In this episode of All Things Marketing and Education, Elana sits down with Dr. Sarah Thomas, a Regional Technology Coordinator in a large district in Maryland, and the founder of EduMatch, a charitable organization that empowers educators to make global connections across common areas of interest. During this discussion, Sarah reveals some of the biggest challenges in K-12 education today; she specifically talks about the inequities that were exposed during the pandemic and provides some examples of how her district worked to overcome them.
The Biggest Challenges We’re Facing in Education
Educators, administrators, students, and parents are all under a significant amount of pressure right now. As Sarah discusses, she would “prioritize support” over almost anything else. When reflecting on this school year, Sarah said, “I think a lot of people thought that it might be easier, but it’s not easier for so many reasons. First, we have a nationwide teacher shortage and that definitely impacts everyone and not just teachers but all roles. For example, there aren’t enough bus drivers. In addition to that, there’s this whole concept of learning loss that has been floated out and there’s this pressure to ‘catch up.’”
Because of all of the extra things on educators’ plates and a lack of support, Sarah explains that it’s no wonder we see burnout rates at an all-time high for educators. “When I’m on Twitter, everything I’m seeing in my timeline is people saying so and so walked out [of the classroom] today or they want to quit. Folks are really going through it.”
Sarah emphasizes the need for support — and not just for educators. “Our students have been through a lot. Our peers and colleagues have been through a lot. Parents have been through a lot. We really need to focus on just supporting them.” Sarah says one of the ways we can provide this support is by focusing on everyone’s social and emotional needs and implementing more mental health days.
Sarah adds, “know when it’s time to reach out for that extra help. I’m a huge proponent of speaking with a counselor or some kind of professional. Don’t be afraid to reach out if you do need to get that professional help. There’s absolutely no shame in that.” (See episode Educator Mental Health and the Power of Being a Connected Educator with Nick Provenzano for additional resources and perspective.)
For any EdTech marketers looking to support educators at this time, Sarah challenges them to “prioritize people over profit.” She emphasizes the need for support even more and talks about some examples she’s seen in EdTech. “This is a time where a lot of people need support and it’s all about just seeing where you can help. I saw a lot of companies step up at the beginning and during the pandemic, to say ‘hey, we see that you’re doing this remote learning, and this is the way that we can help. It was great to see, very warming and inspiring.”
Inequities Exposed During the Pandemic
As Sarah points out, “during the pandemic, whatever inequities that were not at the surface very quickly came to the surface when schools and districts had to transition to emergency remote learning.“ In Sarah’s district not all students had access to devices or wifi to participate in remote learning. “All of these things that we’ve been advocating for in terms of digital equity for years and years and years then really the need became urgent and critical when the pandemic first began.”
Sarah explains that at the beginning of the pandemic, her district had some one-to-one schools, but also some two-to-one devices. Sarah says, “our superintendent [helped us] provide a device to each student in the county — not just each family, but each student.” Sarah also adds that “if the students did not have Wi-Fi at home, they were able to check out hotspots and that would support them in virtual learning.” Since the beginning of the 2021 school year, Sarah says “our district is still one-to-one and students are still taking their devices home in many schools, so I think that that’s one way that our district was able to hold on to the gains.”
However, Sarah has also noticed that since this initial push to develop structures that support all students, people are becoming slightly more complacent. “One thing that I’m seeing and hearing is that some people are starting to regress to what they consider normal,” Sarah says. “And to me, that’s a bit disheartening because I feel that now we have the capacity to do things, to do authentic learning for our students. And I want to encourage just all educators to continue to build upon their gains so that once you have this capacity then you need to continue to exercise it, so you don’t lose it. And it makes a tremendous difference for our students to be able to have opportunities to apply their learning in a transformational way,” Sarah explains. “So I would definitely say just keep it up.” (For anyone interested, Monica Burns tells a similar tale of regressing “back to normal” in Essential EdTech Lessons Learned During the Pandemic).
“I’ve heard from colleagues and peers around the country and around the world that sometimes their schools and districts were able to be responsive to what students needed, but a lot of times they fell short. And this also comes into play when we talk about the preparedness of educators to be able to teach in this style,” Sarah says.
Take a look at the full transcript of Sarah’s podcast episode.
Note: This interview was originally recorded on November 23, 2021, as part of the All Things Education and Marketing podcast hosted by Elana Leoni.
Resources Mentioned in this Episode:
EduMatch (Sarah’s community of educators learning and growing together)
EduMatch Publishing (educator books)
Edcamp Foundation (info on how to get involved in EdTech)
Teachers are barely hanging on. Here’s what they need. (a podcast episode from Cult of Pedagogy that Sarah recommends)
Educator Mental Health and the Power of Being a Connected Educator (a podcast episode from us focusing on educator mental health)
Voxer (a walkie-talkie app that teachers use to hang out)
Get in touch with Sarah: Twitter | Instagram | Pinterest | Blog
Episode Skeleton (use this to jump to the parts you want to listen to):
[00:56] A little bit about Sarah
[4:56] What initially drew Sarah into education
[7:08] Sarah finds her niche in the schools as a tech teacher
[10:41] Sarah’s biggest challenge from her vantage point
[12:18] Focusing on student and educator mental health
[14:23] Facing some of the challenges of inequity during the pandemic
[15:45] Possible regression back to what we consider normal
[16:10] “Continue to grow upon your gains.”
[17:11] How Sarah’s district stepped up during the transition to remote learning
[19:02] Pressure to ‘catch up’ is detrimental. Educators, students, parents, and administrators need support.
[20:22] How can marketers add value during this time?
[22:46] What were some of the things Sarah’s district did to mitigate inequities
[25:26] What inspires Sarah to work as hard as she does / Seeing the change in education
[27:13] “Empowering the expert within” at EduMatch
[30:32] Sarah speaks to teacher burnout and dropout rates and gives advice to educators who need it
[33:20] Know when its time to reach out for external health
[35:08] A little bit about EduMatch
[37:25] How to build your network as an educator
[40:32] What inspires Sarah? The people she meets and their innovative ideas
[40:53] Using Voxer as a tool to connect
Elana Leoni, Host
Elana Leoni has dedicated the majority of her career to improving K-12 education. Prior to founding LCG, she spent eight years leading the marketing and community strategy for the George Lucas Educational Foundation where she grew Edutopia’s social media presence exponentially to reach over 20 million education change-makers every month.
Sarah Thomas, PhD, Guest
Dr. Sarah Thomas is a Regional Technology Coordinator in a large district in Maryland, and the founder of EduMatch, an organization that empowers educators to make global connections across common areas of interest. She has spoken and presented internationally, participated in the Technical Working Group to refresh the 2017 ISTE Standards for Educators, and is a recipient of the ISTE Making IT Happen award. Sarah is a co-author of the ISTE Digital equity series, Closing the Gap.
About All Things Marketing and Education
What if marketing was judged solely by the level of value it brings to its audience? Welcome to All Things Marketing and Education, a podcast that lives at the intersection of marketing and you guessed it, education. Each week, Elana Leoni, CEO of Leoni Consulting Group, highlights innovative social media marketing, community-building, and content marketing strategies that can significantly increase brand awareness, engagement, and revenue.
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