Episode 101: What do PE Administrators Do?

PE Teachers may sometimes wonder what goes on at the administrative level in their school division. Host Stevie Ray Gray sat down with Lei Dunn of Virginia Beach Schools and Mark Branbenberger of Henrico County Public Schools to learn exactly what they do to promote Health, PE and Driver Education in their divisions. 

Watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/UTcH27n5ftI 

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

It's the Fifth Connection Podcast, which can platform communities with what works. Future host, Stevie Ray Gray.

SPEAKER_02 0:12

It is time to get off the sidelines and get to the game. I'm your host, Stevie Ray Gray, and this is the Fifth Connection. Have you ever wondered who's the connection between what happens in your gym and what's happening in your overall division? Well, I've got a couple of friends here. They're gonna help us answer that question. Let's get moving. I've got Mark Brandenberger and Lei Dunn. Thank you so much for joining me today, YouTube.

SPEAKER_04 0:34

Thanks for inviting us.

SPEAKER_01 0:36

It's always good to be with you.

SPEAKER_02 0:37

So before we get rolling, how about you give us your full name and like your full title? And Lei, I know your title is like five pages long, but.

SPEAKER_04 0:46

So I have to go first. Okay. I'm Lei Dunn. I'm the K-12 instructional specialist for health and physical education for Virginia Beach City Public Schools.

SPEAKER_02 0:55

Didn't even have to take a breath in there.

SPEAKER_03 0:59

And she does all the things. She does all of the things. All the things. Yeah, we're going to ask about all of the things.

SPEAKER_01 1:04

That's unique to our roles, I think. I'm Mark Brandenberger, health and physical education, driver education, family life education, uh curriculum specialist for Henrico County Public Schools. And as I share often with state groups, I am a product of Fairfax County Public Schools, of Virginia Beach Public Schools, of Albemarle County Public Schools. I attended uh the University of Virginia, Mary Baldwin College, and uh Virginia Commonwealth University. So I feel uniquely positioned that I've seen a lot of the state and participated as a student in many places of the state. So I feel like I have a good reflection and a good pulse on what's going outside of our area.

SPEAKER_04 1:46

I'm Virginia Beach public schools and Virginia Beach working, but Longwood grad, ODU grad. So we do have I'm not quite as versed in the whole state.

SPEAKER_02 1:58

Yep. Mark. But both of you were teachers before you came into your professional. Okay, where did you teach in all those places, Mar?

SPEAKER_01 2:04

Oh heavens no. Uh so no. Uh uh I've spent 25 years in Haraiko County, 17 years as a uh secondary health and physical education teacher, um, where I enjoyed uh working with an age group of students who were really developing autonomy and decision making, and I targeted 14-year-olds that is it's the first time that many of them are gonna make thousands of decisions on their own for the first time, and that's where I wanted to help provide uh informed decision making. So I I significantly targeted that age group when I was pursuing uh prevention uh instead of treatment for students.

SPEAKER_04 2:43

My teaching and administrative career has been attached to Virginia Beach City Poet Schools. Um have presented around the state and the nation, and I also teach uh pre-service teachers at Old Dominion University as part of the Darden College of Education faculty. So similar to Mark, my focus has kind of always been on an understanding of the baseline, the prevention of it, but my focus has been a little bit more on the teacher side of how are we preparing and training quality educators for health and physical education in our state, whether they decide to stay in our state or go beyond. Um, what are they prepared to do for our students? It's perfect.

SPEAKER_02 3:26

Yeah. I wanted to talk to both of you as your role, kind of in that teacher preparation phase. Since in my head, both of you are county supervisors, but I know it's not as simple as that. So, in that role, can you tell me just what your main responsibilities are when you go out every day when you get into your cubicle?

unknown 3:44

Right. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 3:46

Well, I think that one of the things we're able to share with teachers as a part of our team, uh, it can be confusing that that they have five different supervisors, right? They have I have my building level administration, I have my principal who supervisors our school, and then I have this curriculum specialist. What do they do when they come in? Are they supervising me? And so we've really helped over the past couple of years reframe that that um we are uh your liaison to teaching and learning. Um, delivery, design uh design, delivery, and assessment um of uh skills and attributes specific to health and PE. So it we are focusing on student outcomes, we are observing student outcomes, and often the teacher can be one of the vehicles that participates in in that design and delivery. Um but i I'm I'm your captain player with you. I'm not your supervisor. Um and that helps that they know that we supervise the curriculum and help make uh informed decisions. Um and and that helps them understand that their school-based admin will be their supervisor and we can help guide them through their curriculum and instruction. Does that make sense?

SPEAKER_04 5:05

Yeah, and I think that that um that confusion sometimes does lead to frustration on the parts of the teachers, like particularly if if those groups are not cohesive in their explanation of what are the expected outcomes for the students and the teachers. And so in Virginia Beach, so one, we're not a county, so it's a little bit different for us in Virginia Beach as opposed to some other parts of the state, because we are the seven cities, and so each of the cities operates independently. So even though Norfolk is right next to us, we we don't work with them in that way. We do collaborate with them, but they they don't have any insight into ours, or the same for um the same for Chesapeake. We're you know, people say, Oh, we're Hampton Roads, but Hampton Roads is not a county. So Virginia Beach is its own entity, our own 86 schools, two specialty sites, um, about 67,000 kids. And the as Mark explained, our teachers have their building level administration, and what we try to emphasize to them, and I say we um our health and PE coordinator Matt Oriball is has to make ultimate decisions for policy as it applies, um, and is is ultimately responsible for what is coming out of the PE department as in written documentation. And I have to kind of stand in the gap between, okay, what does that look like from the school board, what he's being given from senior leadership, what he's being given from senior administrators, and how does that apply to you in the gym and and find a path to make that applicable, to make that understandable, um, particularly when it's things that they don't necessarily want to do, the teacher or or maybe are struggling in doing. And so that can sometimes lead to to some frustration on their part. My principal told me I had to do X, Y, and Z. Okay, well, the school board says that this is actually what we're supposed to be doing. So then how do I, in my role, how do I then also communicate with those building level administrators to help them understand, you know, this is what we're supposed to be doing. This is the expected outcomes for Virginia Beach City Public Schools for your students and your teachers, this is um the expected uh procedure. How do we make that work in your building? Because there are 86 unique sites.

SPEAKER_02 7:23

Um how many teachers are you responsible? I guess under your umbrella.

SPEAKER_04 7:28

So uh we have approximately 250 teachers, and uh, we also have about 230, excuse me, 298, almost 300 teacher assistants at the elementary level. And then so 56 elementary teachers and about 200 secondary teachers, and 86 different schools, 86 different principals, 86 different visions of what their school will look like, one school division with one set of goals for their students, and and stepping into that role is can has to be different for different people. So, as you explain, like from a teach from an educator standpoint, you're like, okay, I got all these supervisors. I'm not in an evaluative capacity. I can give evaluative information and I can share that with your principal and and give them feedback and give you structure to help with that. But ultimately, that person is someone that's signing off on your that your principal is someone that's signing off on your evaluation. And so bridging that gap can sometimes be a challenge for them and us.

SPEAKER_02 8:37

Do the principals or administrators ever reach out to either of you to ask what it should be or what the PE environment should look like in some of the schools? So I imagine just think of myself as a physical educator and teaching elementary, my principal can come through my teaching space, but doesn't really know exactly what she should be looking for when it comes to like curriculum or standards. Um, so I imagine that with that many teachers, Mark, how many teachers are you responsible for? 200. So with that many teachers that you technically are responsible for, um, from an evaluative standpoint, an administrator might reach out and say, you know, is this looking the way it's supposed to look? Do you ever they should 100%?

SPEAKER_01 9:21

And we hope that they do. And and sometimes that's guided through conversations with the teacher. I I need some support navigating this. Um, like, great, that's that's where I can help your program excel. I will help get your admin on board with what we're doing, help them see the vision through the health and PE curriculum, um, and support that development of their relationship, especially for a new teacher. Um, but we are absolutely uh inviting principals and administrators to join us in learning walks so we can show them what we're looking for for visible learning, uh, learning outcomes for students, success criteria that we can, that the students know how they know that they've learned something in that individual class period, so that they're understanding what we do with our craft and they can support the teacher in then refining the skills within their craft. Um, that's where we need their help because they are there every day. Um, but we hope that they reach out, especially um in elementary, where at times it can feel like as a health and PE teacher, you're alone on the island. Uh I'm a singleton in a school, or there's five of us in a school uh compared to a team in a secondary school setting where we can have hands-on training with a uh a leader through the department chair, and then they can help guide their department and grow their department. Um, but but we absolutely uh invite admin to invite us to their learning walks, uh, but we will create our own so that that our department chairs know that we intentionally will be coming through observing students and again design delivery and assessment in any health or PE unit. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_04 11:05

Several years ago, for for that same reason, like hoping hoping that administrators would ask us, but not getting that phone call until it was a 911 situation, like the the stress level for me or the frustration level got so high, and it was like, you know, we're I'm gonna be a little bit more proactive about this. So um I've been in my position now. This is my fourth school year. And so two school years ago, I developed a walkthrough document that I was using similar to what Mark was saying, when I'm coming in, hey, you know when I'm coming in to see you, this is what I'm gonna use. But then also inviting administrators that were responsible for health and PE in to do it with um, to do it with me to help train them on this is what we're looking for, this is what quality health and physical education looks like. This has been evaluated by senior level staff and meets our strategic action agenda or meets our our goals, our five-year goals. And so when you walk into a gym, this is the bare minimum of what you should see. And and here are some tips of what you can do in your building because you're there every day, as Mark pointed out, the administrator is there every day to improve it. But if you if it's bigger than that, then yes, call me in and I will do whatever it is necessary to help your teacher get to the level that you think is appropriate for your school. I think that when when talking to administrators, particularly at the secondary level, so oftentimes at middle school and high school, you give an AP or or a principal, but usually it's an AP in our division that is tasked with certain subjects. And so they might get music, PE, and SPED. Or, or they get social studies and art and music, and those are the subjects that they're supposed to oversee. And that person may or may not have taught any of those subjects, and it may not have even come in contact with them. Elementary is a little bit different because even if you were a fifth grade teacher in elementary school, at some point you will have come in contact with the other things that are going on. Right, you're you're forced into those. But secondary level, you could have been a tech ed teacher and and worked your way up through administration, and now all of a sudden you're in charge of social studies, tech ed, which you're great with, and PE, and you walk into the gym, you're like, what is going on? And and you know, I get a frantic phone call. Oh my gosh, lay they're doing this and this and this. Can you come out look? And I look, and I, you know, I'll come out and look, I'm like, this is this is a great class. Yeah, this is this is working well. But the understanding of what the expectations are or what a class should look like are not always there.

SPEAKER_02 13:32

So go off of that. If you were to go into a classroom, let's say it's not administrator, let's say you're just walking in to observe a teacher, what are some of the things that you're looking for to say, oh yeah, this is quality physical education, this is uh effect of there's learning happening in place. Like, what's a typical engaging lesson look like for you? Now it's it's gonna be different for you, Leigh, because in your county or your city, um, P looks a lot different than in Henryko County.

SPEAKER_04 14:03

Yeah, have some fun in elementary school on Virginia Beach.

SPEAKER_02 14:06

Um, but going off like what would it look like? Let's let's start in Henryko County, and then we'll let Lei talk about why it's a little bit more complicated. Sure.

SPEAKER_01 14:16

It's uh it's it's unique. Um it to the outside observer, uh, it should look like organized chaos, right? Yeah. Um but that the students are able to articulate exactly what's going on, and they are able to match that to physical literacy or health literacy. Um something as simple as uh a student being able to share with you um, oh, well, we're actually working on um forehand and backhand uh strokes with with a racket. Um, and my goal is to be able to do this, this, and this, and to uh check my partner for doing this, this, this, and this, these four things in this sequence. That is physical literacy, being able to explain that to someone else demonstrates demonstrates the that they know the what, why, and how of what they're doing. And often you have to pull one of them out of the chaos to be able to have that conversation. But they're able to articulate what's going on, and they know they know the why and they know the how. And that's very important to us, um, so that we know that uh the standards provide us with the springboard to then figure out how we're gonna implement motor skills, especially. Um and so uh what works in kindergarten works in tenth grade. Uh when you see stations and centers and small group experiences and then whole group experiences in an elementary classroom for science, the same thing works in ninth grade physical education. That um it's it's it's not the same PE that we grew up with where uh there are two soccer balls and 80 students and we're uh it's it's uh uh controlled and supervised recess. Um it's not that.

SPEAKER_02 16:09

Um it's not busy, happy, good. Correct. Yes, yes.

SPEAKER_01 16:12

And active is important, but it's not active for the sake of being active. Absolutely. Because we the the the way things have changed now, especially with the block scheduling, we don't have enough time with students to have a dose of physical activity that's going to facilitate a physiological change, um, especially in elementary in our area where you might see them 30 to 40 minutes per week. The dose isn't large enough to impact their health. We have to make them passionate, give them the tools to be active outside of the school day and to uh dance like nobody's watching, which is something that you excel at with your students, so that they are embracing a motivated physically active lifestyle outside of school. Absolutely. And so we are we're giving them the tools, increasing the tools in their toolbox so that then they're able to apply the fundamentals uh with their families and their communities. And I know uh Leigh has a very unique situation because they identified that the dosage was a major issue and they wanted to make sure that that students had regular physical activity that was meaningful instruction. Yes.

SPEAKER_04 17:20

And I'm shaking my head during all of what Mark's saying, like you guys can see me, but like I'm shaking my head because the idea of even some of the veteran teachers, the the explanation of when I walk into your gym, a kid needs to be able to tell me what they're doing, why they're doing it, and how they know they're good at it. And they're like, oh, but they're all being active. If they are just all being active without being able to make those connections, that's physical activity, not physical education. Now, physical activity is necessary. The the increased, you know, increasing physical activity is absolutely necessary, but we are physical educators, and so we need to be able to to teach our students to articulate that. And I focus more on on PE because in in our secondary level, at least in Virginia Beach, a health classroom, other than the size, um, is very similar to in most cases. I have some unique schools that I'll talk about in just a second, but in most cases the health classroom is similar to any other classroom subject. Um, our classes can have up to 40, which no other classroom subject can have that. So you've got 40 kids packed into a classroom and they're they're doing work and they're they're doing written work and cognitive, um, the cognitive domain and and quizzes. But in PE in Virginia Beach, for elementary is our main outlier. So all of our elementary students have health and physical education every single day for 30 minutes, and they have 15 minutes of recess attached to that. So the PE teacher has them for 45 minutes, 30 minutes of structured instruction and 15 minutes of required recess that's written into our school board policy. Okay. So it's not an option, it's not like a school can just decide, oh, I don't want to do the 15 minutes recess. They also have 15 minutes of recess at the opposite end of the day, which was which is also in our school board policy, with their classroom teachers. So they have 60 minutes of of required physical activity time every single day. 45 with a licensed health and PE teacher, 15 minutes with their classroom teacher every day. And then in middle school, they have PE every day because we don't um we are doing block scheduling, but they didn't do blocks for the electives, quote unquote. PE is not elective in middle school. Say it louder for the back. It's required. But we're grouped under the elective, so we just roll with it. Um so essentially, and if you're in a four by four class in high school, if you're not in an A B class, you're in a four by four where you go every day. Essentially a child would have PE of at least 30 minutes every day from kindergarten to 10th grade in Virginia Beach. That's good. It is great. Remember, I said we have 56 elementary schools and I have 56 PE teachers. So that means there's one teacher for that entire school. And they have one TA, which is a non-licensed person for every um 80 to 100 kids. So the entire grade level goes at one time. So my last school before I got into central admin um was one of our medium-sized schools. We had about 560 kids. My smallest grade level, my smallest class was 86 children. And my largest class was 110. And all of my, you know, like let me be real clear. Like, we're not, you know, all of our schools have a full gym.

SPEAKER_02 20:25

Just really quick, that's what I make sure it's clear. Yeah, 110 children.

SPEAKER_04 20:28

110 children.

SPEAKER_02 20:29

Elementary age.

SPEAKER_04 20:30

That was second grade. So 110, 110 eight-year-olds.

SPEAKER_02 20:34

One gym.

SPEAKER_04 20:35

One gym. One PE teacher. One licensed PE teacher, and I have four TAs who are fantastic, but I have four non-licensed teachers. So, and the the I love those second graders. Um they are eighth graders now. I still see them. Um, but the the the challenge for that is how does that one person with that um with an educational background, with you know, with the licensed background, make sure that all 110 of those kids that are in that class are not just busy, happy good. How do they make sure that those kids know what they're doing, why they're doing it, and how it can be successful? So some of their baseline things that we what I that I look for when I go into those spaces are they need to have different modalities for explaining that to kids. They're greeting kids at the door not only with a greeting for classroom management, but also the first thing that kid hears and sees is today we are, so that we can, I'll know I have it when, whether it's on a board, whether it's the teacher saying it, you know, whether it's some sort of indicator, and then also repeating that throughout the class, because they're young, they need that repetition, but then also because you have to somehow get to a hundred kids. And and their TAs need to be prepared to share those words and and that knowledge. Now, were their TAs maybe Completely understand where it's coming from, maybe not. You know, some of our TAs are barely not high school students. Um, and that's that's fine. We we appreciate them, they are part of our team. We can't do PE in Virginia Beach elementary school the way we do without our TAs, they are part of the health and peam. But when when talking about, you know, what do we look for when we go in there? When I look in an elementary gym, I'm looking to see that the teacher is greeting them at the door, and the first thing the kids are being bombarded with is this is what we're doing today, this is how you'll know that you're successful at it. The other thing is I am looking to see a little bit of that controlled chaos. They gotta be moving. I don't like lines, I don't, you know, I don't like half in, half out where half people are watching the other half of them play. Um if it's above 40, I don't even like to see them inside. Like why we all of our schools have a field, have activity like go outside. There's 110 of them go outside for your own self-preservation, take them outside because they do need to give them the space at that elementary level to move and the the repeated opportunities. How do you get a hundred kids through activities in 30 minutes that's giving them enough time to begin to master that? And to give them enough practice. And give them the practice, yes, and enough practice that the next day we can build on that. You have to give them the space to move.

SPEAKER_01 23:24

But Lei just pointed out where I can support a teacher in helping them develop that what, why, and how. Yeah. Um they're not experts in every content area. They're probably comfortable with with more than half, but there are some where they I need to know what I am looking for with this motor skill outcome. Um, we have a lot of uh career switchers who are passionate about fitness and health and physical activity and healthy lifestyles. But not necessarily like me. I did not go to school, I did not learn the steps in teaching a student how to skip versus gallop. I do not know the cues. And so I need someone to help me understand to fill in that gap. And that's where we can step in by providing them with uh rubrics, providing them with the success criteria, the uh uh a specific unit plan to help them again, refine their craft so that they're more comfortable and understand so they can then uh have support in that. And it is also a part of my job to help develop those student growth measures so that universally we can compare apples to apples across a school division with uh it can't do your students know the proper steps of a uh golf chip in the fifth grade? I know yours do, because that's something that is uh it's a standard that we do across the county because we do like to measure growth in specific areas. Um and at the same time supporting schools that that uh in other content areas, like, oh my goodness, you all have SOLs, you have standards? Yes. That wouldn't always cracks me up. Oh my goodness.

SPEAKER_04 25:05

That that that is also when you're when you're talking about filling in those, so the the unit plans and that structure that's there, and we were speaking earlier about administrators, it educating them on that as well and putting it in a format that is easy for them to digest because there's a lot of things that are coming from multiple different places. But we have a pacing guide, for instance, and anytime any of our elementary, middle, or high school administrators can click on that pacing guide and know these are the things that they're gonna be working on during these nine weeks, so that when I do go into a gymnasium or a health classroom, I I have a a clue of what I might be seeing. Okay, they're going to be doing striking, foot striking, or they're working on small, um, you know, skill-related fitness um to help narrow it down for them so that they're not overwhelmed by w what they're looking at and not taking the autonomy and the creativity out of teachers, not taking that away from them, but giving them enough structure that they can build on that and give all of their students the opportunity to succeed, and not just the ones that are already athletically inclined or are physically capable. Um, and and helping them with different tools and availability and having th different things available for them to build off of those things.

SPEAKER_01 26:22

And teaching them how to develop those tools on their own. We're we're we're yeah, we're right.

SPEAKER_04 26:26

Really giving because when they develop on them on their own, they have more of a vested interest. And we struggle with that. We have struggled with that and in in our office and even me in my position when we talk about division-wide assessments, because they are necessary. I do need to have because you said we get to talk about data.

SPEAKER_02 26:47

I do need to data on my I do need to have a lot of data. How do you measure program effectiveness, Lady?

SPEAKER_04 27:03

I do need to have like a tangible, measurable number or identifiable um characteristic to explain to them this is how we know the students are learning. And that requires some sort of standardized, we don't like that word, but it requires some sort of standardized measurement. But that shouldn't, that that should not be the main measurement that our teachers are are utilizing. Sometimes they kind of hyper focus on those. Like, oh, I'm supposed to give these three tests during the year because central admin says that I'm supposed to do it. And then the state says I have to do fitness testing. And if you're in high school, we also have to do these particular things for driver education. And so we focus on on those and forget that you're the teacher, you're the content expert in this classroom, and you know what your standards are. What are you going to create or utilize in order to determine if your students are successful at those? Here are some ideas I have, but let me help you with your personality what would work best. Like I'm not going to walk into Stevie Ray Gray's classroom and say, here's a written quiz that you can give your kids on dance. That's not your personality. It's here, I found this great rubric where you can measure like the creative dances that they do. Still create your own dance, maybe just building your own rubric. But if I have a teacher who's not inclined to dance, it's here is a slide deck with an instructional lesson on dance. And I can't wait to come back and see your foot striking unit because I know you were a soccer coach. Right. You know, like the understanding, not weaknesses, but understanding where I can support them so that they can thrive in those other areas and also having those available for administrators to know what they're looking for.

SPEAKER_01 28:39

You started by asking about our day. What happens in a day in the cubicle, right? Let's say what happens in a day. That's what I want to know if I'm doing my job correctly. So What happens in a day?

SPEAKER_04 28:51

When's the last time I was in my cubicle?

SPEAKER_01 28:54

I suggest that uh Leigh probably receives a hundred emails a day. Um and so you hopefully you would never know that because part of my role is deflecting a lot of that off of the individual teacher's desk that I deflect, that I um answer the questions, but of those, half of them will be central office communications. We're like, okay, uh this sales pitches. Okay, sales. How many textbook pictures? You have an email from a teacher, the superintendent, a principal, and uh and a bunch of other things. Who's getting who's getting it?

SPEAKER_04 29:38

There's a series because my teachers just text me. They just text me.

SPEAKER_02 29:41

Like, I want to do a blind ranking game. Blind ranking game. This will be the last thing we need to do, okay? So blind ranking, you're sitting there on your computer, okay? We've got five possible spots for this from best to worst. Email pops up.

SPEAKER_03 29:55

Ping.

SPEAKER_02 29:56

Okay. First one is uh there was a physical alteration, altercation between two students in the classroom. It got it got to fisticuffs. People are swinging on each other, and it came across as you have to deal with it. Where do you place that in order of that's the best email I could have gotten today, or that's the worst email I could have gotten today?

SPEAKER_04 30:18

That's literally the best. Because I have how I have a policy for that one. Yeah. I love a policy.

SPEAKER_01 30:25

And that's gonna be that one. That's gonna it's gonna be evaluated that uh because the um the pass that back to the principal. You need facts. You need facts. And you're gonna support the school in getting the facts to find out what happened in the class. Was it a result of the activity? Was it a result of the activity and instructional practices? I will be involved in that discussion. It's disciplinary issue between two students. I'm clear of that. That's a school-based depend on was it related to what we were doing? Was it something that I suggested that they do? But it's still the fact-finding mission. We're not gonna do that. Were they playing dots? Yeah. Oh, yeah. And then there's gonna be yeah, they're gonna have a talk and two for months, too. Yeah. Um but that's not yeah, it it would depend. That's either an immediate uh I'm jumping all in, or uh that's uh I'll refer that to the people that need to process it.

SPEAKER_02 31:14

Well we need a number though. Is it one, two, three, four, or five?

SPEAKER_04 31:17

One would be the I think that one not knowing the other ones, but I feel like that one, because there is an established protocol in school divisions or something like that, I think that would be a one. Because I'm not having to come up with stuff off the top of my head.

SPEAKER_01 31:29

It's a it's a one or a three. A one or three. Yeah, yeah, it's one or the other.

SPEAKER_02 31:33

Uh next scenario. You get bing, here's another email. Uh a parent is emailing you saying that let's make it as vague as possible. They are a P teacher said something that they consider to be shaming to their student and their student feels like.

SPEAKER_04 31:51

Literally, like you were in my email box.

SPEAKER_02 31:54

Where does that rank and how you have to deal with it and what kind of urgency you have to place on it?

SPEAKER_01 32:01

From one to that's that's also a one, but it's a referral to the school-based administration, and I will support them and the teacher in their fact-finding mission. I'm not the lean on that. Right.

SPEAKER_04 32:10

That's uh I think that's a a one, may maybe a two in our case, because we do have a couple of tea few teachers that are are assigned to us, um, particularly when it comes to driver education behind the wheel. So that would be the only reason why it might be two, because it might be something that we have to deal with in in central admin. But in most cases, again, like Mark said, that's something that I get to support the school on. Hey, was this an instructional thing? Was it something that I said? Was it something that you read that I wrote and you took it out of context? Then I can help with that. But they are always vague. Yeah. And and and the response, the immediate response on those are have you contacted the administrator responsible for health and pe or your school principal in regards to this? Okay.

SPEAKER_02 32:54

So it's a quick response. Last one. Oh my gosh, it's a principal. I I'm freestyling these right now. Oh my gosh. I'll try to find one that's gonna be hard. A principal sends you an email and says that the PE teacher has done something let's say fireable. Do you fire people? Are you allowed to release people? Something that goes against uh any policy that you have for best practices and it requires like an in-person sit-down talk to you. Do you ever have to go to teachers and say what you are doing is not appropriate?

SPEAKER_01 33:27

I think we've all received that email that says, please call me. Yeah, or please call me. Because this is gonna be a phone call. This is gonna be at this time. Absolutely. Uh so I think what you're realizing is that they're all they're all ones. Um and that's the challenge sometimes is that you have to take one A and one B. And it because if somebody's reaching out to us, they're asking for support. And we want we are in this role because we want to support teachers and administrators in making their job more impactful and easier to manage. And if if you're able to do that and still have a balanced lifestyle on your own at home and your personal life, then we're we're being more effective.

SPEAKER_04 34:08

We're giving you the the the space to do that and standing in the gap. And I I do, I mean, I would clarify to say when we're saying that they're all ones, it's not because they're all easy to solve. It's because those are all within the wheelhouse of what we have to do on a daily basis. Those those emails were all in the 100 emails that I got on third, you know, on Thursday. Um, and and probably the the 250 that are sitting in my inbox because I didn't check it after 12 yesterday because we were here. Um I would say that there's there's gonna be more involvement for our office or our position at different levels of those. So like the first two, we really do get to pass those back to to the administrator and support them on, you know, as long as they're following policy, we're supporting you on whatever the policy or the expectations, best practices are. The third one though can get a little tricky because it it goes back to understanding of of what is expected in a classroom, um, and making sure that what the principal is expecting is also what is expected of the people that we are reporting to, and that those two things align and that we're communicating that in such a way as to not devalue what they see for their school, um, but recognize that their school is ultimately part of a school division that has goals, expectations for student outcomes and for teacher support. Um, and so when when it's you know the teacher has done something, no, we don't fire people, but we definitely are part of those conversations and and having a conversation with that principal and then having a conversation with the teacher about w what happened, what did you see, what actually happened. There's always three sides of the story what one person says, what the one person the other person says, and then what actually happened. And what does that look like based on expectations that we have shared, policies that come out of our office, and any sort of information that we've shared before. And then they have to pass that back to the administrator also has somebody that they're responsible to and that they have to.

SPEAKER_01 36:16

And you know what else we do? We support our state association with committee meetings, shameless plugs, and division meetings. That's one of the things that we do.

SPEAKER_02 36:28

Guess what time conference? Well, hey, you guys make it look easy, and I appreciate you know your counties appreciate you. I just want to say thank you for spending some time with me today, Lei and Mark, and thank everybody else who's listening right now. Thanks. Yeah, we have a lot fun. We'll catch you on the next lap.

SPEAKER_04 36:44

We didn't get any bleeps, Mark.

SPEAKER_03 36:45

Yeah, we did a really good job. And we didn't say aligned curriculum one time.

SPEAKER_04 36:49

We just said it.

SPEAKER_03 36:50

Oh, okay. I've been Stevie Wright Gray. We'll see you later.

SPEAKER_00 36:53

Take care and be well. The Blue Ridge PBS production staff includes podcast counters for Auntie DeFi, editor Calvin, your graphics counter, and director of educational admissions. Subscribe to the Fisher Production Podcast on Amazon, Spotify, and Spotify as the Fluid Foods.