Episode #288: Dr. Kristina Mattis
Dr. Kristina V. Mattis advises statewide educational technology efforts as the Digital Equity Broadband Coordinator for the California Department of Education addressing Superintendent Thurmond’s Closing the Digital Divide Initiative. Kristina’s experience in education spans roles from classroom teaching to executive director to leading change and project management across public and private schools. She is an ESL multilingual speaker and published author. Kristina’s expansive expertise fosters her collaborative and holistic approach to propel instructional opportunities so that “we prepare students to live, work, and thrive in a multicultural, multilingual, and highly connected world” as per the CA DOE mission.
Trench story: needs change, we have to adapt. She started as a HS English teacher. Literacy spans curricular. need to collaborate across curriculum is necessary. How can we expand literacy across curriculum? Tech incorporation? She explored then other options within educational field. When she got into ed tech, it became apparent how necessary it is to have structures in place to set up ppl for success. What do they need for success? We can’t assume ppl don’t know something- leverage in-house experts. Her trench- moved from large district to an independent school. Took on a project for a yr. It finished, where to go from there? Had sleepless nights. Email came thru colleague was hiring in corporate world. Unpredicted layoff fall of ‘22 across many org’s in Bay Area. 11 months was unemployed. Did some freelancing. Was panicking, someone finally said “stop”. He said “take the opportunity to reflect on what you actually want to do”, CDE opportunity arose.Works a lot w/ broadband accessibility. Has now climbed out of the trench.
Areas lacking connectivity– rural, tribal reservations. Central Valley & San Benita, Northern Ca- Everything N of Sacramento. Many schools up there don’t have connectivity. Why? Because of geographic location-laying necessary cabling. CA State grant application process to have schools leverage w/ libraries. Chairperson of FCC said it was OK to put wifi on school busses. Bus don’t always have the wifi to connect either. What are we doing about the expectations of HW? How often are students getting “busy work”? What about students’ responsibilities outside school?
Upcoming book, published by Road to Awesome: Guiding Transformational Change in education. Her pitch is we’re experts, but when it comes to be being part of project/change management, we don’t have the training as educators. IT wants to often put in a new system. Took the 2 fields together, merged them into a guidebook. It’s how to lead change, w/ tips/tricks, examples. Has been writing along the way, started roughly 5 yrs ago. In early ‘22 started seeking out publishers. For change management, it’s the reinforcement that’s often an afterthought. It’s becoming part of the culture/climate of school/district/environment. What do educators have in terms of Tier 1,2,3 support? Schools don’t always gather the feedback after change took place. Sending an email isn’t always enough to communicate.
Speaking engagements: doesn’t know if she’ll have time to speak to it with her new book. Will present on behalf of the State. Late Nov. presented @ state conference on broadband. Will be @ Spring Q in Palm Springs, CNIC conf. in Monterey, both in March. She draws upon her professional experience from writing book in her presentations.
Blog: Life Lessons Learned (she takes the blogs & posts on her LinkedIn profile) does weekly blogs. Many of those are incorporated throughout the book. Write a reflection of a life experience, takeaways, food for thought, whether it’s positive or negative. ConsultED Development (google.com). Hasn’t kept up on a ton lately, due to editing the book.
Out of everything: don’t jump to conclusions, take a moment to breathe, be inclusive.
Where can ppl find you? ConsultED Development (google.com) LinkedIn @KristinaMattis
View this episode on YouTube: https://youtu.be/miMGuZkSsXw
Episode #289: Andrea Haas
With over two decades of experience in education and a desire to keep good teachers in the profession, Andrea founded Elm Tree Education. Elm Tree is dedicated to providing accessible, ongoing, online professional development customized to meet the diverse needs of students. Andrea, a Nationally Board Certified teacher in Literacy, has an extensive background in designing professional development programs for teachers and mentoring educators. Her unwavering passion lies in literacy instruction, particularly in cultivating practices that embrace the whole child and prioritize cultural responsiveness and inclusivity.
Trenches story: has had a lot of transitions over the years, 20+ yrs. Gen-ed, TOSA, sped, was also an induction mentor. Her personality is that when she got to a position she’d “handled”, she had a 5 yr itch, do something different. Looked like changing districts, grade levels, sped to general ed. Never wanted to be an admin but wanted to effect change while working w/ t’s. She offers PD online b/c not all t’s have access to PD in district. W/ workshops you don’t always look @ things again. So many other things take priority to t growth, learning that’s PD is on back burner. Elm Tree follows through- is in pilot phase “flipped cr”, videos 1x/wk t’s in a building can watch. Then will have a zoom the next wk. After 5 wks, another coaching call.
Could you elaborate on how the “Science of Reading” might oversimplify the multifaceted nature of reading instruction? mostly at ES level. Can be used in some MS, her experience is K-8. Technically it’s about teaching kids how to read, they get into MS often and can’t read. How you read a history/science text are going to be different. We can tie in vocab acquisition. Her teaching background is ES. PPl’s definition of science of reading gets lost in translation. It’s not just about decoding words off the pg, it’s also about comprehension. Are you doing reading at the expense of other things? All this convo around scripted curricula is frustrating b/c we’ve already figured out that doesn’t work. It’s like we’re trying to put a bandaid on a gash on the head. It’s her “why”. She wants to keep good t’s in the profession.
Vocab acquisition for ELDs: she can see the big system and how they’re suddenly immersed- they’ve had a lot asked of them w/o doing all the activities in text. Books being used now for reading for ELDs are more age-appropriate.Find out where they’re strong. Maybe their home language has a rich oral history. Stop thinking we need to get MLLs caught up.
Could you share some common obstacles teachers face when differentiating instruction and provide insights on practical strategies to address these challenges? Getting to know your st’s is one of the easiest way to differentiate. Involve them in the process. Not school is done “to them”. Not being cognitively engaged, only being compliant. A lot of t’s know what it is, but are they actually doing it? Tricky part about curriculum scaffolds is that they make a lot of assumptions about the kids in front of you- don’t take culturally responsive pedagogy into mind nor trauma-informed practices. Curricula try to throw everything into it. T’s need to filter through it. In terms of specific interventions for newcomer MLLs, look at something that has a heavy emphasis on letters, early literacy. Some companies are trying to write decodable text for older kids. Find ways to have kids self-assess..
Can you provide some strategies for teachers to critically evaluate and select effective curriculum materials and resources for reading instruction? Many things are stamped “evidence-based”. That is a buzz word, marketing term. Publishers perhaps threw together curricula quickly and districts are putting millions into it. They put everything & kitchen sink into some curricula. “The Basal bloat”- how do you prioritize? Ultimately we’d give t’s more time to grapple, try things on & create their own curricula.
In what ways do teacher preparation programs fall short when it comes to preparing educators for the realities of teaching reading and writing? because this does go content. Univ’s are a business as well “become a teacher quick”. Most of these juggle st teaching @ same time. She wishes t’s could do a residency program-experiences in diff. settings.
How is a teacher supposed to “separate the sheep from the goats” when it comes to figuring out most effective ways to teach reading? In terms of where t’s are getting their info from, TicToc or IG-which aren’t trusted sources. Some misconceptions are when you put your intention into phonics, f.ex. you can’t do it at the expense of emphasis on the other things that matter. They are telling ppl their interpretation of the science of reading. Gap b/w research & practice. They have a hypothesis they’re trying to prove. How does it transfer to how do you do this in the CR? Things that aren’t clear or certain folks who have certain agendas are taking a narrow view of the science. Not a new “war” of agendas. Science of reading doesn’t = phonics. Gap b/w research & practice. there isn’t a silver bullet- “if you do this, kids will read”. Be a critical consumer. Think about what YOUR kids really need.Don’t loose hope that you can find out what will work w/ your kids. She tries to show research from different organizations on her website.
Can you share some practical steps teachers can take to foster greater student agency and classroom engagement? How much of your teaching time is you talking? Are you a lecturer, facilitator, tutor? She can talk to students having the choice & voice in how they respond, setting indiv. goals based on their own self-reflection/self-assessment. Make personal connections w/ them & connection to their lives. Pass over some of the control. It doesn’t always have to be the same path to get places.
Out of everything: if you can get quiet & tune out the noise, be true to who you are as a t. Have that at top of your mind. Don’t put square peg in round hole. Acknowledge there’s an art to this. How can you make a change if you’re up against systems? Put yourself back in it.
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View this episode on YouTube: https://youtu.be/8gXt8xyTv1c