Restart Recharge Podcast

419 Pop-up PD to Pop into Classrooms

• Forward Edge • Season 4 • Episode 19

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In this episode of Restart Recharge, hosts Matthaeus Huelse and Katie Ritter discuss innovative professional development strategies for instructional coaches, featuring guest Tracee Keough, an instructional design coach at Forward Edge. Tracee shares her experiences and successes with the 'October Pop Up PD' – a 30-minute classroom engagement initiative aimed at helping teachers overcome time constraints while integrating fun, theme-based learning activities. Tracee's fresh approach includes low-threat, practical tech-based activities that not only support teachers but also engage students. Tune in to discover how these strategies can rejuvenate your coaching practice, foster deeper connections, and enhance classroom impact.
 
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Matthaeus Huelse:

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

Katie Ritter:

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

Matthaeus Huelse:

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

Katie Ritter:

So hit the restart button with us.

Matthaeus Huelse:

Recharge your coaching batteries.

Katie Ritter:

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

Matthaeus Huelse:

Alright, welcome back, listeners. Today, we're diving into an inspiring pop ups PD idea that's bringing smiles and sparking curiosity across classrooms. Our guest, Tracy Keough, took a fresh look at the never ending challenge of teacher time constraints and came up with the October pop up experience. 30 minute bursts of reading, creativity, and tech play, the perfect way to connect with students, give teachers a break, and get your foot into the classroom. Joining us today is the fantastic, outstanding, always exciting to see you, Tracy Keough.

Katie Ritter:

Woohoo!

Tracee (Duplicate):

Woohoo!

Matthaeus Huelse:

Yeah, an instructional design coach here at Forward Edge and a 15 year veteran in education. Tracy has guided students and teachers alike across grades 2 through 8, and she brings a passion for creating meaningful learning experiences where everyone feels valued and heard. She's on a mission to help educators and students discover their purpose and engage fully in learning. Outside of school, Tracy is busy as a wife and mom to four very active kids, making her a true powerhouse, both in and out of the classroom.

Katie Ritter:

Yes, mama, welcome!

Tracee (Duplicate):

Hi guys!

Katie Ritter:

It's good to have you back.

Tracee (Duplicate):

I know it's been a few seasons.

Katie Ritter:

It has not been a few seasons, a few episodes maybe.

Matthaeus Huelse:

I will have to check the date on that.

Katie Ritter:

Okay, Matthaeus is gonna pull the yeah, I got a lot of stuff to do.

Matthaeus Huelse:

Sounds

Katie Ritter:

good! Okay, so Tracy, let's, before we dive in, And you share what this pop up PD is. I want you to kind of paint the landscape. What was going on? What was the challenge you were facing as a coach in your school that ultimately led you to come up with this idea? So first paint the picture and then we'll have you explain what it was.

Tracee (Duplicate):

Sounds good. So I am in a rural ish school districts. I work with the K 5 buildings. And this year we have brand new curriculum for math. We are piloting reading curriculum in all buildings. And so that just adds this next level of stress to teachers where working with the instructional technology coach is not at the top of the

Katie Ritter:

What do you mean?

Tracee (Duplicate):

Or even on the list.

Katie Ritter:

I feel like no one anywhere can relate to this right now.

Tracee (Duplicate):

I mean, who would relate to that?

Katie Ritter:

Mm hmm.

Tracee (Duplicate):

So I was talking with teachers and offering to come in and help, and it just wasn't taking off unless it was, can you help me with my new curriculum, and sit down and have conversations. But that wasn't translating back to the classroom. So in one of my slower days, I was just pondering through what I can do to get into classrooms and best support the teachers and the students, and what's more fun than doing something around a theme? So I dove into this idea of the pop up, for October. I had also had a couple teachers reach out. So I am known as giving out ducks, little rubber ducks, if they do something hard or try something new. And I had a couple teachers reach out asking how they could earn their next duck. So that tied into this pop up well.

Katie Ritter:

Awesome. So I want to kind of paint the picture just a little bit more before we dive into what the pop up PD actually is, and all the clever ideas that you came up with. When teachers were asking you to help them with their new ELA curriculum or their new math curriculum, and you said that wasn't translating to impact in the classroom, dig a little deeper for me. What do you mean by that? Where was the conversation stopping with them?

Tracee (Duplicate):

So a lot of it was just helping them understand. How to read the curriculum, how to look at the teacher's manual, what pieces they felt like were useful to keep and useful to get rid of. With the math curriculum, it's that Cadillac package, so they get all the tech pieces, but nobody knows how to use the tech pieces. How do I get those tools down to my students? And so we'd go through it, explain how to put it to their Clever or into their Schoology, and then it would never quite make it there because they were just overwhelmed with learning new curriculum.

Katie Ritter:

Okay. So they were more concerned with like logistics, just getting their feet under them. Instead of necessarily actually, like implementing some of these skills, or actual interactive components with the students., I would imagine no one was inviting you into the classroom then, because they weren't at the place of like, let's actually use this now with my students, because they were stopping at like, just getting their ducks in a row before they were even ready to start talking about student impact. So you were trying to solve this problem of, I can't get into classrooms, so I can't make any, like, real deeper impact with the teachers, like, down to the students. Is that an accurate summary?

Tracee (Duplicate):

Yep, that would be an accurate summary.

Katie Ritter:

Awesome. So now let's get to the exciting part because I feel like I just wanted to capture that. So if any of our listeners are like, heck yeah, Tracy, me too. I'm feeling that way too. Let's jump in to explain what this, October pop up PD idea was.

Tracee (Duplicate):

Yeah, so the October pop up is a 30 minute experience that teachers were able to sign up for, on any day that I'm in the district. And they selected the time that worked best for their schedule, but what they got out of this was 30 minutes that I would come into the classroom, I read a story to the classes appropriate for the grade level. Again, pre K to 5 had option to sign up for this. And once they signed up. We did the reading. During the same class period, we would do a technology activity. So students were getting on and learning new tools within the tech to elevate their understanding and do harder projects as they move through it. And teachers got to be a part of the learning if they chose to, which I encouraged. I wanted them to stay in the room, be a part of it, wander around, ask students questions, help them understand why they were doing things. Or they could sit back, take a potty break, whatever they needed during that time. But it gave an overall structure to this 30 minutes that I was coming into the classroom. It wasn't just, let me come in and help them get their MAP scores uploaded to Khan, and that they know me as that lady that pops in and out. This gave them a true 30 minute experience. Everything from collaborative work in pre K, Where we were dragging and dropping things on Google drawings and graphing out shapes to fifth grade, who was writing Goosebumps stories and these scary sentences after collaboration and creativity together as a team and kind of seeing where everybody has their strengths.

Katie Ritter:

That's awesome.

Matthaeus Huelse:

Yeah, I really like that. And you're creating this low stakes environment where teachers can sit and take in, or they can take the time however they need it. And I love the fact that you've given them agency there and the ability to really control their own learning. Now when you created the activity, when you sat down and you came to the classroom. Before you created it, what were you thinking in terms of What's important for this activity? How do I want to set that up? Like, what made you decide to go with this activity versus something else?

Tracee (Duplicate):

So I wanted to pick activities that were low threat, easy to introduce to students, and would help teachers down the line with projects that they were going to do. Whether it was at kindergarten just getting students online and learning it different techniques while they were online, to utilizing Google Slides, Google Drawings, to really use different tools within there like shortcuts to copy and paste from one slide to the next and understanding all of that. I tied in different pieces within the lesson of how they can continue to use these pieces in their classroom. So at the beginning there was a lot of collaboration and the students were talking and working through things. Then we had that independent work time and I ended almost every session if we were doing a Google Slides activity or a Google Drawing Activity with something I call a gallery walk. So they had to learn patience and walking around and supporting each other. We talked about being a good citizen. Our monthly theme was self control. So I tied that lesson back in as well. So I had a few teachers that said, I love the gallery walk. I never would have thought about having them share that way. And now they know it. So I don't have to teach it. So my biggest goal was, Simple things that they could take, roll into like a fun Friday after we finished, and then roll into other lessons as they through the year.

Matthaeus Huelse:

I love that. I just think it shows that you know that community so well that you can pinpoint that, and that's an important skill. I think that's something you always have to keep in mind. Did you maybe target specific teachers, in your group, or did you just open it up to everybody?

Tracee (Duplicate):

I just bit the bullet and opened it up to every teacher pre K 5 and sent out the sign up, the appointment slots, and Google Calendar with the blurb and the link attached to pick their own activity. Each pre K 2 had five activities they could pick from and 3 5 had five activities that were more grade level appropriate.

Katie Ritter:

Great way to give the teachers a little bit of autonomy in, what you were doing, too. To Make sure that it was relevant to conversations and what was happening in their classroom as well. I also really like how you tied in, self control was the theme. I assume that's some sort of building wide SEL or PBIS or some kind of focus that the whole school was talking about.

Tracee (Duplicate):

Correct. It was our PBIS,

Katie Ritter:

okay, that's awesome. What a cool way to make, every lesson relevant without necessarily needing to dig, into every single content standards to align it. But, you know, quick, easy 30 minute. Now they've, got new ideas. Like you said, I love how you modeled different ways of speaking. Students to share as well too, and I just think this is such a clever idea because while your coaching focus is technology, so obviously you're focused on how can we very naturally bring in these technology elements? I think this is a great thing that, like when I think about the context of these new curriculums. If you were a literacy or a math coach, right? Like you could have done pop up mini lessons to do like with the teachers, with the actual, curriculum and the curriculum materials. Obviously that's not your direct focus to support those quite as deeply. But I think like, this is just a great model that any coach, no matter what your coaching topic is, that you could go in and model, whatever your coaching domain and strategies, for the teachers how many teachers would you say actually stayed and participated with you?

Matthaeus Huelse:

I was about to ask the same question.

Tracee (Duplicate):

So I had 50 teachers across three buildings that participated.

Katie Ritter:

Did you say five zero? That's a very good number.

Tracee (Duplicate):

Five zero.

Katie Ritter:

Wowee!

Tracee (Duplicate):

Yeah, it was a very busy month and I loved every minute of it. I would say all but maybe 4 or 5 stayed in the room participated.

Katie Ritter:

That is huge.

Tracee (Duplicate):

So it was a big moment. My campus that had the highest numbers was the campus that I struggled at getting into classrooms year.

Katie Ritter:

That's amazing. So what has follow up looked like? Have you been invited back to some of these classrooms? Have you been able to, now, granted, we're recording this the first week of November, and this was just October, but have you seen anyone implementing any of these strategies? What has any little, taste of, continued efficacy with some of these skills looked like?

Tracee (Duplicate):

I've had multiple teachers that have reached out and mentioned, that they rolled that activity into other Friday activities they were doing. It was a fun Friday something. They let them really kind of have more freedom in the activity they did with their students. So they were practicing those skills again. I've had multiple teachers while I was in class doing those pop ups say, when should we have Ms. Keough back? So that's always great.

Katie Ritter:

Heck yeah, that's a way to get back in.

Tracee (Duplicate):

Yep. My primary building. That was my struggle building last year to get in with. Teachers wants a pop up again specific to one of their tools, Book Creator, to get in and teach the students how to use that. So that's going to be our focus on that campus. For And then a follow up that I've noticed in another building at the elementary level, the principals are actually doing a November pop up for Admin Passion over thankful turkeys they've hidden around the campus. And on the back is written different things that they earn if they find a turkey. And one of them is that the admin will come in for 30 minutes and teach a lesson. That's awesome.

Matthaeus Huelse:

I can't help but keep thinking about this high school prank where they take pigs and they number them one and three and then everybody's searching for number two because it doesn't exist. I wish, I hope you guys did that.

Tracee (Duplicate):

We did not do that.

Matthaeus Huelse:

That was an opportunity right there.

Katie Ritter:

That is just cruel, Matthaeus.

Matthaeus Huelse:

Ah, it's just fun.

Katie Ritter:

Oh my gosh, I totally forgot what I was about to ask Tracy now after that cruel joke.

Matthaeus Huelse:

How about this? I give you a little bit of a commercial break so you can think about it. And then we're gonna jump right back in with Tracy.

Katie Ritter:

Works for me.

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Katie Ritter:

Welcome back to Restart ReCharge. We are here talking to beloved coach Tracy Keough about this wonderful response to getting into more classrooms and solving that problem, with a really practical approach that benefited teachers, helped her get into classrooms, her pop up PD. so Tracy, I'd love to hear, so it sounds like it's already leading to this kind of ripple effect. of this impact it's having and teachers continuing to implement some of these skills that you did. I'd love to know how do you plan, because it sounds like maybe this first round, like, peer goal was just to kind of get into the classrooms, help establish yourself as not just somebody who can help upload something to their LMS, but also has this great instructional background, and could be a resource, but. You've already talked about doing this again. How might you try to capitalize on, sustaining a coaching conversation or maybe, folding one of these into a larger coaching cycle? What advice would you give or what practical things do you plan to apply next time?

Tracee (Duplicate):

That's a really good question. I don't know if I've thought that deep about it I do think It has to be based around feedback from what we've currently done, how it worked, how teachers responded to that, what they want to see moving forward, to really get into those deeper conversations. I would like to move into spaces where we're talking about student engagement, or how we give feedback to each other, how we collaborate with each other, and really work with those pieces that are PACS guides that we work with, Or our PBIS piece for the month. I think those would benefit as well. Just how we can tie everything together. But I haven't honestly thought that far into it at this point. I was just really excited. It went really well. Teachers are reaching out and asking to do more and determining what the next structure will look like. is going be based on the feedback that I get.

Katie Ritter:

Yeah, no, I totally hear you. I'd probably be at the same place. It just makes me think back to our episode with Chrissy Lauterbach just a few episodes ago. Um, and I just wonder, now some of this I think has to do with like the culture and the relationships you have, but I just can almost hear her in my mind saying like whatever a teacher latched on to, like, oh, these learning walks I never would have thought. To have them sharing this way I can hear her saying, Tracy, I know you know, Chrissy, because you worked with her a lot, but I could almost hear her being like, Oh, you want to do a short coaching cycle and we can work on implementing those more into your class, right? So I wonder if there's just like little ways to encourage. Hey, if you know something that. The teachers seem to latch onto is really liking, if there's a way to maybe, you know, jump in and be like, Hey, well let's expand on that together. so I would just love to down the road, follow up and hear maybe how that goes for you. but what is your, next adventure for in the popup PD world to get back into classrooms?

Tracee (Duplicate):

So, something I did last year was called the Gingerbread Man Challenge, Every week between Thanksgiving break and Christmas break, I sent out a new activity, one a day, that they could try. Everything from ambient noise to tech based tools and projects they could try. And they earned so many, Gingerbread men along the way, like they were trying to catch all these gingerbread men for their class and Just kind of facilitate those lessons. I think that went really well. So I'd like to do a spin off of that of here's our weekly Challenge and how I can get in to support that if they pop up To come and get those tools done.

Katie Ritter:

Awesome okay, sorry, before our last question, my maybe last question, Asterik, can you just talk me, talk, or talk listeners through logistically a little bit more? So, I've heard you say, you sent an email, you had, Choice options for teachers to choose from at different grade bands. Just kind of quickly talk me through like, logistically, what did that actually look like? Like, what is it that you actually sent to the teachers? How did they preview the lessons? Was there a form they filled out? And I know you mentioned they signed up for a slot with appointment slots, but let's just kind of take it through top to bottom logistically how you kind of bundled this package and sent it out.

Tracee (Duplicate):

So initially I created a slide deck and I had example lessons on two different slides. One being the K2 slide, one being the 3. 5. More initially to organize my thoughts of activities that I thought would work really well at those grade levels. I intentionally did not link any of the pictures that I had added that showcased that activity. Because I, didn't want to give them the option take the lesson and do it without me.

Katie Ritter:

Yeah, the point was to get you in there.

Tracee (Duplicate):

right. So, I didn't want to give them that option until we got halfway through October. so I started with that point and then I built out a Google Calendar appointment slots booking that they could sign up for. I put in the appointment slots calendar the little blurb of like, super excited to bring this to you 30 minute pop up and explained it in the blurb and linked the Google slide deck so they could see the activities and choose from whichever one. That was part of their appointment slot that they filled out was their classroom, their time that worked best, what building they were in, and what activity they wanted. There was also included in the slide deck for both groups a non Halloween focused activity because we do have classrooms with students that don't celebrate and I wanted to make sure they didn't feel excluded. So we did have a book and an activity that they could choose for that classroom.

Katie Ritter:

Great!

Tracee (Duplicate):

And then they just signed up through that appointment slots, picked what they wanted, sent their information, and there was 15 minutes buffer between each classroom, which ended up saving me because I really let this loose and did not tell them they had to schedule on the day that I was in their building. So there was some days where I was at all three buildings. just popping back and forth and driving back and forth to get into those classrooms. so logistically Learned, not my best choice, but for 50 classrooms to get a touch point on some of these tools and activities, it makes it worth it at the end.

Katie Ritter:

Yeah, for sure.

Matthaeus Huelse:

So the question that kind of popped up into my head, oftentimes, right, it comes down to data for me because We always want to show that we're making an impact by moving the needle, right? Do you think there is a potential opportunity to collect some really valuable data? To me, one of the gold standards is usually what's the impact in the classroom that I have, right?

Tracee (Duplicate):

So I did collect some of that data just based on who signed up at what building. So which building was having more signups versus others. I do see a potential to collect more data in second semester where they're utilizing Google Slides tools so I think that will be a good informal data point that we can pull from as far as , can the students get on their devices and navigate to these programs and feel comfortable using them at some level where they're not constantly asking the teacher for help.

Matthaeus Huelse:

Right. Okay, last question. what are your top three tips for coaches who'd like to start their own pop up PD at their school?

Tracee (Duplicate):

So my top tips would be, use a common scheduling program that you use within the district. Makes it really easy for teachers to sign up. I wouldn't have used a program like SignUp Genius because that's not built into our system as a district. So I stayed within our little environment. Keep the activities as simple and content related as possible. So I had smaller activities that might have had a math graph in there so you could talk through some math skills. We had ELA skills through Sight word sentences, or goose bump sentences, where they had to work on those writing skills. And, have fun. Just enjoy all the moments that you get, because I think we learn from our teachers and our students, when we're having what they need the most of.

Katie Ritter:

That's awesome.

Matthaeus Huelse:

I think you make it fun by having, you know, giving them the option of taking the role that they want, whether they want to take a break and listen, or whether they want to come in and participate.

Tracee (Duplicate):

I know, I feel like Oh, go ahead. all of my teachers know that I give out ducks if they try something new or hard. So I bought Halloween themed ducks and they got to pick from a mysterious Halloween bag and got their duck to put on display and so everybody knew, admin knows, that if you see a Halloween duck in the classroom, ask them. Have a conversation about what their kids did with that tool. So that it becomes a talking point between teachers and admin there as well.

Katie Ritter:

Oh my gosh, I absolutely love that visual connection that you're making for admin. Yeah. to get them involved in engaging with the teacher too.

Matthaeus Huelse:

Now I need to know, are we talking like zombie duck, cowboy duck, what is the Halloween duck spread here?

Tracee (Duplicate):

they're all Halloween themed. So there was Frankensteins, clowns, witches. Pirates, Mummies.

Katie Ritter:

And because everyone's dying to know now, where do you buy your ducks from?

Tracee (Duplicate):

Amazon.

Katie Ritter:

Okay.

Matthaeus Huelse:

We had to clear that up, that's good.

Katie Ritter:

Yeah. No duck left unturned.

Matthaeus Huelse:

I

Tracee (Duplicate):

I may have to order more ducks this round for October. I had only bought like 20 and ended up needing more.

Katie Ritter:

That is awesome. I love it. Well, I feel like in season 5, which would be The end of the school year. We need to have like a follow up to see what did this ripple into and Reflecting back. What kinds of coaching conversations and interactions did it evolve into long term?

Matthaeus Huelse:

Episode 2 with Tracy Keough. What the duck and that's

Katie Ritter:

easy for you to say Okay. Well, Tracy, thank you so much. It was so nice to have you on the pod once again. long time listeners will remember many episodes with you, but where can people connect with you outside of the pod?

Tracee (Duplicate):

So I am on Twitter at TK educate. Oh, not Twitter anymore. Sorry. X.

Katie Ritter:

It's okay. We call it Twitter.

Matthaeus Huelse:

This is the wrong crowd to bring this up with.

Tracee (Duplicate):

Yeah. At TK educate.

Katie Ritter:

TK, Educate. Okay, awesome. Anything else? I think that about does her.

Matthaeus Huelse:

I think that does it. Yeah, thank you listeners for being here. Thank you Tracy for giving us some great ideas and a great starting point and everybody have a great rest of your day. Thanks for spending time with us today. If you found this episode helpful, please share it with an educator friend.

Katie Ritter:

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

Matthaeus Huelse:

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

Katie Ritter:

So press the restart button,

Matthaeus Huelse:

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

Katie Ritter:

a Tech Coach Collective.

Tracee (Duplicate):

Honestly, I to talk about next steps or the next part of the adventure? Sure.

Matthaeus Huelse:

Did

Katie Ritter:

you just say senile is going to be a lot of fun?

Matthaeus Huelse:

I think senile Matthaeus is going to be a

Katie Ritter:

lot of fun. You know what? I'm going to look at it that way.

Matthaeus Huelse:

Yeah.

Katie Ritter:

Oh, okay. You

Matthaeus Huelse:

meet new people every day.

Katie Ritter:

Here's the same person over and over. 51st day of the states. You have a

Matthaeus Huelse:

good time. Then you meet new people every day. Sorry, never mind. That was a corny joke.

Katie Ritter:

You are rocking out the dad jokes today.

Matthaeus Huelse:

I know. It's turning on now.

People on this episode

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Dr. Katie Ritter

Co-host
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Matthäus Huelse

Co-host