ChangED
ChangED is an educator based podcast for Pennsylvania teachers to learn more about the PA STEELS Standards and science in general. It is hosted by Andrew Kuhn and Patrice Semicek.
ChangED
How a District Podcast Transformed Teacher Engagement and Professional Growth
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Have you ever wondered if there might be a better way to deliver professional learning than the traditional sit-and-get workshop model? The team from Whitehall Coplay School District wondered the same thing—and their solution has transformed how their teachers engage with professional development.
When Dave Stauffer, Andy Fehnel, and Tony Pangaio sat down to brainstorm new professional learning options for their teachers, they landed on a simple yet revolutionary idea: create a district podcast. Their "10 Minutes or So" podcast (originally planned to be under ten minutes, though they admit they typically run slightly longer) allows teachers to earn professional development credit while commuting, cooking dinner, or going about their daily routines.
What makes this approach particularly powerful is the authentic connection it creates throughout the district. Teachers who might never approach the technology team in person now strike up conversations in hallways and faculty rooms, referencing podcast episodes they enjoyed. These casual interactions often lead to deeper coaching relationships and classroom implementation support. As one team member shared, "Teachers that were walking through buildings... immediately just struck up a podcast conversation. I listened to you last night when I was cooking dinner and it was about X, Y, and Z."
The format is simple but effective. Topics emerge organically from classroom observations, teacher feedback, and current educational trends. The team records in a single take without restarts or heavy editing, creating an authentic experience that resonates with their audience.
Perhaps most importantly, this approach respects teachers as professional learners with different needs and preferences. Rather than mandating a one-size-fits-all model, the district offers multiple pathways for professional growth. If a podcast topic doesn't resonate with a particular teacher, they've only invested ten minutes before moving on to something more relevant to their practice.
Ready to reimagine professional learning in your own context? Consider how micro-learning through podcasting might help you meet your educators where they are while building community and sharing valuable insights. What could your version of "10 Minutes or So" look like?
Want to learn more about ChangED? Check out our website at: learn.mciu.org/changed
You sound great.
Speaker 2:Okay, that's great.
Speaker 1:Andrew is just being fancy. I could move mine over, but I'm going to let Andrew just be fancy today.
Speaker 3:Do I need to move?
Speaker 4:it over.
Speaker 3:You make it. It's all about the appearance.
Speaker 4:Smoking mirrors. I told you, we're all very aware.
Speaker 3:This thing's not even hooked up. I'm just talking about my kids' toys, I took it. My kids' toys, I took it. Welcome back to Change Ed.
Speaker 1:Change Ed. Oh, we said it at the same time, sorry, say it again. Sorry, tony Changed.
Speaker 3:Change, Ed. That's what happens when we're virtual. The number one rated podcast, although I feel like our guests today want to challenge that In all of Pennsylvania except for Whitehall Copley.
Speaker 4:Except for.
Speaker 3:Whitehall Copley, because they have a number one rated podcast there. Copley, I hate that name, except for Whitehall Copley, because I feel like they have a number one rated podcast there as well, and they're here to challenge us today. Challenge accepted. I'm Andrew Kuhn, your favorite host on your favorite podcast, and you know what. Honestly, I'm just a person who loves education and loves learning. I'm a lifelong learner, and here with me is I'm Dave Stauffer, once again from Whitehall-Copley School District.
Speaker 2:I'm the supervisor of teaching, learning and technology.
Speaker 4:I'm Andy Fainel, one of the K-12 instructional technology specialists, former social studies teacher here in the district as well. Please don't leave out your other title, and I am the current district ambassador of Whitehall-Copley as well.
Speaker 3:We're going to unpack that in a little bit, All right that's fine.
Speaker 5:I'm tony pangayo and I don't have cool fancy titles like these other guys. I'm just a guy who loves florida and is a tech coach and coming along for the ride yes, tony florida is back here's what I don't get about this podcast and we really are going to start.
Speaker 3:How do we always end up talking about florida every podcast?
Speaker 1:because people are like why did you do that? Mickey's amazing. And then you talk about it for four seconds and you're like oh, okay, yeah, I mean.
Speaker 4:And now you're apparently attracting people who are forced to talk about florida every day as well, because tony ties it into everything. So you know it's sweet he did.
Speaker 3:We did a podcast with trevor muir. Have you you all familiar with trevor muir?
Speaker 1:he's learning.
Speaker 3:Yeah, he's big on project-based learning and storylines and you know a lot of things. And an international person, down-to-earth guy, great, great person talk to at the end of it. These he's from florida. They got onto the florida kick and it was like I wasn't even in the space, right? They're talking about alligators and wrestling them and throwing marshmallows, like like. They were both rehashing their childhood in front of me uh, I'm Patrice Simatek.
Speaker 1:I'm out of the Montgomery County intermediate unit and I'm having a hard time taking Coon seriously with his statement about how he's just a guy who loves whatever you said I. I zoned out.
Speaker 6:That was long but that was a lot of fluff, yeah.
Speaker 1:He's just a guy. Anyone who's met Kuhn knows he's not just a guy.
Speaker 6:And I'm Tony Maravito from Carbon Lehigh Intermediate Unit, very excited to talk to Whitehall Copley School District, today home of Saquon Barkley. Some people say Saquon would not be the man he is today without these three gentlemen that are joining us. So very, very excited.
Speaker 2:Listen that, that that backwards hurdle, that I taught him that we. We worked on that 10 years ago.
Speaker 6:Dave showed him how to do it in Tecmo. Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 1:Is there? Is there video of that happening? Cause I, I personally, would pay solid money to see you do that backwards thing.
Speaker 2:No, no, no video. You just got to take me at my word.
Speaker 4:Okay, okay To be fair, patrice, I would pay a lot of money as well.
Speaker 3:Well, as if it's not confusing enough to have a podcast with two podcasting groups, we also decided that we would make the names all very similar, so there was a very easy. So if someone says Andrew, fortunately enough our guest goes by Andy. So that's pretty easy. But we have a Tony and a Tony.
Speaker 6:They both have beards though. Yeah, I show respect to Mr Pangayo, I would say, and Mr District Administrator, ambassador, and Mr Stopper, that's how I will, okay, okay, well, listen this is a really I'm yep, I'm just Andrew.
Speaker 3:Yep, I'm the Andrew. So this is a really unique podcast because the topic that we're going to talk about is very near and dear to us as podcasters, especially at ChangeEd. This is how ChangeEd started and was created and the reason that we continue to podcast, and that is micro-learning and micro-, micro professional learning and development and what that looks like on all sorts of levels. So, for us at ChangeEd, we all work for intermediate units, so our job is to support educators in their work, and so we take it from that lens. However, your podcast, which I'd love for you to tell us more about, is focused on a district level, and I'm working in and supporting your district level, so maybe a great starting spot would be. Can you tell us about your podcast, maybe a little bit of background about it, and then, really, what is the focus and intent of your podcast?
Speaker 2:Yeah. So why don't we start with the origin? So at Whitehall Copley we really pride ourselves in giving our teachers or I should say our staff members a lot of choice in their professional learning, and we offer everything from synchronous learning to asynchronous learning, to in-person learning classes. We really try to meet them where they're at and provide that choice. So we sat down at the beginning of the year, andy, tony and myself. As we always do, we sit down in August we review what we're doing and we have a conversation about how we could do things better and what else we could offer, and at that point Andy had a great idea.
Speaker 4:Andy, if you want to start filling in, One thing that we had kind of knocked around was the idea of a podcast. So at the beginning of the year, when we had that conversation about what to do, it simply was what about a podcast? What would that look like? Is that something that we could actually pull off? I think it kind of went around the room between the three of us for about a week or two back and forth yeah, we can do it. No, I'm not sure if it's going to work. There were some logistical things that we had to work through, especially from the standpoint of credit and what our teachers would get and how it would work. But ultimately we decided that it was worth the effort and that we'd give it a shot. Once we kind of started the ball rolling, it just kind of took off.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So I think the credit piece is really important to mention. So our teachers they do have required professional learning hours outside of their contractual day. For next year they'll have to put in 20 additional hours. So when we talked about varied options in professional learning, whether it's synchronous, asynchronous classes or in-person classes by attending or completing those activities they do earn credit. So when we first started talking about the podcast, we weren't even necessarily talking about it for professional learning and professional learning credit. We were just talking about putting out a podcast, sitting down, having some conversation and using it as a great way to disseminate information to our staff members. And Tony Pangayo, if you want to hop in, he really drove the conversation of. Is there a better way that we can entice listeners?
Speaker 5:Yeah, to be honest, I just didn't think anybody would listen to us.
Speaker 6:That's how I feel about Andrew, but go ahead. Sorry, John.
Speaker 5:Andy and I have been in this district for a while I've been in the longest so we have valuable information that we feel teachers can learn from and they listen to us as we walk around. But I still didn't think out a reflection form and give us their thoughts and I felt like that piece was important for a couple of reasons A, to give them credit so they had some value in it. But B, it allows us to follow up with them and it gives us a secret into their class. As tech coaches it's always hard to get into classes. Sometimes Some teachers are resistant. They don't know what that looks like, the co-planning, et cetera. Dave actually goes through their feedback the most and then shares it with us and says, hey, can you check on this teacher, can you check on that teacher about something we talked about in our podcast? And it gives us that built-in connection. So I think those two things are really important that drive, that popularity of what we do.
Speaker 1:That's interesting. So I'm interested in how are you tracking that Like, are they filling out a form after they watch and that's giving them credit for the amount of time they listen?
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely, I could talk through the nuts and bolts of it. We have a system called Frontline that we use for tracking hours, so I created a form on Frontline. It's a very basic reflection form. It's used for all podcast episodes. It has three questions. They're very open-ended questions where they reflect on the episode. So once they fill out the form, it comes to me for approval and I of course, read through every form and once I hit approve that okay, this form looks good then it automatically credits them a half hour into their account. So having Frontline for us really is very helpful in this situation.
Speaker 3:I love it, thanks. What I like about that component is you've added in a piece of accountability. So if someone can't say, oh yeah, I listened to it right, or I listened and they heard the beginning, and they're like, oh, it's great that you talked about X and they actually don't have any content. We feel very fortunate that we have a number of listeners that we talk to and they'll they'll go into depth about it. Actually, one of them was a guest on our show and they'll be like oh man, when you said this and they react you can tell they're a listener. So they say you know they can like talk about the show and actually what's happening.
Speaker 3:But the piece that I wanted to jump on that you were talking about earlier is that it's such an amazing window and relationship that you can create with your listeners. You know we feel a commitment to them. But also we even had scenarios where someone came in, for it was a student event that we were running at our intermediate unit and they came in. We never met them. They walked into the room. They're like are you, andrew and Patrice?
Speaker 6:Like when I heard you guys talk. I heard your voice.
Speaker 3:I'm like I barely said anything, but like just you connect right, like when you hear that a lot or you hear someone's voice that they can connect. So you know, have you seen an impact in your relationship with your educators that you work with at the school?
Speaker 5:as a result of the podcast? Oh, absolutely. You know teachers that were walking through buildings and just the other day I was in you know, like a faculty room and somebody heard me talking, walked in and immediately just struck up a podcast conversation. I listened to you last night when I was cooking dinner and it was about X, y and Z and then for about five minutes we bounced some ideas back and forth about that podcast where I think if the podcast wasn't there, I'm not sure that teacher would have the confidence to connect in that way. It was that avenue that allowed her to come in and feel comfortable to strike up a conversation with me and off we went.
Speaker 4:Yeah, I would say one of the biggest things about the podcast has been just the feedback that we get from people constantly. Yes, there's definitely people we connect with on a regular basis and there are, like Tony said, there are those people that we're in a district with 380 plus teachers. You just don't connect with everybody on a regular basis. But to be able to get into buildings and walk past people, walk past classrooms, see people even outside in the community, and the first thing they say to you is like hey, I just want to thank you for the podcast. It's so easy for me to listen to it in the car, on the way in, on the car on the way home.
Speaker 4:One of the things that we really came to the conclusion early on, as we were recording the first few episodes, was we needed to keep it super authentic and it needed to be us and in our bubble. Of the three of us, dave is the serious one. Dave is the guy who keeps us on track, dave keeps us organized, dave drives where we're headed and Tony and I are just like the class clowns at times, and so it was really important for us to make sure that Dave kept his organization and that things went the way they did, but that Tony and I got an opportunity to kind of joke around a little bit, goof around a little bit and show that personality that we have, and I think that's really resonated with people and that builds on what he was talking about, that authenticity of what we're saying and how we're saying it, and it's not coming across as an edict or you know, do this, do that.
Speaker 2:It really is a conversation and it's something that they can engage in just by listening. When we started we were trying to think of a title and we wanted to keep it a short podcast. We didn't want to go on and on for a half hour or an hour, so we settled on the title 10 minutes or Less. So the first couple episodes we called it the 10 Minutes or Less podcast. And what's really funny is after a few episodes we realized 10 Minutes or Less wasn't necessarily realistic for us. We were coming in around 11 or 12 minutes. So the 10 Minutes or Less podcast became the 10 Minutes or so podcast, which it is now called 10 minutes or so. But it is exactly that, as as Andy said.
Speaker 2:So I do serve as the host of the podcast and Andy and Tony they sit with me. Occasionally We've had some guests in, but honestly it's a very organic conversation. So in my planning of course I have a topic for the day and I have a couple of guiding questions and we really just sit down and we have a conversation and when people ask me when I'm walking around the halls about our podcast, they can't believe when I tell them that we've never restarted an episode, so we've never started, and said, this isn't working right. We always sit down, we record in one take and just let it happen. If we misspeak, if something goes wrong, we laugh about it, we make fun of each other and then we just move on. So it's sitting down and if it's a 12 minute podcast, it takes us 12 minutes to record.
Speaker 2:So it is an internal podcast. We don't release it on Apple podcasts or any of the major platforms. What I do with it is I take it and I upload to our Google Drive and then I just protect it within our Whitehall Copley domain. So currently it's only available to our staff members. I've created a 10 minutes or so website where all those episodes live. Each episode gets its own page where I have a breakdown, minute by minute, of what we're talking about, and I also put in some supporting resources as well. So those episodes are always there for our staff members to go and grab and listen to. When we do a release of a new episode, andy shoots it out, we have a description and sends it to the entire district that, hey, check out the new episode of the 10 minutes or so podcast.
Speaker 3:As we travel and go to different conferences. People are talking about podcasts because it's a great medium to connect with others. For all the reasons that we've explained and shared, and more, I think the one that is the strongest for me is that it opens doors for communications. So Tony had shared that he was having a conversation with a teacher where otherwise you might have both been in that space and that conversation just wouldn't have happened. So you had thoughts on the topic, they had thoughts on the topic, so it creates a scenario where you can have that conversation and that's always our desire for this as well. But the part that I love so much about this is that you're doing it at a district level, because whenever we go somewhere, they're talking about doing it teachers doing it with students and they're doing it in a classroom level, which is hugely important. I mean, the impacts are all the same. They're creating an environment for that conversation. It happens at whatever level you're focusing on, but the strength in this and I think other district leaders are going to be very interested in something like this and even replicating and modeling this is because, again, you can reach your intended audience differently, so you can connect with your district, no matter the size, how big or how small. It's all math. If it's smaller, you have less staff to support. If it's larger, you have more staff. And in all ways, communication is king in what we're doing.
Speaker 3:And the other thing I really appreciate is how you talked about that authenticity, because I know my kids want to be something famous, whether it's YouTube or any of the talks or the ticks or the, you know, whatever it might be and they're like what can I do? And actually what I challenge them don't try to go for something that's already out there and look for the next thing. Like, be you and look for the next thing. Don't try to duplicate and replicate what someone's already doing. Try to be you know, whatever that next thing is. And interestingly enough, I can see a lot of similarities in the podcast and the dynamics and how it works, and yet there are significant differences. But we're all being authentic and I think that's what relates to other people that we're just actually being who we are, not trying to be someone different.
Speaker 2:And Andrew, just to chime in here. I'm glad you brought up authenticity and I'll let the guys chime in as well. There's definitely an evolution if you would listen to our episodes. So we're 20 episodes. In the first couple episodes we are, I would say, a lot more serious than we are. We realized pretty quickly was we have to be ourselves right, we have to have fun doing it. That's what we want, that's what our listeners want, and there is definitely more and more fun. That goes on as the episodes go on. What we started doing, I want to say, around episode four or five, we open up every single conversation with an icebreaker, and that icebreaker generally has nothing to do with education. Well, tony, andy, what's a couple of examples of an icebreaker?
Speaker 5:Favorite restaurant Favorite, or what super super powered would you want?
Speaker 4:Oh yeah, favorite superpower, yeah yeah, that was a good one.
Speaker 2:What was your favorite cartoon growing up? What was your favorite television show? I've found that that's such a great way to kick off the podcast Minute icebreaker, minute, minute and a half of laughing and talking a little bit of nonsense. From that icebreaker we go into a tip of the day, so one of the three of us will share a tip of the day. So it'll be just a one minute quick hitter tip of something that we think our listener will find really helpful and then from there we go into our main topic of conversation.
Speaker 1:I really like how you guys are also having conversations around giving teachers some autonomy in their choices of professional learning. So the fact that Mirabito and Kuhn and I are all in professional learning the thing that we do all day is professional learning but we were finding that the more people can choose to come to something, the more engaged they're going to be. Naturally, and a lot of districts that we work with have very scripted days Like we're talking about this this day and this this day and this this day. We have no time for anything else, especially with the diminishing of time that people have in terms of professional learning in most of the teachers' contracts. So how did you guys as a district and I don't know if any of you were involved in that part, but how did you guys as a district make the decision to give them 20 hours of their own learning time and then managing what does that look like and expectations for that?
Speaker 2:I think a lot of people should be hearing that. Yeah, so that's been a contractual evolution over the years. Oh, I'm sure. Yeah, so certainly. For quite some time they had a five-hour requirement. It was five hours outside of their normal contract, and what we instituted a few years ago were trade days.
Speaker 2:So they had five hours of required time and then they had three days that they could trade out of. So you can choose to come to work and we would have professional learning on that day, or you can earn five hours, and those five hours would then get you out of that trade day, right? So that's how we evolved from that five hours that was here from the time that I arrived here at the district 12 or so years ago, and that five hours then evolved into that 20 through that process.
Speaker 4:So Tony and I have been in our roles for about four years now. Previously it was Dave by himself. Once we went from a department of one to a department of three, one of our first conversations together was how do we expand the professional development options that are available to our staff? And it tied in kind of nicely with the end of COVID and all of this asynchronous options that we had to present and we had to create through that time period. So obviously the first thought was well, we can present asynchronous classes for our staff. And from there it just kept rolling.
Speaker 4:Dave said earlier every year it's a conversation. What can we do? How are we meeting them? Are things working? Are they not working? How can we evolve? How can we change? As a district, over the last four years really made a concerted effort to go to a choice PD model to give our staff an opportunity even on those days where we're in person for professional development, taking a half a day and having two sessions in the morning or two sessions in the afternoon, where staff have multiple opportunities to go to different sessions and learn based on what is appropriate for them and what they feel is going to benefit them the most. And so it's really given us, as creators, an opportunity to allow others to create, allow other voices to be raised, and allowed that authenticity level of everything we do professional development wise within the district. It's increased it, you know, and it's given everybody a buy in and some shared responsibility for what we're trying to do.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I think there's a human element to it as well, when you're talking about doing hours outside of your normal workday. We certainly realize that everybody has a life outside of here. We have staff members with young kids and other responsibilities, and if we were only offering courses that occurred in person after school, that could be a significant burden to many of our staff members. Now we have a lot of staff members that prefer learning in that method, others that that is not necessarily an option for them, and to provide them with options, yes, we have asynchronous courses where, if they like to go home and sit in front of a computer and watch a video, that's available. But the podcast is just an enhancement of that you can be on your commute to work in the morning. You could earn professional learning credit by listening to our podcast. You know, I would say that's what our staff members have loved the most and we hear that over and over. You know, hey, I was listening to you on the way to work today. It's so convenient. This is so great.
Speaker 6:I have a creative process question for you. So how do you choose your topics? Are you getting some teacher input? Is that something that you're doing month by month? You want to cover certain ideas, and then, how often are you releasing your pod?
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's a little bit of everything. So we do take input from our staff members, from our administrative team, and part of it is just us sitting down and brainstorming. What conversations have we heard over the past week or two or month? What's a hot button topping in education? We've done a bunch of episodes on AI, which, of course, is pretty much in every conversation of the past two or three years.
Speaker 5:I'll add to that too, kind of ties into everybody's points here. I've been in the district. I started my teaching career here 26 some years ago and he's been in a dozen years. So it adds to that authenticity, that realness that we lived kind of both sides of the fence. So we've been through the PD that we just sit there and we wanted to change that when we came into this role. Andy and I are in and out of classrooms. So the topics, tony, for you, we see what's going on. We know those teachers from being colleagues with them years ago and now in our roles currently. So we have a not the best pulse, but a pretty good pulse of what's going on. So we know what they want to hear, we know what they want us to talk about and we know and understand their struggles with certain things. We understand their strengths. So that helps us kind of piece all of that together and hopefully deliver something that's worth it to them.
Speaker 6:Yeah, I love that. I would be interested into seeing some of the data, like what are your most downloaded topics, like what are teachers most interested in and kind of grow from there.
Speaker 3:One of the other benefits of this media or any media thinking outside the box, as you all are doing when it comes to professional learning is that access is always an issue. So if something comes up on the day of an in-person training and I can't be there, I just don't get that training. Someone can share their slides with me, but if I didn't create the slides, I might have a hard time interpreting them. Certainly, with the way that we do slides, they're mainly pictures. So you know, although a picture is worth a thousand words, I might not be able to get all the words that you were intending for me to pick up from that slide.
Speaker 3:And what's great about this medium is, as you were saying, dave, that you could be in any part of your life and just say hey, you know what I'm going to think about this. It allows you to reflect as a human and as a professional and make the connections you want to versus with all day trainings. You're drinking from a fire hose and there's probably a lot of good nuggets, but you have to pick out what nugget you want to latch onto and what's the one thing you think of when you leave after a four hour session on something versus 10 minutes or so, to reference what you talked about, tony where then the reflection had happened and a teacher wanted to engage in further dialogue. And then you're stretching each other, you're learning as you do it, which I think is the biggest benefit for us.
Speaker 3:We'd love to sit down and talk to people and ask them the questions that I want to ask them when I hear them presenting or sharing or talking. Let me really ask you more in-depth questions. I really want to understand this topic, so that love for learning, I think, is important. I'm going to offer you all a gift, and Tony can say that this is a special. For what? Hall Copley, copley.
Speaker 1:Copley. No, you can do it, copley. You got all excited about your pronunciation.
Speaker 3:Copley.
Speaker 2:Copley yeah, that is the worst, worst trick you all.
Speaker 3:Anyway, the place that you work, it's a special tree for the place that you work. We're going to give you the oh man, the second, the third and the fourth final thought. Give you each an opportunity to kind of give a final thought when it comes to professional learning, the podcast, what you've been experiencing, what you've learned, what you're getting from other people. For our hundreds of millions of listeners that you know, this is the takeaway that they would want.
Speaker 5:I'll go first For listeners that you know this is the takeaway that they would want. I'll go first For me. When I took this job, it was meeting teachers and meeting their needs and remembering what it was like or what it is like to be in the classroom. I like the short bits. I like the fact that they can get a taste of something and, if they like it, they can follow up with us. And now a 10 minutes or so professional development could turn into an hour or so, with me or Andy working with them. Or if they take what we are talking about and it's not applicable to them, they can throw it to the side and say, hey, that was 10 minutes and they can go off and do something important to them. So that's what I love the most.
Speaker 4:I'll jump in next. My biggest takeaway is it's the challenge of trying something new. I think back to when I first got into education and I first took on that challenge of presenting in front of my colleagues or presenting in front of other people and getting over that fear of people are going to look at you and think like, why are you telling me this? You've only been teaching for a year, two years, three years, whatever it is. And I think when we took this on, I know Tony and I both had that hesitancy to go like are people really going to listen to us? Do we have enough understanding, information, value to what we're trying to do here for other people to listen, take something from it and then hopefully utilize it or pass it along.
Speaker 4:And I'll give Dave credit for this. He stalwart through the entire creation process was, like you guys know, understand and have more value than you give yourselves credit for. And the more we talk about these things, the more we get it out there, the more people are going to listen and the more people are going to really take away things from it. And I think it was his positivity and if you know Dave, dave is one of the most positive people you will ever meet in your life. So I think that positivity on top of the fact that Tony and I realized we do have a lot of value, we have a lot of knowledge, we have a lot we can share with people, and it's not that difficult for Dave to simply say here's what we're talking about. Okay, here we go For us to sit there and find enough information and enough things to say to make it worthwhile for our listeners.
Speaker 2:Yeah, for me, my biggest takeaway is the power and popularity of the podcasting medium. Honestly, when Andy first brought it up, I was a bit of a naysayer as well Me and Tony. I wasn't so sure that anybody was going to listen and I hadn't considered how popular podcasts are and how many people in our district listen to podcasts on a daily basis. You know, sometimes you just get stuck in your ways. Yes, we try to innovate constantly, but you think about the old ways of sending out information, you know, sending emails or putting newsletters together and, honestly, I had thought about podcasting over the years but hadn't truly considered it as something that would be successful within our district, and I'm astounded every single day on the popularity and the traction of the 10 minutes or so podcast.
Speaker 3:When it comes to voice and choice. That's something that our students all students have figured out by the way that they live their lives and the options that they have available. For instance, when they watch YouTube and they have shorts now they can keep on moving if they're not interested, or they can watch that second play and be like that was really good. I want to learn more, but the shorts are limited to how long they are and it's only so much time and you got to get your point across and it removes a lot of the fluff. It takes a lot out and you're like let's get to the heart of the conversation. Let's really. What is our, what is our listener looking for? What do they want? Which leads me to the fact that this is a community. Podcasting is a broader community, but then your audience becomes more than an audience of listeners. It really becomes. You know, when we sit down and we plan and we think about what we're going to do, or even when we edit, we have that in mind. What do they want to actually hear? Because we can't put in everything. We've had a 40 minute conversation at this point and we have to narrow things down, so what do they want to hear from us that will add value to them and the work that they're doing.
Speaker 3:Well, I have. I have two other things. Number one I just got to throw this out. Andy, I could tell you were an idea guy from the beginning. I think it's in the name. That's what I think it is. It's all in the name. Our parents knew we were going to be idea people and they just gave us these really strong names.
Speaker 4:There's a reason. There's a reason the kingliness comes from that Andrew name. Oh no.
Speaker 3:I'm so glad somebody else said it, not me. Thank you, sir.
Speaker 1:I mean, I swear, if your Andrew is anything like our Andrew, I'm sorry.
Speaker 3:But the last thing, and actually the most important thing that I want to talk about is something that's so important to us in education, yet we don't always know how to capture that. And when you're talking in terms of professional learning, how do we gather data? How do we know if someone's interested in what we're talking about? You know when we're done at the end of a full day, you know we'll put out surveys and we'll get them back, and you know it depends on how it works and what information they'll give us. But we actually have our own barometers that we figured out that are more qualitative, not quantitative, but when you're a podcaster, you can gather so much data and it's like I'm so excited about data. We've recently moved into this realm where we can tell when people are binge listening to our podcast. You just see all the numbers go. We get so excited about that. But there's so many things to celebrate when you're doing this work. Again, because we said, we're lifelong learners, we get excited about guests that we have. We also get excited about when an episode explodes or when, like we said, someone's been listening to us or we get these opportunities to start work with people who we might never have had the opportunity to do that. So it does open doors, like we said before, not just for communication, but for learning and for gathering information and saying is this working, is it not working? Here's how we know that it is or isn't, or it's growing or it's not growing. What do we need? We can analyze and we can talk about things and we can make shifts.
Speaker 3:So I applaud your work and I applaud what you're doing. It sounds like you've got the right formula to be the second best podcast in Pennsylvania. We appreciate you coming on and again doing that work within your district. I think these conversations are needed and authenticity is something that we need all the time across the board. So, with that in mind, we're going to say thank you, whitehall Copley. Yeah, just took an hour for coming on the time across the board. So, with that in mind, we're going to say thank you, whitehall Copley. Yeah, just took an hour for coming on the show.
Speaker 3:We challenge Whitehall, wherever you are in Pittsburgh, to come on the show and talk to us about something, so we can be an equal representation for all the Whitehalls in Pennsylvania, for all of our listeners. Thank you for tuning in, as always, for sharing your input. Please keep sending that feedback. We want to hear from you as well. We want to make sure that this show continues to be relevant and meaningful to you and make sure that you like and follow the number one rated podcast in all of Pennsylvania. Change it and tell me again. It's Whitehall. I want to say the name, right?
Speaker 2:It's Whitehall Copley Copley. Yeah, c-o-p-l-a-y spelled like Copley, but it's Copley Copley.
Speaker 3:I am so glad you said that.
Speaker 4:Yeah, that's okay, it's Dutch, it's Pennsylvania Dutch pronunciations it's backwards, it's fine.
Speaker 3:I love that being in Pennsylvania, especially when phonics is an issue.
Speaker 2:It's like oh, I didn't know that it's uh south of pittsburgh they don't.
Speaker 3:They don't even listen to us, so we won't even mention them I mean, maybe if we tag them they might.
Speaker 1:There you go.