Organization for Instructional Coaching with Jessica Whittaker, Ep. 155 Instructional Coaching with Ms. B

Organization for Instructional Coaching with Jessica Whittaker, Ep. 155 Buzzing with Ms. B: The Coaching Podcast

Chrissy Beltran  00:03

You’re listening to buzzing with Miss B, the coaching podcast, where we believe that every teacher deserves a coach. And every coach does, too. I’m Chrissy Beltran, an instructional coach, resource creator, and coffee enthusiast, and I’m your host. Stay tuned for practical tips and honest coaching talk that will help you coach with confidence.

Chrissy Beltran  00:27

Hey, coach, and welcome to Episode 155, organizing yourself for instructional coaching. Today I am talking to Jessica of my teacher style on Instagram. And Jessica is a coach this year. And so I’m really excited to hear from her how she has organized herself for all of her coaching work. We’re going to talk about coaching tools that she’s used to help her organize different sections she has in her office space, what her calendar looks like, and what kinds of materials she uses for PLCs. So tune into this episode, it’s a good one. And I can’t wait to welcome my guest. Jessica, I also want to grab to remind you that my first days of 21st 20 days of coaching course is coming out. It’s the instructional coaching startup. And it’s I’m very excited about it, because it’s going to help you set yourself up for success in so many ways this year. You don’t have to wait till you get to October, November and realize nobody wants to work with you, your PLCs are not functioning, nothing is working, because you’re going to set it up for success in these first 20 days. You can check that out. Right now the course is open. So you definitely want to visit that first 20 days of instructional coaching startup that I have for you. It is going to change everything about this coaching your go to buzzing with mfi.com/episode 155 To learn more, and to grab the show notes. For this episode, anything that Jessica mentioned, we are going to link here on the show notes at buzzing luminous fi.com/episode 155. You also can grab my first 20 days coaching checklist at buzzing with Miss b.com slash episode 155. It’s in the same spot. So I’m really excited to introduce my guest today. Thank you so much for joining us get Jessica.

Jessica Whittaker  02:16

Hi, I’m so excited to be here. And thank you for having me.

Chrissy Beltran  02:19

Well, thank you for being here. Can you introduce yourself to our listeners and maybe talk a little bit about who you are, how you ended up here and what kind of work you focus on.

Jessica Whittaker  02:27

Sure. So my name is Jessica and I am an instructional coach in the Pacific Northwest. And I am in my very first year of coaching. So I was a classroom teacher for seven years. And on top of doing my classroom teacher things, I was just always looking for other ways to grow and my practice knowing that I had a lot of other passions beyond just teaching in the classroom. So I’ve been able to mentor and be a cooperating teacher for multiple student teachers. My state for a while had like a coaching network program that helped me to collaborate with other coaches throughout the state and other teachers throughout the state and building unit plan and professional development. And then last school year, I was able to also be an adjunct professor at one of my local universities on top of the teaching aspect. And through all of that I’m just a lot of my my heart started shifting toward working with adult learners. And that process that really just began organically. So throughout my journey of being a classroom teacher, considering some of the other options out there. It was around this time last year that I really started to think like is instructional coaching for me is this is the right time for me. And so I’m so excited to be able to talk to you, Christy because through that process, I stumbled across your your blog, your podcast and listening to those things, reading those things was really instrumental to me and my process of deciding if this is a good fit for me and if it was the right timing. And then last summer I spent a lot of time prepping knowing that I was heading into my first year of coaching and so last year my journey to get to where I am outside of my work for anyone who’s interested in Enneagram things I am an Enneagram three weighing two, I love to read I enjoy traveling, whether that’s going to the mountains that are not too too far away from where I am or going out of state I just like to go places and see new things I find a lot of inspiration from that. I love listening to Taylor Swift shopping at Target or Trader Joe’s and always have coffee.

Chrissy Beltran  04:37

I love it. You know I love the you love to to just travel and go places you know my husband’s like where do you want to go? I’m like anywhere. I will go anywhere. I want to get out and see something you know, always have fun. So and thank you so much for your kind words about about both the speed and the work that I’ve done and I really do. I’m really glad that that has and hopeful to you. That’s my goal. And with work like this, you just kind of like put it out in the world and hope that it, you know, reaches the people that it needs to reach. And it’s really hard sometimes to get in front of people who could benefit from it. So I’m so glad that you found it. So can you talk a little bit about just so we can kind of have an understanding of as we’re talking about organization, it’s helpful to understand you know, what you do. So where does most of your coaching time go so that we can kind of understand how, why you’re organizing yourself in a certain way?

Jessica Whittaker  05:32

Sure, this role is something that can really be interpreted in a lot of different ways. I also depending on admins philosophy, so my admin definitely utilizes me as a coach. And so my time is really focused on three different areas. The first main area is through coaching cycles. So even though this is my first year of coaching, I have been doing five continuous coaching cycles this year. And what those look like, involves, on weekly check in conversations with the teachers that I’m coaching, weekly, I’m getting into their classrooms, seeing live instruction, getting to give them some feedback, and then that really helps to drive our coaching conversations. And then the second thing that takes up a lot of my time is coaching teams, and doing that work a lot and through through the PLC process. And so I get to work with with those teacher teams, especially for some of our newer teams, we do have a couple of teams at my school that are completely new, they don’t have a veteran teacher on the team. So I’ve been able to link arms with them and not work. And then lastly, my time goes a lot toward I’m working with my admin on some systems work. And so this year, we’ve, we’ve been doing a lot of systems work around behaviors around like the PLC process, again, RTI or MTS s, depending on for those of you who are listening, you might know either or both of those terms. So looking at some of those, those bigger systems, and then how we can make those smaller moves through things like PLC and coaching cycles.

Chrissy Beltran  07:04

Awesome. Yeah. I’m really glad that you shared about your work because some coaches are responsible for that school wide sort of learning. Some are not some do have a hand in RTI? I certainly did. I ended up kind of leading that it just like I wasn’t supposed to, but then the person who was supposed to was double booked a lot of the time. So then I was like, Well, I guess I’m in charge now is one of those responsibilities that he just kind of inherited, and that requires a ton of organization. So much information is coming in and have to be followed up on and has been it’s, you know, you have to have it organized in a certain way that that nothing slips through the cracks, you know, because those are children. So it requires so much like detail oriented organization.

07:45

Yes,

Chrissy Beltran  07:46

it really is. So what kinds of organizational tools or sections are in your office space that help you do your work?

Jessica Whittaker  07:55

Yes, so my office is centrally located within the building, I am in the dead center where and each model building. So I like to think that I’m like the heart of the building where I’m located. And so where I really want my office to feel like it’s a space for teachers, and a really holistic sense. So one of the things that I have in my office, I’m not really an organizational tool, but it’s just a section that I have, and it is for teachers. So I have an affirmation station where teachers can just come in and grab something off the wall and affirmation. I have a coffeemaker, T hot cocoa, all the fixings, chocolate. And then I also have some sensory tools for teachers like fidgets and coloring books, just because I want teachers to know that they have that place for them. And then the other resources that I have for teachers in my office would be like a whole new resource library that I’ve curated Come on, it is books from my classroom that I would use as mentor texts or read alouds that teachers can check out. But then I also have like some professional development resources that teachers can check out. So I have kind of the teacher space, which is most of my office. And then for myself in my organization, some of that is done digitally, but the physical things I have in my office, I have my little rolly cart from the classroom that I have repurposed to house all of the things. So I have a binder specifically with all of the printouts from you, Chrissy. I have my Chrissy binder with everything that you’ve shared. I have my coaching sentence frames, and sentence stems all my clipboard ready for me to grab and go at any time. And then any of those assessments, core phonics surveys, pieces for RTI, I have a really cart that I used to use in my classroom, that for now, as a first year coach, I’m trying to figure out how to use the tools I already had repurpose them for this role. So I have different jurors for the different types of things that I’m working on. So some of them it’s a juror by grade level, some of them it’s by assessment type, and some of it is for those bigger systems that I’m working on.

Chrissy Beltran  09:59

You I love that. I really liked that you talked about your like your resource library for teachers, I did the exact same thing I set up my, the first year, my principal was like, you know, it might not hurt to have like a model of how you can order organize your classroom library for kids. So I have that set up, because that was something that had hadn’t really been happening on the campus, that it was organized, like in student friendly way by, you know, by genre and topic and all these things. So then I set up my own classroom library in that way. And then I started to separate out my mentor texts from that library, and have them available for teachers to check out. I think that’s a really handy, handy way to kind of get some different books out there that they just maybe didn’t have in their own classroom libraries, it’s a nice way to share and still use your stuff. Because then you have box after box of teaching stuff. And you’re like now, what do I keep? What do I taught? What do I do with this?

Jessica Whittaker  10:52

There is so much stuff, I did not realize how much I had accumulated over that time. So that wasn’t my idea that you had shared that I thought, like, Oh, yes, I can make this work for me. And I can make this work for my staff. So it’s been really powerful.

Chrissy Beltran  11:05

Well, that’s good. So what are the tools that you use like to organize your actual schedule, because I’m a big paper pencil person people love, you know, digital calendars, I just, I look at it. And I’m like, This is not any This is, I don’t know, my brain doesn’t register it for some reason. But I do use a scheduling service, as you know, to actually schedule meetings and things. And that has been a lifesaver. But other than that, it’s all like I’m holding up my calendar to show. Jessica right now it is all paper pencil. And that is the way that it makes sense to me and sticks to my brain. How do you organize your schedule in your calendar,

Jessica Whittaker  11:43

I feel like I’m gonna Yes, all of the above print, digital and the physical planner, I guess I’ll get my plan to so. But in my district, we are office 365 users. So there are lots of things that I definitely have to put on my Outlook calendar. And this has been a tricky shift for me in my new role, because as a classroom teacher, I would love inquiry for my daily classroom schedule. And so I didn’t have to use those other tools as much. So this is something I’ve been figuring out along the way. This, the system that has been working, the best for me so far, is I have reserved time, just a standing appointment for myself every Friday. And it’s like my weekly prep meeting for the next week. And so there are some meetings that I know like these happen every single week, I really tried to batch those things and build them in as those standing appointments. Because earlier in the year for those coaching check ins and conversations, I was scheduling it differently week from week or week to week. And so I was noticing both for myself. And for the teacher, there wasn’t any like continuity with that. And I think about with students, you know, when we have that predictable daily schedule, they can get into those routines and rhythms. So then I decided to just do the same thing for myself and for the adults that I work with. And that has seemed to serve us really well. So when it comes to those Friday planning meetings, I already have my set tasks for the week that are those recurring meetings, and then I will move everything else on my schedule, kind of around that and make it work to fit things in. So as far as as far as planning, I use my paper planner that I held up, but I base that off of my Outlook calendar. So the Outlook calendar really holds everything. And then I will look more granular grain, you

Chrissy Beltran  13:36

know, details if you look at the detail. Yeah,

Jessica Whittaker  13:39

really on my Friday planning time. So I’ll look at my calendar for the next week, I will write in those recurring meetings, that will look at any of the tasks that I need to get done, which we can talk a little bit more about to do lists. But I’ll look at those tasks, put those in and see where it fits based on those meetings that I have coming up. And then any of those other tasks are meetings that I know I need to go observe for this thing, or I need to make sure that I am checking out this space to look for that piece that I will also fit those in. So that has been working really well for me. Um, as far as the schedule on the calendar, just trying to make things as automated as possible and then plugging in the other bits and pieces. And I know that we spoke about RTI a little bit earlier. So part of my my job I also have found myself in a facilitator coordinator role for that. And so through that process, I tried to make those calendar invites once I have received the referral form. So I just tried to batch tasks as much as possible and try to automate some systems for myself. So when I receive a referral form, I will put it on my to do list to make sure that I can receive that intake form and then schedule the calendar invite within 24 hours from receiving it. So there are definitely things that I am still figuring out and working on those who have been a lot of the things that have been definitely saving my time and my mental energy,

Chrissy Beltran  15:06

yes, that’s excellent. I love the idea of keeping things consistent with your teachers. So if you’re able to have that standing meeting, that’s kind of what my boss was calling she had on the calendar, we each teach a support person was like a liaison to a different grade level. So my first few years, I was liaison to third grade. And it was because it was a school on the move is what to wear at school on the move. But really, it was like, stressing everybody out. So we had like a standing meeting where we would look at data together with our team. I also did that during you know, planning and stuff for specifically for the content areas that I coach with, with literacy. But with my grade level, I look at data from any subject area, and we help them debrief it and like really understand what’s happening and make plans for following up. And we did that every week. And her her philosophy was, it’s easier to take it off the calendar, if you don’t need it than it is to add it onto the calendar when you do need it. So we just put it on every single week, we met the same day and time they chose when it was and it was our standing meeting is what they called it. And that philosophy of get it on the calendar, have it consistent, is so true. Because if you’re trying to add it every week, you’re like, Where can we well, what about it’s just this constant mess, trying to squeeze people in. So that’s a really great strategy. You mentioned looking at, to do lists, and figuring out how to plug in all those little things that need to be done during the week and those timeframes that you have. How do you actually organize your to do list? Some people use technology? Again, some people have stickies everywhere. How do you keep track of everything, including all the special stuff that just comes up?

Jessica Whittaker  16:42

Yes, I am a sticky note lover. I’m sure Chris, you can see. But for people who are listening, you can’t see behind me, I have a whiteboard in my office. And this was an idea that I took or borrowed from another coach in my district. So I have three different sections on this whiteboard. One says to do one says in progress. And then the last one says done, because there are lots of things as a coach like prepping for my coaching conversations that those again, those are recurring. I know I’m meeting with these teachers every week. So I need to make sure that I’m prepping every week. But there are other things that we’re in it for the long haul is a bigger project a bigger task, it’s not something that I can just, I can just take care of in one day, it’s slowly eating an elephant over the course of several days, or as we’re spiraling deeper into the task. So with this to do list, anytime that something will pop up, whether it’s a teacher who’s sent me an email, Hey, can you please do such and such a task for my admin, or just something that I’ve identified that I’ll need to do, I will write a sticky and put it up as soon as possible. So that I just have it on my big master list. And then part of that for the weekly prep meeting is me looking through those big tasks. And then also looking at deadlines, and determining when in the week I need to fill it in. So I try to stick to doing like my three main to dues for each day of the week. Knowing that some days I have the capacity to attack more than three. And sometimes things just pop up. And I cannot get to those three, so I might need to shift them to another day in the week. But three has been a good number for me so far. So I will look again at the tasks that I need to do at the timeline for when I need to turn around and have those things done. And I will look based on the board in my office, when I sit down with my physical planner, and I will physically write in those top three to dues for each of those days of that next week. And it’s flexible, I love the quote, this is from Jess Massey from hustle sanely, she talks about how your schedules and routines should be like tools and not change. And so that’s been a really helpful mindset shift for me that if I need to switch something on my to do list to another day, I’m gonna failure is just life like something else popped up that to do suddenly took priority, but also recognizing I have to get things done in a timely fashion. So I tried to give myself that little bit of wiggle room that I can move those two days if I need to. But definitely building things around those those deadlines has been really important.

Chrissy Beltran  19:21

I do the same thing with the three things to focus on. I think it’s so helpful. Every week I have on the top of my calendar, Mike like my big three projects that I’m working on throughout the week. So whenever I have time, I know that I need to come back to that. And then you can look at my week at a glance and say, Okay, have I actually built in the appropriate amount of time for these big three things? And it doesn’t cover every tiny little detail, you know, but it’s like this week, one of my big projects is to record episodes for the podcast because it’s going to take a fair chunk of time. So like okay, what are the three things that I really want to accomplish by the end of the week? I want to do these three things and I love that. I find it more manageable. And like you said you can move it over if you need to, but It’s more manageable than like this, oh my gosh, all the tasks that have to be done those little, maybe one of the days, you have a little chunk of time that you’re like Mark things off to do list. And that’s what I’m doing with this 30 minutes is getting stuff, random things done that just maybe this one takes three minutes that can take seven minutes. But, but in general, what are you trying to do, because we get really bogged down on the details. And if you spend, like all day, just thinking about all the middle million tiny things that have to get done, you don’t accomplish anything important.

Jessica Whittaker  20:28

It’s so true. And what you just said about the 30 minutes made me think, too, that there were some times earlier in the school year where I would have random 30 minute chunks of the day, and just not know, like, oh, maybe I’ll do this task and start doing it. And then oh, I need to do this and start doing that. And feeling a little bit more scattered with my time. And so having those three written down on paper, final in this 30 minute session, I can move the needle on one of these three tasks. If if that is what best serves me and my time. And then when I come back to my next 20 minute block. Now I’m going to move the needle again on that same task that I worked on for a little bit earlier today. So I still within myself a little bit less scattered by. Yeah, fixating a little bit more on those things. So you have to know that you didn’t?

Chrissy Beltran  21:21

Absolutely, yeah, I actually teach coaches how to do it in my course, the confident literacy coach, one of the lessons is about the big three. And it’s how to use you know, big three things, but a big three goals for the year, but how to break them down into smaller pieces into your even your every day, you know, and it’s so funny, you are the second coach in like two episodes in a row. People have mentioned eating the elephant one bite at a time. That’s so funny to me. It’s it’s not one that you hear every day, and then I’ve heard it twice. I recorded both these episodes today. And I heard that twice today. So and talking about how early on, you’re like what am I doing this time? You know? So that’s like you find things to keep yourself busy. But you’re like, is there any point to this? What am I doing this? So yeah, I think that’s so great. It’s a really common issue. And I love that you both mentioned this. So you talked about doing these standing coaching cycles, like having these standing coaching, coaching conversations with teachers, and how are you keeping track of your coaching cycle records? And then how frequently are you conducting coaching cycles? Because that’s different for everybody? And you know, it’s really reactive to what your responses to what your your school needs? So what is your what is your organization look like that in that area? And how are you kind of structuring it?

Jessica Whittaker  22:35

Yeah, sure. So, again, it completely depends on the building, it depends, I think, even on the needs for the school year. So a lot of the things I’m doing this year, may or may not look at all like when I when I get to do next year. But as far as the coaching cycle records. In our district, we have a coaching model and a coaching framework, and philosophy. And so one of those things that’s really important is having that firewall between coach and admin, we’re keeping things confidential. And I’m not sharing all of the details on the coaching side.

23:15

I’m sorry.

Chrissy Beltran  23:18

My husband edits everything. If there’s a gap, I’ll tell I’ll just pick a little note when I named the file and then he’ll pull it out.

23:25

So sure, just pick up from right where,

Chrissy Beltran  23:27

yeah, go ahead. Yeah, wherever you kind of remember, you know, you can you can repeat yourself if we need to, it’s fine.

Jessica Whittaker  23:33

So in my district, when we are using that model on the coaching model, something that is universal is that we need to keep things to the 40s when we’re talking with our admin. So I just keep a log, it’s also in a physical binder, and so on the 40s are keep it to the time, the teacher, the topic and the task. And so that way, my principal can can know, who am I coaching? How often are we meeting? When are we meeting? In general? What are the things that we’re talking about? And then in general, what are the coaching moves that I’m making through the different tasks that we do. So that’s one log that I keep just for that between him and I and to be recording and auditing my own time. And, and then the other piece of the of the coaching cycle record comes to when I’m meeting with teachers. And so when I’m meeting with teachers for conversations, I like to just use a notebook and a pen. And the reason I like to do that is because I can keep my notebook open. That way when I’m talking when I’m visiting with them, and I’m taking notes when they’re sharing things, or we’re talking through things. I just think it’s really important to have that trust and transparency. And I feel that by having a notebook open versus having a laptop up and there’s just something more inviting about that. But then also teachers can see like what is she right like talking, they can see those things. And then I have a separate place in my office where I have a notebook, that’s just for me, it’s a reflection notebook. So that any of those things that came up that I just want to know for me, and record or process that, I do that in my reflection of book and again, like I don’t, I don’t share that that piece with anyone. But as far as the other piece of poaching cycles would be the observation notes and the feedback that I give teachers. And this one, I really try to keep my teachers in the driver’s seat as much as possible with the note taking, because I really want the feedback and that process to be really meaningful for them. So there are some weeks that we’re using different amount captures every week, when I’m coming into visit, depending on what the goal is, what we’re trying to measure what I’m looking for how I’m able to support them. Some some sometimes mostly I would say I’m taking notes in that situation on my laptop, just because I can type a lot faster than I can write. And with a lot of those note catchers, it’s just, it’s just simpler to do it on my laptop, because I can also share it with them in a timely manner when I can email it to them that same day. So sometimes I’m using note captures, based on just really open ended, like things that I noticed things that I wondered, there’s one that you had Percy that was thing, but I noticed that the teachers doing things I noticed that the students are doing that I’ve used. And then in one of your podcasts, it was a while back now you’d mentioned the ABC tracker for a year. And I was able to share that with a couple of my teachers. And that was a new one to me. And they really liked that. So I’ve used that multiple times as well. And then I have some of my teachers, but they’re brand new teachers, they really want me to be like as directive with them as possible. And so they really want me to come in. And they will say like, tell me what I’m doing right and tell me what I’m doing wrong. And I don’t. So we have we’re building a different, a different language for that. So for those teachers have been more of a teacher of like practices to continue, because we want to name those things and continue to do it. And then the other side is practices to consider. So those are just a few of the different note captures that I’ve used. And then there are some times where I I’m just building those note captures with teachers in the moment when we’re having our coaching conversations. And so it’s a one and done like Asana template that I’m saving, it’s just this is what this teacher needs, this is what these kids need. So we’re going to build this together. So those have been the different tools that I’ve kept myself like organized, both between my admin and myself, and teachers and the feedback and then just for my own reflection purposes as well. Does that does that get at the entirety of your question?

Chrissy Beltran  27:57

And that’s great. Do you provide those note those new captures are discussing? Do you provide them to teachers like the format’s are using? Are you giving them a copy of it? Are they getting the original? Or what does that look like?

Jessica Whittaker  28:08

Yeah, so for the different teachers that I’m coaching, it’s different things. So some of them, we have like a shared folder. Again, we’re an office 365 district. So we have a shared folder in OneDrive, where we’re just putting all of the things from our coaching conversations and observations. And some documents I own some day on, but we’re co collaborators and those others. They still want it digitally, but they didn’t want to use the line options yet. And so I when I am doing digital notes, I’m sending it to them the same day that I go in, and then we’ll talk about it when we meet next. But yes, that’s been my process for sharing that. Okay.

Chrissy Beltran  28:53

Yeah, thanks for that reminded me, whenever you’re talking about your teachers who are like, tell me what I’m doing right and tell them what I’m doing wrong. I’ve had that same exact thing. And I love that they’re like, so open to, I have no idea what I’m doing. So, you know, tell me if something looks right or not. That’s so great. But yeah, so you don’t and I used to say, well, it’s not about what you’re doing wrong. It’s about like, let’s see what is most impacting students in a positive way? Well, let’s think about that. You know, one of the teachers told me, Okay, I’m gonna come get my grade now. We’re great. Watson. Like she would sit down and look at the notes that I took with my grade. I’m not grading your lesson. That is not what’s happening here. It was just so funny, and it was also very sweet. Like, that’s how I felt. I did appreciate that. They said she felt that comfortable with me that she was totally fine if I had given her grade, but that wasn’t the point. So it was really sweet. What you’re talking about, I liked that practices to consider kind of reminds me of that. Have you seen that stoplight response, where it’s like, I think I have it in one of my resources actually, but it’s one that I had seen for years, it’s called it has like the red, the green is things I’m going to keep doing. Yellow is things I’m going to think about or consider, like you said, and then red is something I may stop doing. Because sometimes it’s like, you know what, I think I’m not going to do that anymore. Because I’m going to do this instead, you know, we limited amount of time or, you know, just practices, we realize it’s not not really working for my kids. So I’m just going to not do that. So that’s another one. It’s like, you know, green, yellow, red, like a stoplight. So it’s kind of cute.

Jessica Whittaker  30:27

I love that. I just wrote that down. And I already have some teachers that I’m like, Oh, yes, we will. We will probably dig into that next week. So great.

Chrissy Beltran  30:36

So do you plan collaboratively with your teachers, or even if you’re not planning with teams of teachers, you’re probably doing co planning with teachers as part of your teaching cycle or your coaching cycle, right? So how do you organize content materials for that, because I feel like I had so many binders like I had a binder for each grade. And that was it was helpful for me at the time, it was this was a little prior to like technology being quite so like, seamless things were a bit more clunky before. So it was just easier for me to have a binder that was really well organized. But what how do you organize yourself for those kinds of planning meetings?

Jessica Whittaker  31:09

Sure. So this year, I feel like has been a building year, in a lot of ways, both for myself for our building, for our district, honestly, for our profession, just with with the state of education right now. And so this is an area that I definitely want to continue to grow the team that I had been most heavily planning with. And doing that together as a grid level. I am there to help with with like facilitating that process, but also not wanting to be too directive in that way, either. Our district has some great resources online, we have like a hub for all of our teaching and learning resources digitally. And so I will often refer back to those things. So those aren’t the tangible things I have to bring. But those can be great things to help ground us in the work. And then as a lot of our curriculum materials right now are set up in one of our unused classrooms in the building. So everything is organized by grade level. So there are many times that I’m running in there to grab something, whether it be manipulatives, or a like a teacher manual or student consumables, things like that to reference as we go to plan, something that really stood out to me when I was listening to your I was, this was your one of your podcast episodes was just when you met when you meet with teachers, having those resources ready, when you go to meet with them so that you’re not having to go run. But everyone has already in the room, we’re ready to go. And so right now, um, this year with the way that that the space is is set up my office in that particular room are pretty far apart. So I try when I’m looking at my day, my tasks to run down there and grab what I need. And then I will go meet with the teachers in their space. I think that we’re looking to possibly like change up some of those organizational practices next year. I know that that has really served me well to have like, those digital district resources available in handy already pulled off. And then those those physical things, making sure that I am bringing them. Our teachers are also really good about bringing those things, which is

Chrissy Beltran  33:20

That’s great. Yeah, getting teachers to be consistent about bringing things to planning did take a while for us. We’ll just kind of show up and just sit there nicely. Like, now what Yes, like guys, we’re gonna we’re planning lessons, like, do you have stuff that you use to plan your lessons? It was just kind of funny. I mean, it wasn’t funny at the time. But in retrospect, I’m like, what did they say to me? So, yeah, we, we definitely I tried to have a copy of everything that they had. So it was just like, everything’s here, we’re not like you, if you have if you travel, having a little cart, you can take all your stuff on the cart, it’s a lot easier than each teacher having to bring all of their stuff, it can be a lot, and especially if they’re meeting with you like in a PLC room, or it’s you know, your, your planning room or whatever. We like asking them, you plan, can you bring your mentor text basket, okay, I’m gonna bring my alma mater, give me a break, it’s not gonna happen. But if you have a bunch of things, and you can pull them out as needed, then teachers spend less time running back to their classrooms to get random thing, which you know, does help that kind of flow a little better. Do you have a system that you use to kind of organize yourself for PLC meetings? Or what are those PLC meetings look like?

Jessica Whittaker  34:28

So our district has carved out time on Wednesday afternoon, students go home an hour early. And so Wednesday afternoons are PLC time. And so our district has been doing PLCs for let’s say, it’s been about like eight or nine years or so. And so this has been really steep and to our process, our mindset, and also the schedule, right? And so, through this school year, I’m just starting out the work of PLCs we started off with Building norms as a team, and then when I’m meeting with teams, then we’re spending time referring back to those norms. And then my district is doing a lot of work right now around high reliability schools. I don’t know if you’re familiar with that at all, has been, that has been, like a systemic shift that we’re making with high reliability schools. And so some of that comes from solution tree. And so really just tightening some things up, building to building. So something that we started using this year as a specific data tracker, and this is brand new to our building and linking arms with teachers in this work, they enter data tracker, they had this transparency, where it’s $1, tracker for the entire school, it’s through an Excel document. And so all teachers are putting their things in when they meet on Wednesday, which is nice, because you’re only one of me, so I cannot. So something new that we’ve started utilizing this year, as part of that work with the high reliability schools is a data tracker in Excel. So something I appreciate about this is that there’s transparency within the whole school that we can all see the artifacts that we’re uploading, and that syncs for me, because there’s only one of me and all PLCs are meeting at the same time. So it gives me the opportunity to engage with the teams that I’m not able to physically engage with on Wednesdays in our data tracker. Teachers are simply putting in, like who is present at the meeting, they are naming the part of the PLC cycle that they’re working on. And there are often multiple parts of that. So they’ll share that. And then just a quick synopsis of what they were able to accomplish, and then uploading an artifact from from OneDrive. Additionally, there’s a spot there from for my admin and for myself to give feedback. So for me on Wednesdays, I try to be really specific with my time so that I’m not just going to the same couple of teams every week. So I have a little pattern that I try and follow so that within every Wednesday of the month, I’m eventually able to get to all teams. And there have been a couple of Wednesday’s where I happened to get to all of the teams and that time, but that doesn’t happen very often. So that’s where I’m really thankful for the data tracker. Because that I can have that dialogue, I can comment, give feedback, ask those questions, to teams, and have that conversation. But I also just think it helps us to get better as a building, when we’re able to see how different teams are tracking data, what they’re using for their planning conversations, we know that we’re better together and not not being in silos. So that’s been a really cool shift this year. As as we’re moving the needle on PLCs, and spicing it up a little bit.

Chrissy Beltran  37:44

That’s great. You’ll see as a bear, but it sounds like you’re doing some good things and getting people to collaborate. I love also that they and they can upload the artifact, I think that’s great. Because that’s, you know, that’s how we are accountable to each other not like, Oh, you did what you’re supposed to do. But like, this is what we did. And like, let’s this helps you understand how to move forward with them. So that’s awesome. Go ahead.

Jessica Whittaker  38:06

Oh, I was gonna say it just feels like a celebration, and not not as punitive of, we just want to see what you’re able to accomplish during this time versus, here’s what we accomplished. Like here, here are the great data driven conversations that we’re having. So it’s been really neat to be able to celebrate the work that our teams are doing.

Chrissy Beltran  38:25

I love the way that way of looking at it. Do you provide PD to your campus? Okay, yes,

Jessica Whittaker  38:30

I do. So we have our district has built in a few strategic PD days throughout the school year. And so we follow that based on our calendar.

Chrissy Beltran  38:40

Okay, great. So what did your systems look like for setting yourself up for PD?

Jessica Whittaker  38:45

Sure. So I know I mentioned when I introduced myself that I was able to be part of a coaching network for my state a couple of years back. And so one of the parts of that process was building professional development that I implemented, building wide, district wide, and then ended up sharing that statewide. And so it was a year long process of really diving into delivering PD and building effective PD. So that has been really helpful for me. Because I, I have those tools at my disposal already. So PD has become one of my favorite parts of my job. When I’m building up and setting up my own system is now taking what I learned through that process, but also making it work for me and for the teachers that I serve and where I’m at. I start by checking in with my admin to work and hear what their vision is for those professional development days, especially, especially since they are built in by our district. And so depending on what what his vision and what his hope is that I have taken some different directions. Something that I really believe in, is having that teacher voice and understanding your users what their needs is what’s going to be relevant for them. So there are some PD days this year that I view some staff surveys, just to gauge what teachers want and what they need ahead of time. And then keeping that in the forefront of my thinking about, like the adult learner lens, what’s going to be most relevant to them. But also reconciling that with the vision for where we’re headed from admin, that I love to create an essential question that will just help us to dive into that work together and chew on these things. And develop learning targets or learning goals based on that as well. And then as, as far as planning out what we’re doing, I love to use tubers as much as possible. A two for one is great. Because my thought is, even if a teacher is not jazzed about the content that we’re working on, hopefully it can pair it with a strategy that they can get excited about. So whatever the content is, I’m always thinking about best practices, strategies that I maybe haven’t seen in our building, or I’m not seeing very often. So we’re embedding that and getting that that two for one. So maybe we’re doing a professional development, about how to think of some of the things that we’ve done this year. But we’ve done some work on morning meetings. So then what are some other highly effective strategies that are not morning meetings, but that I can use to engage teachers in the work, get them talking, get them grappling with these concepts, that they could take that strategy, and hopefully the content that we’re learning, or maybe pick one and start to use that in their own practice? At pull up a little bit of that process?

Chrissy Beltran  41:38

That’s great. Yeah, definitely. And bringing, highlighting to teachers, Hey, these are the things we did today. You can do those with your kids, because sometimes they don’t go, oh, I can do that in my class, you know, and it’s like, no, I deliberately chosen, I was really, like really thoughtful about choosing these things that I’m engaging you in. Because these are things that you can use with your students just like we use them today, how did it feel whenever you did it, that maybe how it feels for your students, so let’s, you know, we can try that out, like helping them build that bridge is important. I think it’s a great way to to actually walk the walk, you know, PD is their professional learning. So we want to show teachers, this is what it looks like, whenever we’re embedding these strategies naturally, that’s great.

Jessica Whittaker  42:18

Yes, I try and pull back that curtain and have those meta moments when I can, when delivering PD and talk about that. And then we have like a strategies poster and our PB space. And so I will even name those on the poster and the anchor chart and just let folks know, like, yes, we’re doing this. But also, we’re doing this which you could use with your students. It’s been, it’s been really powerful.

Chrissy Beltran  42:43

Yeah, perfect. I love to check them out, too. I think that’s great. Um, as you so I’m talking to you towards the end of the school year, this episode is actually going to come out in July over the summer to help people kind of think about, okay, how can I get myself set up for this coming school year? How have your organizational systems kind of changed throughout the year?

Jessica Whittaker  43:01

Yes, I feel like they have changed a lot. At the beginning of the year, I was really just trying to build relationships, get to know people, a lot of my organizational systems at that time, was focused on on those fundamental relationship building pieces. And that’s a big piece of when I was using a lot of your resources, of getting myself started and setting that tone for the year. And so a lot of those things that I was using, and also helping my my admin and I just to get to know each other and to understand his vision better, was through things like I know you’ve mentioned like, coffee and cookies with the coach or introducing introducing yourself to staff. So that’s where a lot of my like organizational systems work, and beginning was thinking about how can I really helped set that trajectory of who I am, how I’m here to support using a coaching menu, those different strategies, and then not not too far into the school year around September, the shift started to happen where I’m okay now. Now I’m doing the coaching work. And so I know I mentioned earlier, just being a little bit frantic earlier in the year when I was planning things kind of week by week and and I really wanted to be so adaptable to my teachers. And so what is best for you this week? One Do you want me to come in and switching that week by week, but then I started to realize they can still be in the driver’s seat on when I come in. But if we make that a standing appointment, then that then that can be just more supportive for all so that was an organizational system that really changed for me when I started to get into the work of coaching was just being smarter about how I was spending my time and putting those things in. As my as my workload was increasing so the Friday’s the Friday planning day has begun Time and necessity, but then also starting to realize, especially in spring, sometimes things pop up more on a Friday afternoon, where maybe I had the flexibility earlier in the year to carve out some time on Friday that I just don’t have now. So that’s something that I have been thinking, maybe maybe I change my my planning time for when I plan for the next week. So I don’t think at this point, I’m thinking about any major changes to that organizational system. But I’m sure over the summer, as I reflect, and start to anticipate next school year, I’m going to prep for things I probably will but I think a lot of that I’ve been kind of figuring out as I go as well.

Chrissy Beltran  45:37

Yeah, that’s, that’s great. I love that Friday, prep time, too. I had something similar and it is so important. Did you was it the first 20 days resource that you were using towards the beginning of the year? Is that the one that you were using about like building relationships and kind of setting yourself up?

Jessica Whittaker  45:52

I don’t think that was the exact one I should look I have. I have my my crispy binder right here. Um, I think it was the coaching and classrooms.

Chrissy Beltran  46:02

Oh, okay. Yeah. Yeah, that talks about how to set up your coaching tips for

46:07

getting started. Yes.

Chrissy Beltran  46:11

Yeah, I’m actually a course actually think it’s launched. I’m trying to think of when we’re recording this, but I think it’s open right now, I just created a course about the first 20 days like startup, for instructional coaching. And so it’s gonna include all of those pieces as well. So I’m really glad that that those were helpful to you. Because yeah, the coaching manual, I feel like just kind of tells people, this is what I’m here to do. This is how I can help and it gives you like an artifact to refer back to so it’s not so hazy what coaches do, because it can be very stressful to kind of define that, especially if you’ve not had a coach before.

Jessica Whittaker  46:45

Yeah, and what you just mentioned, that sounds incredible, because I think about all of the things that are out there, like the first six weeks of school for teachers, there just aren’t many things like that out there for coaches. So even as you’re saying that I’m like, Oh, yes, note to sell 20 days, because next year, it will be my second year, but we’ll still have some new staff, I’ll still want to do some things, but I’m gonna want to probably do some different things, and not just reintroduce myself in the same way and what I can do. So I’m excited to dig a little bit deeper and to look into that. So thanks for sharing

Chrissy Beltran  47:16

that. Oh, yeah. Thanks. Well, thank you for all of the information that you’ve shared today about your organization. I feel like you were so forthcoming with all of your systems, and I know it’s gonna help people who are listening to this. So I really appreciate you doing that.

Jessica Whittaker  47:30

Oh, good. I hope that someone can be inspired, tweak it, take it and make it their own. So yes, thank you.

Chrissy Beltran  47:37

That’s how we do it. Right. I do get to ask my favorite question right now is what is your favorite thing I’ve been asking this to all of my guests this season. I’m so glad because I learn about all kinds of neat stuff. So this could be like a book or a TV show a podcast, anything that you’re loving.

Jessica Whittaker  47:53

Okay, my new favorite thing, or it’s new, to me at least is the ollie pop sodas, I don’t know if you have ever had them. But sometimes in the afternoon, you just need a little pick me up. And I love them. The flavors are really good. It has some good, like got health stuff in there. And I just love like the branding and the look of them. So when I go to pick up, take one out of my lunchbox in the afternoon, just saying it makes me happy. And so that has been really fun. My favorite flavors. I haven’t tried them all. But my favorite flavors so far have been the classic root beer. And then the strawberry vanilla.

Chrissy Beltran  48:28

I saw that you shared about this on your Instagram recently. And I actually went looked it up because I had never seen it. So I was like, Oh my gosh, I need to figure out where these are sold locally, or order them online or whatever. So I can try them out because I would love a rupee. I love your beer. And I never did. I love barks root beer. And it’s just gotten so much sugar in it that I never drink it. So yeah, if I could find something that was a better alternative. That would be awesome.

Jessica Whittaker  48:52

Well, I don’t know if you have any neighborhood, Walmart’s near you. But that’s where I got mine. No regular Walmart only at the neighborhood Walmart. So might have heard the Whole Foods has them as well.

Chrissy Beltran  49:03

Okay. All right. Well, good to know. Thank you so much for sharing that. And where can people find you online if they want to follow you?

Jessica Whittaker  49:10

Sure. So I didn’t mention I’m on Instagram. That’s where I’m definitely the most active. So my handle is my teacher style, but there’s an underscore. So it’s my underscore teacher underscore style. I blog occasionally. And my my blog is called my teacher style.com. But Instagram is where I’m at most of the time. So I would love to connect with you on there. And it’s been really great to already connect with you on there, Chrissy. And to follow along with the things that you share. I find a lot of value in what you share of Instagram.

Chrissy Beltran  49:42

Thank you so much. I appreciate it. Well, thank you for being here today.

Jessica Whittaker  49:46

Thank you for having us. It’s been such an honor and I just I love to talk about coaching things, especially with a fellow coach because you get it.

Chrissy Beltran  49:54

Yes. Oh my gosh, yes. That’s why I made this podcast. Wow, Jessica was so forthcoming with all of the great things that she’s done to organize yourself. I love some of these strategies, and they are absolutely like realistic things that you could do that would help you structure your coaching work. Awesome, awesome episode. And I appreciate Jessica being so upfront with everything she did and sharing. Remember, you can grab these show notes at buzzing with MS b.com slash episode 155. And you also can check out the first 20 days of coaching course it’s my instructional coaching 20 Day Startup, I’m super excited about it. I really think it’s going to help you set a foundation for getting started and building a strong coaching program that’s going to work for you the whole year long. So check that out for sure it is currently open. Next week, I am actually chatting with a coach and we are doing a coaching call, we’re going to think about how this coach actually supports their teachers in embracing new things, or embracing a new coach thinking through a new coaching program and setting themselves up for success. Because a lot of us find ourselves in that place and it can be really overwhelming. And so I’m really excited to share that episode with you. I think it’ll help a lot of us who are in the place of trying to figure out how do we make our coaching work for us like how do we make it actually effective? And how can we get that started at the beginning of the year. So that is going to be next week episode 156 And until then, happy coaching

Chrissy Beltran  51:35

Thank you for listening to buzzing with Miss B the coaching podcast. What more coaching ideas. Check me out at buzzing with Ms. b.com and on Instagram at buzzing with Miss B. If you love the show, share it with a coach who would love it too. Or leave me a review on iTunes. It’s free and it helps others find this show. Happy coaching!