EdTech Connect with Carrie Conover

Did you know that there are over 14 million teachers on LinkedIn? If you are an educator looking for a new role outside of teaching, it is essential that you have a LinkedIn profile that you can leverage to network and showcase your talents.  Today, I’m going to walk you through the essentials of building a LinkedIn profile for a teacher thinking about transitioning from the classroom to a role in the ed-tech field.

Learn more about the Classroom to Boardroom course at classroomtoboardroom.net

Follow Carrie on LinkedIn at www.linkedin.com/in/carrie-conover/

Last week, a LinkedIn post from a teacher (new to the platform) criticized former teachers turned coaches for charging teachers money for their programs. I didn’t respond to the post, but it got me thinking that I’ve never really explained why I price Classroom to Boardroom the way I do.

Classroom to Boardroom is a course I built in the Fall of 2020. As the founder of educators 2 educators, I’ve created a network of 38,000 teachers through our online, virtual professional development. So naturally, a segment of those educators has approached me to help them leave the profession of teaching. I couldn’t possibly coach all of these teachers 1:1, so I built Classroom to Boardroom.

Classroom to Boardroom has two components: a self-paced course and a monthly group coaching call. The system takes educators step by step through the transition: the reality of working in ed-tech and how businesses are structured and run.

Next, I take my students on a deep dive into the roles of marketing, sales, customer success, professional development, and learning design. Finally, I spend hours with our students in our monthly coaching calls answering questions and looking at resumes. We also invite special guests speakers from various education companies.

So why do I charge $590 for this course?

Quality over Quantity

I don’t want 2,000 people in my course at one time.

I could charge $99 so that everyone could afford the course and participate in Classroom to Boardroom.

However, if I made that choice, Classroom to Boardroom would become an assembly line. I’d have thousands of teachers enroll to take the course, and I’d never truly get to know them.

And they most likely would not land quality roles in ed-tech because they would have a very surface-level relationship with the course and me.

By pricing the program where I do, educators have to make a thoughtful investment in themselves and be serious about the transition. Then, they will do the work.

What does that mean?

They actually complete the course.

They attend the group coaching calls.

They engage with me on LinkedIn.

They are invested.

When they do this work, and I get to know them;

I can confidently refer them to the companies that reach out to me with exciting roles to fill.

I can give them honest (and sometimes hard to hear) feedback that propels them forward.

My reputation for a person who gets results stays intact.

Bottom line, I don’t want to run a teacher transition factory line. Instead, I want to run a meaningful program that helps invested members land a high-quality role at their favorite company.

Are you interested in joining Classroom to Boardroom? Learn more at classroomtoboardroom.net.

As Customer Success Manager for Skill Struck, Marjorie Stahl is living out her dream of impacting schools across the country. As a Classroom to Boardroom graduate, she embodies the successful transition that our educators 2 educators course prepares its students to achieve. 

Stahl's current position assisting schools in implementing Skill Struck's comprehensive K-12 coding curriculum is the culmination of 10 years of teaching and a year and a half of intentionally moving away from the classroom and into an ed-tech career.

"Toward the end of my career in teaching, I realized I wanted to have a bigger impact and affect more students than just my 20," she says. 

Stahl's new position allows her to do just that. As Customer Success Manager, she walks with schools throughout the entire process of turning the Skill Struck curriculum into a core part of the educational experience they offer their students. 

From onboarding to ongoing support, Stahl is helping schools transform students' education and lives all over the country, from California to New Jersey, and everywhere in between. 

In addition, Stahl is ensuring that Skill Struck continues to improve its curriculum and its customer support. A quarterly customer advisory board created by Stahl gives customers a voice in how to improve the platform for schools and students alike. 

Stahl's success in the ed tech field, and her countrywide impact on education, began with two contract positions creating curriculum, including a pivotal job with Code VA building a cross-curricular series of lessons that integrated social studies and technology.  

At the same time, Stahl began what turned into a life-changing course: The Classroom to Boardroom course offered by educators 2 educators. Designed to support educators as they move into ed tech, this course provides content, lessons, coaching, and a supportive community to help educators turn their classroom experience into a successful new career. 

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Stahl already had a head start on some of the steps that Classroom to Boardroom recommends educators take to prepare themselves for an ed-tech career, such as taking advantage of any part-time or contract jobs they find that can help them build experience in the ed-tech field. Her contract with Code VA, for example, gave her technology experience that made her a valuable candidate for Skill Struck.

However, Classroom to Boardroom prepared Stahl in other ways, in particular by helping her to understand and evaluate the various ed-tech positions available. This ability made it easier for her to identify the best fit for her skills.

"If you are applying to roles, it is good to know what you are getting into," she says. [Classroom to Boardroom] did a great job explaining each role. When you go through these you can think to yourself 'Is this a good match for my skill set? And from there you can make the best choice for you."

Classroom to Boardroom's links to the ed-tech industry also benefited Stahl by connecting her with the Skill Struck job opening. Job postings and networking connections occur frequently in Classroom to Boardroom, making it easier for students to find the types of jobs they need to transition into the next part of their careers. 

What other skills helped Stahl move from the classroom to her successful position in Customer Success? Soft skills, which Stahl calls essential skills, that she had developed in the classroom. These include abilities such as empathy, communication, problem-solving, flexibility, and decisiveness that all teachers must have to succeed in a classroom. 

"I think there's a lot of similarities between teaching and making that transition into customer success," Stahl says. "You need all your real essential skills from teaching. For me, empathy is the biggest piece and being able to relate to your customers. Teachers, you are already miles and miles ahead."

For making that transition, Stahl highly recommends Classroom to Boardroom because of its ability to take educators, hone those soft skills, prep them for the new skills they will face, and plug them into a community where they can gain support and new job opportunities to make their ed-tech dreams come true. 

"I just think it's great for anyone who really wants a new start in education, someone who wants to have a larger impact or really just make a difference. It really changed my life." 

About educators 2 educators

e2e was developed by Carrie Conover after 20 years of experience in the field of education to create a community of educators that could refresh, inspire, and equip teachers to revitalize their time in the classroom. Today, e2e draws more than 10,000 teachers to its two virtual Reboot events every year and provides more than 150 hours of professional development modules on its website. In addition, e2e provides a free podcast and verified completion certificates for educators who complete certain modules. 

About Classroom to Boardroom

Classroom to Boardroom is a course developed by e2e for teachers who want to move their careers outside the classroom. This course provides a step-by-step plan to help teachers get their first job outside the classroom while providing mentoring, community, tools, lessons, monthly coaching calls, and a job board that makes it easier for students to prep for, identify, and successfully interview for their ideal ed tech job.

Are you thinking about leaving teaching? Sit down with Carrie as she talks through a few things you could do to find happiness in the classroom before you decide to leave. 

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 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 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. 

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! 

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 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! 

Looking for a role in Ed Tech?

In this episode, Carrie talks about the why and how of community in your job search!

www.classroomtoboardroom.net

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.

Teacher to Business Development with John Putman

Learn more about Classroom to Boardroom at www.educators2educators.com/classroom-to-boardroom