Heather Nyseth: [00:00:00] They can feel at home and feel welcome and feel that their language and culture are honored and it’s one space in their day where they just really can be themselves.

Mandi Morris: Welcome to the ML Chat podcast. I’m Mandi Morris, your host today. This is such a fun conversation with Heather. Seth, you’re gonna wanna be her best friend. I don’t know what else to tell you. I mean, she’s just fun. She’s fun to talk to. She has so much experience in the ML space and really specifically in the coaching space.

The work that she and her colleagues have done in her school district to grow their coaching model from three to 38 coaches is truly inspirational. I know you’re gonna enjoy this conversation today. Let’s go.

Holding a master’s degree in ESL from Hamlin University and a Master’s in Spanish Language and Culture from Salamanca, Spain, Heather Nyseth is an ELD program facilitator teacher, and ML instructional coach in Rosemount, apple Valley Eagan in Minnesota. [00:01:00] She’s also an adjunct instructor for ELD Methods at Hamlin University’s ESL program.

Heather has 24 years of experience as a K 12 educator. Heather, welcome to the ML Chat podcast. I am so excited to talk to you today and just learn all about how are you doing all of these different things in your school district, your education background, your coaching background. Welcome to the ML Chat podcast.

Heather Nyseth: Thank you. I’m so excited to be here and chat about, uh, what we’re doing and the kind of the journey of how we got there. Yes, 

Mandi Morris: absolutely. So tell us a little bit about your school district. How many ML students are you serving? What does your program look like? Fill us in a little bit on the work that you do from day to day.

Heather Nyseth: We have about 2,700 MLS with EL status in our district of 30,000 students. We’re the third biggest district in the state. We are really happy and proud that we have 90 ELD teachers in the district, K 12. So we have a really [00:02:00] amazing team of people. What else? I don’t know. We do all kind of service models.

We do sheltered instruction. Pull out, push in, yeah. Coaching methods as well that are happening on the side to support the needs of all teachers to build their capacity to meet the needs of our ml. 

Mandi Morris: So you had mentioned in your notes that you are an educator and a coach and a program facilitator, and when I was reading through that, I was just thinking, how does one person do that?

So tell me a little bit about what does your role look like and how are you serving MLS in your school district? 

Heather Nyseth: When I, when you were reading, I was like, oh my gosh. I do a lot of things. I guess I wear a lot of hats, so I teach for part of the day some. I’m really, I have advanced MLS this year, and then I also coach for a little chunk of time at the high school that I served.

I’ve had the privilege this year it’s gone very well and had a lot of people who’ve reached out to collaborate, and so I’ve worked with every department in the building this year, including departments like [00:03:00] Fax and Faed and places where you might not think like they don’t need. A lot to support the mls, but we know that every teacher does, so that’s cool.

And I’m really happy that I’ve got to work with so many people this year. We have 150 teachers in the building that I serve.

Mandi Morris: I love that model of the ELD specialist teaching and then also having blocks of time in the day or week for coaching for colleagues on campus.

And I feel like at the high school level, it’s such a. It makes so much sense as a model. How did you get your foot in the door with high school teachers? Have you been doing that model for a while? How did you convince the content high school teachers that Yes, you want to let me in? You wanna have these conversations, languages for everybody?

Heather Nyseth: Yeah. Thank you. That is, it’s hard, right? I strive to build relationships. I think it’s helped that I’ve been in the building for so long, so people already. Know me and I have relationships with a lot of the people already, but I was sharing with [00:04:00] our team of coaches this year. Like for example, I’ll reach out and say, you have a newcomer level one student.

I’d love to help you with some strategy, support this student. And then I’ll just say, when would you like to meet instead of. Would you like to meet? And I just had a really overwhelmingly positive response. Almost everybody responds right away and says, oh my goodness, thank you. Yes, I would love help with that student.

Otherwise, face to face really works better but then also we cater the coaching to what the teachers are looking for. So maybe they wanna interpret. Some access data or data about the students, or they wanna learn some strategies they can implement or just about the students.

Sometime they just wanna learn about the students so they can better understand them. We have this little coaching menu that most of us use that I’m not taking credit for ’cause it wasn’t my idea, but now almost all of us use it and so we’ve all kind of. Specify that for our building. So it’s got areas that you might be interested in.

So [00:05:00] at some point of the year, we get to present that to our staff. I do want it back to school, but then I also try to meet with small groups. So we’ll meet with professional learning communities, we’ll department leaders, and present just to them as well. And then they can spread the word with everyone.

So that tool’s been really helpful, at least to spark ideas of what they might. Want to learn or how they might want to collaborate. 

Mandi Morris: A coaching menu. That’s the first time I’ve heard that terminology. I love this idea. I’m imagining like a trifold of, here are your coaching options I can support in these ways.

What does that actually look like? I love that concept of, it feels like it falls in line with the email that’s like. When do you want to meet versus do you want to meet it? It feels structured, like, here’s a menu, choose one of these things that I can support you in. Tell me how does that work in your school district?

Heather Nyseth: So yeah, on the menu, I just try to put things on there that people [00:06:00] frequently. Ask about or want support in. So as I mentioned, newcomers are high level, A lot of teachers don’t feel equipped to meet the needs of recently arrived students. And then on the flip side, experience multilingual. So students who have been in service a long time, who they might not.

No. Are still getting instruction or are multilingual. What else? I’m trying to think what else is on there. Data strategies. Oh, also family communication and ally, because a lot of teachers feel, I guess, uncomfortable contacting a family. Even though we have many tools that they can use to translate materials and communicate with families, they don’t feel comfortable using themselves.

So I found that also as a really nice. foot in the door. I helped you to use this tool. Now what else would you like to know? And then sometimes they think of something else that they would like assistance with. So all of them, I think. Yeah, just ways to engage them. Oh, and I was gonna mention the other one, and our state teachers need [00:07:00] A-A-C-E-U for relicensure.

And so we also offer that if you meet with me for an hour, you can get that, meet that licensure requirement. And so that also sometimes spurs people on to keep meeting with you because we know that this coaching and professional development, if we really want to build a capacity of teachers, that training needs to be ongoing.

So we try to. Meet with people at least four times a year. Sometimes we succeed, sometimes not depending on the teacher, but 

Mandi Morris: yeah. I love that. It feels like you have a really strategic approach for that ongoing professional learning that’s just embedded in the. School embedded in those relationships that you’ve built with your colleagues and so with the school district your size and 30,000 students, and I think you said right around 2,800 multilingual learners, where do the majority of your students come from?

You mentioned you guys have experienced mls, have maybe been in the program for quite a while, and [00:08:00] what about your students who fall more into that newcomer emerging English status? What do that, what does that student population look like for you? 

Heather Nyseth: Yeah, it’s what you would expect. Minnesota has a really strong immigrant community, and so our top two languages are Spanish and Somali.

And then, but we, 123 languages are represented in our district, so we really see every, so many different languages. But our biggest communities are Spanish speakers, and you can include things that you hear in the nudes. We have new, newly arrived people from Venezuela, newly arrived Afghan. Students and families, but like I said, the majority are Spanish or Somali speakers.

’cause the Somali community are, is really strong and we actually have the biggest population of Somali people outside of Somalia. So it’s pretty cool. Yeah, that this is very unique to Minnesota, I think, because I think most states can say Spanish, all of many different countries, but we are unique that we have Somali.[00:09:00] 

Mandi Morris: Oh, that is really cool. You got a master’s in Spanish language and culture from Santa Manca, Spain. And you were mentioning before we started that you’ve taught heritage language. Were you teaching coursework in Spanish? Were you teaching EL like a high school ELA or a high school social studies class in Spanish?

Tell us a little bit about that experience for you and how that’s been braided into your education experience. 

Heather Nyseth: Yeah, so I, I was not teaching any Spanish. I just have always had a passion for Spanish and just wanted to keep getting more degrees or learning more just because I’m a lifelong learner. And so I found this, I was looking for master’s programs in Spanish, and I found this one, and because of that and another course I took at the University of Minnesota in the summer, I was.

One along with a colleague, we came forward and said, we need heritage in our district. We didn’t have it. And so we put together the proposal and that’s how it started. So now we [00:10:00] have heritage at all of our comprehensive high schools and. Half of the middle schools were getting there. And so yeah, it was a new journey for me to teach that.

And I feel like teaching Heritage is very similar to English language development because students, many of the students in Heritage don’t have literacy skills. In Spanish, but they do, they might, they all speak at home, but they haven’t had the, some of them, it depends. I really had kind of every level of student in that class, some of them haven’t had the opportunity to read and write in Spanish.

So that, I love it. I think it’s so fun and it gave me a lot of flexibility in creating a curriculum and molding it to fit what the students wanted and including all. 21 cultures of the Spanish world, and they love that piece because they only know their own culture. So it’s fun to weave the others through there and have students from all the different countries share.

So I really love that piece and just also figuring out where [00:11:00] students are at with their proficiency level. And I will say we built that up too. We do bilingual seals exam in Minnesota and all of our students receive some award. I’ve never had a student not get, they have a certificate, a gold seal or a platinum.

They typically will get gold or platinum, but everyone has gotten something in my experience, so it’s really fun to honor them for their multilingualism, even if they’re new to. Speaking and writing in Spanish. 

Mandi Morris: Wow, that is so neat. I am thinking back to over the years in education, having a student that.

Comes to you with interrupted formal education and maybe is lacking that literacy in L one in their home language or heritage language, and then is thrown directly into middle school or high school content classes into ELD classes. And it’s really a hard puzzle for school districts to figure out if you don’t have a heritage program, if you don’t have a way [00:12:00] to build up and foster those literacy skills in Spanish.

So what a cool opportunity for your students. And it sounds like not only are you teaching and then coaching, but you also, you have some passion projects that you’re doing. In your school district outside of your full-time job. 

Heather Nyseth: Yeah. I wanna go back and talk about, you talked about with students who have some gaps in their education.

That’s one of my favorite pieces of heritage, that they can feel at home and feel welcome and feel that their language and culture are honored and it’s one space in their day where they just. Really can be themselves. So I love that piece of it. And some of those students, as you mentioned, they have some literacy skills, but they might still need to develop more in Spanish as well.

So that’s another cool piece of it that they just get to keep growing in their emergency emerging skills. 

Mandi Morris: Yeah. That’s so neat. I love that so much. It it, but you’ve got such a diverse population of students, but it sounds like you guys are really [00:13:00] doing the work of developing programs to support your students from a lot of different angles.

So that’s really exciting. So you’ve got the heritage work that you do, but then your actual WIDA presentation that you did was all about language through content. And now talking with you a little bit and knowing your high school level and the coaching that you do at the high school level, I’m guessing there’s probably a connection between this work that you’re doing at the high school level and the WIDA presentation that you did.

But I’d love to hear you talk some about that presentation and what were you hoping people could walk away with that day? 

Heather Nyseth: Yeah, for the presentation, we really presented on school-wide English learning, which is the type of coaching and training that the students get, which is now through tesol. But when it started, it was a free program that was funded by a federal grant here in Minnesota through Hamlin University.

So we used to get to train any everyone for free. But unfortunately, the grant ran out and now we have to pay for training. But we’re really proud that. [00:14:00] All of our coaches get certified and how to coach, and then it’s for ELD teachers, a little bit review on content and language practices and making sure we’re focusing on both of those within instruction.

So we presented on that and the efficacy that, and the success that we’ve had in the district. What do we want them to get out of it? Always, we want tools. So some of it I’ve talked about with you, like how do you recruit people?

Like you said, sometimes that’s tricky. So we talked a little bit about that. We talk about our coaches get to meet every month except for access testing month pretty much, and come together and collaborate. And so we always learn a little bit about coaching we have a half day each time, so they get to.

Learned, maybe a new thing or review of how can I be a great coach? So we use a lot of different tools in that, and that’s just instructional coaching in general. And then we usually have a collaboration time where everyone can share and they can share tools that they’ve built, or a presentation that they did [00:15:00] or a strategy that worked.

Or we had one group at the elementary level, they had their students do their school’s news program. In their languages. And so we watched the video and it inspired other buildings to do the same in the we a presentation we shared, things like that. And then feedback that teachers had given us that really helped to make the program stronger.

So yeah. I’m sure I’m leaving something out. I’d have to open the presentation again and go, oh yes, we also talked about this. 

Mandi Morris: Totally. So for your model is, is every ELD specialist splitting their day like you are, where they’re teaching during the day, during part of the day, and then coaching on the other part of the day?

What does that coaching model look like for your school district? 

Heather Nyseth: So it looks different at every level, and when we first started, we didn’t have. Anytime any coach, and we started with three coaches, so it’s really grown over time. But that would be like, oh, Mandi, when do you wanna meet? Let’s meet before school.

Let’s meet after school. So obviously that was tricky and [00:16:00] difficult to. Really help people the way that we wanted to. So over time, we called it small wins. We just keep asking for more and we got turned down a lot. But now every coach and we have a coach at every building in the district, so we have 36 buildings, so we have one person at every building.

So we’re really proud of that. That was our goal. And we did it, but we also fought for time. And so at the elementary level, they are using. A half day of their time once a week, and they rotate it so they’re not missing the same time of instruction with the same students every week. 

That’s really great.

They, in my opinion, have the most flexibility because essentially they could meet with every teacher in their building 

at 

the middle level. They teach the most, they have the most instructional time in our district, so we pay for them to have one free period a day to be able to coach. So they can flip that with their prep if they need.

So they have two options. 

. A 

lot of teachers still do the before or after school. Mm-hmm. Short training [00:17:00] or meetings sometimes. And then at the high school, they have. They have a duty period and the prep per period. So their duty is coaching. So same situation, they can flip it. So obviously it’s not perfect, but it’s better than.

Hallway conversation or can, when can you meet when we don’t have a lot of time? 

Mandi Morris: To go from three coaches to 36 is incredible. You have a a decent sized school district, even one coach per building, they’re still teaching, so I am sure that they still feel like there’s a lot on their plate, but how long did it take for you to grow that concept, that coaching model from three people to 36 people?

Heather Nyseth: I

 think I’m gonna have to ask my colleague in the end, but I think it was about eight years. So every year we would just train a few more people and train a few more people, and it took a while. Like we ask principals, would you recommend someone from your team who would be a good coach? So we always involve admin first, and then they would recommend a person.

Then we’d ask them and then see if they [00:18:00] could do the training. Yeah, like I said, it’s taken a long time to build it, but now when I’m saying eight years, that’s pretty good. If that’s right, but it might have been a little bit longer than that. I could be exaggerating that timeline. 

Mandi Morris: That’s such a commitment.

I love hearing like you and your colleague had so much vision for the work to be able to plug away at it bit by bit. And what else really stands out to me is that you’re very invested in your school district. And I think there’s so much power that can come from a teacher or coach, admin that they’ve been in their school district for a long time, but you’re, you’ve been there, but it’s like you’re still plugging away for improvements.

What’s your secret to that? Some people will bop around from school district to school district, or maybe they get burned out in a school district and it’s like they don’t have that passion or vision for the work anymore. What’s your secret sauce? Share it with us. 

Heather Nyseth: Oh man. That’s a really tough question.

I don’t know. I guess I always, I just strive. First of all, my colleagues would tell you I’m super positive, so [00:19:00] I always see, but this is good, right? Even if something didn’t go well, there’s always a silver lining to something and I always just believe there’s space for improvement. And I mentioned to you before we started that our leadership team here that I work with.

They’re just incredible and we work really well together as a team, we’re able to collaborate and brainstorm and come up with solutions. Honestly, we couldn’t have done this without each other. That’s how we get through it and keep working with our coordinator who always advocates for us. So shout out to her because she’s the one that advocates with the principals and the directors to make everything happen, and then we just keep asking.

I think that’s the other thing, like we got to present to the superintendent’s cabinet. Two years ago, and I wanna do it again and share some of our great data. And that was really, I was so nervous, but it was so impactful because she did not know all of the success that we were having. For example, last year, 94% of the teachers that we [00:20:00] coached said that they built their practice as a teacher and they felt that they could support MLS better than they had previously.

So we’re really excited about that data. And then also we collect. Student data. So if a teacher has been coached four or more times, we collect data on the students that are in their rooms, and those students performed better than students who hadn’t. Been in a classroom of a teacher had been coached, so it, it looks like it’s working right?

Like we hope it’s working. So that, I think, is also encouraging and I just want it to keep getting better. So I think don’t stop asking even when you’re down, stay positive and try to point out the things that are working because that, I know for us as teachers, it’s hard. I don’t wanna brag about what we’re doing or, but you have to tell them.

This is what works, and then maybe they’ll give you a little bit more. And I think that’s what happened to us. 

Mandi Morris: Something else you pointed out I think is so important to your story is the [00:21:00] data piece. So when you have data to back that anecdotal evidence of, hey, our, our teachers are reporting that they feel positive about our coaching sessions, that feels very different in conversations when you’re asking for more FTE than when you’re able to say 94% of the teachers who had coaching sessions reported that and this percentage of.

Students were growing who had teachers with four or more coaching cycles. I love the way that you organize the data around the work that you were doing. How long have you been tracking that data and what type of data are you tracking to see student growth? 

Heather Nyseth: Yeah, we’ve only done it, I think this will be our third year tracking.

The data. I wish we had done it sooner, right? So we could have seen how it’s grown from the beginning, from three to 36, actually we might have 38, but nonetheless, so we gather our state for student growth. I know that all states are different with access [00:22:00] data and what it, and not everyone takes access, but.

Ours is called progress towards proficiency. So each student is given a goal every year of growth. So that’s what we’re tracking. Did they meet their growth goal? Not did they, are they reclassified or did they exit? Right? Did they grow enough? So that’s the data that we’re looking at because it’s a little bit more accurate.

Then, oh, they exited because obviously we know that’s not. Super feasible for a recently arrived student who’s just emerging in their skills. So that’s one piece of data that we collect. And then with the teachers, we just send them a survey that has not many questions because we know teacher time is valuable.

So I think there’s only four or five questions on there. And it asks them for both qualitative and quantitative. So it asks some anecdotal things, so we have nice quotes that we can also share, like we did at the superintendent’s meeting. Here’s some things people said, which I think is impactful, but then also, do you feel more competent to meet the needs of your mls?

We ask things like that, and it’s just a Likert scale of [00:23:00] yes or no. Then we can gather the data. So. It’s been super helpful and I’m already excited. I sent out the survey and I’m like, did you just do, I hope it, I hope I made an impact because we also look at it on the flip side. Not every teacher had a positive review.

What didn’t work well and what could we do better so that we can improve the program? Wow. 

Mandi Morris: You’re so informed by the teachers you’re serving and the students you’re serving. It makes me think that your program. It has to have such a positive impact because you are really seeking the feedback of the people you’re serving, and then it sounds like you’re making modifications and adjustments and reflecting on how can we do this better?

How can we improve? And I think that for anybody listening, what a cool model to follow in your school district. It’s just, it’s really inspiring, honestly, Heather, like what a cool program that you guys have built out and are expanding. I, I sometimes, like with my colleagues that I’ll work with on the curriculum instruction team [00:24:00] here at Flashlight Hard things are fun.

Like hard things are fun because you get to look back, right? And you get to say, that was really hard. But we did it. We figured it out. We got creative, we were flexible, we pivoted, we analyzed our data, and then we adjusted based on the data that we had in front of us. And I feel like. Growing a coaching model from three to potentially 38 is hard.

That’s not an easy thing. Could you share a little bit about what were some friction points along the way and how did you overcome those? 

Heather Nyseth: In the beginning actually, the, in our district, there was a resistance around coaching based on some past history. So just. Being able to get any coaches in the beginning was really difficult, and I actually wasn’t in this role yet, so my colleague did that work of sharing how and why this could be beneficial and how it looked different than the coaching that.

[00:25:00] Maybe was happening before, and the district really wanted to make sure that it was non evaluatory. So we did a lot of work showing them like, no, this is a collaboration. We’re not evaluating anyone. We’re not gonna tell you’re doing this wrong. Mm-hmm. And it reminds me of this quote that I learned at a training this year for coaching.

That was our job is to empower the teachers, not to fix them. Obviously, you might see or hear some things sometimes that. Might not be best practice for mls, but your job is to empower them. And so I keep that in mind all the time when I’m working with people. But anyway, I think that’s what we’re trying to do at the district levels as well, right?

Empower all of our teachers to feel more confident to have all these tools so that they can effectively teach their mls. So I think that helped us. It was a lot of, I think. Like you said, like gathering data, showing them so many meetings, like I don’t know how many meetings we had [00:26:00] around time. ’cause getting time was really huge barrier.

And we had, we put together all these different scenarios of what time could look like and what it, without funding anything, not throwing extra money. And yeah, I think it was a lot of, as we were just talking about, collecting data about why coaching works and how it’s ongoing professional development.

Yeah, I think it, but it was baby steps. Little by little, what can we do now? And getting the right people at the table, like I said, a lot of different meetings with a lot of different stakeholders through the district eventually trickling up to the top so that we could get the things we were asking for.

Mandi Morris: Before we started recording today, you were saying that you work with a great department, that you really like working with your colleagues, and I feel like that is such a powerful part of being in a building, being an educator. It’s something that. When I did transition out of the K 12 system, I really [00:27:00] missed, and in the last year, I feel like I have it again in in remote world.

So weird in the sense like we’re not passing in the hallway, but I get to work with some incredible educators and some days I’ll be like, oh man, that meeting, like we solved stuff. We worked through a lot of stuff, but that was just so fun. I just love these people I work with. They’re so wonderful. They make me better and.

I think that just brings so much joy into the education space when you can work with people that are sharpening you, that are encouraging you. You said that your colleagues would say you’re very positive. Can you tell us a little bit about how has that shaped you as an educator and maybe even the persistence to stick with the work that you’ve been developing in your school district?

Just the people who surround you. 

Heather Nyseth: Yeah. I think obviously they make a huge impact and what I think is great about our team. That needs to be honored in any job that you’re working in is that everyone has different talents and strengths [00:28:00] and you need to honor you honor those and focus on those. So what can that bring to the team?

So I know that what my one, my strengths aren’t necessarily the same as my colleague. And so I think we’re really good at dividing those up. And when I think about this team, I think a lot about coaching too, because it’s building a relationship. And so over time. We’ve worked together our, our ELD leadership team, I think seven years now.

It obviously didn’t start as great as is, is now. Obviously respected them and had a really good professional relationship. But getting to know each other and I wish I had like there, there are like five things in coaching like that you need, but you need to be able to share how you’re feeling and your truth and honor it and keep judgment away.

And I think that we’re really good about doing that. And I know that I can share anything I’m feeling or thinking with them and they’re gonna listen and not judge me and you know, take it to heart of do we need to do [00:29:00] something about this or does Heather just need to vent right now? So I think all of that is really important because it’s a really safe space.

So, yeah, I think about that a lot with working with coaches. If I just meet someone, I need to make them feel. Safe right away, even if I don’t really know them very well. Right. So how can I make that happen? But back to your question, it is just being able to collaborate so well together because we just know each other so well and that somebody is gonna be able to do something better than someone else will.

And so we can delegate all of the tasks. Yeah. 

Mandi Morris: I love that. I was just reading this article about how to be less judgy and I was like, oh, I’m gonna read this article and see if it tells me if I’m judgy or not. I’m just like, curious what I’m gonna learn here. But there was a fact that was so interesting to me.

It said just humans, like our brains will judge people. And the first, like third of a second that we meet someone. We are already making judgements that can have a huge [00:30:00] impact on how we perceive that person long term, how we interact with that person. And so the article was talking about like how to break some of those preconceived notions is why I love what you’re talking about, is like creating that open space for people to feel safe to have those conversations.

And going back to something you said earlier too, is that teachers need to feel empowered. I know as a new teacher, I felt. So just so self aware of all of the things I didn’t know, and it was easy to feel judged in that space of, I don’t, I just don’t, there’s so much, I don’t know. It’s so overwhelming. But I love your approach of, it sounds like you approach coaching with a lot of.

Care and connection is at the core of what you’re doing. A lot of my purpose here is to empower you and support you. Can you talk a little bit about what does that look like for new teachers that you’re coaching in the ELD space or core content teachers? Do you guys have a lot of new teachers where you [00:31:00] are and how are you supporting them?

Heather Nyseth: New ELD teachers or grade level 

Mandi Morris: teachers that you’re supporting? 

Heather Nyseth: Yeah. I think sometimes new teachers are. The most eager. Um, so it’s really easy to work with them because they’re new and they’re like, please help me. I don’t know how it works here. Or, I’m new to teachings. I would really like some strategies.

So we, I, I, that is one of my strategies, as you mentioned before, like with the coaching menu. Okay. I’m gonna reach out to these new teachers too, because I know if it were me and I was. Back in new teacher’s shoes, I would, yes, please come help me. I would like some strategies, like how do I deal with this?

And to be a sounding board and to ask the questions that I need. And it made me think of too, when you’re saying that how many new teachers decide to leave, right? The field isn’t for them. And I think sometimes it’s because. They want to feel seen and valued and supported. And if they don’t get that and they feel like they’re doing everything alone, maybe that’s the reason they left.

Right? Because teaching is hard and you need support. And if you come in new and you don’t know anyone, [00:32:00] you know, you need someone who will listen to you where you do feel supported. So yeah, I, I love reaching out to new teachers. It’s so great. And actually within our coaching model, shout out to my colleague again who thought of this great idea of having lead mentors.

They’re called swell lead mentors, and we have a couple at the elementary level and the secondary level, and their job is to be leaders within the team. So they’ll reach out to other coaches and say, how’s it going this year? As a coach, can I come over and talk to you? See if you need help in your coaching.

I think that’s really essential. And then also for new ELD teachers, we offer them support. Me and my colleague, I support secondary a little bit more, so we reach out to them and say, I’m just, let’s come and I’ll chat. I’ll listen to how it’s going and we’ll see how we can support you. That’s one of my favorite things to do because obviously I want them.

To feel like they have the support they need and they don’t feel isolated and alone. 

Mandi Morris: That’s so powerful. I feel like you are the coaching web that you have [00:33:00] worked to develop with your colleagues, it is touching a lot of teachers lives and I’m sure empowering a lot of instruction and students’ lives.

When you think forward, Heather, we’re wrapping up this school year, but when you think forward to next school year, what’s some vision? Where are you going next? What are you guys building for next school year? 

Heather Nyseth: Oh, we have so many ideas, but we wanna end more coaches because we have some buildings, like for example, our, the high school with the most MLS has a team of nine.

And they have one coach. So I feel like that coach feels a little bit overwhelmed because their population is so large. So I’d like to give them another coach, but we need to find some money for that. We’re also, a lot of times small coaches work with the co-teachers and, and we do some co-teaching training separate from swell coaching, but then coaches will meet with their co-teacher and do it there.

But we’re also gonna try to build like within schools, could a swell coach. Do [00:34:00] some ongoing professional development with co-teachers at that building. Mm-hmm. So maybe that can happen sometime. We’re gonna continue to meet as a team and I feel like so many ideas always spring out of that, of what we can do.

Like last year we had a back to school meeting that we never had before. So the coaches got to have time to put together their back to school materials. ’cause almost everyone presents. Briefly back to school week. So they had time built in to do that. And then collaborate and talk about what worked really well last year.

I think we need a little bit more time for reflection of here’s what went well for me to share that with other people so that they can. Utilize the same ideas. 

Mandi Morris: That’s such a good point about reflection. I feel like the end of the school year is always a whirlwind and then you often, it’s like you’re just, you’re done and then you go off into summer break mode, which for a lot of teachers could mean.

Picking up work over the summer or taking on additional responsibilities or childcare [00:35:00] at home, like a lot of different things. But that reflection piece is so powerful. And then you come back at the beginning of the year and you’re right back into planning mode, strategy mode, building mode. Um, when you think of reflection with you be building that in throughout the school year, or is it something that you’d want teachers to do at the end of the year or over summer?

Like what does an ideal model look like for that? 

Heather Nyseth: I think ideally it’s built in throughout the school year, right? I don’t know about you, but for me, I feel like that’s the piece that if I don’t schedule time for it, it doesn’t happen. We have peer leader coaches in our district too that aren’t ELD specific, that all teachers have them, and they’re basically a thought partner who they ask you really great questions about your instruction, and I always feel like I have some sort of epiphany when I’m talking to them because I have a moment to reflect on the lesson that they saw, whereas.

When I’m doing that day to day, it’s like you said, you’re just so rushed. It’s, oh my gosh, that didn’t go well today. I have to change it, but you don’t take time to [00:36:00] really think deeply. Mm-hmm. About how you could change or improve it, or remember that it went well for the next year. So I’d like to embed it more throughout the year.

I think that’s a best practice procedure that. We should do a little bit more of. 

Mandi Morris: That’s fantastic. When I think back in my years in the classroom, some of the best coaching that I received was when I was observed and then had a debrief afterwards. Yeah, because it often, it just doesn’t happen in education.

It’s, here’s your room, close the door. Do your thing. You get a formal observation by your principal a couple times a year, which those observations are tied to formal reviews. So they feel different from having a coach Abor observe you and then say, you are doing this and the students are reacting really well, you should double down and be like really intentional about doing this.

And then in this area you could improve in. This, the students weren’t engaged, they [00:37:00] weren’t participating, or you could build in a scaffold, but it’s really not actually that common that you have opportunities for that. I think it is so powerful. I’d love to hear from you as you guys are really rolling that out in your school district and hear how it develops.

I think that’s very exciting for your teachers. 

Heather Nyseth: Okay. I’ll share it. And as you’re saying that, I thought of another idea that. Another thing that we don’t have time for is to observe our colleagues. Yeah. So could we make it happen where I come over and observe your lesson that day and just watch how you do it?

’cause I feel like that is so impactful and because like you said, you’re in your own room all day and you don’t know what anyone else is doing. Right. Unless they true invite you in and you have time to go in there. Right. 

Sometimes I say, would you like me to come observe that student and see what, how they’re engaged in your class and what their interaction is? It’s another way in the door. Super helpful. ’cause then you can report back. And then I also did student interviews like, how’s it going in this class? What’s going well [00:38:00] for you?

What are you understanding? How’s the language? That kind of stuff. So that also works.

Mandi Morris: I love that student interview. Let’s talk about that for a second. Students have the most important insight about what is working in a classroom and what isn’t working in a classroom and.

It’s really not something that we talk about often. No. Like why aren’t we hearing more about student interviews of you? Love. Ms. Heather’s classroom, Ms. Seth’s classroom. Why, what, when Really digging into what is it about that environment that makes you feel like you can thrive? There are just a wealth of information of what’s working instructionally and what isn’t working instructionally.

Are student interviews a, a formal data piece that you’re collecting, or more of an informal? It’s a way in, it’s a way to connect. Just for now, 

Heather Nyseth: it’s been informal to just. I think that the students I interviewed this year at least, I had them [00:39:00] for several years for instruction, either in Heritage or ELD or both.

And so I think they felt a little bit more comfortable with me than the teacher that was new to them. Mm-hmm. In the first part of the year. And so when I met with them to say, what’s going well? They were really honest. About what it looked like and then also what’s confusing, what’s not going well.

Mm-hmm. And so it was informal data that I shared with the teacher, right. Here’s what we can do. And then as the coach to say. Maybe we can take a look at some of the materials. This was a part that they were struggling with. Mm-hmm. Maybe we can modify it or scaffold it in a different way so that it makes it more accessible to the student.

So that was super helpful from that lens, and you just get like the inside of the student of what’s actually happening and in the classroom. So it’s super interesting and I, it’s, I, I love that part. I love connecting with kids like that. Yeah. It was really informative and helpful as a coach. 

Mandi Morris: That’s awesome.

So Heather, when you walk into a classroom, judgment free, but when you walk into a classroom, [00:40:00] when I see this, it makes me so excited when I see a teacher doing this, what is a practice that when you walk in, you just think, this is great. I’m so excited to see this teacher doing this practice. 

Heather Nyseth: Listen, this is so nerdy, but it’s true.

I’m sure you’d be excited too. If I see sentence frames, language modeled, it’s a sentence you could use or, yeah, anything like that where they’re modeling a language or a language strategy, it’s, I just get super pumped up or there’s a scaffold on a, on some worksheet or something they’re using. That makes me so happy.

Mandi Morris: Yeah. I think. That speaks to something deeper too, because it’s an indication that teacher is taking a lot of intentionality in his or her planning, in their pre-planning to think about where our access points for my students and access points look different when [00:41:00] we’re learning content. And I, that’s, I think, what’s really excited about that piece.

You’re walking in, you’re like, I know this teacher took the extra time. That it required to do the backwards planning, the backwards designing in the curriculum to think about his or her students and where they needed some extra support in order to access the content in the classroom. So I love that.

That’s so fun. If we were to do the opposite, if you walk into a classroom and you’re observing a teacher, what would be something, or what maybe are things that you feel like you coach around? For improvement. All of us have areas to grow, all of us. And so if there’s something you’re like, this is a thing that I feel like I’m coaching around a lot right now.

Heather Nyseth: Yeah. I think it’s the amount of time that students spend listening in their day. Mm. We know that data, right? That students spend only like 2% of their day. And so I think for me it’s coaching around oral language production and [00:42:00] how we can get students to, to show what they’re thinking in whatever class it is by.

Interacting with other students in their class versus sitting there and listening to a lecture for 50 minutes, even if they might be interacting with notes or something. How we know that no one can has, what is it? It’s 10 and one, right? You can actually pay attention for 10 minutes before your brain wanders, right?

So are you doing 10 and ones in your class, for example? Yeah. Are you giving them a moment to process that information? Because that’s something that I would like to see more of, right? Mm-hmm. That students are having the opportunity to. Practice speaking. Mm-hmm. And we know. Nationwide that speaking is the lowest domain always right.

That students need to build on. And I think it’s, they don’t have the opportunity to speak like that. And I’m not just talking about MLS because I’ve been in classrooms where there are monolingual English speaking students who don’t speak academically. Right. 

Mandi Morris: And 

Heather Nyseth: so I think all students need to be able to produce a language of [00:43:00] whatever subject area they’re in.

Are they speaking like historians or mathematicians or musicians? Because all that language is. Specific as we know. Right. I just feel like that opportunity is so powerful and they rarely have the chance to practice. 

Mandi Morris: Yeah. I love that. And sometimes it is. Surprising to me that that stand and deliver model is still so prevalent that there’s, it’s, oh man, we’ve been, it feels like we’ve been talking about for a long time that instruction needs to be chunked and we need to have graphic organizers for students to process new information.

Students need opportunity for academic discourse in order to, again, process. And we, we learn by talking about a thing. But it’s interesting. That’s something that you’re still encountering a lot of. How do you approach a teacher? You go into a classroom, say, and it’s, oh my goodness, I’ve been sitting in here for 30 minutes and this, this very well intentioned adult has [00:44:00] been talking for 28 minutes and I can’t.

I’m zoned out. What is, give us a coaching tip there. How do you approach that with, with kindness, with good intentions and to empower a teacher. 

Heather Nyseth: Yeah. Thank you for phrasing it like that. I think that it’s really important to keep it student centered. So ask what the goal for the students was that day, and if they feel that goal was met.

Like how did the students show their learning and focus on what if they’re seeing any gaps in students? If they’re saying like, well, I can’t really tell if they’re learning, oh, maybe I have a strategy. That might work to help you show that. So like we’ve been talking about, to empower them and keep that judgment out since we know that’s not a best practice to speak for so long.

It usually works, but sometimes you just gotta keep chipping away because I think people in general feel comfortable, and this is what I do. Even if they might know it’s not the best, they’re like, this is what I like, this [00:45:00] is what I do. Yeah. And so, yeah, just. Thinking about what are the goals for the students and how are they doing right?

And what would you like to see from them? Mm-hmm. And then maybe be able to sneak in a way, here’s something that might work. Right? Or give them some suggestions of what would work from you. And I try to always be clear, I’m not teaching this class right? Mm-hmm. But I might know some tools that could help you, or some strategies that might be successful for you.

So you get the option of choosing if you wanna use it or not. And if you do need help. Creating it or checking to see if it works, all that kind of thing. So just giving the autonomy and agency to that teacher to decide. What it looks like. 

Mandi Morris: Yeah. That’s so good. So what you’re saying, you cannot say to the teacher, this class is so boring, I could not focus.

No. You have a lot of grace and a lot of consideration in the way that you frame it. I love what you’re saying, Heather, about the student is at the center, so you’re framing the conversation about what was [00:46:00] the learning objective for the student, and a lot of probing questions to uncover. What was the learning objective?

What was the teacher’s intention? And of course, it’s always best when we come to the realization on our own. So I love how you’re framing that, just a lot of those probing questions and in a kind way to help a teacher understand, hey, here are some suggestions about how this could be scaffolded, or how students could have more opportunity for the expressive language piece.

That’s a lot of fun. 

Heather Nyseth: Yeah, and I think Mandi before, because I. You might know when you go in, I have those questions ready to make sure that judgment is out of there. So you’re not like, why were you talking so long? Did you know this rule? So that it’s not blaming them like, oh, already you’ve said what you really said to them is this was a bad lesson.

You don’t want that, even though you never say that. So I’m very cognizant about what question can I ask that keeps it student centered [00:47:00] because we know that. All of us as teachers came here because we care about students. Mm-hmm. And we want them to learn. So yeah, keeping positive assumptions, always when we’re working with people because we know they want them to achieve.

Mandi Morris: That’s right. I love that. Heather, this has been such an awesome conversation and we’re gonna do a little lightning round as we wrap up. So these are just some fun questions to, to get some more good information out of you. And if you could go back in your career, you could go back to Baby Heather, teacher, what would you tell yourself back then?

Heather Nyseth: Somebody, my friend just asked this question the other day. I feel like it’s everything. Just keep working and everything will work out. Like do your best at all. It’s so cliche, but it’s best at all times. And you never, I never thought my path would lead me here. I didn’t say I’m gonna teach heritage Spanish, where I’m gonna do the be a leader in the district.

I didn’t [00:48:00] have that on a five-year plan or anything. I’m like, I just wanna be a teacher. And I just feel like everything along the way of. Continue to learn and advocate for students and help other teachers has led me here. And so I think I would just say keep doing what you’re doing. 

Mandi Morris: I love that. Are there authors or a book or a podcast that you just are like, I love this is, this supports me, this helps me.

This is important for my professional learning that you could share with others. 

Heather Nyseth: Yeah, I listened to Tan Huynh a bit. And we used his book with teachers a little bit Nice. Hoping. And we changed our whole language to be experienced Multilinguals instead of El Tells.

Mandi Morris: Love 

it. Yes. That’s Kel. Thank you.

Yep. 

Heather Nyseth: And actually my colleague messaged him on like Twitter and said, will you be our keynote? Because we needed a keynote speaker here in Minnesota for our English learner conference, and he said yes. So we got him here too. That’s really fun. [00:49:00] I also listen to some coaching podcasts like Jim Knight.

He does a coaching thing that’s just write instructional coaching in general. Mm-hmm. And we use a lot of his tools with our coaches. Like when I was mentioning questions. Mm-hmm. We just went through this whole cycle of questions that I try to keep next to me so that I can ask the question, like I said the right way.

So I listened to his quite a bit. Those are the two that are coming 

Mandi Morris: solid recommendations. I love it. If you could think about something that is bringing you joy in education right now, what is something that is bringing you joy? 

Heather Nyseth: Oh my gosh. 

I think it’s always the students and like how resilient and incredible they are.

We have a student right now who is recently arrived whose sister. Has, I don’t know, I can’t remember. It’s a, the disease name, but it’s a blood related disease. Oh. And this individual drives her to her appointments and he was her bone marrow donor and he didn’t go to school for two years when they arrived so that he could get a job and [00:50:00] care for his family.

That is resilient and amazing, and I think it just puts everything in perspective about what we do. Like this is the student we need to help. He will do anything to graduate. Even though he’s missed a couple of years of school, he works so hard. He’s so positive. So that’s what I think of a lot like giving opportunity to a student who might not have had it before.

It brings me so much joy. 

Mandi Morris: Yeah. That’s beautiful. Oh, thank you, Heather. That’s such a beautiful way to end this time together. It’s really going back to students are at the center of the work. It’s the why behind the work that we do. It’s why we show up. It’s why you are persistent and improving programs.

You’ve shared so much wisdom and insight with us today. I’ve just so enjoyed our conversation. Thank you for joining us. 

Heather Nyseth: Thank you 

for 

having me. This was so fun.[00:51:00]