Leading Through Educational Technology

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Educational leadership can feel like a mystery from the outside, so we wanted to make it concrete. We talk with Jessica, a vice president in a statewide education technology organization, about what her role looks like day to day, what she’s learning on the board, and how she’ll step into the president role next. Along the way, we get into why consistent communication like newsletters matters for keeping schools informed about edtech trends and what’s changing across a state.

Website: spotlight4success.com

Episode Transcript

SPEAKER_01 (00:06):
Welcome to Spotlight for Success by American Book
Company.
I'm your host, Derek Pintozi,and our co-host today is
Danielle Pintozi, and we're herewith our special guest, the vice
president of Cast uh Jessica.
So we're so thankful to have youon here today.
So can you tell me a little bitabout your position as a vice
president?

SPEAKER_02 (00:24):
So as vice president, I am um well I'm
learning a lot this year abouthow this works.
I've been on the board for aboutfive years now, and next year I
will roll over to be thepresident.
Um and so I will kind of um bethe contact person um for our
conference.
Um we send out like a monthlynewsletter type thing to let

(00:47):
just to keep people um informedabout what's going on
technology-wise throughout thestate and different things like
that.
How did you get started in umeducation?
Oh um, that was a long time ago.
Um well when I was in college, Ifirst was an accounting major um

(01:08):
and then decided that was notfor me.

SPEAKER_00 (01:12):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 (01:12):
Tell me about it.
So um I do I do still enjoy likemath and accounting and things,
um, but it it was not.
I I liked being around kids andyou know teenagers, and it was
it was uh definitely the rightchoice for me to become an
educator.

SPEAKER_01 (01:30):
So what's your favorite part about like what
you do here at PAST?

SPEAKER_02 (01:35):
Probably like um learning new things and taking
those back to our district, butreally probably the networking,
um, getting to know otherpeople, other vendors, like
what's out there, um, exposingme to new ideas that I can then
take back to my district.
And what would you say successlooks like in your school

(01:57):
district?
That's some hard questions.
Um just kids graduating that areliterate and going out into
either school or call it orcollege or um um the workforce.
Uh we have a huge workforce uhpart in our district um where

(02:20):
all almost all of our seniorshave a um a PVE, which is a um
oh my gosh, I lost my words.

SPEAKER_01 (02:30):
We're good, we're good.

SPEAKER_02 (02:31):
The um what is it called?
Uh professional-based learning.
So it's a PVE.
Um so like currently the juniorsare trying to find like a place
for them next year, like a jobfor them their senior year.
So almost all of our seniors inour district do that.

SPEAKER_01 (02:47):
Okay, great.
So I think that's a great uhdefinition of success.
What what changes or like newideas do you have for when you
become a president?

SPEAKER_02 (02:57):
Um one of the things that I think um actually was
spawned by one of our attendees.
Um she was like, I would like tovolunteer.
Is there a volunteer way that Ishe didn't want to be like an
elected position?
Um, so I think like having hercome up, like she didn't even

(03:17):
know that I was gonna bepresident next year, she was
just asking, hey, how can I helpwith this?
Um so maybe maybe creating avolunteer board that will help,
um, or a volunteer group that'snot necessarily the executive
board of the of the conference.

SPEAKER_00 (03:34):
And to close this out, is there any advice um you
could give to other educatorsand leaders?

SPEAKER_02 (03:41):
Um just get involved, which is what I tell
my students.
Like the more you're involved,the more you're gonna learn, the
more you're gonna love what youdo.
Um I know I was exposed to thisto CAST when it was Kissy, um,
because I had a student who umwas an STLP engineer, and then

(04:02):
we came and I was like, this isamazing.
So, and then I became a part ofthis about in 21, 2021.
So it's just be involved.

SPEAKER_01 (04:12):
Well Jessica, it's been an honor to have you here
on our podcast.
Hope you have a great day, anduntil next time.