, everybody has a tank or two that likes their position and won't give it up. But we've even had some of the hardest teachers that resist change are now some of the biggest champions for coaching.

Katie Ritter: 38:16

love the physical component that you just described. And it sounds like if I'm hearing you correctly, you have a two pronged approach to that physical component. One is bringing admin in the classroom, right? So that the admin can see the power. They can continue to help you advocate. And the other is teacher to teacher so that the teachers themselves can see the power of the impact. Am I summarizing that

Crissy Lauterbach: 38:39

it is exactly that. And when they go to their monthly meetings, a lot of times, um, You know, we will, we'll talk about, all right, you guys, don't forget, we're getting ready to gear up coaching for next semester. And teachers will, they'll volunteer and say, Hey, if you haven't been coached yet, you really should. This is how it helped me and why I enjoyed working with so and so. And they'll call out our coaches by name a lot of times. And what a better moment as a teacher, right? To see someone that you're working with, just find, Some value in what you do, but also how it's changed them and impacted their 180 students that they have every single day.

Katie Ritter: 39:15

Yeah, that's incredible. How, um, sorry, I'm going rogue again. Um, how did the teachers respond to, hey, we're going to be coming through every Tuesday with admin?

Crissy Lauterbach: 39:27

Oh yeah. Oh man. You talk about locked doors at first. Um, again, I had been in my district, right? A good 15 years and I have been really lucky that my hard work has been celebrated at many different levels. So I never ran into the teachers hiding on me. Some of our coaches have like. They would go in and they could see him in their office and he wouldn't knock on the door. They wouldn't like come and get the knock door. They would just hide from them. And like the teachers would sit in there and, and be hiding. And the coaches were like, I see you. And you want me to go ahead and key into your room? Well, I'm not going to do that because that's a violation of trust. I'm only going to go where I'm welcome.

Katie Ritter: 40:07

Yeah.

Crissy Lauterbach: 40:08

And so for some of them, it is, it is about that initial fear and they think that it is evaluative and they think that we'll run back and tell on them. And what we've proven over the last seven to eight years now doing this is no, that's not the case.. And so we've been really lucky with our union buy in. And we've been really lucky with our teachers that are like, no, that's not how that happens. And I've had like, I've had teachers that after we've coached, they've been approached by administrators. And the teacher said, can I have all your coaching notes? And I'm like, of course, here you go. So everything that we have is open to the teacher, but I won't give it to an administrator. That notes are only for the teacher. Those are their notes. That's their time. That's what they became vulnerable for. So no, if you ask me for my notes as an administrator, I'm sorry, I'm not going to give them to you. I will show you that I checked the box and met their coaching expectation according to their goals. And so we really protect that relationship between the teacher and the coach as much as possible to keep it so the vulnerability level is high because that's when kids win and that's when teachers change habits and that's when we all become better.

Katie Ritter: 41:17

I love that.

Matthaeus Huelse: 41:18

I think so often we talk about this podcast in our job in general, about how important it is to build those relationships, but rarely do we get to a point where it's so clear and obvious, it's about the trust that you're building with them and about, you know, not betraying them saying clearly, and this is the line, like, this is not what I'm sharing with admin. You clearly can trust me in that regard. And I think that is when we say relationship building, that is the better answer to me because that is much more clear. So, um, we always in our episode. With, uh, top three takeaways for our coaches.

Crissy Lauterbach: 41:48

Man, I would say my, I wrote them down, so I'm sorry if I'm going to look down you guys, because I really want to make sure that they, one is always be open, right? To more and more feedback and remember feedback doesn't always show a deficit. Feedback just shows an area of growth or an area where you can shine. So definitely always, always be open to feedback, especially student feedback. I know a lot of times coaches will say what an admin wants or what this philosopher or pedagogy person says, but at the end of the day, it's the kids. The kids are receiving that lesson. And if it's not meeting their needs, I don't care if you are, I used to say, standing in the corner, smoking a cigarette, naked, standing on your head. They're not going to pay attention to you. They're not going to learn from you. So if you can really tap into your students and allow them to give you feedback on what you're doing, on the videos, on the content, you are going to really make your lessons stick and they're going to come back to you in 20 years and remember that. The other thing I. It is, right? They'll come back because it's about how you made them feel and make them being seen. And coaching is the same way. Are your teachers seen? Did you make them feel like they were making progress? Were they supported? They'll come back to you in tenfold. Remember to layer improvement. You can't fix everything in one day. Like go and just remember to layer. Be better this week. Try something new next week. Don't try to do it all at once because it's the layering that creates that. That really strong foundation that good teaching can take on and to build on. And then last, remember, lesson planning drives the tech. Don't let tech drive your lesson plan. When you sit down and figure out what's the best way to reach your kids and how to teach something, that's Then search for tech. Some of the biggest things I've seen teachers do is they want to try out a new tech piece and they try to cram it into their curriculum and it never works. So it makes the tech look bad, it makes you look bad, and your students have a horrible experience. Always drive, drive, drive, drive the lesson plan and the human component behind it and use the tech to support that. Those are my three friends.

Matthaeus Huelse: 44:00

great three tips.

Katie Ritter: 44:01

Those are amazing. Crissy, I have like 15 follow up episodes that I want to do with you.

Crissy Lauterbach: 44:07

All right. Um, well, you're telling me as I'm old and I have a lot of wisdom.

Katie Ritter: 44:14

Listen, a lot of wisdom is a great thing. So, there were so many wonderful nuggets. I'm excited for our listeners. to get to hear this episode. Um, where can people connect with you? Do you have any, um, social media or a website or anything that, of these wonderful nuggets, I'm sure people might want to reach out to, um, connect with you and maybe even pick your brain a little bit more, if you're

Crissy Lauterbach: 44:35

Yeah, sure. My social handles are all at Contact Learning because I believe learning is a contact sport and that's how I give professional development. If you're not feeling it, tasting it, rolling around in it, you'll never remember it. So anything that you want to reach out is at Contact Learning. Um, and contactlearning. org is my website, or you can reach me at Butler Tech.

Katie Ritter: 44:57

Awesome. I love that. Learning is a contact sport. I

Matthaeus Huelse: 45:00

was about to say that too. All right. so much, Crissy, for being here and joining us. listeners for, uh, joining us for this episode as well. As always, remember, give us some feedback, throw out those five stars or four stars or three stars or please not less than that, I don't know. Give us the feedback we need and thank you so much for being here and hope everyone has a fantastic rest of their day.

Katie Ritter: 45:25

Thank you.

Crissy Lauterbach: 45:26

Thanks, guys.

Matthaeus Huelse: 45:31

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

Katie Ritter: 45:36

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: 45:45

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

Katie Ritter: 45:51

So press the restart button,

Matthaeus Huelse: 45:53

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

Katie Ritter: 46:00

a Tech Coach Collective.

Crissy Lauterbach: 46:11

Is, is that Matthaeus? Is that where you're from?

Matthaeus Huelse: 46:13

Well, I, I'm from, I'm from the West. I have mixed feelings about Bavaria as a whole, but that is a gorgeous, gorgeous area. Um,

Crissy Lauterbach: 46:21

My family's from Bavaria, so the town of Lauterbach after our name. So I'll take that

Matthaeus Huelse: 46:26

not. Oh, don't, please don't. It's really just the city of Munich and their soccer team that I

Crissy Lauterbach: 46:31

Oh yeah, then it's okay. Yeah, you can yell at Munich soccer team