EdTech Connect with Carrie Conover

Teaching Skills that Prepare You for Ed Tech Success

Teaching Skills that Prepare You for Ed Tech Success 
Teachers looking to transition from the classroom to a position with an ed-tech company sometimes worry about whether they are qualified to make such a big career change. The reality, however, is that #teacherjobs are excellent preparation for ed-tech employment. Your time in the classroom has given you numerous skills that will make you an effective member of the ed-tech field. 
Empathy
Empathy is central to the teaching experience. As an educator, you do not just help students to develop their intellects. You also help them to develop emotional intelligence, and that means teaching them to understand and model empathy. 
Great teachers TEACH empathy to their students in a multitude of ways. Every time you explore a character's feelings in a story, help a student navigate a conflict with a friend, or show your class how to care for their community or their world, you are helping them to use empathy to connect with those around them. 
Great teachers also USE empathy themselves as they build relationships with students, parents, colleagues, administrators, and other educators. 
When it comes time to transition to the ed-tech world, particularly in the fields of sales, customer support, and customer success, empathy plays a central role. 
Research shows, for example, that empathy is one of the most important leadership skills. Empathetic leaders foster greater innovation, engagement, and inclusivity within their environments. You can use your skills in teaching and using empathy to create strong teams and effective communication within your ed-tech corporation.
In addition, the school districts and educators with whom you will interact in your new role need more than just facts about the technology options available to them. They need someone who will listen to and care about their needs and who will find ways to support student learning and growth. Your skills in using empathy can help you to build trusting, effective relationships with them as you seek to meet their ed-tech needs. 
Documentation
Documentation can seem all-consuming in the field of education. A Facebook post that circulated when I was teaching said, "Teaching is at the point that if a student passes gas in class, we have to document it." 
While the post was a bit sarcastic, there was some truth to it. A decade later, the need for documentation is even higher. IEPS. Behavior improvement plans. School lunch lists. COVID contact lists. Teachers spend many hours meticulously documenting student progress and behaviors. 
When you are ready to transition from the classroom to #edtechcareers, those documentation skills will be a highly valuable skill in any role you take on. From engineers who need to write a postmortem to a customer success manager who needs to document a success story for a case study, to a recruiter who needs to document the outcomes of an interview, great documentation skills are essential. 
Organization
Most of us remember that one teacher who struggled with organization  - Late test grading, messy classroom, etc. However, most teachers are extremely organized because they have to be. Thoughtful, intentional organization keeps their lives at school less stressful and equips them to teach more effectively. 
You can take those same organizational skills and use them to succeed at an ed-tech company. For example, in my first ed tech position, I used my organizational skills to build a tracking system to manage the company's book of renewals and expansions. The system caught the attention of my CEO, who told me at my year-end review that  “I didn’t know you had this operational side to you!” 
As a teacher looking to move into ed-tech, you too can leverage those organizational skills as the valuable contributions they are to the ed-tech field. And, you can market those skills at the beginning of the application process, rather than waiting until you are in the role to let your operational skills shine! 
Differentiation
In my opinion, one of the biggest shifts in education over the last 20 years is the practice of differentiating instruction for students. Back in the 80s and 90s when I was a student, education was a one-size-fits-all approach. Every student received instruction in the same way. 
When I became a teacher, however, we began learning the importance of tailoring the curriculum to match students' learning styles. Today, teachers are expected to provide an education that meets students' unique learning needs. 
As a result, teachers understand the importance of differentiation to student success, and they understand how to implement it in their everyday approach. You are probably very comfortable with using tools and strategies to make a curriculum an effective teaching tool for all of your students. 
Differentiation is also at the core of ed-tech curriculum today. Tools such as eSpark Learning, iXL, DreamBox, LearnZillion, NewsELA and ThinkCerca use technology to make differentiation easier and more effective within the classroom. 
As an ed-tech employee, particularly in the customer support field, differentiation is also key. We all know the constant conversation that goes on behind doors about customer segmentation and services. Teachers are not only great at understanding the concept that some customers deserve higher-touch care than others, but they can also deliver on it without the urge to over serve the lower-touch customer. The former teachers on my customer service teams were the BEST at executing based on customer segmentation plans.
Patience
Patience may not be a skill you think to put on your resume, but it is a valuable tool that you can take from education to ed-tech. Those classrooms of busy children that you manage every day have given you a level of patience you would never have been able to imagine before you started teaching. 
You have also learned how to read students (and sometimes parents) in order to determine when to push them toward positive change and growth and when to wait patiently in order to optimize their chances for success in the classroom. 
That balance is essential in #edtechjobs, particularly in the sales and customer support fields. You need to know when to stretch the thinking of a school district and push them toward a certain solution, but you also need to know when to be patient and wait for a better time. 
In addition, you will need patience when dealing with people inside and outside your organization. You are working with human beings, whether they are from the product team, instructional design, engineering, or another department, and successful interactions with others, as you know, often requires patience. 
As an educator, you already have many of the skills you need to succeed at an ed-tech company. If you are ready to begin the journey to an ed-tech position, Classroom to Boardroom here at educators 2 educators can help. 
In addition to teaching you how to recognize, and promote the critical skills you have, we also offer lots of online content, a #teachercareercoach, connections with others, and more. Here you can network, spruce up your resume, and become part of a community that supports you along the way. Contact us today to learn more! 

Why You Need to Build Community in Your Ed Tech Job Search

Looking for a role in Ed Tech?Then you are embarking on an exciting, challenging, and potentially lengthy journey to find your dream position.You should not have to do it alone.In fact, finding a community of like-minded educators, and receiving guidance and support along the way, can make it faster, easier, and less stressful to land the right job at an education company. 
In this episode, Carrie talks about the why and how of community in your job search!
www.classroomtoboardroom.net

From Teacher to Director of Customer Success with Donnaly

Donnaly Crull went from middle school teacher to Director of Customer Success at Skillstruck. In this episode of the C to B podcast, hear Donnaly's story and why her Mexican roots play an important part in her career path.
 
Learn more about Classroom to Boardroom here.

From Teacher to Head of Business Operations

Teacher to Business Development with John PutmanJohn Putnam went from teacher to professor to head of business operations at Schoolytics. In this episode of the C to B podcast, hear John's story and learn the number one skill John believes you already have that can help you make the transition out of the classroom.
Learn more about Classroom to Boardroom at www.educators2educators.com/classroom-to-boardroom

From Teacher to VP of Sales with Patrick F.

Patrick went from teacher to VP of Sales at Acadeum. 
Patrick’s career path helped him uncover his common thread: helping people realize their own potential. He majored in engineering but pursued being a high school math and science teacher. After 7 years of teaching Algebra I and II, geometry, statistics, and physics, Patrick did the unthinkable and quit his job as department chair two weeks into the fall semester. He took a job as an entry-level salesperson at a midsize tech start-up that worked with universities and colleges. It was the scariest thing he could have done but it was the right decision. 
Sign up for Classroom to Boardroom at http://classroomtoboardroom.net/
Check out Patrick's workbook at  https://patrickfrasier.com/workbook/.

From Teacher to Director of National Partnerships with Katie House

Hear the story of how Katie (Daugird) House went from teacher to working for multiple successful ed-tech companies such as Encyclopaedia Britannica, SMART Technologies, Amplify Education,  Discovery Education, Clever, and Dreambox.
 
Learn more about Classroom to Boardroom here. 
Connect with Katie here.
 
 

Teacher to Client Success Leader with Heather Hoeppner

Heather Hoeppner went from high school teacher to client success leader at Affirm. Heather sits down with us to chat about how her love for data drove her to make various twists and turns in her career.
In this episode, Carrie and Heather talk about their time together working in ed-tech at eSpark Learning and what Heather has been up to since that time.
Learn more at ClassroomtoBoardroom.net
Heather's Bio:
Heather leads big box retail initiatives for Affirm, a San Francisco-based Financial Tech firm offering honest financial products. Prior to Affirm, she oversaw enterprise key accounts at Narrative Science, a Chicago-based AI company focused on language capabilities in advanced analytics. Heather spent the first 10 years of her career with Teach For America, first as a high school English teacher in West Baltimore followed by seven years supporting and managing teams of teachers and district leader relationships. Heather holds an MBA from the University of Chicago, a Master of Arts in Teaching from Johns Hopkins University and a BA from Kenyon College. She is also the co-founder and advisor of Tilly, an online landscape design company. 

The Importance of Knowing Your Strengths with Tomer Yogev

Tomer Yogev specializes in helping people identify and understand their strengths. This process helps his clients find the ultimate joy in both their personal and professional life. During this interview, Tomer and Carrie sit down to discuss the process we used during our coaching sessions to identify and maximize Carrie's strengths as she began her work as an entrepreneur. 
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Dr. Jax ML Black and Tomer Yogev, a married couple, have become two of Chicago’s most sought-after executive coaches thanks to their genuine, contagious passion and radiant energy. Their journey to The Big Joy Theory was set in motion after a skydiving trip, where they both had a revelation. As they hurtled through the air, snugly tied to a trusted expert, they realized what all leaders should embody: security, trust, and confidence. 
Following their realization, Dr. Jax and Tomer founded TandemSpring: a coaching center that empowered leaders to break free from the corporate mindset and work as their authentic selves. The couple spent the next decade teaching others how to find and own their strengths so that they could become the skydiving instructors of their own lives. 
As they watched more and more leaders elevate into their fully-expressed and authentic selves, Jax and Tomer realized there was one more component that came out of their life-changing skydiving trip: joy. Now, TandemSpring has become The Big Joy Theory, where they teach and encourage leaders to become their whole selves so they can jump into joy —  and land in their own authentic leadership presence. 
Jax and Tomer invite you to connect with them on LinkedIn or schedule a time to connect with them in-person here.