Baby Steps to Big Confidence

Discovering the heart of education through the eyes of a seasoned teacher turned instructional coach—that's what awaits you in this enlightening conversation with Amber DiSilvio from Northeast Elementary School in Clarksville, Tennessee.

Website: spotlight4success.com

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:06):
Welcome to Spotlight for Success by American Boot
Company.
I am Devin Pintosi, your host.
We are here at ASCD ISTE 2025in sunny San Antonio, texas, and
we are here with our specialguest, amber DeSilvio.
Amber DeSilvio joins us.
She is the instructional coachat Northeast Elementary School

(00:28):
in Clarksville, tennessee.
Thank you for joining us today,amber.
You're welcome.
All right, can you tell me alittle bit about what brings you
here to ISTE?

Speaker 2 (00:37):
So I actually am here with my admin team, so my
principal and my two assistantprincipals are with me and I was
invited to tag along.
So I'm here to learn a lot ofnew things.

Speaker 1 (00:48):
That's great.
And how long have you been aninstructional coach?
This?
I just completed my first year.
Oh, wow, okay.
And were you teaching for fireprior?

Speaker 3 (00:57):
to that.
Thank you for watchingSpotlight for Success.
I am Devin Pintozzi, chiefOperating Officer of American
Book Company.
We are located here in ourheadquarters in Woodstock,
georgia.
All of our materials areprinted in USA.
We have course books, e-booksand online testing in grades

(01:19):
K-12 in mathematics, ela,science and social studies.
These materials are alldesigned to help students
achieve higher scores on theirstate-specific high-stakes
assessments.
We guarantee score improvement.
You can get free samples of ourmaterials either in print or in

(01:41):
electronic formats atabck12.com.
We look forward to hearing fromyou.

Speaker 2 (01:49):
Yes, I was teaching for 11 years prior to that.

Speaker 1 (01:51):
Oh, wow.
And what kind of subjects wereyou teaching?

Speaker 2 (01:55):
I taught fourth grade , ela and math for two years.
I taught second grade, I taughtkindergarten for a year and I
taught first grade for all theother years.
Oh wow.

Speaker 1 (02:04):
Okay, you're working with all the other years.
Oh, wow, okay, you're workingwith the babies.
Yes, oh, that's awesome.
Do you have any special momentsin the classroom?
You're like, that's why I gotinto teaching.

Speaker 2 (02:12):
I mean, it's really just at the beginning of the
year when those first gradebabies came and they couldn't
read really anything, and thenat the end of the year they'd
say, mr Silvio, I could readthat by myself.
And that, right, there was it.
Just them being that confidence.

Speaker 1 (02:27):
That's so awesome, and, amber, tell me a bit about
what you're hoping to get out ofyour experience here at ISTE.

Speaker 2 (02:34):
I mean, I'm just excited to learn new things and
learn how I can do new thingswith my role as a coach now and
not being in the classroom butas a coach, apply these things
to them.

Speaker 1 (02:44):
Okay, wonderful.
Do you have anything you'd liketo share with the ISTE ASCD
community?

Speaker 2 (02:50):
I'm just excited to be here and learn all the new
things, and it's been great sofar.

Speaker 1 (02:55):
Okay, that's awesome.
Once again, thank you forjoining us.
Amber DeSilvio NortheastElementary School, clarksville,
tennessee.
Thank you, thank you, thank you.