Episode 17: The Teacher As Visionary with Kerry Gallagher
How to reach Kerry:
TRANSCRIPT:
(transcribed by kayla.r.fainer@gmail.com)
Melissa Milner 00:09
Hi, this is Melissa Milner. Welcome to The Teacher As... podcast. The goal of this weekly podcast is to help you explore your passions and learn from others in education and beyond to better your teaching. The Teacher As... will highlight uncommon parallels to teaching, as well as share practical ideas for the classroom.
This episode is entitled The Teacher As... Visionary. I was lucky enough to interview Kerry Gallagher, who is truly a visionary and a supporter of students, teachers and families. Kerry is the Assistant Principal for Teaching and Learning at St. John's Prep in Danvers, Massachusetts. She's also the Education Director for connectsafely.org among her many roles and accomplishments.
Before moving into her role as administrator, Kerry taught middle school and high school and then became a digital learning specialist. Kerry has an award winning blog and has received numerous awards and accolades for her groundbreaking work in education.
In this interview, Kerry talks about blowing up the existing model to provide valuable structures for teacher PD and student success. We were lucky enough to have Kerry teaching in our district for a while, and this chat was a great chance to catch up with her. I hope you enjoy The Teacher As... Visionary.
Welcome, Kerry, to The Teacher As... podcast. What would you like listeners to know about you?
Kerry Gallagher 01:27
Hi, Melissa, thank you for having me. I would like teachers to know that at this point in my career, I'm in a little bit of a sweet spot. I have taught high school. I have taught middle school. I've served as a school administrator, and one could say, also a district level administrator with my role. But I also have my own children who are in elementary school.
So I really function in the sweet spot in that I have a finger in each of the different areas of K-12, and really have a sense of both the administrator, the teacher, and the parent perspective in the midst of all of the upheaval that we're encountering right now. So that's what I would like teachers to know about me.
Melissa Milner 02:17
Yeah, and how does that help you in your work, having all that perspective?
Kerry Gallagher 02:22
I think it helps in that I have the 30,000 foot view of systems and how they're meant to function across the board, so that an entire district or school can move forward, as one ship. But I also understand that, in order for that entire ship to move forward, each one of the teachers has to feel successful in their own classroom. And each of the families at home has to know the direction that the ship is moving.
And so all of these different parts have to communicate effectively. And right now there's a really fine balance there between clearly sharing the amount of information that people need as compared to over communicating and overwhelming folks.
Melissa Milner 03:10
Yes.
Kerry Gallagher 03:12
I'm on the receiving end of all of those overwhelming parent emails. But I'm also on the sending end as an administrator, trying to get information out to our families. So I definitely see it from both sides.
Melissa Milner 03:24
Can you tell us more about your role now and how you got to that position as far as all your experience?
Kerry Gallagher 03:32
I serve as the Assistant Principal for Teaching and Learning at St. John's Prep in Danvers, Massachusetts, which is a grade 6 through 12 school for boys. We serve about 1,500 boys here at St. John's. I'm the first person to fill the role. It's a new role. I'm starting my third year in it, but my fifth year at St. John's, actually my sixth year at St. John's. I finished five years.
The role is to be the lead on teaching and learning. And what that encompasses is professional learning for our teachers that is meant to provide guidance for them on the vision for how teaching and learning will progress in the next weeks, months, years here at St. John's. That therefore means, how are we integrating curriculum and technology? What are the strategies that we're using in our classroom so that students are cognitively engaged with the content, while being socially and interpersonally engaged with one another, while also leveraging the really powerful technology tools that are at their fingertips?
So I think that's like the quick sum up, but all the different things I do during the day to make that happen. I guess nobody ever realizes how big their job is until they're in those shoes.
Melissa Milner 04:59
You were able to sort of have a vision and mold what that position would be it sounds like.
Kerry Gallagher 05:07
Yeah, it's a really incredible opportunity to be the first person to ever hold a role. Because there's a vision in terms of the way the role was designed by the person who is my boss, right? But then there's a trust. Because if you're the person who's given that role, that means that you're trusted with that vision, and you're given the opportunity to create it.
So prior to holding this position, I served as a digital learning specialist at St. John's for several years, which means I served as an instructional technology coach essentially for our teachers in a non-evaluative role. And prior to that, I worked as a middle and high school teacher in other school systems throughout Massachusetts and New Hampshire.
And so I had nearly 15 years of in classroom experience before becoming a teacher coach, and then had several years of teacher coach experience before moving into a role where as an administrator, I can help set the vision for what teaching and learning looks like at our school so that we're continuing to make progress and provide the most up to date research-based experiences for our students. So I would definitely say that building on my experience as a teacher and a coach helped prepare me for the role.
But also, it helps build trust within this community. I had worked within this community, with our teachers and with our students, and helped design even programming for the parents in this community. And so that helped build the trust that I needed with all those different constituencies in order to fill this role effectively.
Melissa Milner 06:49
Clearly, this is not just about technology, because I watched your TED Talk. And it's more of philosophy of how to approach curriculum.
Kerry Gallagher 07:00
Exactly, exactly. As a matter of fact, I posted something on Facebook today. Because in the midst that is-- what you just said reminded me of what I posted. I posed the question to my followers on Facebook and on LinkedIn, what are the core tools that are absolutely essential for your teachers and students to know how to use right now, that are allowing them to build authentic relationships? Because since a lot of our learning is happening virtually right now, we do need the tech tools. But we really should only focus on using the tech tools that are allowing us to be as human as possible, right?
Melissa Milner 07:41
Right.
Kerry Gallagher 07:42
So are we very consciously selecting the tools that are facilitating authentic human relationships? Or are we selecting the tech tools that allow us to just click through a bunch of tasks and check off our checklists? If we're moving toward the latter, we're just automating education. And education is about relationships; it's not about automation.
If we're choosing the tools that allow us to really get to know our kids, allow them to express themselves creatively, allow us to communicate with them effectively, then yeah, it may take a little longer to get to know them than it would have if we were in the classroom with them every day. But at least they'll know that we're willing to take the time to get to know them. That builds trust, and that allows them to feel safe enough to learn from us.
And those are the tools we should be prioritizing right now, not the flashy ones that have fun music, not the ones that have fancy stickers that you can post on things. We should be selecting the tools that are really effectively allowing us to share with each other.
Melissa Milner 08:51
Right. Do you have certain-- Do you like Flipgrid? Are there certain tech tools that you feel do a good job with that building of relationships?
Kerry Gallagher 09:01
So I think that every single school should select for itself a learning management system. And I think that a learning management system that allows teachers to have one place to go to post the resources they want students to have access to, the assignments that they want to give to students. And that same place is where parents and students know they can go to find out what they need to do and to turn in their work. That builds trust.
So it does sound like that is task based. But if everybody knows they only have to go to that one place to get their work done, then that is the place that everyone will meet. That'll be the central location. It's an online location, but it's still a location where everybody knows that they can go to find each other. And that's the place where relationships and trust starts. So I think that is priority number one.
Melissa Milner 09:56
So like a Google Classroom or?
Kerry Gallagher 09:59
Yeah, I would say google classroom is not a full LMS. It's like a light LMS. But it's a good starting point if the district or the school isn't ready to invest in a more robust one. The one that we've chosen at St. John's is Canvas. We love it. It's a steep learning curve. But it's much more akin to what's being used at the undergraduate levels. So I feel as though it's a good tool for our students to learn here to prepare them for that. But also it works just as well for our 6th graders as it does for our 12th graders.
If the teachers design the environment intentionally, it is navigable even for younger learners. Others that are really strong, I really like Schoology. I think it's a strong contender. But I do see that Google Classroom is a good starting point for a lot of districts, just because they're already familiar with Google tools. And I know we use Google tools at St. John's, too, and we're using them with Canvas. So I think that's the first thing.
But then, as you mentioned, you need to find some tools that allow you to integrate more multimedia. So Flipgrid is a really good example of one. It allows for the exchange of video. It allows people to share, students to share their faces, their voices with one another. I think that's a decent one. It's also free, and it's pretty secure. Because it's coming from Microsoft, which, as a company, they do a really nice job with security and data privacy. So I think that's a good one to start with.
I really like Padlet. I think it's a nice way for everybody to collaborate in one place, whether they're in their classroom or at home. Padlet, it's free to start. It isn't free forever. So it would be something if you start using it, you have to make sure you have a plan for whether or not it's something that your school or district can invest in. But it's definitely worthwhile. I like the idea of students being able to collaborate with one another in that way.
And I think in general, choose a formative assessment tool that ends up being your go to. So you could choose Kincaid, you could choose Quizlet, you could choose Quizizz, Edpuzzle. Edpuzzle is one for video, so I almost have that in its own category in my brain.
Melissa Milner 12:26
Yeah. But you can ask questions, but it's not really a quiz.
Kerry Gallagher 12:29
Yeah, yeah. But these other ones that I'm mentioning have lots of different question types. And it doesn't depend on you uploading a video, for instance. But Edpuzzle is one that we've invested in at St. John's, too. So I love that one.
But choose a formative assessment tool that allows you to do low stakes exit tickets with students or reading checks, but also allows you to do higher stakes quizzes and tests that has that flexibility. So I think a really good LMS though, honestly, will have a pretty robust formative assessment tool built right into it.
Melissa Milner 13:03
Oh, see, that's the difference. Google Classroom, we're having to pull different things because we don't have-- Okay, that's interesting.
Kerry Gallagher 13:12
Yeah. Although, Google Forms has gotten much better. It is stronger.
Melissa Milner 13:19
Clearly, you have a passion for technology. Have you always had a passion for technology? Do you have other passions that help you in your teaching?
Kerry Gallagher 13:27
So this is such a great question. Because having come to St. John's Prep five and a half years ago as a digital learning specialist, there were a number of people and are a number of people still who have the misconception that my training and background is in technology, that my college degree and my postgraduate degrees are in technology and training, and that I have an IT background. And that could not be farther from the truth.
I am a history teacher. I studied history. I studied politics. I studied philosophy. I did not study technology. My post grad degree is in law. I have a law degree, so not technology at all. So I do have a passion for technology. But I have a passion for technology because I have found that technology gives me access to people and information in a way that nothing else does. So I have a passion for being able to collaborate with other people about history and law, and find out more and be able to research more.
And I, as a teacher, discovered that the best way to find out more about those passions is to access the information and people who are also passionate about it via technology. And therefore, technology became a passion, because I found out that there was this whole network of other social studies teachers online who wanted to be history nerds with me in Twitter Chat and wanted to have Chat, and wanted to have a whole conversation about antebellum social movements with me online. And so I could tap into that brain trust of experts and share those passions with them.
That grew into trying to find lots of different multimedia resources to share with my students so that they could understand why I was so passionate. It's not just because of what's in the textbook. It's because of this whole world of resources that really, basically reveal to us the mysteries of our past, and wanting to bring that to my classroom.
And so I did, through a very rudimentary self built class website, which if I look back at it now, it's comical that that was how I posted my class. But at the time, it was cutting edge, right? So that's where the passion for technology developed. And then, if my students and I were able to have this much fun and do this many cool creative things, and even talk with other classes from all over the world, which we did, or have video chats with museum curators in Europe, which we did in my classroom.
If I could do that, other teachers should be able to do that, too. And so that's where my career blossomed into being a coach for other other teachers. Because I know that when a teacher chooses their content area, it's because they love it. It's a part of their identity. So their students should be able to experience that love and passion, and using technology to share what the world has to offer in that content area. It's something I want all teachers to be able to do with their students.
And then moving from being a coach to an administrator means that I get to actually help create the structures and policies that really kick that door open for teachers. And I get to empower our coaches to do things that maybe they wouldn't be able to do if there wasn't somebody in their corner, building in the PD time, setting aside face for tutorials, and giving them access to the tools that allow them to collaborate with our teachers better.
Melissa Milner 17:10
Very cool. And I was going to ask you, and you ended up answering it is, what do you mean by structures? Giving the time for PD is one of the biggies.
Kerry Gallagher 17:19
Yeah, making sure that there's priority on the time for PD, and also making sure that the PD is more long lasting than that hour they have with the teachers. So setting up the system so it's like, okay, here's our hour together. But here's all these other self guided modules that we've put together for you. So that if you want to go beyond what we've done, and here's how you can contact me for one on one coaching. And here's how I can meet with you even in the evenings via Zoom.
We can do it on your time. Let's blow up the existing model and make it so that people can learn when they're ready to learn and not just build it into the work day. And people can learn when they're ready to learn and not just on the PD day. Let's make sure that people have access to it when they need it. Let's meet our teacher learners where they are, just like we put effort into meeting our student learners where they are.
Melissa Milner 18:13
Well said. What's something that's happened in your work that you're just really proud of?
Kerry Gallagher 18:20
So the other role that I have, in addition to my role at St. John's, is that I serve as the Director of K-12 education for an internet safety nonprofit called Connect Safely. And I've had that role, also, for five years. And the proudest of my work that I am is when that work and the work at my school crossover. So when what I learned as the Director of Education for this internet safety nonprofit through my collaboration with policymakers, tech company executives, and policy experts, how that work and how what I learned from them ends up helping me create more effective policy here at St. John's for our teachers.
And so I know, because I'm learning what's up and coming in terms of policy and practice in that role, I am better able to prepare our teachers so that our students are learning, really for the careers that they're going to be facing when they leave. And they're not learning based on last year's curriculum, right? They're learning based on what's what's coming next. So that's what I'm proud of.
So for instance, I've become somewhat of an expert, well known nationally in student data privacy, and how that translates to the classroom and to schools. And as a result, I'm able to provide training for our teachers on student data privacy. So if you ask any one of the teachers at my school what student data privacy is and how our school protects student data, they can tell you. And I know that at most schools, most teachers don't have answers to those questions.
Melissa Milner 20:02
No.
Kerry Gallagher 20:03
And it's because of what I've learned and how I'm able to train our teachers. And as a result, if you ask my teachers how they protect their own data privacy, they can tell you how they protect their own data privacy. And so not only am I making sure that we're taking care of our students, I'm making sure that my teachers know how to take care of themselves, right? So that's the one I'm most proud of my work, when that overlap happens and I'm better serving my community because of learning that I'm able to do beyond my community.
Melissa Milner 20:33
Awesome. What are you zooming in on in your work right now?
[ZOOMING IN SOUNDBITE]
Kerry Gallagher 20:41
In my work right now, as we're just starting up our school year and starting later than normal, my job is to get feedback from our teachers on what's working and what's not, and help solve their problems, and really remove obstacles for them. That's my job year round. But right now, that's a much bigger task than normal, because the systems that we're working within are so new.
So as a result, a lot of my day is me fielding questions and solving problems. And so a lot of what I see are the problems and not the successes during the course of the day. Logically, I know that there are many, many successes over the course of the day. I just don't get to see them, because it's more important for me to spend my time solving the problems.
So I think I'm zooming in on trying to make sure that I model the self care that I really want my teachers to do for themselves, and making time in my day to learn about the things that are going well, in addition to making sure that I'm focusing my efforts on removing obstacles and problems for our teachers so that their days go well. So I think for anyone who's listening, as we're all getting used to these new systems, give yourself grace. And make sure you set aside time to feed the positivity. Make sure you get yourself a dose of what's uplifting to help make sure that when it comes time for you to dig down and solve a problem, you have enough energy in your stores to do that well.
Melissa Milner 22:18
Giving yourself grace and seeing the positive, like you said, I think it's what are we grateful for.
This is one of the harder questions. What is your favorite movie, and why?
Kerry Gallagher 22:29
Oh, I don't know if I have a favorite. But I can tell you that what we've been doing with my-- my girls are 11 and 8, which, Melissa, you've known me for a long time, you might be surprised at how old they already are.
Melissa Milner 22:40
I know!
Kerry Gallagher 22:42
Because I think I gave birth to them when I still worked with you. So they're in sixth grade and third grade. And over the course of being quarantined at home in the spring, and then the very unusual summer that we had, we decided to watch with them all of these classic 80s movies that my husband and I had experienced as kids.
So we started with the entire Star Wars saga in release order up to the most recent one. But then we watched with them the Back to the Future movies and all the Ghostbusters movies and The NeverEnding Story. And it has been one of the best things that we've done together as a family, is to just watch these movies that were such a part of our childhood, and now my kids love.
So I would say that we're definitely hardcore Star Wars fans in my family. But The NeverEnding Story was really a special thing to watch with my girls. Because it's a movie that reminds you why books are so important. And it was just a little lesson that we needed at that moment in time.
Melissa Milner 23:50
But what about that scene with the horse? I can't get through it.
Kerry Gallagher 23:54
Oh my god, we all cry and cry. There's so much about that movie, but it was a really good watch. And there's a lot of really great life lessons in it. And it's a great reminder that what we were just saying before, it's important to feed your soul so that you have enough energy to give back to the world. And I think that's a great lesson from that movie.
Melissa Milner 24:13
Yes. I know you're busy; however, people are gonna listen to this, and they're gonna want to reach you. They're gonna want to get more information about all your great ideas. So how can people reach you?
Kerry Gallagher 24:24
Sure. So the best way to reach me is, first of all, to find me on social media on all the different social media platforms. My handle is @KerryHawk02. Twitter and Instagram are probably where I'm most active, but I'm also on Snapchat and all the other things. So you can find me there and just direct message me. My Instagram account is completely public, and my Twitter account is also. So you can just follow me there and then DM me. And I'd be happy to go back and forth, and we can figure out what's next based on people's questions and conversations.
Melissa Milner 25:05
Do you run a Twitter chat, or do you have one to recommend?
Kerry Gallagher 25:08
I really like any Twitter chat that's run by ASCD. I'm a huge ASCD fan. I'm an ASCD Emerging Leader. I serve as a board member on the Massachusetts Board for Massachusetts ASCD. And I just think the programming and the quality of what they put out there in terms of books, newsletters, virtual webinars, and also Twitter Chats is top notch. So I can't speak enough for what that organization offers in terms of education, leadership and teacher leadership.
Melissa Milner 25:38
That's super helpful, because I'm always looking for a good chat.
Kerry Gallagher 25:41
Yeah, check us out, ASCD.
Melissa Milner 25:43
Well, thank you, Kerry. I really appreciate you taking the time out to talk to me.
Kerry Gallagher 25:46
Thank you, Melissa. It was a pleasure. And it was so good to reconnect with you.
Melissa Milner 25:50
If you enjoyed this episode, and have not done so already, please hit the subscribe button for The Teacher As... podcast so you can get future episodes. I would love for you to leave a review and a rating, as well, if you have time. For my blog, transcripts of this episode and links to any resources mentioned, visit my website at www.theteacheras.com. You can reach me on Twitter and Instagram @melissabmilner. And I hope you check out The Teacher As... Facebook page for episode updates.
I am sending a special thanks to Linda and Lester Fleishman, my mom and dad, for being so supportive. They are the voices you hear in the Zooming In soundbite. And my dad composed and performed the background music you are listening to right now. My intro music was "Upbeat Party" by Scott Holmes.
So what are you zooming in on? I would love to hear from you. My hope is that we all share what we are doing in the classroom in order to teach, remind, affirm and inspire each other. Thanks for listening. And that's a wrap!