The Pixel Classroom With Special Chad Ostrowski

Ryan -The Pixel Classroom: Well, hello everybody, and welcome to the Pixel Classroom Podcast. I'm, of course, your host, Ryan Reid. And believe it or not, one of our wonderful parts is as we know, the Pixel Classroom Podcast finds itself on the Teach Better Network. So I said, you know what? I think I need to get somebody from the Teach Better Network on here. And I decided, why do it partially? Let's go full, full on. So I got the CEO, the co-founder, the man who works with school districts, organizations improve instructional outcomes. His expertise and mastery of learning and structural design allows him to team to help schools and have districts thrive. He is the author and consultant of the PD provider in helping the world teach better. He's of course got the teach better community out there. He's got a booking for his winter spring, which we'll be talking about that for the keynotes here. So I'd like to welcome the one and only Chad Ostrotsky to the Pixel Classroom podcast. Chad, thank you for meeting up with us today.

Chad Ostrowski: Absolutely. It it took way too long, man. I feel like we've been connected forever, so I'm ex excited to be here.

Ryan -The Pixel Classroom: to agree. think we really have. I mean I remember when I was talking to Josh a few mu few years ago and I was on his and then he was on my podcast and we're like, we

Chad Ostrowski: Right.

Ryan -The Pixel Classroom: gotta get Chad on here. And I was talking this some I think it was July. I was finally already putting out, hey anybody wants to be in the Pixel classroom this semester, this coming season drop me and then some people were like yeah and I got this and I had a bunch that wanted to return but everybody's like Ryan did you contact Chad I said no and I think Chad and I need to finally get on here and I remember contacting you and you were like so sorry I forgot about it like no it's okay I'm like but I'm like I'm pretty wide open this week end of September because we're recording

Chad Ostrowski: Yeah, it worked out well.

Ryan -The Pixel Classroom: this on the it did. I mean we're recording this on September twenty eighth. It'll be dropping believe it or not the 11th. So there you go everybody those who listening to the audio and watching the video on this whether you're on Spotify or of course your favorite podcast network. But Chad, why don't you give us a little bit about yourself? You know, what you know, what was your journey in education and what led you to the Teach Better team?

Chad Ostrowski: Yeah, absolutely. So I started my teaching career as a Woodrow Wilson Teaching Fellow. so that was a a grant in the state of Ohio that selected fifty people to essentially change careers into education. So I had a science background, so I did an accelerated master's program, started teaching middle level science. And the reason the grant exists is to focus on high needs inner city schools and high needs schools and districts. So I spent my entire teaching career teaching middle level, high needs, inner city students, teaching science. And I'd like to say it all went great from the start, but and I had a lot of strong practices from that program. but as I started teaching, I actually was moved schools and almost quit teaching because I had the worst year of my life. it was nothing was working, Challenges were just showing up that I'd never seen before. And it wasn't that it was a different environment, it was the same school district. It was just nothing seemed to be working. And at the end of that year, I I had two choices. I either had to find a new career because I couldn't maintain what was currently happening to me as an educator. and or I had to do things differently. And that's really when I took my experience as a district science lead and some of the PD I just had on. Formative assessment and depth of knowledge, I put it all together into a mastery framework called the grid method. And I started letting students work at their own pace in my classroom in a personalized way. And honestly, it changed my entire perspective of education. My students started doing better. I started thriving in my classroom. And then as this started happening, people began to Ask me what I was doing. like, how are you getting that kid to work? How are you getting these results? All of these things. And so I started speaking at conferences and things like that over the next few years. And all of a sudden, schools and districts started to kind of start to bring me in. So that and I brought in my co-founder, Jeff Gargas, and we started the Teach Better team. So it's been over a decade. And and since that time we've literally worked with schools and districts across the country on everything from mastery learning, the grid method and personalized learning. But we also do PD training, development and keynotes around everything from classroom management to instructional alignment and everything in between. So I've had quite the journey, not only in the classroom, but over the last decade working with some amazing schools, partners and districts.

Ryan -The Pixel Classroom: Wow. I mean that that is pretty and I I mean very very good point. You've talked about this I know in the Teach Better is about burnout. I I have to say I I've I've

Chad Ostrowski: Ha ha ha.

Ryan -The Pixel Classroom: experienced it about three times. I've been doing this, you know, for

Chad Ostrowski: Right.

Ryan -The Pixel Classroom: for for seventeen almost seventeen years, and I I even joke too, it's so 'cause I'm currently with with the decal b DH four twenty eight district, which was my first district, and I always they probably always ask like, Why did you leave? I said long situation and everything, but I was When I was finally working full time, working as an instruc technology coordinator as well as technology and adventurist for for a private school, about twenty fourteen I just got burned out. It was like

Chad Ostrowski: Right.

Ryan -The Pixel Classroom: it was like so fast, so far after just being there two years, it was just so

Chad Ostrowski: Right.

Ryan -The Pixel Classroom: much, and then I had gotten back up. I read you know, Teach Like a Pirate, I got into a lot more educational

Chad Ostrowski: Yeah.

Ryan -The Pixel Classroom: books. I I followed things, I definitely some of the early teach better stuff, and I was kind of better that. And then I was I had gotten switched over towards by the time I had left for GK and I was just so burnt out. I was just

Chad Ostrowski: Right.

Ryan -The Pixel Classroom: like ridiculous. I finished up my instructional license. I said maybe I need to step away from the classroom.

Chad Ostrowski: Mm-hmm.

Ryan -The Pixel Classroom: And then I got back and then I went to middle school, which was quite a year. I mean, shout out to the Harvard Harvard f you know, CSD fifty for bringing me back to back to my senses and showing why I loved it and then also saying also like I just belong in high school and then Here I am, but it it's really interesting how that can just lead to the burnout. And sometimes it's not just one thing. I mean, it can be multiple

Chad Ostrowski: No right.

Ryan -The Pixel Classroom: things. If I cause 2014 for me, I always like, what was this? I think it was because the newness wore off. It was part of this whole new one-to-one iPad program. We were doing some tech. Yeah, it was private school, but it felt like the newness wore off. And I was just

Chad Ostrowski: Yeah.

Ryan -The Pixel Classroom: like, what am I doing? versus 2024 was it just felt like everything caved in on me. I said I don't know what to do anymore.

Chad Ostrowski: Yeah.

Ryan -The Pixel Classroom: And then like at the same time at the one two I went through so much stuff almost two years ago, I mean death of my father, switching jobs, pay cuts, everything. And it was quite quite the quite the tackle on you about surviving all that.

Chad Ostrowski: Y yeah, man, I sir survival's a mode it's hard to stay in for very long. I I I think as educators you can only sit in your car and take a few deep breaths before you walk into a building so many times before it starts to break you down, right? I I viscerally remember these moments where I thought I was a good teacher. I thought I believed in kids and like everything felt like it was going wrong. And this is prior to me. kind of starting to innovate around some of these solutions. But I vi I I viscerally remember this feeling of it became me versus them and that wasn't okay. Like it became, you know, and I I had behavior issues. There were tons of trauma and home issues that I was dealing with in in in my classroom at the time. And and it was it was a struggle and it was those moments where I started to lose myself in the burnout. Like stop believing in that like you said, the newness, right? Like when you're new, nothing

Ryan -The Pixel Classroom: Mm-hmm.

Chad Ostrowski: can harm that attitude of like it'll be fine, it'll be okay, I'm here for the kids, it'll be great. But like that gets worn down. Like the shine of that starts to wear down really fast when you're in survival mode and barely making it through and staring at the clock and waiting for that bell to ring just so you can, you know, be done, or or

Ryan -The Pixel Classroom: Yeah.

Chad Ostrowski: whatever the thing is, right? And

Ryan -The Pixel Classroom: Right.

Chad Ostrowski: I I I knew at that moment, I said, this isn't best the the best thing for me. This isn't best for my students. Like I need to do things differently, or I need to find a new career. Like one of those two things has to happen. Now luckily I you know, I was able to innovate and find those solutions, those incremental betterments, so to speak, where I was finding those small wins to c create something that I now show schools and districts across the country, but You know, it's hard to see that light at the end of the tunnel when you're in the thick of it. And so a lot of times when I'm working with schools or districts and I see a teacher that's in that mode of survival or burnout like you're describing, I often like the

Ryan -The Pixel Classroom: Mm-hmm.

Chad Ostrowski: first thing I do before I talk about any instruction is is help them find wins. Like you need to find those little wins. You need to find that one kid that's still focused and paying attention, though that one conversation or that win you have every single day. Because y if you're not building off of anything, you're just gonna get deeper into the hole. And so I think that informs how I I work with schools, how I work with teachers, and how we've built our Teach Better community because it's sort of a come as you are, right? It you don't have to be all rainbows and sunshine all the time, like to to be better. We can do something better tomorrow. We can find those wins, we can improve over time. and and that's a big key point. But you make a great point there, right? Like Burnout sneaks up on you and if you stay there too long

Ryan -The Pixel Classroom: Yeah.

Chad Ostrowski: it can really do damage to just your view of the world, so to speak.

Ryan -The Pixel Classroom: Well yeah, and like and many people asked me too when I left when I left Meridian, they were saying you were there five years, you were tenure, what what happened? I said it got to the point where it did it felt like it wa I wa

Chad Ostrowski: Right. It's not even worth it, yeah.

Ryan -The Pixel Classroom: I If if and I and I loved everybody, I actually went and visited them last year and it was it was really nice to see them all again after a couple years. But I had gotten to the point where I went to work and that's what it was. It was go to work, turn on the lights, you know, deal with the you know, you know, deal with the lesson, talk with the kids, and I had some really great relationships with a lot of those students.

Chad Ostrowski: Of course, yeah.

Ryan -The Pixel Classroom: I mean, some and and several of them have gone into teaching themselves. I actually ran into one of my former other ones when we were I was running FBLA and she became an English teacher, and it was really great for us to catch up. Two of them are in my current district working with the community services. So it's not that I didn't have it, but it got to the point where I felt like I was in the motion. And as much as I've

Chad Ostrowski: Yeah.

Ryan -The Pixel Classroom: s and people hear me complain, like I'd like to get to boring again. And it was it wasn't

Chad Ostrowski: Ha ha.

Ryan -The Pixel Classroom: boring. It wa it was it was kind of stagnant. And that's

Chad Ostrowski: Yeah.

Ryan -The Pixel Classroom: unfortunately what had happened. And then I left for GK and it was like a lot of things changed. I got the Bring back the media and interview in the news section. I went up on pay scale. I could walk the work. It was like a whole different place and then things

Chad Ostrowski: Mm-hmm.

Ryan -The Pixel Classroom: had changed. Unfortunately, I left that district durst due to an admin situation, which has also changed now more in the just the last couple of years since that too. And when I went to my other district, it was good, but it was very hard. I mean, I love those kids and I'm hoping to see some of them 'cause they're now eighth graders. My sixth graders are eighth graders. It's hard to believe.

Chad Ostrowski: There you go.

Ryan -The Pixel Classroom: It's Been that long. I'd like to see a couple of them before they all head off to high school. But it was a a a piece too, just to try to get re-in touched into what I was enjoying, those wins. And I had some great classes, and I had some very difficult challeng classes, and I had some challenging classes.

Chad Ostrowski: Of course, yeah. We all have that one class period, right? Yeah.

Ryan -The Pixel Classroom: And it's it's like even now, I mean, the the kids always see me happy stuff. I'm like putting them down, or like, nope, store bells like we're not in our right seats, so forth and so forth. But they can definitely tell I enjoy going in. I enjoy talking to them.

Chad Ostrowski: Yeah.

Ryan -The Pixel Classroom: I work with them. Even the ones that are struggling or just not following, you know, directions. But I generally, you know, have no problem walking in that school myself too. I do lunchroom duty this year. I was doing my duty here. I was joking with the kids. I was just having fun with them. They're just like, Dr. Reed, I don't get it. How how are you like this? I'm like, I just damn. Some days you just gotta be joyful. Some days you do want just the quiet, like, get me through the day.

Chad Ostrowski: You yeah, you have to find those moments. You have to find those moments. Absolutely.

Ryan -The Pixel Classroom: And actually I think that works pretty segue into what we're doing about the Teach Better team too. So how did that come about? Because like I said, I have the original book and everything else, and I you know, I connected

Chad Ostrowski: Yeah, absolutely.

Ryan -The Pixel Classroom: back when Ray was part of it, Josh and a few other hey

Chad Ostrowski: Sure.

Ryan -The Pixel Classroom: look at that. I I I think I I think I know that guy.

Chad Ostrowski: Ha ha.

Ryan -The Pixel Classroom: I like that fuel fueled by passion.

Chad Ostrowski: Absolutely. Yeah.

Ryan -The Pixel Classroom: there's Carolyn. I was like, where's Carolyn? There she is.

Chad Ostrowski: Yeah, absolutely.

Ryan -The Pixel Classroom: So So exactly you know how you know how does everything work with the Teach Better Network? I I'm connected to you through my I don't post as much as I used to. I'm I'm not as much a social

Chad Ostrowski: Sure.

Ryan -The Pixel Classroom: guy as I used to do. I mean, yeah, people see me on Instagram or whatever doing my professional and personal life, but I I really do not do social media like I used to. I share where I can.

Chad Ostrowski: Right.

Ryan -The Pixel Classroom: I try to say connection, but you know, what what is the Teach Better team? You know, what are the resources we can, you know, how do we talk

Chad Ostrowski: Of course.

Ryan -The Pixel Classroom: about the different ones? I mean, you've had your different conventions and so forth. Like I said, Josh and I have talked about that many times too.

Chad Ostrowski: Yeah. So yeah, we've ever we've done everything from podcasts. We still have a a blog and we have an interactive community and an academy at Teach Better Community dot com. that's it we actually just re started our our our Teach Better community. and essentially we have a lot of our trainings are available to either individual teachers or or schools and districts to to to subscribe to. actual licenses for for for courses and things like that. We used to have it siloed. So it was just like you would you would have a dashboard and you would sign in and it would that that was kind of it. so

Ryan -The Pixel Classroom: Mm-hmm.

Chad Ostrowski: and we we were missing the community that made the Teach Better team what it was. I I think a lot of what allowed us to grow over the last decade A lot of what allows to grow was the interactions between amazing people like you and bringing people into the network and having these conversations and interactions. And that's something that we realized was missing from our academy because you as an individual would sign up, you'd take your course and that was it.

Ryan -The Pixel Classroom: Mm-hmm.

Chad Ostrowski: And we've now adopted a community mindset. So all the courses and the stuff are still there, but it's built on a platform that allows interaction and communication. between the members. And so we're really proud of that change. I think it's the core of who we are. And I think it's also the core of where all this started. I mean, what our team's been bigger, smaller, and about every size in between over the last decade. but we've always I started this with the idea in the vision that every solution to every problem in a classroom exists somewhere. And when I say that. The only difference between us having that solution and not having that solution is connection. And so everything we do is trying to foster that connection. bring those voices together. Obviously we want to provide solutions ourselves too, with our training and development. But I always hope to be sharing other amazing people and voices too, which we've always tried to do, re regardless of, you know, the year or the time frame of our of of our

Ryan -The Pixel Classroom: Ha ha ha.

Chad Ostrowski: Company and business.

Ryan -The Pixel Classroom: Very true. I mean it it really is. I mean my myself I was like, boy, I'd love to go to one these conferences, but also some other ones I was working on. Unfortunately I didn't. But I always like the fact I can go to the community. I can pop up my phone or, you know, with the PC

Chad Ostrowski: Yeah.

Ryan -The Pixel Classroom: here working and I can and I can talk. I mean I do like the I like the weekly share your wins or are you working on. And sometimes it's like I really am not working on anything this week. And then sometimes like share your wins, like, I do have a great win and blah blah blah. We got the gim kit project good. I only was Three not turned in, but they got until Monday. So hey, I'm gonna take that as one of the one of my best, you know, turn in for this project I've been doing for five

Chad Ostrowski: Yeah.

Ryan -The Pixel Classroom: years. So it's like stuff like that. And sometimes I've been as simply as I have my car back. There's my win for the week, you know, after the engine blew and everything.

Chad Ostrowski: Hey, you know what? It sometimes those are the wins, man. literally, in in in one of my keynotes, sometimes not being worse is how you're better. and and I think that's a really big thing for educators to realize. Like, sometimes it's not giving into like being middle of the road. Sometimes it's not being into like doing worse or like giving up on that student or whatever the thing is. Sometimes it's it's really about like not. Maintaining your progress can be improvement because the alternative on your worst day is you get worse, right? And so I I

Ryan -The Pixel Classroom: Yeah.

Chad Ostrowski: I I don't think we value that enough as educators because we always talk about like the growth and the improvement that has to be there at some point, right? But there are gonna be those days where something's wrong with your car, you get in late, you didn't get your morning coffee, whatever the thing is, like you you have a choice, you have a decision to make. Like the thing that I realized as an educator really early on is that when you walk into the room, no student cares. Some of them care like from a friendship standpoint, like from a relationship standpoint,

Ryan -The Pixel Classroom: Right.

Chad Ostrowski: but none of them care how your day was before that moment. Like they just want the best version of you for that forty five minutes, for that sixty minutes if you're in middle school or high school. Like they don't like if you had a bad meeting, if you had something go wrong in the morning, like They don't know that. They don't have that frame of reference. They just want their

Ryan -The Pixel Classroom: No.

Chad Ostrowski: awesome science teacher or their tech teacher or their math teacher. And so a ritual I literally used to do in my classroom was like I would reset myself before walking in the room to like let go of whatever else was going on in the day to like show up for my my students, the best version of myself. And it was better some days than others, of course, depending on how the day was going. But like I think that's a really important thing. Now, does that take effort? Absolutely. Does that drain does that

Ryan -The Pixel Classroom: yeah.

Chad Ostrowski: drain you to be able to put on that kind of like like like like mask sometimes that you need to? Absolutely. But I think it's critical to give students the best possible experience, but also to realize just because you're having a hard time doesn't make them any less deserving of the best version of you.

Ryan -The Pixel Classroom: Mm-hmm.

Chad Ostrowski: and I think that's a hard thing to do is maintain that as a teacher. But I think it's the call we all have, you know, is to try to give our best to every single student, every single

Ryan -The Pixel Classroom: No, and I absolutely agree. I mean, I've had days too where, you know, I I said one time, like, guys, I had a cold over the weekend, so I'm not

Chad Ostrowski: Yeah.

Ryan -The Pixel Classroom: quite a hundred percent myself today. Don't worry, I'm not contagious and everything, but why don't we listen? Let me go in here, maybe you'll get one of my bad jokes like usually, and then I'll g we can work. Sound a plan? And we're like, yeah, well that sound a plan, Doctor. Okay, let's try that today. And then sometimes the kids are like I go, no kids, I only had two cups of coffee. Why do you ask? You know, maybe I'm just excited

Chad Ostrowski: Ha

Ryan -The Pixel Classroom: about the unit. And I I had and this is this is a true story because I'm having my post meeting that went really well. I had my observation for the first one for the year and And I don't think we had one tech non problem that day. And one of the notes he was saying well,

Chad Ostrowski: Right, right. Everything that could go wrong.

Ryan -The Pixel Classroom: Yeah, and he was like, You were running around and yet you were still keeping that class under control. Those kids were respecting you. I mean, yeah, I think you probably wanted to stop doing I was surprised not only did you keep moving He kept the lesson. I and you want to know the funny thing? He's like, What's that? I took all those problems because I I teach I teach two of these classes twice a day. So my econ and my literacy classes, I I two twice a day, and then there's a new there's a different one thrown in between. But I said, I told my eighth hour, I said, here's what happened to us third hour. Here's what we're not gonna do, here's what we will gonna do.

Chad Ostrowski: Right. Here's how we've adjusted, yeah.

Ryan -The Pixel Classroom: And I didn't have one problem and then I took that

Chad Ostrowski: Of course.

Ryan -The Pixel Classroom: note, I reset on Monday, I well not Monday, Wednesday, and I said I did the I basically said we just basically we we didn't do this right. Here's what we're gonna do is we're gonna restart and those twenty minutes like this is what yesterday was supposed to look like. I said, Okay guys, we got we got we got twenty six minutes. Go to work. I'm available if you need me. I said otherwise, you know, I want you to work, do that, stay on track. Remember, I'm keeping an eye on you on my tracking, but otherwise it's like now that we got that all finished, go ahead. And then I had some like, Dr. Reed, this didn't work. What was I? I can help you now. But that's like that's what it should look like on a daily day. And

Chad Ostrowski: Yeah.

Ryan -The Pixel Classroom: some days I do that and some days I don't. I mean, like I said, today I was teaching how to write a business meeting notes today in my one class and my bigot and we did review, but I was like, guys, stop. Do I do? And they're you gotta change the font style. It's wrong. I Okay, now what do I do? Get a center. Okay, all right. Now let's teach you what I just showed you the other day with those shortcuts. So I said, highlight that. Let's hit we're on word, so do control five. And they're like, that then like, see, that's half spacing. Doesn't that look nice? Like, that does look nice. I said,

Chad Ostrowski: Yeah.

Ryan -The Pixel Classroom: Okay, now let's go from the right. I said, Guy, here's the shortcut. I said, Let's do our subject, there's our bullet points. All right, go to the last one. Okay, remember shift enter, and then I said, Now what do I do? Like delete twice to fix the in input format. I'm like We're working on it and then I just was like, Okay, I'm gonna let you guys work. There's my example up there. I'm gonna go around and help you. You know, w it was still Monday, but at least it was like they knew the routine and then I was like much easier for me to actually let them work. And I'm like, see,

Chad Ostrowski: Yeah. Absolutely. Sure.

Ryan -The Pixel Classroom: this is what the class should look like some days.

Chad Ostrowski: Yeah, I mean that that transition correct keyword is should, right? and

Ryan -The Pixel Classroom: Yeah.

Chad Ostrowski: I mean when we work with schools and districts on mastery learning, that's one of the biggest shifts teachers have is offloading the active part of learning on the s onto the students more often. And it's about creating those systems, routines, and those pieces with proper instructional planning. that's where all that growth lives is that's those student experiences. And to your point, you're still having those conversations, you're still checking in, but like they're the ones doing all the work versus a more passive experience in a more traditional classroom setting. Absolutely. And I think that's huge, man.

Ryan -The Pixel Classroom: Yeah, I mean I do a lot of y you know, I do, you do, but it does get to the point where I now expect you to you know, work on here and then I can do I can come help you or working in our stations too. Whether I'm watching a

Chad Ostrowski: Yeah.

Ryan -The Pixel Classroom: video for the first five minutes, quick discussion, then like, hey, worst comes worse, go back to the video. Otherwise we're working on this and so forth. And then sometimes it is really kind of nice where, you know, like I did the keyboard shortcuts. I'm like, you gotta highlight it and you gotta try those shortcuts. What do they do? I said, unless you have something that's like that's not matching up. I said, why? And they're like, well, because it the shortcuts aren't universal. I right, control C is a universal one no matter what you do. It's gonna copy something no matter what you do it. But I said, control D is gonna do three different things depending on what program you are. You're right now Exactly.

Chad Ostrowski: Depending on the program, yeah.

Ryan -The Pixel Classroom: You're in a web browser, you've automatically bookmarked it. You're in Google, it duplicates it. You're in Canva, it duplicates it. I said, if you are on a Mac, you know what it's gonna do? What? It's it's gonna check mark it. And they went, It does. I said, I said, guys, the best thing I did was years ago in a community college and we had three computers. We had a Chromebook, a PC, and a Mac. And I said we gave and basically you got a spread, you got a you got a piece of paper and you had them solve what what one matched with one computer and

Chad Ostrowski: Yeah.

Ryan -The Pixel Classroom: then said which ones are universal and which ones are completely unique to p your platform and and and they're like and then what did he do? It's like, well it was an hour and a half class and we took a half an hour a ten minute break. I'm like, that's what we do. It's like that's what you do is like and then they would just come to me if they were really just like, Hey, Dr. Reed, I have no idea what this is doing. I said, Which one this one? I said, I said, highlight this in Word, now try it like, that allows me to vertically align it. I said, There you go, there's your answer. I said, You just weren't Clicking on it. I always said

Chad Ostrowski: Yeah.

Ryan -The Pixel Classroom: I always told them like keep going until it just doesn't do anything. Once it doesn't do anything, you can't figure out move on to the next shortcut. Once you figure that

Chad Ostrowski: Sure.

Ryan -The Pixel Classroom: out, just keep going. It's like move the pieces, check mark them, match them, whatever

Chad Ostrowski: Yeah.

Ryan -The Pixel Classroom: paper, analog, Google slides, whatever. But I said it's it's gotta be trial and error. I said that's the biggest thing. I said, guys, if I really wanted to sit here, there are over 40 shortcuts in Word alone.

Chad Ostrowski: Of course.

Ryan -The Pixel Classroom: They looked at like, What? I'm Yeah, but are we gonna learn them all? No. Do we have time for all of them? No. I'm teaching the ones that are gonna probably ones you need to know the most, and which ones are probably gonna play. It's like no matter what, you gotta fix your text.

Chad Ostrowski: And and depending on the job you might use s and depending on the job you might use some of those that you didn't learn just 'cause they they're directly applicable to what you're doing, you know?

Ryan -The Pixel Classroom: Yeah, I mean it's like I am on a PC, not my Mac, but guess what? Sometimes when I have to go find my downloaded files, like when the when this is all edited and so forth, I'm gonna hit the Windows logo and the letter E, and that's gonna open up my files and boom,

Chad Ostrowski: Sure.

Ryan -The Pixel Classroom: there's there's my missing files. So it's like quick and easy versus click here, no click here, there it is, drag and drop and so forth. So it it I I found out a lot of work with the with the trial and error has helped a lot of students, but I think some students sometimes are just shocked that I'm willing to be like, well, I really screwed that up. Let's figure out what happened. They look at me like, You you messed up you made a mistake, Doctor Reed?

Chad Ostrowski: I think that's a huge that's a huge thing I think a lot of teachers need to learn quickly. There's two things. One is perfection is the enemy of progress, right? like like

Ryan -The Pixel Classroom: Right.

Chad Ostrowski: you can't ever expect a classroom to run perfectly. The the minute you're holding that that bar, you're gonna fail to meet it and you're gonna beat yourself up every single time. To your point, even the observation, when everything's going wrong, are you able to continue learning? Are you able to continue th some semblance of what you trying to that what you're trying to accomplish? and then and that's truly like an art in and of itself when things are going wrong, making them work anyway. but it but I think that's huge. I I think a lot of teachers are really hard on themselves and and I think they expect perfection of themselves, but then if they just would relax into the idea that things are gonna go wrong, it becomes easier to see those solutions because you're not so tied to how it was meant to be, because you're focused on the outcome you want to achieve instead.

Ryan -The Pixel Classroom: Yeah, I mean I think it's a big thing. I think I think one thing that hurts me and I know there are a lot of teachers when you've done it so many times

Chad Ostrowski: Yeah.

Ryan -The Pixel Classroom: and you've had it go thing and then you just get that one class or that one day where it's like, wow, not only has this gone out the window, I don't know how we're even gonna come back from it. I mean I had one I had thing.

Chad Ostrowski: Sure, but to And well to your point, yeah, being willing to scrap it and just have the conversation is important too sometimes, right? Like if you're doing a hundred percent tech based lesson, which I mean you're gonna probably have more of those than some other teachers would, but like if you had if you just

Ryan -The Pixel Classroom: Yeah yeah.

Chad Ostrowski: to be clear, but like if if you're doing a hundred percent tech based and the internet goes out or the computer like like something goes wrong, like you're not doing that lesson today. But to your point

Ryan -The Pixel Classroom: Mm-hmm.

Chad Ostrowski: Being willing to to just have the conversation and not try to guard that perfection. So like when when I first started teaching, this is funny actually that we're we're talking about this, my I wanted every lesson to go perfect and I was really hard on myself as as an educator. And as I got more experience, I was I I sort of started to accept the the messiness of education and and and all the things that can go wrong. And as I got better, I remember my principal came in and he did an observation and he was like, You're a lot more relaxed now. I was like, what do you mean? He's like,

Ryan -The Pixel Classroom: Ha ha ha.

Chad Ostrowski: he's like, you're just more relaxed, because I was so much more confident in my abilities as an educator. I had put together this framework. I was running mastery learning in my classroom. I wasn't sweating the small stuff because I didn't have to, because the goal was still being met, because I was still running a great classroom, even when things were going wrong. There was that sort of foundation. And I think some of those things are things you just have to build through experience over time. But I think knowing that if you're an early year educator or a like kind of a new educator, I think it's really important to be okay. Not having everything go perfect, because I think that's an important th skill to kind of build as an educator.

Ryan -The Pixel Classroom: Yeah, I mean I think I just really too 'cause like I said, I even the way I am and people are I mean, I even have students say, You're very patient, Doctor Reach. I said, I've been doing this long enough that it's not upsetting

Chad Ostrowski: Right.

Ryan -The Pixel Classroom: me as much. Like I said, even that last week with the with the whole running around. I was doing but I but everybody said you were very controlled. You never looked frantic, you never were sweating. You knew also

Chad Ostrowski: Yeah, absolutely.

Ryan -The Pixel Classroom: to like stop and turn to a kid, like, why's the phone out? And it like simple as that and then like I put it away and I turned right back to do it. They're like, You were running everywhere, but it's like You knew what you were doing. You were never

Chad Ostrowski: Yeah.

Ryan -The Pixel Classroom: once patent everything. I think you had more fun than I think you should have. I said, if I can't have fun during the lesson, it's it's not much. Like right here we were just doing.

Chad Ostrowski: Something's wrong. Something's broke. Yeah.

Ryan -The Pixel Classroom: Right. And I was even joking with them today. We were teaching them pay stubs in consumer econ. Tomorrow we're gonna show them to make sure your taxes are calculated correctly depending on what state and how much you're

Chad Ostrowski: Sure.

Ryan -The Pixel Classroom: making an hour. And what and one of the things are going Well, we're making this an hour, so let's answer the question three, and it's multiple choice, guys. I couldn't have made this more easier if I tried, but is she A, based on her hourly salary and what she get before taxes on her gross way, is she worked two weeks, three weeks, five weeks, or nine weeks? And I said If she's only been make if she made that much money within two weeks, I don't I think I want her job. And the kids were like, I

Chad Ostrowski: Yeah.

Ryan -The Pixel Classroom: want her job. So I they were like, So what that tell you? Like, that's not the answer. I said, Perfect, there you go, two is away. So is three weeks gonna be the any closer? Like, no, not if she made that much money. I said, Exactly. So three. So I said, now there's your two possible answers, eight, nine. Which one what what's the easiest way to do it? And one went, Well, I could divide what she made right now versus what she just made. I said, Yep, that's one way. What's the other one? And I said, Mm, divide the weeks and see if it equals what she's currently been paid. I said, there's

Chad Ostrowski: hourly wait. Yeah.

Ryan -The Pixel Classroom: this there. I'm like, that's the second way. I said, it's up to you. Both ans both ways are acceptable. And then eventually they're it was nine weeks. I'm like, there you go. You got the answer. It's like But that was an example. But yeah, we I would joke with them.

Chad Ostrowski: Yeah. I it yeah. And it's you know, honestly and now as I reflect on the last ten years working with teachers and being on the other side of sort of like the PD end of things, it's it it's actually funny, like I'll be at a meeting or answering a question or dealing with pushback. Honestly, if we're talking

Ryan -The Pixel Classroom: Mm-hmm.

Chad Ostrowski: about something like standards based grading, right? Or letting students work at

Ryan -The Pixel Classroom: Right.

Chad Ostrowski: their own pace or personalized or mastery learning, like There's a lot of big shifts I'm usually asking teachers to make. And I always ask specifically for smart remarks. because I want in and the reason I do this is is very simple. I know what it's like to be in that room in a PD session and in in a workshop, even you know, regardless of how active it is, and then not believing the presenter. Or having a concern of of of what they said and how it's gonna work for me in my classroom. And I would rather you as an educator in the room bring up that concern to me so I can address it and talk to you about it, than like pretend it doesn't exist. I know as an educator, I would sit in PD rooms w you know w when I was in the classroom and I would ask a question and the presenter would say something silly like, Well We'll worry about that later. Just do what I told you. Or some something along those lines. And it would irk me really bad, like as as an educator. Cause I was like, well, no. I I need to know this so I can buy into what you're what you're telling me. And now like I'll literally have teachers come up and be like, Why you you just answered my question. Like you didn't shy away from anything. And I'm like, Listen, I've been where you are. I know how this goes. And it's the same thing you're talking about. Being able to go with those conversations, dive into those conversations, meet people or students or teachers where they're at will get them on your side to come with you in the journey of their own learning and growth. And so that's such a huge component. anytime you're going, well, this is the answer because I said it was, in not having those five piece conversations,

Ryan -The Pixel Classroom: Yeah.

Chad Ostrowski: you have you've given up so much learning in that process, right? And so I I think that's huge, right? Like whether you're talking about the classroom, PD, like whatever, in both of those scenarios I think that's the same thing. It's just like don't shy away from those those confusing points, those pushbacks, those difficult things. Like if you dive in and get in the mud with you know what I mean, you can come out together on the other side.

Ryan -The Pixel Classroom: Right. Well, that's exactly it. I mean, I'm about to leave a PD in two weeks with our institute day, and some of my coworkers are too. But my co-work and this is the first one I've done in a couple of years. I'm kind of looking forward to it, but at the same time

Chad Ostrowski: Yeah.

Ryan -The Pixel Classroom: as I'm doing two sessions, I'm expecting something like, well, then how does that work? I said, Well, here's one of the ways you do it. Like, well, how would that work in this classroom? I said, Well, that's

Chad Ostrowski: Yeah.

Ryan -The Pixel Classroom: a good question, but I am not your type of teacher. I said, I always joke with the kids when I help. I'm like, Well, Dr. Reed, do you that? I said, No, I know slope. I code. You're expecting me to do trigonometry, you're expecting me to do that. I'm like algebra number. Problems like with geometry. my son's in geometry and I will do it. My wife's like, I'm completely done. But I said, I know what a linear line is, I know what a congruent line is, I know I'm looking for an angle, but sometimes I have to go over the math because it's like it's been so many years, I don't know. I

Chad Ostrowski: Of course.

Ryan -The Pixel Classroom: mean, if somebody said, Are you gonna try to do a breakdown of elements? I said, I can do that. I said, I just missed an A in chemistry. I know breakdowns very good, but if you're expecting me to teach this. that's not gonna happen versus we're doing we're doing the history of Babylon. Let me talk to you. I I always said I missed my calling as a social studies teacher, you know, and away we go. It's just it tur

Chad Ostrowski: Ha ha.

Ryan -The Pixel Classroom: it turns into like, or I'm a consumer ec economics teacher. Trust me, me and government policies, I know So hey, you wanna talk about this? We'll talk about that. I'm like, I'll tell you about the state. There we go. County, 'cause I used I taught business law, so I'm aware of that, so I can cross blood, but some people are like, well, can you do humanities? I Well, what's our subject? We're just like, conditions, stuff like I can do that. Like, what about this? I look at I'm like, no, that's just not gonna happen. I mean, you want to use

Chad Ostrowski: No

Ryan -The Pixel Classroom: this. I mean, here's the Freyer card model, which is one of the things. I'm like, here's the thing, here's how I do it, here's how I like to do it. I find out the kids are more engagement because a lot of these kids are visual, they have 10 second expansion fan with TikTok. So sometimes they want to animate and gif the show. I'm like, give me an example of a tower in a computer. Well, here's my little animated tower computer from G, you know, G Games. Give me a non-example, like here's the leading tower PISA. I'm like, b exactly. Thank you. Wrong kind of tower. That's not a computer tower. That's a tower in general. But you've now given me a visual representation of

Chad Ostrowski: Right.

Ryan -The Pixel Classroom: that. And the kids are like, I get that now. So it's it's stuff like that.

Chad Ostrowski: Sure.

Ryan -The Pixel Classroom: man. On that note, so we got a lot of stuff coming up for you, I think, coming soon here. Chad, so what's some of the things coming up for you and the Teach Better team here as we move into hard to believe it's officially fall. We are

Chad Ostrowski: Yeah.

Ryan -The Pixel Classroom: hard for a lot of us, we're a couple weeks from the first quarter being over. We're getting

Chad Ostrowski: I know, man.

Ryan -The Pixel Classroom: the homecoming. Homecoming's coming over. Before we know it it's gonna be like that early winter weird time and next thing you know we're like, what what where where twenty twenty six go? But what do what do we got coming up here for the rest of the year going forward?

Chad Ostrowski: Right. Yeah, absolutely. Well well, for the rest of the year, like right now we got our huge push for all of our fall PDs with our partner schools and those all of those all of our partner schools are off to the races, so we're maintaining and supporting a a lot of those schools. Right now we're heavily looking in in booking out our winter and spring as schools kind of find what they need. Right here is the magic part of the school year where a lot of schools go, I didn't realize that was a need we had until f week four. You know what I mean? Like or or things like that.

Ryan -The Pixel Classroom: That's yeah, I know that feeling. man.

Chad Ostrowski: 'Cause 'cause this this thing's blowing up in in room fifty forty six or whatever it is.

Ryan -The Pixel Classroom: Shit.

Chad Ostrowski: so a a lot of it's just on like the the you know, the P D side. we're also, honestly, our Teach Better community is continuing to grow. We're continuing to regrow that community 'cause we did switch platforms. so we have some events planned for that community. I'm also excited to be a featured speaker at AMLE this year in in in Tennessee. that's gonna be coming up here in a little bit. The dates are escaping my brain off the top of my head. I have to to to go look a look

Ryan -The Pixel Classroom: Ha ha ha.

Chad Ostrowski: for those. But but yeah, I mean those are the biggest things on our on our plate right now is really continuing to kind of help schools progress and and make those connections. And some of our schools are doing amazing things. We had an elementary school in North Carolina increased their state report card grade by two grade levels last year, which is absolutely fantastic, and other schools. are seeing you know tons of growth and things like that. So we love to see that. We love to be a small part of that growth when our schools and partners see those things. So a lot of exciting things happening in our in our network, absolutely.

Ryan -The Pixel Classroom: wow. I mean you you you've got so much kind of coming up here and it's it it's it sounds really great here. So but I mean it i I mean it's one thing. I mean everything I Teach Better team's def. It's definitely helped with me. It's definitely part of the community too. So I mean I've been enjoying it. I've been thanking you so much for everything you guys have do. I've been very proud to be part of this community too. Even though I need to get some of my sound bites back onto it on some of these episodes. Everybody's like, We

Chad Ostrowski: No worries.

Ryan -The Pixel Classroom: know you're on Teach Better. I'm like, that's as of this episode we'll do it and after I get this cleaned out here too.

Chad Ostrowski: There you go.

Ryan -The Pixel Classroom: Because if anybody if anybody's checking us on Riverside Right now as we record this on the video and audio report. You might notice my microphone's being a little double here, but that's why we have the perksing so we can fix all that. So but everything else. But Chad, this has been a great time. I mean, thank you so much for connecting with us today here on on the Pixel Classroom Podcast.

Chad Ostrowski: Of course. It's been a pleasure, Ryan. It was way too long, but let's not make it the last time, okay, buddy?

Ryan -The Pixel Classroom: Yeah, I I like returning guests. I mean that's why I said this is my season of returning guests. So hopefully we'll do that too. And on that last note there, Chad, how how can people reach out to you here and connect with you with the Teach

Chad Ostrowski: Yeah.

Ryan -The Pixel Classroom: Better team or online?

Chad Ostrowski: Easiest way is teachbetter dot com. All of our information is there. You can email me directly at Chad at teach. Better.com. I'm also on all social media at Chadostrowski or at Teach Better Team. if you're interested in joining the community, you can go to Teachbetter Community.com. You'll find all the information there. There it's completely free to join the community. We do have a subscription tier, but if all are welcome if they want to just connect with other amazing educators like yourself. and we are all in there, so we all get to hang out and it's it's a good time. So lots of ways to connect, pick your face. Yeah.

Ryan -The Pixel Classroom: Well, that thing's like is a great one and hopefully everybody is gonna be doing that too, who can treat you or reach out for the Teach Better team as well as the whole Teach Better team. Thank you so much for being part of our network here, especially with the Pixel Classroom Podcast. There's my shout out there for that, 'cause I mean it's definitely been great here since I've been part of the network here the last couple of years. So I thank you and the whole team for that, Chad.

Chad Ostrowski: Appreciate you, my friend.

Ryan -The Pixel Classroom: Thank you so much. And everybody else, thank you for joining us on the Pixel Classroom podcast. And like and subscribe, and we will talk to everybody later.