Jeremy Chatterton: Using Data and Coaching to Improve High School Reading Test Scores
Beyond the Roles: Voices in Education
Release Date: 02/17/2024
Mary Chris Finnigan: Director of Academics for Student-Athletes at the University of Utah
Beyond the Roles: Voices in Education
In the last episode we heard about the mental health needs of college athletes and how they are met at a Division I university. In this episode we hear about how their academic needs are met. An outstanding former high school and college student-athlete herself, Mary Chris Finnigan combines a love of the energy of sports with an extensive background in academic counseling. She played college basketball at the University of California Santa Barbara. She served as the head girls’ basketball coach for her former high school for eight years, where she also worked as a guidance counselor and...
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Nic Collins: Counseling College Athletes and Advocating for Mental Health Awareness
Beyond the Roles: Voices in Education
After 18 years working in corporate sales, Nic Collins decided to go back to school to pursue a graduate degree in counseling. He is now working in an internship for the athletics department at the University of South Carolina, where he is one of many resources on the Mental Health and Performance Team for student-athletes. Nic also advocates for mental health, writes, and is a talented musician, coach, and guest speaker. He is one of the two dynamic hosts of , which explores topics around personal growth and inspiration and how different people find them. In this episode, Nic shares about why...
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Sydney Parks: The Transformative Effects of the Flipped Classroom Model
Beyond the Roles: Voices in Education
Sydney Parks completed a Masters program in Ecological Economics with a Flipped Classroom model at the University of Edinburgh last year. Before completing this program in Scotland, Sydney had earned a Bachelor of Science in Bioengineering from the University of California, San Diego, and worked as a Synthetic Biology researcher in the biotechnology sector. In that work she encountered scientists who had an in-depth understanding of their subject area, confidence from that deep understanding, and fluidity in the way they could speak about it. She realized that the way she learned in...
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Dr. Bryan Hale: What's possible when looking at school culture through a wellness lens
Beyond the Roles: Voices in Education
In addition to hearing from people who are currently inside the classroom, I enjoy meeting, and hearing the stories of, people who are using their experiences and skills to try to make the educational system better in some way. Dr. Bryan Hale's career in the educational system spans over 25 years. He has been a high school math teacher in Ohio, an assistant principal in North Carolina, and a Principal of a K-8 school and then a charter high school in the Chicagoland area, where he considered becoming a superintendent. His doctoral research on Holistic Wellness in Education and the six domains...
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Amanda Wolff: UHSAA Girls' Cross-Country Coach of the Year 2024
Beyond the Roles: Voices in Education
We’re ending Season 2 with insights from a statewide-recognized coach of the year. Amanda Wolff is an English teacher and the Head Coach of both the Girls’ and Boys’ Cross-Country and Track programs at Cyprus High School, a Title I school in the Granite School District in Salt Lake City, Utah. Under her leadership over the past five years, the team has grown from 55 participating athletes to 130. The Girls’ Cross-Country team took Regionals last year, and the team placed 6th overall in the State. The Girls’ Track and Field team took Regionals for the first time since 1978! Amanda was...
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Rachel Bartholomew: Impacting Student Learning through Instructional Coaching for Educators
Beyond the Roles: Voices in Education
Rachel Bartholomew is currently an instructional coach for both an elementary school and a Title I junior high school in the Granite School District in Salt Lake City, Utah. Before that Rachel taught reading for 20 years in all three levels of school: elementary, middle school/junior high, and high school, and in three different states: North Carolina, Washington state, and Utah. Rachel also coached volleyball, basketball, and track and field at the junior high level for 10 years. In this episode, Rachel shares about what has kept her going through 20+ years as an educator. She discusses...
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Jimmy D. Hart Presents the R.A.I. (Respect/Affirmation/Inclusion) Framework
Beyond the Roles: Voices in Education
Jimmy D. Hart, Chief Empowerment Officer of Hart Global Industries is an author, coach, speaker and trainer. He has been involved in education for 31 years, in roles ranging from teacher and coach, to site administrator, middle school and high school principal, and district administrator. Now he uses his extensive experience to help school districts put the R.A.I. framework, which stands for Respect, Affirmation, and Inclusion, into practice. He offers leadership training and coaching for adults, and is committed to facilitating consistent and equitable access to resources and...
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Hailey Anderson: Providing and Fighting for Safe Spaces
Beyond the Roles: Voices in Education
Hailey Anderson is a registered nurse at the University of Utah hospital. She is a parent of three kids in the Salt Lake City School District and a fierce advocate for their human rights. I reached out to Rainbow Club of SLC after hearing about it from an educator at Bonneville Elementary School in the Salt Lake City School District. Hailey helped start an Equity Committee at Bonneville about four years ago, and then, in partnership with one of the elementary teachers, helped start Rainbow Club of SLC there. As described on their website, Rainbow Club “is a safe supportive space for young...
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Coach Dru Jones: "It's about the love that you give to another person"
Beyond the Roles: Voices in Education
Coach Dru Jones is a special education teacher in English and biology, the Head football coach, and the Head Unified Sports Coach at Viewmont High School in the Davis School District in Utah. He has been teaching since 2008 and was recognized recently as the Davis School District’s Teacher of the Year. He was also named one of the finalists for the 2025 Utah Teacher of the Year. In this episode Coach Dru shares about the challenges he faced throughout his own education, and how that motivated him to break the cycle and be the first on his father’s side to graduate from high school and...
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Carrie Miller: From Meeting Resistance to Building Relationships and the Challenges and Rewards of Educational Consulting
Beyond the Roles: Voices in Education
Find out more about the role of an educational consultant through this conversation with Carrie Miller, who is a Vice President for MGT of America in their Education Solutions Group, on the team for Academic Transformation. Carrie was an educator in a number of roles for 12 years, from an English and French teacher, to a Dean of Students, to a Director of Admissions, at various school settings, including rural, urban, Title I, and independent schools in the Pacific Northwest and Colorado. Since 2015 she has been working in management consulting. In 2022 she earned her doctorate of education...
info_outlineJeremy Chatterton is the principal of a large public high school in the Salt Lake City school district here in Utah. He brings what he's learned from his experiences as a basketball coach, middle school and high school math teacher, assistant principal, and elementary school principal to his vision for setting the tone and a positive culture as a high school principal. His persistence in the face of setbacks and his drive to continually improve have shaped his approach to his current role. He shares some great insights about how important it is to support teachers, the usefulness of data, like test scores, for a variety of purposes, and how he has used test scores and professional teaching coaches to help teachers and students bridge gaps in reading proficiency, which they have done successfully at his school in the last few years.
"The best decision we can make for kids is to put the best teachers in front of them." (11:27)
"How do we help kids find some success so they can start to build more success?" (14:10)
Invidual students who were reading at 3rd-4th grade level as 9th and 10th graders are now reading at a 9th-10th grade level as 11th and 12th graders. We're talking 4-5 years of reading development in 2 years. (16:57)
"PD" = Professional Development
"PLC" = Professional Learning Community
What Is a Professional Learning Community? (from ACSD - Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development)
Title I School: The Title I, Part A program provides financial assistance each year to Local Education Agencies (LEAs) and schools with high numbers or high percentages of children from low-income families to help ensure that all students have equitable opportunities to meet challenging state academic standards. Funds are used to provide supplemental educational services and resources to meet the needs of economically and educationally disadvantaged students. (From https://schools.utah.gov/eseastateinitiatives/improvingprograms)
Thanks for listening! If you have any thoughts or questions that you'd like to share, I would love to hear them at [email protected]. If you have current experiences in the educational system and an interest in sharing your story on the podcast, please reach out!