Krystle Demas, Patrick Hausammann, and Timothy Signorelli, the 2018 Tech Coach of the Year winners, will be featured in VSTE's Digital Day Learning Webinar, Thursday, February 28, 2019, at 7:30 PM. They will be highlighting innovative practices and answering questions about technology and coaching. You can use this link to join us live.
VSTE asked these leaders to share their best coaching tip and, perhaps not surprisingly, they all focused on the importance of empathy of relationships:
Krystle: One size doesn’t fit all. Working with teachers is similar to working with students in that we can’t expect everyone to be at the same place at the same time. Teachers appreciate a coach that understands and empathizes with their needs and celebrates their successes! I have found that building relationships first and offering a helping hand open the door to allow conversations to start about teaching and learning.
Patrick: When coaching teachers, administrators, or even students… start with empathy. Think back to when you started your journey or align to where your colleague is in theirs. Innovation for each person is different and can be a small step or a giant leap. Taking the time to empathize and build a relationship ensures that you know better how to scaffold your help and how much you can push outside of comfort zones for growth, stopping short of frustration or overwhelming.
Tim: Relationships are key. Empathy helps to build those relationships, and is a learnable skill. Krznaric claims, "Our personal empathy quota is not fixed: we can develop our empathic potential throughout our lives.” Knight suggests that, to build this skill, we need to look back (consider interactions we’ve had with others and how we can be more effective in the future), look at (reflecting on action and identifying when/how we demonstrate empathy), and look ahead (make plans for our interactions in the future).
Join us on February 28, 2019, at 7:30 PM, to learn more about how these award-winning coaches have built those kinds of relationships. And, learn about other Digital Learning Day events here.
What IS Digital Learning? VSTE wants to know!
VSTE partnered with Common Sense Media for a webinar featuring two VSTE leaders. Meg Swecker, VSTE Board member from Roanoke County, and Tamara Letter, VSTE Conference Committee member from Hanover County, will be discussing Cultivating Kindness: A Foundation for Digital Citizenship on Thursday, February 21, 2019, at 4:00 PM. 
The Honorable James R. Clapper served as the fourth US Director of Intelligence from August 9, 2010 to January 20, 2017. In this position, Mr. Clapper led the United States Intelligence Community and served as the principal intelligence advisor to President Barack Obama. He is the author of the best selling book, Facts and Fears: Hard Truths from a Life in Intelligence.
Lisa Hamp is a writer and advocate for school safety. She is a survivor of the Virginia Tech shooting that took place on April 16, 2007. With her classmates, she built a barricade to prevent the shooter from entering their classroom. Lisa suffered with PTSD for many years after, and she’ll share with you a variety of hard — but powerful — lessons that she has learned since that day.
Michele Gay is a mother, former teacher, and one of the founders of Safe and Sound Schools: A Sandy Hook Initiative. Following the tragic loss of her daughter, Josephine, in the Sandy Hook School tragedy, Michele Gay joined Sandy Hook mother Alissa Parker to establish Safe and Sound Schools as a national resource for school safety. She now travels across the country sharing her message of inspiration, recovery, and school safety education and advocacy.
Sean Burke is President of the School Safety Advocacy Council and is considered a school safety and law enforcement expert by the U.S. Department of Justice, where he was a founding member of the U.S Department of Justice School Safety Technical Working Group, and U.S Department of Homeland Security. He also served as a grant review specialist for the United States Department of Justice, National Institute of Justice in the area of law enforcement and school safety.
