Charting the Course: GPS Insights for K-12 to Postsecondary Success

Hello, and welcome to Navigating the Nest from k to Success, your essential guide through the exciting, challenging, and sometimes comically unpredictable world of education. Each episode, we bring together a unique blend of perspectives from school leadership, college guidance, and the unforgettable real life tales from the hallways. Whether you're a parent, an educator, or a student, prepare to gain insights, share a laugh, and confidently chart your course from kindergarten all the way to personal success. It's time to Navigate the Nest. I'm Adam Bush and I'm thrilled to be your host today as we bring together three incredible shows to dive deep into the world of education. We've got from carpool to college, vice principal, on office and control Shift Lead. Today we're tackling the big questions. How do we prepare our students for what's next, how do we build stronger connections between school and home? And what's the administrator's crucial role in all of it? Now, Crew, that sounds like an awful lot. Are we really ready to tackle this challenge today? Oh? Yeah, let's give it a shut. Well, let's start off with just giving a quick glimpse onto what everybody's show is. And if we have some listeners that are crossing over is the point of this show here today, then maybe we'll pick up something else is another show to listen to. So Tracy and Tara, do you mind giving us a little glimpse into Carpool to College? Sure? I will start. I'm Tracy Amideo. I am the founder of Academic Mentoring LLC, and we have a small practice. Tara and I started a podcast about three months ago. Four months ago, Tara, and it was out of necessity because we find that parents of middle school and high school students where we are in New Jersey, we're both public school educators as well, it's our day job, are really lost and anxious and flooded with information, yet underinformed when it comes to college and career planning. We're not just college planning, but we're career planning as well. So we put our talent and heads together and here we are at from Carpool to College. Can only imagine how helpful that podcast would have been if navigating this is a parent just kind of listening to everything that's going on and being a having a platform to ask questions that are like for to real people like yourself. So I appreciate and plaud you doing. I wish I would have heard of this a while ago, though. That's thinking the same thing. I got one kid left before they're heading off to that decision. So yeah, getting a little bit of information for me is just amazing. That is awesome, Lisa, how about you? I'm Lisa Hill and I had the podcast vice Principal on Officed. I've been in education thirty eight years and then I retired twice. The reason I started the podcast one it's a little therapeutic, but the second reason is I don't think the average person and understands how hard education is and all the craziness that happens behind the scenes. So it is a comedy. I do have a disclaimer because I don't want to hurt anybody's feelings. But life is crazy and school is tough. So I do this through humor and tell some stories, but there's also a little nugu and of knowledge that I share to help people understand. Yeah, educators, it takes a lot, a lot to get through the day and educate today's child. I've heard so many educators say that you can't make this up. Right in that book that every one of us could write. And yet I don't know if anybody would actually buy the books. I'm not sure they'd actually believe it. But this stuff actually happens, it does Jim, how about control shift lead, What does that bring to listeners? Well, we try to keep things meaningful and manageable to professionals and the educators and principles out there where we want you to have walk away with every podcast with something they can control. We at least it kind of alluded to this a little bit. You can kind of lose sight of what you can and control and you think that you who are out of control a lot of times. So we want to keep help people keep things in perspective. So what can you control? And then maybe something that will shift your thinking or challenge your thinking to look through a different lens about how do we build capacity maybe or what are those tangible things that we can actually influence but we have to change some of our paradigm or the way we operate and it comes and then also just something meaningful, manageable and tangible of leadership, So that the lead part of that control shift lead is really how do we lean into some of the things that we have to navigate as a principle, but also keep it in perspective about the leadership role of that. So when you take all three of what we just talked about right there, I think this is like the ultimate come together power podcast. I love it and I'm excited about it, and I'm ready to get going. What do we think, crew, are you ready for our first topics? Role? It's role? Okay, Well, let's kick it off with this first critical topic. The world is changing rapidly, and so is the educational landscape. Our students are stepping into a future that looks vastly different from even a decade ago. So let's discuss the evolving landscape of education preparing students for the future. Taren Tracy, Perhaps we can start with some insights from carpool to college. I mean, how are families navigating these shifts. Well, it's interesting because our last podcast episode we just talked about it. It's not really eased yet, but it will be soon. And we came across a infographic from the World Economic Forum in which they put out a plan every two years, a report of up and coming jobs, jobs that are on the way out and what's going on with the workforce. And one of the things that we really found interesting is that no longer are we sending our students off into higher ed saying, well, what do you want to do with your life? What do you want to do? What major would you like to be a part of. Now it's more, well, what skills do you think you'd want to show later in life and what skills do you want to work on in order to prepare for a successful career, successful college, you know, four years at college. And of course we can't not say AI in there, because that's really a huge factor contributing to this major shift. And so how does that trickle down with what Tracy and I are doing. When we're working with the families of students getting ready to prepare for college, we're no longer asking them some of the questions that would have been asked years ago, and we really have to dig deep and try to figure out their skill set and where do they feel confident in certain areas certain skills. So it could be always it's usually always coupled with some sort of technology, but those skills need to be applicable now to not just one major, not just going into education or going into medicine. Now they have to kind of pivot in any way and be ready for that flexibility. So I think Tracy and I were really I feel like we could have done ten episodes on this topic about, you know, how do we prepare our high schoolers and even going it's so far back as middle school to get them ready for this changing landscape. And I feel like it's really just you have to keep your pulse on it, and you have to keep you're you know, just a good focus on everything that is happening on a much more you know. It's not something where you can just Okay, this is what we want to do for the next four years. I have a feeling that students are going to be changing their ideas as they make their way through, even from you year a year in the college setting. So I don't know, Tracey, if you want to add on to that, well for sure. And we're seeing anxious parents as well because they they don't know what they don't know. And the whole crux of our podcast is I think Jimmy was saying this that we don't want parents to ever have to say, oh my gosh, I wish I know then that now, right, So when we talk about and we see that families, especially in our neck of the woods in the Northeast, are outsourcing college planning, and it's it's such a paradox because they have the world that we all do. We have the world at our fingertips. We have too much information to overwhelming. It's too much and what does it all mean? So Tara and I in our in our practice academic mentoring, we really work through that combination of I have a clinical background, So the family, first student, first child, first paradigm versus what does IVY want to see? You don't care, I'm not going to curse, keep this g rated, but what is going to be the path that is going to allow a child to engage and flourish in the world. And we don't we're not soothsayers. We don't know what the world's going to look like. We know it's going to have a heck of a lot more technology, and we need to be prepared to have that technology infuse in every facet that we study, whether it's through college, whether it's through vocational wherever your next steps are. That's what we're seeing over here. Are you finding the parents you work with they're from a different generation where high school's preached everyone's going to college, and that's shifted, And so are you finding that parents just don't understand that their child, they might not their their final job that they're going to retire, might not even exist yet likely doesn't exist yet. Yeah, look at us with our genord gen X, and you know, homeland security was not a major when we right nine eleven was that shift? Similarly, AI and big data and data analytics were not around when we were, so parents only have them, only have that frame of reference. But we know it's a bias as parents. Tara and I both have kids and my two boys in college, and certainly we were not in education. If we weren't doing this, we would only have the gigantic interns and in our own personal experience and that from whatever we hear on the sidelines at baseball, which which is not health. You want to be at counter or counter force to that. It's interesting as you're talking there, just it brought back a memory here. Just a few weeks ago, I was talking with a friend of mine who's got a son that's heading off to play college football there and as a former head football coach. I had many, many, many conversations with players heading off to play college football in the past, and you know, I always reminded them about the fact that this isn't playing a sport anymore. Once you get into the college level, it's about it's a lifestyle, right, you were completely adjusting away life is for you. Well, then, Halsan at Dondamet he used to think I was pretty knowledgeable about this. I could really talk about it. I used to work for a Division one football school. I mean, YadA aadi, YadA, right, I could do all of those things. And then he started asking me about what about NIL, like, oh, yeah, there's that whole new thing. And every single time you think you have it, ENA's quote unquote experts, it just changes. It changes and changes and changes. It's just crazy. It is. Actually the next next Wednesday, I'm meeting with a former student of mine who is an NIL attorney to probably partner. And my concerns are, do families know what they're getting themselves into? Dubs kids know and and btw, last I checked, it's still an education, right, so let's make sure this kid can graduate in four years. It's not the academic scholarship and not be leaving with a loss. So it's so true. What a great topic to add to your show. I mean, if i'm I don't have anybody in that arena, but if I did, that another great reason to listen to you podcast. I'm ry. Well, we're talking a little bit about connections and maybe it's a good time for us to go on to our next topic here. So our next topic is communication and collaboration or bridging the gap between school students and parents. So, Lisa, from your experience with vice principal and office, what are some of the biggest challenges and successes that you've seen in fostering these essential relationships that we're talking about. Well, often parents only remember what high school is like for them, so they can't understand how much education K twelve education has changed, and so their lens is it's a little foggy. But one thing I did when I was doing my research for my PhD, I actually went into the prison system and interviewed former students to say, what can we do differently in K twelve school? What did we miss? You're here, life happens, but what could we do differently? And the themes I found with the students would be to understand students, ask care for them. They need nurturing and the world knows very very fast, and not all parents can do that. They're busy, they're working, you know whatever in life. And so to bridge that gap, I've had to spend a lot of time with parents helping them learn how to parent or how to communicate with their child. And on the same end, I have to help teachers understand how to communicate because they don't take the time to say, oh, I just need to say, hey, how are you doing today and use your name, and then that will help build that solid foundation of culture, because that's what kids need. They need to feel connected. And we could bring the parent in, but if the kids not connected, what doesn't matter. So bridging that gap, it's taking care of people. Most schools are bigger than many small towns and states, and we have a very small group of people trying to run this town. So there's a lot of spinning plates and you're running back and forth. But you have to take that time and keep your thumb on your pulse on where where are we at with the culture, how are kids connecting? Yeah, you can do pot lucks or provide pizza for this or that, feed people all that sort of stuff. But if the child's voice isn't at the table and they don't feel heard, I don't know how we get them connected. And we need to because the whole idea behind K twelve school is to get them ready for that next step. Like Taren Tracy, you're talking about where am I going to go after I graduate from high school? Because I think often high school it's like Yep, here's your diploma, see you, good luck. But there is a bridge over to post secondary life and we have to continually talk about that and help kids understand because in their world they're only thinking about the thirty minutes in the day and what's going to happen after school. They just don't see the ca So I think helping parents and kids with what Tar and Tracy are doing is fantastic. But it comes back to that nurturing and cares because once you have that, and I think they're hooked, they feel safe and they got to feel safe in schools and schools on are always the safe at places right now. What I really like about your podcast is that you take everything what you just said about connecting with kids connecting with parents, and you do it in a lighthearted manner as well, because it's while it's a very serious matter, serious job, serious approach to how we operate with students and their parents, you also bring in the humanistic approach to it. So we have the title of students, we have the title of parents, we have the title of principle. We have all these titles, but when it comes down to it, we're humans first, title, second, whatever that title might be. And that's why I think that you take that approach when you're a comical way of taking real life matters and bringing into a learning opportunity. I was just talking with a couple educators yesterday and I said, it's K twelve school their children. We have to have fun and if you can't laugh, then why bother. I mean, you got to have fun on the job, and kids for forty hour work week is going to school, and so you do have to laugh. And I think if K twelve educators didn't laught, they'd go crazy with some of the things that we see, because some are very heartbreaking. But that's why we have to nurture kids and just establish that foundation. It's not about pound of flesh you can change behaviors through caring for students. Not about a pound of flesh. Because we have educators right now who are just struggling. Their emotions are kind of blocking them there. Then they don't know what else to do. And we know that in the absence of new knowledge, we always fall back to our lowest level of training, and that is to bidding out what age we are. But punitive isn't really winning anymore. Puritive hasn't changed in the behavior, and so the value and the importance that we have to evolve and change into or evolve into what. So how do we and what you're just describing there is really kind of what we have to do is lean in. I had one new teacher and they said, if you could give me any advice, what should I do this year? I said, greet every child at the door, used their name and my one something, just one little nugget about them that you can talk with them about. So he started to do that, and his attendance went up. Behaviors went down. Kids were engaged, kids, more kids were signing up. The kids were voting with their feet because this teacher cared and he had fun with them, and it was a tough course, but it worked. And he said that was the best piece of advice I ever got because kids were like, this is amazing. This guy is fun and a very tough subject. And all it took was just hey, how are you doing today, Jim Bob, here we go. I think about that at the middle school level, that the connections that you just what Lisa shared out so important that is to those kids. Yeah, it really is. I will never forget one year we had. It was a challenging group and there were a lot of students in there, and all it took was going to a few of their games, their baseball games or whatever, basketball games, and it changed the entire year, the entire culture of the classroom, and it just made for such a wonderful connection with those with those kids. And I will never forget that because it was fun. For me too. It wasn't just okay for them, you know, it was a little awkward, Oh here's my teacher coming in. I wasn't expecting to see her, But it was fun for me to see them in a different way, and it made all the difference. Well, I think that's the point. And Lisa, you started to talk about this before yeah, we can have these big events, but it's the little stuff that we're talking about here that makes such a huge difference. And we weren't going to swear in this podcast. I want to mention the word COVID. Sorry Jim, but I remember when you personally would do little, you know, tidbits of stuff for families during that time. It was very simple. It wasn't anything overly efficient. You sent it out on social media or something. If I remember right, we might have to describe for our listeners of what you did there. But it's something little, something really simple, but it goes such a long ways and it probably means more than that big event does in the first place. The podcast that I did there or it wasn't a podcast, it was a live video. See I don't even know what the technology terms are. That's why they had to be simple. But that was the time when we our parents couldn't come into the building and they didn't know what was going on, and so I started doing the five minute little live broadcast whatever they wanted. So it was a focus of how do we connect with the parents. And I think in education we always want to say just trust us, just trust us. So it's their kids. They're not going to just trust us, so we have to lean into that, and we lean into that by listening to their voices, like how do I get my kid ready for school? Parents are trying to They are trying to do the best they know how. They are doing the best they know how, and if we don't lean into and listen to what they're asking for, then we all are missing out and we're causing the problem. Sending a newsletter isn't going to be that communication that they need. It's got to be the human touch, just like Lisa was kind of leaning into. It's that humanistic approach with that. I was thinking with my middle son. I remember talking with him constantly about the next step in college? What should you do? And you know, all of those conversations that every parent does, and I just I knew where he should go, and he just didn't want to listen to dad. But you know what, that one teacher said pretty much the exact same thing that I was saying at home, and all of a sudden, now that's the right thing, That's what I'm going to do, And sure enough, that's what he's doing. And fine, whatever, I don't know, I need to take credit for it. I was just glad it happened, but that's what it was. It was just a teacher that he had a good relationship with that took that five minutes to have a conversation, but what are you going to do next year? What do you want to do next year? And all of a sudden it became his idea and then that's the future. And it's just that's fun to see that happen. All right, Well, I think that brings us to our final, but equally crucial topic, and that is the administrator's role in student success beyond high school. So we're just talking about teachers, talking about all of us having that impact we can have on students. Jim, coming from control Shift Lead, how do how do you see administrators' best positioning students for long term success not just within the school that they're in, but as they move into whatever that's going to be in their post secondary life. I kind of summarize it in one word, intentional. If we think about what we need to get to accomplished, we need to be intentional. So often, the biggest misstep that administrators make is they don't make the time to plan, plan, what does it look like whatever school they're at, What does it look like for that child's experience all the way through by looking through their lens? What does this experience look like for the parent all the way through that child's experience, wherever school they're at or wherever system they're at. And so, in the absence of that, in being intentional with the planning and structure and what does it look like, We're we're putting out fires, we're responding to phone calls, we have emotions running high for students, as Lisa mentioned, for parents, as Taren Tracy mentioned, it is, it is, it's constant about we have to be intentional. And then it didn't share that knowledge with everyone. When your child leaves they enter here. When they leave, this is what we want them to be prepared to do. And in so far everything in this podcast we talked about our students, first of all leading into being human, but also that we talk about being able to handle an adjusted change and change is scary for everybody. We talk about that, so use our thesaurus and what about if we focus on evolving instead of changing, Because that's what we've had to do as administrators and educators is evolved. We never heard I didn't know what COVID is. I didn't know what AI it was. I didn't even know what Lisa will be with beyond this. Sorry, I didn't even know what the Internet was when I started teaching me. I didn't even know what chatting was other than talking. So we think about it. We have to evolve and then lean into the social media because they're not going away and they will evolve. They have evolved, and so we need to make sure there are students are evolving with that. So what does that actually all mean altogether? If the student walking away from the schools that I've been part of, having the confidence to know what are those options out there? How do I navigate it? What does the paperwork look like? I mean, as a parent of a high school student that just graduated, what does concurrent rolement mean versus AP courses, versus ACT versus SAT what does all that mean in the world? And knowing where to go to get that information? And so when it comes to an administrator in how do we prepare our students for that? It is preparing the staff to know that we all have to not only evolve, but we have to model what that looks like, and then be be clear with when we are making that shift, controlling what we can control, making this shift when it comes to needing to, and then leading by example all the way through that. So I never had a problem reaching out to my kid's principle well part of us, because I was their principal for a little while, So you know, that made it pretty easy. It just kind of just kind of do a circle. But if I am I mean Tracy and Tara, if you're coaching parents on reaching out to get additional help, and sometimes, like I said before, it's just you need to hear a different voice, you know, or another voice. How do we bridge that gap? Because whether we like it or not, it's like when I bring a kid into my office to try to talk with them, it's still the principal's office. Whether I want it to be or not, it still is. And so sometimes that that burriers a little hard to get over. And it's also that way for parents. The principal's office doesn't always have a great feeling to it for a lot of people, how do they get past how do we bridge that gap in that communication? So we always talk about, you know, relationships are everything, right, we know this as people of a certain age and experience. It really comes down to relationships and for being able to mentor students and parents. So we encourage parents to reach out to their kid's favorite teacher who's always you know, you know the kid will tell when the kid comes home from school. There's always a name, there's always one teacher who's that standout right an email reach out. I as a school counselor, I veryly believe that the central nervous system of every school is the school counseling department tied to the administration. It's like it's like the brain and the spinal cord school counseling and administration. I mean even there's sometimes even roll crossover where you're playing good Cop, Bad Cup and there's just it's it's such a strong network that the school counselor is critical. And it's tough because Tara and I, as independent counselors with our private practice, school counselors are often vilified. Well, I don't know who my kid's school counselor is, and you know, it's this mystery person behind a curtain. And we never vilify our school counselors. We even had that on our website. We know school counselors are the most busy, stressed, over utilized resource at a school, and they're sorry they're not there to answer every single question about college planning because they're assessing for suicide risk, or they're working with a parole officer who just happened to not, you know, not announce their visit the third time. So you know, so we encourage the connection through any means possible. Listen to your kid, who are they talking about. That that's your mentor that's your connection. Doesn't have to be a principal. It could just be that one of those teachers or coaches, coaches. Yeah, I like how you leaned into that, and you use the word vilified because as a principal to be the same concept of you'll never see my child in your office. I've never I heard that. The very next day, that kid was in my office. We were taking a selfie and I was asking them which parent do you want me to send this to? Because you know, as I'm sending it out, because it's like this is a safe place, just like the counselor or the office is a safe place, and we need to make sure that people are clear and what the purpose of it is. And this, like I said before, in the absence of the truth, people are going to make stuff up. Absolutely, So we have to be very intentional about telling our story and where it is not just as a counselor not just as a principal, but just an education in general. So during COVID, people want our kids back in school because they're the educators, they're the professionals. They know how to educate our kids. Now three years later, we got because we don't say anything, we got people saying what books to read, how to read them, what to teach, what not to teach, and all that. And the part of the problem is educators are so humble that they don't they don't share, they don't celebrate. We're like, oh no, we're humble people. This is just what we do. We need to stop that and we need to be start celebrating a little bit more, even the smallest things about how we how we are celebrating our kids, how we are supporting the kids, how we are supporting them each other. And in the absence of that, people are going to start telling the truth. That we need to rise up as educators and start telling the story a little bit more. Obviously you hit a trigger button there. I with that, but I certainly knew Field's so very important that we do that. Yeah, it's funny. I won a couple of awards this year, and I'm not tooting my own horn. But. You could tone your own horn. That's right to your own horum. I won Counselor the Year, and then two weeks later I won like a lifetime achievement. You earned, you earned? Yes, do you know what my school did? Nothing? It was a It was an announcement at a poorly attendant faculty meeting. And you know, I wasn't expecting anything anyway. But to your point, Jim, we are so we're such servants. It's so hard for us to take a step back. And now Tara and I are entrepreneurs as well. That's a whole other ball of wax being an entrepreneur, servant, educator, counselor. So like, there's a lot of role confusion within us in our positions that I think, if you said being intentional, we need to be intentional in all of our roles in our multiple personality disorders, if you will, in our multiple roles where we are where our boots are on the ground. I'm glad to hear Tracy say how counselors are. I've always said they're the heart of the school. I wanted them at ADMIN meetings because they do have a pulse on the school. I got pushed back throughout the years, but I thought it was super important. If we're gonna raise test scores and improve all the student data, then we got to have the counselor at the table because they really know what's going on. And to Jim to your point about evolving, I think some of the problem is we are in a human service field, so we're okay, we'll just we'll take care of people, but we get in silos and school leaders right, and we think, and of course school leaders can be competitive, but we just have to take care of our own little world instead of districts. Making sure that we're not in silos so that we can take care of the child from kindergarten all the way through into post secondary life. Because one principle might have great ideas, but if they're just in that silo, then we're not getting the transition to the next grade level or the next building. And that's something I think we need to work on in K twelve education. You have to be intentional with that too. Culture doesn't doesn't happen by what has happen by accident? You know what would you hit with that? But you have to be intentional so we don't get the silos and we have that systemic approach. Great, great comment there. Now this may be a topic for a new episode. But if I'm, you know, brand new teacher coming in listening to this, I may see if I can get out of my contract. Just unfortunately, like, wow, did I really sign up for all of the Yeah, yeah, we do, because it is that it's the multiple hats that we're wearing, right, or the multiple personalities. I like the way you said that, Tracy. That was great. But just in a quick nutshell, Lisa or Jim, if you were the administrator with your new teacher coming in and they've got that glassy eyed look of fear listening to all of this stuff, or would what's a quick little win that a brand new teacher coming into this can help their students and start feeling that success and then build upon it from there. Well, like I said earlier, learning kids' names right away, don't tell me in October. You still don't know all your students. You can learn the names, greet them, know something about them, use their actual name because that will increase engagement, decrease discipline. So you can have some control. Because kids want to police teachers that they like. They're ornery when they don't like somebody, and they act out with behaviors because they can't explain why they're behaving that way. So that would be my advice. Take care of kids. Learn their names, get those connections. It's okay teaching, you'll get there. It's fine. Kids are resilient, it'll be okay. So quit focusing so much. That's an instructional strategy actually to LEARNCT You do that one first, then to me, everything else will fall in place. Educators want to be perfect right away. New teachers want to be even more perfect because they want to show that they earned the job and so forth. Go back to what Lisa said, take the time. Teaching will come. It doesn't happen overnight, and we have to learn with them. They also have to have that environment to have that support. And so when you education, I'm going to tell you the truth has been I have loved ninety percent of everything in education, and really, I mean there's ups and downs, but I really have obviously stated in it for so long, but it actually was what got me. It was what's saved to me as a youth. And so it is such an awe inspiring I mean, this is two days ago, you know, when we're recording this. Two days ago, I was at the funeral of that one teacher. I think Tara or Tracy were talking about that one teacher who was the difference maker for me in nineteen eighty three and has still been in my life in twenty twenty five. And you just passed away, and it's like all inspiring. You don't have that with any other job. You know, there's just just not there. And so take the time learn the students the education that the instruction will come as you grow. All right, crew, Well, as far as I'm concerned, this has been a fantastic discussion we've had today on this episode we're calling navigating the educational journey from K twelve leadership to college bound success. Before we go, I was hoping maybe we could quickly hear one key takeaway from each of you. So Tara, how about you start us off. What's something you hope listeners remember from our podcast today, I. Would say that it's just that keyword of connection, and no matter if you are in the middle school, high school level, administrative level. I think as teachers we thrive and we love connection, and when we're able to really focus on that, everything else kind of falls into place as best as it possibly can. I love it. I love it. Tracy, how about you? What's something from your perspective? I love when Jim is talking about the evolving versus changing, and I think in I think every every stakeholder in this, from teachers to administrators, to counselors, to children to parents, all evolving and let's give ourselves some grace. Lisa, what's your core message from today? I hope that educator's, parents, administrators understand. Yes, it is all connected, like Tracy said, and it is about getting children ready for post secondary life. So it's just not the K twelve experience, and how do we make those connections for all the stakeholders to understand The job is to get that diploma in hand, but then take them across the bridge and at the next stage of life. And there's just so many moving parts. And we talked a lot about a lot of them today, and I hope people can walk away with that. Oh it is, it's connected, it is evolving. As Jim and Tracy mentioned. That's really good. Jim kind of wrap us up a little bit. Well, I had something and then Lisa gave me something. That's always how it works, right, I was getting chosen last and he got to adjust, right of all, Jim, of all this is, I'm going to take what Lisa just said there. It's it's more than just a K twelve because I look going to I mean, I think that my takeaway is we got to be intentional. But and one of the things that as a coach to school district leaders, it's it's not coming in and telling the district leaders how to do their job and then leaving. It's about walking with And when I heard Lisa give her synopsis, it's it's really about here's the information. We're going to walk with you through this experience and then when this student is you know that one little further step, we're going to walk with you to that next journey beyond twelfth grade. And I think that's so powerful because this group of people that I'm in this podcast with not only as we're talking about stories about your K twelve experience, but we're talking about being intentional with walking with the parents, walking with the students, walking with the administrators, so that that next journey isn't isn't scary, and it's not elite, it's an ev andflow. Well, thank you everybody for sharing your valuable insight today, and thanks for letting me host so I could just kind of listen to everybody talk. That was perfect to my little little talk off to the side, and I have to share too much. That's awesome. I love it. I probably should say my takeaway, My biggest takeaway from today, honestly is the fact that even if we think we might know what it is, it's going to change, and so constantly evolving and being prepared to evolve, I think is huge. Just like all of us didn't have an idea of a podcast twelve months ago, and here we are together in two different time zones, throwing this thing to try to put something out there that people can use, and again having an open mind and having some courage to do something new. I think for our kids, especially getting that trade to be something they develop is huge. I think that's just awesome. Greach well again. Thanks everybody for listening today, Thanks for joining us for this special episode. If you enjoyed today's conversation, I highly encourage you to check out our individual shows we have from Carpool to College with Tara Hartz and Tracy Amadeo, Vice Principal on Office with Lisa Hill in Control, Shift Lead with Jim Wichman, and myself Adam Bush. You can find all of these podcasts wherever you listen to your podcast. So until next time, keep navigating that educational journey and thank you for listening to us today. Thank you everybody for joining. Me, thanks for having us, Thank you, And that wraps up another episode of Navigating the Nest. We hope you found valuable insights and a dose of inspiration as we explore the diverse facets of the educational journey. Remember to subscribe and leave us a review to help other navigators find their way to our nest. Join us next time as we continue to guide you on your path from k to success.