How the Confident Literacy Coach Impacted My Coaching with Kristi Rice, BONUS Episode 3 Buzzing with Ms. B: The Coaching Podcast

BONUS Episode 3 – How the Confident Literacy Coach Impacted My Coaching with Kristi Rice

buzzing with ms b  00:08

Hey Coach, welcome to a very special bonus episode of buzzing with Miss B, the coaching podcast, my course the confident literacy coach is a newly updated and open and so I wanted to share with you about the great changes it can create in your coaching work. This course is full of modules designed to help you establish yourself as a coach, manage your time and responsibilities coach the fundamental core components of reading and writing, conduct coaching cycles and coach and facilitate PLCs. There’s so much good stuff in there. So I wanted to show you exactly what it can do for you when you join. Because I don’t have the perspective on it, I need to actually experience this as a coach and implementing this in my work. After taking it as a student, I asked one of my awesome students, Christy rice, to share her experience with taking the course, she’s gonna walk us through what taking the course was like how it has impacted her coaching work, and how she feels now that she’s had the benefit of this course. So welcome, Christy, to the podcast.

Kristi  01:07

Thank you. Thank you for having me.

buzzing with ms b  01:09

Well, thank you for being here. Because I feel like you’re gonna give some really valuable insight about what it’s like to take an online course and what people can get out of taking this specific confident literacy coach course. So I do appreciate you being here very much. Yes.

Kristi  01:24

I appreciate you having me. It’s very helpful. So I’m excited to do it.

buzzing with ms b  01:28

Okay, great. Well, I would love to hear about what your experience was like in actually taking an online course. So something that it’s something that a lot of people haven’t done, you know, many we’re used to kind of like in person training or even virtual training. But an online course where it’s already there is sometimes a little bit different. It’s like self paced. And so was there anything especially beneficial that you found in taking a course online or anything that was really challenging for you?

Kristi  01:55

I think that most parts of it were really beneficial for me, because it was really just simple to navigate, I got on I bookmark the site, I didn’t bookmark the site right away. So maybe that would have been a challenge. But in your printout, you have the address to the side right at the top. So that is helpful. Okay. Forget. So it was really pretty simple to navigate. It was nice, because I took the course in the summertime. And you know, I’m busy, I don’t know, if who’s coming to the door, maybe I’m putting a load of laundry in or something. So I was able to pause it and come back to it, or rewind a little bit and listen to it again. Something that you don’t get in a alive professional development, you know, is getting to hear that again. So that was that was really, really helpful for me.

buzzing with ms b  02:49

Yeah, yeah, that’s a really good point, I do the same. Because I have taken several online courses, I took a course to learn how to do a podcast, you know, I’ve taken courses for different things. And it does help there are certain like lessons, like there’s one about Facebook ads that I am never going to remember how to do that process ever. It’s so convoluted. So every time I have to do when I go back to that lesson, and I watch it again, and I pause it and I do the step and I wasn’t, you know? Because if not, it’s just like, there’s no way I’m gonna remember. So having access forever, and you always will have access to it. Is is helpful. That’s a good point.

Kristi  03:22

Yeah, yeah, I’ve been able to go back through the last couple years and re listen to different sections. And depending on where you’re at, in your your coaching, you need different things at different times. So yeah, that’s

buzzing with ms b  03:33

a good point. Yeah, that’s very true. Some years, you may be focusing on developing your PLC some your use, you may be looking more at your practices. So you’re like instructional practices. So that’s a good point. Yeah. What are some of the bigger struggles that you were having in your coaching work before you took the course?

Kristi  03:48

Yeah, so when I started coaching, it was brand new to our school. And I knew a little bit about coaching. I had read some literature about it. I have friends who had coaches at their school, or maybe even work coaches. And I thought it sounded like something I was going to be very interested in doing someday. So when I had the opportunity to be a coach, I was so excited. And then I was the first one at our school, and I had no idea where to even start. And so I started researching and I just couldn’t get I couldn’t get my mind organized. I couldn’t get things organized on paper. And so as I was doing some research, I came across your masterclass and so, and that you had a you had a you have a blog, which was helpful. And I saw a little bit about the masterclass, but I decided to listen to your podcast for a while first and I was like, Oh my gosh, this is these are all of the things I need to know. So yeah, so I dove into the master class and a lot of those struggles I was having of being disorganized or what even is my purpose? I got a lot of those answers. Some of them I just, I needed to listen to, and then go back and take notes and just re listen to and re listen to so I was I saw I felt comfortable, you know. So that really helped with with that struggle. So

buzzing with ms b  05:14

that makes a lot of sense. Yeah, getting a coaching role, like starting out at a campus is, is stressful. And especially if you’ve never worked with a coach, or if you haven’t worked with a coach in that way, like, we had a coach, but she didn’t work with us my grade level as like a coach she worked with were the primary teachers as a coach and fresh, she just gave professional development. So I didn’t really have that experience whenever I started coaching either. And, uh, you’re kind of like, okay, I guess I’ll just make this up as I go. Like, I don’t feel like you’re accomplishing anything at first, because you’re just like, you’re solving problems as they come up.

Kristi  05:47

Yeah, I have all of these like initiatives. I want to try this, and I want to do this, but I didn’t really have a set purpose or a goal of what I wanted to accomplish by the end of the year, or what I had in my mind was way too big.

buzzing with ms b  06:01

Oh, good point. Yeah. Yeah. Because we want to move mountains, which I think that’s that’s not a bad thing. It’s a good education needs mountains moved right now. So

Kristi  06:10

but

buzzing with ms b  06:12

maybe not a one year? Yeah. And not by one person. Yeah. So then as you were trying to get this started, how did you feel as you were like, setting up your program you mentioned, you know, feeling like your goals were too big or just like you were kind of like, all over the place. Right? How did you feel as you were trying to solve these problems on your own and kind of accomplish this goal of setting up your coaching program?

Kristi  06:37

Yeah, so I was really stressed. I was felt really discombobulated and, and like, I just didn’t know where I was going. I even started thinking at one point, maybe I had said yes, too quickly. And maybe it was the wrong decision for me. And I was just, I was just very stressed. I didn’t know what to do. I didn’t know who to turn to I didn’t have anybody really close. That was a coach or had experience it. I mean, I did know some people that were coaching, or had been coached, but even what they were telling me Did it sound successful? And so I didn’t necessarily want to repeat what was not working. So yeah. Yeah, just a lot of stress.

buzzing with ms b  07:23

Yeah, if you’re hearing from other coaches, about all the challenges of their work, and not really like what they’ve done that has been effective, you’re like, Okay, then, how do I thank you for telling me all the problems that I also Yeah. Then which parts of the course were actually valuable in helping you solve some of these problems? Because there’s kind of summarize, there’s six different modules. So which, which, you know, which components were actually helpful.

Kristi  07:47

So all of them, but all of them have been helpful, but like I said, before, at different times, at all different times. So at the beginning, like I said, that that very first module where you’re like, you know, I, what’s your coaching style, or what are your goals for the year and you walk us through, so basically, like, you know, start with this, and then build to this, and you gave examples of what those goals could even be, because I didn’t even know where to start with, with what a goal should be, or what was realistic. And so that was very helpful. And I actually listened to that first module, completely through, and then went through and started to take notes. But I went through that first module several times, just, you know, feeling more relaxed and feeling like, Oh, I’d have a purpose, I can, I can do this thing, just little little chunks at a time throughout the year. And then into the second module, where you even help help us organize our daily monthly semester, tasks that just made it make made it feel very much more doable. So and then later on. As I’ve been coaching, I mean, just this week, I was going back through the data portion, like doing data reviews, you know, the very first semester I was coaching, it was PLCs, and professional developments and and what kinds of information could I you know, bring to that what are best practices, you know, I knew best practices, but you know, what was an organized way to explain those things. So,

buzzing with ms b  09:27

that’s a good point. And that’s actually a section that I’m updating the reading and writing modules, which are module three and four, are getting a big update right now, because I’m going to come back way back to the basics, because they were focused on practices, but I want to include, also, okay, so what are the components of skilled reading? What does that really look like? And so a lot of our teachers were not trained in this in college, we many of us were not trained. I mean, I remember getting trained in the fundamentals, but then whenever you actually go to school, depending on what your school focuses on, you may or may not see those again, and what And what resources they have? So I’m going to share Yeah. Yeah, yeah, we’re going to look at and reading we’re going to talk about, you know, what, what makes up decoding? What makes up language comprehension, what, you know, what do we need to be doing? And how can we coach these things in classrooms and set teachers up for success in those areas. And

Kristi  10:21

it will be so wonderful, because right now I’ve primarily I’m in upper elementary school. And I think that even our veteran teachers who were trained in some of these things, haven’t done it and so long, and now we know that a lot of our students still need this decoding and these morphemes and even, well, phonological awareness, you know, and, yeah, they need that, especially with, I hate to say COVID learning loss, but we know that, that it’s there. And so we need to make up some of that those things in upper elementary. So that will be that will be great. That will help me a lot.

buzzing with ms b  10:58

Yeah, that makes a lot of sense, too. Because, yep, a lot of kids didn’t get the exposure that they needed to these things at lower levels. And then even then, like you said, upper elementary teachers have always had kids who have those gaps, right? We’ve always seen it. And as an upper elementary teacher, myself, I was a fourth grade teacher. And then I taught third grade, I remember having to like teach myself, okay, this is phonics. This is you know what I can do, but even then I was missing pieces of it, because I was just like exploring it on my own with whatever resources I happen to find in our resource library. Right? Yeah, there was no program, there was no nothing and, and the best training that I ever got from helping struggling readers in my classroom was actually from our literacy coach, what like I mentioned before, she mostly did PD for us, she partnered up with our dyslexia intervention teacher, and they gave a training about Wilson and the actual like syllable patterns and syllable type ends, like, you know, what is the digraph, and all of these things. And I was like, This is what I’ve been missing, okay. And then I was able to use that, to help my struggling readers, and actually to build a component of that everyday for all of my kids. Because, even though, yes, even they were 10 years old, but that didn’t mean they had it, you know, they were missing a lot of that. So that alone helped fill in a lot of the gaps for my kids. But now I feel like there’s so many more great resources for upper elementary teachers and so much knowledge that we have. So I’m excited to share that in the reading module. And then in writing, we’re gonna look at components of writing as well. Because we spend so much time like, depending on what where your school is, some teachers only talk about spelling. And that’s what writing is, and grammar. And some teachers only talk about craft. And that’s what writing is. And we really need a good balance of all of these things, a good blend to make sure that work. We’re actually instructing all the components of what makes a skilled writer. Well, that will

Kristi  12:47

be wonderful, because our school that was my big initiative this year was digging into writing. And so that will be I’ve seen that it depends on the grade level on the teacher and what they hone in on. So

buzzing with ms b  12:59

yeah, totally. That was, I remember doing, like writing reviews. And Kinder was always talking about like penmanship and handwriting. And then first grade was always talking about spelling and periods and capitals. You know, it’s just interesting. And so with for those teachers are like, yes, those things are essential. And you’re absolutely right. And that’s not all writing is, that’s a part of writing. And then for the upper elementary teachers, you’re like, okay, yeah, they don’t have the sentence structure, we have to come back to it just like decoding, we have to get back to that sentence structure, because they don’t have that either, you know, over and over and over again. Yes, yes. Yeah. So I’m excited to share that with you. And I hope that those will be some valuable updates for you. So how do you feel as you’re implementing the strategies that you’ve learned? How do you feel about your coaching work?

Kristi  13:43

I feel really confident. And I was excited. I am excited every year, but I was excited going into the fall of my first year after having been stressed for the majority of the summer. So the master class really made a huge impact. I know I’ve messaged you a couple times about that, because it really did. Like, I just wasn’t sure that I was going to be able to do it. So I feel I felt confident. I feel like I have the best information. I’m excited that you’re updating and I have access to that information, that new information. So I feel like I’m getting continual learning, but I can do it on my my own time. So I also like I wanted to point out that I also like in your masterclass and in your podcasts, that you talk a lot about the mistakes that you made as a new coach, and it helps me sometimes unfortunately, I made the mistake first, and I go back and hear what you did. But a lot of times I’m like, Oh, I probably would have done that. I’m so glad that that you that you said that. So I just feel I guess I feel empowered with with knowledge going into it like I I just feel competent

buzzing with ms b  14:57

as a coach awesome. I love that. Yeah, I I make tons of mistakes. And I’m sure I still do, you know, we do is we’re working with people. And it’s very human and very subjective. And there are some things we try to get better at. But it’s not in our nature. And, you know, so we’re always getting better at some area. And there’s always some sort of growth that we need to do. But But yeah, I don’t mind sharing my mistakes at all. Because if I can save you from something that I did, you know that there’s a down the road, it helps kids, it creates a better world that we live in, you know,

Kristi  15:26

yes. Yeah. So I appreciated that. Oh, sure.

buzzing with ms b  15:31

Okay, well, I will continue to share all the times that I’ve missed up. I’ll have plenty of things to talk about, I’m sure. So what has taking this course changed the most in your coaching work? How does it look different?

Kristi  15:47

It really everything because it was the beginning. And so it gave me purpose. And what I was doing, when I took the job, I wanted to help teachers. I was in as a classroom teacher, I was I started to be a lead teacher. And I began working with people, but I couldn’t be in their room, or, you know, I could, in my grade level, I could work with plans and talk about management. But there wasn’t enough time outside of the grade level. So I had an idea of what I would like to do, but then it became something else. So it kind of just reset what my purpose was and how I could take what I wanted to do and actually do it, how could I actually implement it, and have some successes and and see teachers be successful and feel successful? So and then also, it changed in that I didn’t have to create tools, a lot of these tools you’ve already created, and they come in the master class, or you have other resources there on your TPT and things that have been helpful going into classroom and doing observations and what should I be looking for? And how can I do a conversation after a classroom observation? You know, what are some things that I can point out and talk with? That I should, you know, be asking lots of questions, rather than just giving lots of advice, you know, which is my tendency to just tell rather than ask,

buzzing with ms b  17:22

I totally, totally get it. Same person.

Kristi  17:26

Yeah, so those things, and I mean, I know I hadn’t started yet, but it changed my perspective of a lot of things that I I had going into it.

buzzing with ms b  17:35

Yeah, that makes sense that, so what kinds of things are you doing to support your teachers right now? What does that look like?

Kristi  17:41

Oh, so I do. This year, we start a PLC. So last year, I went into classrooms, and did observations, I did some teaching cycles, where I would go in and observe and then model and co teach and, you know, kind of do the gradual release with the teachers, which I had never thought of. So I actually learned that and your master class. And we’ve done book club, we’ve done resources. Right now we’re starting to get into testing season. So teachers are asking for some different kinds of resources. Yeah, so and then one that I guess I wasn’t thinking about when I went into coaching was behavior management. And I actually just saw that you have a new podcast about that. So I just starting to listen to it. And I’m like, Okay, I need they need some more help in this in this area. And that’s one of those things that feels like it comes kind of natural. I’m like, How do I teach? How do I teach this thing? Yeah.

buzzing with ms b  18:50

Yeah, it feels very personal classroom, man. Yeah,

Kristi  18:53

everybody has a different style, different personality. And, yes,

buzzing with ms b  18:57

yeah, it’s really it can be very challenging. And I did a little series on it in the podcast back in November, with like four different episodes about behavior, classroom management, coaching that you know, specifically and because it was a huge challenge for me, I really struggled with it. I just remember of waiting classrooms. Because I was like, I don’t want to go in there. That classroom is awful. It’s the teachers is yelling at the kids, the kids are just smarting back because they were like, not valued. And, and there were also other issues too, but that were going on there that were that the teacher had sincere challenges. She really did. But I just remember being like I don’t even know where to start. Where do I go? Yes. What do I even do because this person is not seeing this at all. In the same way that I’m seeing it and it was just such a hurdle. So yeah, I did share about what I learned from Matt and overtime how I changed my approach. And there’s that last episode that you’re mentioning that, like it’s 130 is about a classroom management approach that I used with classrooms like how I actually modeled how you can teach classrooms to your kids, and then a lot of teachers really embraced it and took it and ran with it. So I hope and it’s something that you can make work for different personality types, they can just they can adjust it, you know, it’s loose enough that they can make it work for them. So I hope that you get some value out of that one, because

Kristi  20:15

I’m sure management did see that I was just coming coming across that issue. So and then I saw like, perfect. Yeah, I mean,

buzzing with ms b  20:25

yeah. Okay, good. I hope that one helps. Well, thank you so much. Is there anything else that you want to share about before we wrap up?

Kristi  20:33

I don’t think so. I just think that I just really appreciate that masterclass, I appreciate that. I’m going to be able to continue to learn from it and get more things from it. Like I said, I’m continuously going back to it and re listening and, and I like that you’ve been in in the position, you’ve been actually doing the work of coaching, and you just really have figured out what we need to support us. And so you know, as you know, there’s sometimes not a lot of support for coaches, my admin is really great. And our teachers are really great. But sometimes you just feel like you’re in that middle ground. You know, especially if you’re at a school where you’re the only coach, so it’s nice. It’s nice to have you helping us out.

buzzing with ms b  21:18

All right. Well, I love it. Thank you so much for being here and sharing about your experience.

Kristi  21:22

Absolutely. Thank you. Oh, wow, coach

buzzing with ms b  21:27 that was so nice of Christy and I love hearing how the coach supported her and what she felt were the benefits of taking this online course as an instructional coach. If any of this resonates with you, this course can change your coaching life. And you can grab it this week, the course is going to close on April 17. So be sure to head to confident literacy coach.com and sign up so you can experience all of the positive change that Christie has experienced in her coaching. That’s confident literacy coach.com And if you have any questions at all, anything you’re unsure of anything you’re like, I don’t even know how this work or what else is in the in the course to send me an email, Christy at buzzing with Ms. v.com. send me that email and I will be happy to answer any of the questions that you have in order to get you the support that you need. So, next week, I have a new episode coming out. It’s going to be a regular episode that comes out on Monday. And until then, happy coaching!