Building Connections in Education with Heidi Baynes

In this episode, Dr. Heidi Baynes takes us back to her early teaching days, when the “big new thing” was just having the internet in the classroom—and how the support she received back then shaped her entire career. We talk about what it means to have a “bat phone” of trusted colleagues, whether that’s a tech director, a Twitter chat, or a Voxer group. Heidi shares how those networks of support grew into lifelong partnerships and why celebrating teachers’ everyday wins matters more than ever. At its heart, this conversation is about moving from chaos to calm, and how connection really does make it all feel like it’s going to be okay.

Meet Our Guest: Dr. Heidi Baynes

Heidi Baynes, Ed.D., Coordinator for Instructional Services for the Riverside County Office of Education. She focuses on computer science, artificial intelligence, and leveraging educational technology for improved teaching and learning outcomes. With more than 25 years in education, she has extensive experience in online, blended, and traditional classroom settings, covering a wide range of subjects and grade levels. She is an advocate for computer science education and believes all students should have access to computer science education. She believes artificial intelligence will transform teaching and learning, emphasizing its importance in preparing students for both current and future opportunities.

🔗 Heidi on LinkedIn

🔗 Heidi on X (Twitter)

✉️ hbaynes@rcoe.us

Key Takeaways

• The support you receive early in your teaching career can set the trajectory for everything that follows.
• Heidi’s “bat phone” to the tech team in her first classroom gave her the confidence to take risks with new technology—and showed her the power of feeling supported.
• Find (or build) your own “bat phone”—a trusted network you can call on when things get messy, whether that’s a colleague down the hall, a Voxer group, or a LinkedIn connection.
• True belonging and mentorship come from the connections we build; when we share, support, and celebrate one another, we make the work feel lighter and the impact deeper.

Resources & Mentions

• Diverse Students Find a Home in Esports (Edutopia article celebrating Heidi’s work in eSports at RCOE)
• Heidi Baynes, Seasons of CS (Bits and Bytes Podcast episode featuring Heidi’s work in regional and statewide Computer Science education)

Transcript

Cate Tolnai (she/her): [00:00:00] Okay. hi.

Heidi Baynes: It's good to see you.

Cate Tolnai (she/her): Oh, my friend Heidi. We've known each other, many, many moons. It's nice to have a chance to chat with you in this capacity, which, given the topic of, you know, connections and the fact that you and I are still in education after all these years, mostly because of the connections we've made with people, it's nice to have, like, I don't think we've really like carved out time to have this conversation ever.

So I'm excited. Heidi, let's see. Anything you wanna start with? Anything like, hi, I'm Heidi. I live here. I do this.

Heidi Baynes: sure. I am Heidi. I, I work at Riverside County Office of Ed. I live in River Riverside County. I work in Riverside County. And, This is my 27th year in education, so

Cate Tolnai (she/her): Whoa, you

Heidi Baynes: Yeah. [00:01:00] Yeah.

Cate Tolnai (she/her): into your 27th year?

Heidi Baynes: Coming into my 27th, I believe. Yeah.

Cate Tolnai (she/her): Okay. I'm into my 23rd. I just

Heidi Baynes: Okay.

Cate Tolnai (she/her): say 23. We had our birthday.

Heidi Baynes: Yeah. Yeah. I was trying to do the math. I believe it's 27th, but I'm starting, which is.

Cate Tolnai (she/her): 50 years of expertise between us, let's

Heidi Baynes: Yeah. Yeah. Gosh, that's, it's wild because when, like we, when we had our pre-conversation, we were kind of talking about younger teachers and, and or teachers new to the profession, and I can't believe I've been at this so many years. I, I don't know where the time has gone, but that's, I guess that's another conversations

Cate Tolnai (she/her): For sure. I

Heidi Baynes: how quickly.

Cate Tolnai (she/her): is am I not? Am I, I

Heidi Baynes: Oh, I am for sure. There's just, there's no way that 27 years has passed. I, because I'm absolutely still 27.

Cate Tolnai (she/her): that's a great place to start. So let's go back to,

Heidi Baynes: Yeah.

Cate Tolnai (she/her): your teacher early days. [00:02:00] so what did it look like when you started out in the classroom? What, what did community support? What did that look like early on? And, and maybe even think about what did it look like and then kind of what stuck with you.

Heidi Baynes: Yeah. So, it, it's interesting 'cause I've been able to reflect on my early years of teaching a lot lately, because of ai. And, and the reason is because when I started teaching the. The internet had really just come into the classroom for, for, for context, right? Like we'd had the internet a little bit.

but I, I had an internet connected classroom and in that classroom I, I was chosen to be what they called a model classroom at that time, which means I got a, a bank of old iMacs. So they would've been like 99 or 98 iMacs and you know, the, the support was wonderful. And [00:03:00] so this is where we paused, Cate, we, let me back up.

So when I started teaching, we had, we'd just gotten the internet and so, and that was the big thing. It was the big disruptive thing. And that's why I keep connecting it back to the AI is get a lot of questions about ai. I've kind of been down this road before to a, to a different extent, and there was, you know, fear around the internet and what do we do with this?

And it was so new to all of us. and, but with that I had so much support helping me integrate. Technology, and in this case, just the internet itself into the classroom, that it's really set me on a trajectory for my entire career. because of that support and because someone believed that I could do it.

I, you know, I, I didn't have a specific tech background. I love computers as a kid, but, it was our, our tech director at the time. Can I name, names,

Cate Tolnai (she/her): You [00:04:00] name names,

Heidi Baynes: So at, so at the time, it was Dr. Pletka, who's superintendent of Fullerton School District now was my director of technology.

Cate Tolnai (she/her): see, in

this, this person would be on with us right now

Heidi Baynes: so,

Cate Tolnai (she/her): so we'll have to do this again.

Heidi Baynes: but he was, yeah, so he was, the director of technology and I don't think he knows this whole story, but he was the reason that those computers were there and the reason that I remained an ed tech all of these years. But, you know, it wasn't just. Him, it was his whole team that provided support and at that time it was both IT and ed tech support because the internet would go down.

and I was lucky enough to have like a, like a bat phone where I could say, Hey. The Internet's down, please help me 'cause I'm panicked and I don't know what to do. And it just, it made such a tremendous impact on me to have that safety net and to feel like I could fail and to know that there were people, even if they weren't there physically supporting the work [00:05:00] that I was doing and would, would help me pick up the pieces when things didn't work right.

but then in addition to that, as a new teacher, I had really wonderful, Supportive colleagues at the time that were, you know, sharing lessons and helping me with classroom management. And just a really lovely staff that I came into that, wanted me to succeed and I could feel that early on.

Cate Tolnai (she/her): So it sounds like the, like your school culture was, and your district culture was dialed in. Which am I right? Like it just seems like it was probably like people were under good leadership and.

Heidi Baynes: I, I thought so at the time, as a very new teacher, and that was my very first school, so I didn't have any comparisons to make. but I, okay.

Cate Tolnai (she/her): pause. What an amazing first school experience too,

Heidi Baynes: Right,

Cate Tolnai (she/her): right?

Heidi Baynes: right. Middle school, so.

Cate Tolnai (she/her): the better. That's

Heidi Baynes: Right. It was amazing. And I, I [00:06:00] think back to those years and, still in contact with, with teachers from that school and from those early years. So we made, you know, not only, you know, partnerships and friendships because we were colleagues, but remained friends over the years, which has, you know, been a really wonderful.

Friendship to, to have, you know, when you think back, we're all now mid to end career and started as really young teachers at this middle school. and yeah, amazing, amazing support and stories to tell from there,

Cate Tolnai (she/her): So if you had to name one or two ingredients in that secret sauce besides the bat phone because that's,

Heidi Baynes: and I know people aren't that lucky. I am so.

Cate Tolnai (she/her): awesome.

Heidi Baynes: Fortunate to have had that experience, and I recognize that. Yeah.

Cate Tolnai (she/her): But you know, it's, I mean, okay, so I'll ask that question, but then I also wanna say like, the bat phone doesn't have to look like the bat phone, you know,

Heidi Baynes: Mm-hmm.

Cate Tolnai (she/her): there's different bat phones. Like for me, Voxer has been a bat [00:07:00] phone,

Heidi Baynes: Oh,

Cate Tolnai (she/her): or Twitter has been my bat phone. Right. So it's kind of interesting to think about that. but let's go back to my secret sauce

Heidi Baynes: okay.

Cate Tolnai (she/her): that phone aside,

Heidi Baynes: Okay.

Cate Tolnai (she/her): were, what were one or two ingredients.

Heidi Baynes: Oh man, that is a good question. I would definitely say humor. The ability to, have a laugh, to not take. Ourselves and everything too seriously. I know we have a very important job to do and I, and I take and took that seriously, but being able to, to laugh with others and, share the stories that happen in life or in the classroom, I think that helps build relationships if it's not all, you know, serious all the time.

so, humor is a big part of that. And I think the, I mean, secret ingredients. That [00:08:00] willingness to share resources or practices is, is key. And for me, or maybe for others, that sounds obvious, but that wasn't always the case in all on all teams or in all schools where people are willing to share what they're doing.

because the internet was new, you know, we didn't, we didn't have this resource, this bank of. Lessons or social media or a place where we could grab things and use them. We had to rely on each other. And so, having people early in my career that were very good at lesson planning and design and, you know, here's some things you can do for classroom management, and were willing to share that.

That was huge. And, I'm, I'm forever grateful for those, those people and those experiences. But it does look different now that we have online resources and social media. It. You know, but I think it replicates some of what I was [00:09:00] able to have in a smaller scale.

Cate Tolnai (she/her): Yeah. so when you were talking about that, the sharing, the idea of sharing, I totally connect because part of what made me fall in love with teaching educators, teaching teachers was that I felt like I was actually helping educators that I worked with when I was informally. Making a suggestion or we were sitting around the lunch table in the staff lounge and we were like trying to solve this problem.

And someone's like, oh my God, that's a great idea. Can you show me how to do that? And, and so it unlocked in me like this. if it's like a, a confidence as much as it was like this, like this, dopamine hit of, of like, wow, that was a zing. Like that one. That was fun to not only share, but then to hear back that person how it went. Right.

Heidi Baynes: Yeah.

Cate Tolnai (she/her): maybe speaking to what you're talking about, [00:10:00] which is, it looks different, but yeah, we could go to teachers, pay teachers, we could go to Blue Sky, we go LinkedIn, but like we often don't get that like wraparound, that feedback loop.

Heidi Baynes: Agreed, and I was thinking about this on my drive in today because I know we were gonna. Talk, and I was thinking about some of the educators that I work with, whether they're classroom teachers or administrators, and how grateful I am to the ones that share with me their experiences that tell me that something was successful or tell me something that they're doing in their classroom.

That's super cool because I don't get that feedback, like I used to, you know, if I'm not on a campus, I don't get to see it. So I, I absolutely love hearing. From educators that something is working well or a resource that they've discovered is, is working well. And I love hearing from them too because the news and the public and social media doesn't [00:11:00] always tell the full story and oftentimes tells a negative story.

And I know that that is not the case in. The spaces that I live in, in education. Right. And so I, I'm with you. I, that feedback loop is, is so important. not only, only to me, but for teachers working with each other to, you know, let each other know this. This is going really well. This is going really positively in my classroom because sometimes we dwell on the negative and in this climate it's really easy to do.

but yeah, that I just, I absolutely love hearing from my colleagues in. The districts at what's going well and cool things they're doing.

Cate Tolnai (she/her): I am laughing because imagine if like school campuses operated like LinkedIn, where just can you imagine like, I feel that needs to be a cartoon or something. Like, like people just walking down the hallway being like, I'm so honored because I received an award. And then they just keep [00:12:00] walking and then someone on at the end of the hallway goes, thumbs up and like, or like people see it and just keep walking, you know, like. What really is kind of crazy when you start to like lift social media and put it into a human context. You're, you realize like how inauthentic it really can be.

Heidi Baynes: Right.

Cate Tolnai (she/her): Wow.

Heidi Baynes: And then on the flip side, we, you know, it's been such a, a place where I've made a lot of connections, but yeah.

Cate Tolnai (she/her): Okay, so let's unpack that because Me too. So

Heidi Baynes: Yeah.

Cate Tolnai (she/her): how did we do that? How, how did we do that? Because I have to imagine someone listening is like, all right ladies, that sounds great, but where do I begin?

Heidi Baynes: I wish I had an easy answer for this

Cate Tolnai (she/her): I

Heidi Baynes: because I,

Cate Tolnai (she/her): chats for sure

Heidi Baynes: yeah.

Cate Tolnai (she/her): my on ramp. Like, and, and okay, we have to explain Twitter chats for people that don't know, so [00:13:00] Right.

So like back in the day there was this kind of social agreement that was spearheaded by literal humans with no other reason to do it, besides passion. A lot of 'em. And

Heidi Baynes: Mm-hmm.

Cate Tolnai (she/her): would just say, Hey, from this time, from like seven to seven 30 on Tuesday nights, follow this hashtag on Twitter. And we will ask questions and people will respond. I literally got thousands and thousands of connections through Twitter and not just like, I mean a lot of them were just like people that I, but

Heidi Baynes: Right.

Cate Tolnai (she/her): them were like, cute, like my people,

Heidi Baynes: Yeah.

Yes, and I, I think a lot of that space has disappeared for the moment

Cate Tolnai (she/her): Yeah.

Heidi Baynes: I just talked about being positive, but I'm going to flip over for a second.

Cate Tolnai (she/her): You be real girl.

Heidi Baynes: Those Twitter chats were agreed. I, I, I met a lot of people with similar interests or similar teaching goals. we talked about a bat phone when we were doing some computer science work, and, [00:14:00] and like real time helping students, you know, connect wires on a raspberry pi or a micro bit.

And I'm like, this is not working and I don't know why. And I've done everything I know how to do. I could go to Twitter at one point and say, Hey, Twitter, you know, Twitter pals, Twitter family, why isn't this working? And you would get a list of

Cate Tolnai (she/her): Totally.

Heidi Baynes: and it would solve my problem 99% of the time. Yeah, so,

Cate Tolnai (she/her): Yeah. Okay.

Heidi Baynes: so that felt like authentic connection because I felt like a real person

Cate Tolnai (she/her): Yeah,

Heidi Baynes: was answering me and

Cate Tolnai (she/her): Now my mind's blowing. Now we go to ChatGPT What?

Heidi Baynes: yes, and that's also been very, very helpful, but

Cate Tolnai (she/her): I know.

Heidi Baynes: not an authentic human being on the other side. I don't know, Cate, we're,

Cate Tolnai (she/her): Yeah,

Heidi Baynes: gonna like go down a spiral right now.

Cate Tolnai (she/her): will. And that's okay. 'cause I don't think this is about having answers, but I will say, I will say we, you and I [00:15:00] maybe touched on something that I've literally never thought about, which is like actually sharing something and then having, having the response. Back, I'll get that, like maybe once in a blue moon I'll get a DM from somebody who's like, Hey, just wanna let you know this, this, and this happened.

Or they'll like, reply to a thread. I'm mostly on LinkedIn now. but it wasn't like a weekly connection that we had through those Twitter chats where I was like, oh, hey Tom, like did you end up, how did that end up going last week? And then sometimes we would take it to Voxer and this and that. It also sounds really busy, like. don't know if I could like sustain that level of connected life right now. Could

Heidi Baynes: right? No, I, I'm, I have cut back on my social media a lot. I am on LinkedIn, but.

Cate Tolnai (she/her): Mm-hmm.

Heidi Baynes: in a formal sense. If you call it formal, I don't engage a whole lot. I don't have, [00:16:00] conversations the way I would've on Twitter that would've been public. I don't know if I can really list the reasons why other than like so many, maybe a general exhaustion of the media.

I, I just, I find myself wanting to tune out. A lot more than I used to. Maybe that's age, maybe that's, you know, where Right.

Maybe that's just the time, you know, maybe it's the time of career. Maybe it's the time of life. maybe it's a combination of things that I just, I, I feel like in the last year or two, particularly since Twitter has

Cate Tolnai (she/her): Yeah,

Heidi Baynes: I just,

Cate Tolnai (she/her): that I thought in my mind of like, okay, well Twitter's still there

Heidi Baynes: mm-hmm.

Cate Tolnai (she/her): then for me it's not.

Heidi Baynes: Yeah.

Cate Tolnai (she/her): not really anymore.

Heidi Baynes: Right.

Cate Tolnai (she/her): well also, and I'll say [00:17:00] this, what people don't know about you is how wildly connected you are a, as a in-person, as an IRL person in your job right now.

Like you're, you're leading statewide initiatives, countywide initiatives. Like you're in with a bunch of humans all the time and it's almost like, think back to when that was our lifeline. We were. Relatively siloed in our classrooms or

Heidi Baynes: Mm-hmm.

Cate Tolnai (she/her): sites, and we needed the expertise of this network. And now you've kind of unlocked a different level of educator impact and connection.

I don't know. What do you think about that?

Heidi Baynes: I will agree that

Cate Tolnai (she/her): With

Heidi Baynes: I am.

Cate Tolnai (she/her): asterisk?

Heidi Baynes: No, I, I agree with you. in that I'm an introvert by nature and I'm around people a lot and not so siloed as, as I would've been in, in a classroom. And so part [00:18:00] of that desire to kind of fade in the, the background where social media is concerned, I think that that plays into it is, is needing that break from,

Cate Tolnai (she/her): Hmm.

Heidi Baynes: a, From interaction, I guess. But like you said, I'm so fortunate to be able to connect with people in real life, through, you know, professional networks and, and different, conferences or groups that we've been part of. And that has been my lifeline the last 10, 12 years. and, and again, much of that in person or now email, like I, I've kind of replicated what I could have, could have done on Twitter.

In, in email spaces or, Hey, can we hop on a zoom real quick? I need to work through something with you. the, the downside of that is some of the learnings that we have from those conversations are no longer public, where they can be helpful to other people. But, the connections have been absolutely vital in [00:19:00] the work that I do.

And, specifically work with, you know, expanding access to computer science and without our. You know, county office network of folks and the, the people that I work with in the districts, I mean, everything depends on these partnerships and, their support as well, whether it's other county offices or our, our districts, here in Riverside County or, or, you know, across California.

Just absolute vital partnerships for feedback and that feedback loop in, in helping the work go forward.

Cate Tolnai (she/her): Well, and it kind of brings us full circle back to what you were describing in your first couple years in the classroom with the internet, because you're not even saying technology in the classroom. You literally said the internet was new with but,

Heidi Baynes: People are gonna hear that and there's gonna be like off.

Cate Tolnai (she/her): No. Oh my gosh. They're gonna be like, she's so retro. I love it. [00:20:00] no, I really love it 'cause I really understand it. and there's probably people, there's plenty that will. okay. That being said, you were describing just that. How supported you felt back then, and it sounds like, I'm just gonna go out on a limb here. It sounds like you may have become that support network for others that you received as a novice educator. And that's the case, like can you think of a time in which like you felt like living, living out, like. A moment where you were like, wow, I just, I helped or, and I got feedback and I mean, I don't have to force this question by the way. You can also just say whatever you wanna say.

Heidi Baynes: That's a really good question. I don't know if I can put my finger on either the time I felt that. I could probably think of some examples, but

Cate Tolnai (she/her): Yeah.

Heidi Baynes: I hadn't [00:21:00] really thought about it until you, you've said that I, that's what I enjoy the most is supporting educators and students in getting the resources, support the advocacy.

Whatever it is they need to be successful in their classrooms. And I hadn't directly connected it back to my experiences, but that was just, you're right. That was so valuable to me that here we are 27 years later and I'm still thinking about those days in that classroom and how supported I felt. And if I've done, I hope I've done that for other people.

Cate Tolnai (she/her): You've done it for me.

Heidi Baynes: That would be, that would be like amazingly validating to know, thank you. To know that that's been helpful. because that, yeah, that's, that's really my whole role is to help

Cate Tolnai (she/her): Yeah.

Heidi Baynes: teachers, help students. And,

Cate Tolnai (she/her): Mm-hmm.

Heidi Baynes: you know, teachers, we know this, but [00:22:00] just make sure we say it like teachers have so much on their plate and I, I don't think.

Generally society understands what it's like to be in a classroom all day with all the competing priorities that are outside of the classroom as well, and all the things that we put on teachers at the same time telling them to be well. So we may have to cut this out, but

Cate Tolnai (she/her): care of yourself.

Heidi Baynes: Right, and, and if, if I can lessen some of those burdens for educators.

I, feel like I've been successful. I, I hope to not put those on sometimes when I'm, like, planning an event or sending an email. Like, I, I really hope that this invite or this request comes the way that it's intended as a, as a, a means of support and not, Let me put one more thing on your plate. because I, I do try to be really [00:23:00] cognizant of that before I send something or request to teachers or, or administrators.

but yeah, that definitely drives me and drives my work when I, we talk about the feedback loop when I have feedback that something is working or something was valuable, or that something can make a change for students. It, you know, there's, Hmm. Education in some places look the same for a very long time.

And there is a need to make a shift for students for a variety of reasons that we could unpack in another podcast. And when I see those changes happening, and I know that they are, it's, it's so, inspiring and. Fulfilling from the seat that I sit in to see those changes being made for students because they're out there and we don't hear those stories enough.

[00:24:00] And I, I mean, I know teachers that are going back to school this week and they did amazing things last year, and they, they work so hard to make sure their students have a different experience than they had, or an experience that's relevant to today's students. And they get very little rest. The summer, we all know what, for summer for teachers is not rest and relaxation and partying, right?

They, they work so hard to get ready for the next year so that they can give everything they have to the new crop of students. And I just, I'm really appreciative of that work and what I can do to support it and to lighten that load is always my goal.

Cate Tolnai (she/her): I feel like you're the one answering the bat phone now. Is that crazy?

Heidi Baynes: Well,

Cate Tolnai (she/her): I think you might be.

Heidi Baynes: I don't, I don't, I don't know.

Cate Tolnai (she/her): Well, maybe not the exact same bat phone.

Heidi Baynes: [00:25:00] maybe not the same backbone.

Cate Tolnai (she/her): call the

Heidi Baynes: I,

Cate Tolnai (she/her): phone.

Heidi Baynes: I Oh, I like that. I do try, I I do try to be supportive and helpful, with whatever it is that. People need. And if I can't provide what they need or then I try to let them know, I, I'd love to do that, but I, I can't. But where I can try to find the resources, I try to find the funding, I try to find the supplies.

anything that I can do to, to make sure they have what they're, what they need, you know?

Cate Tolnai (she/her): Well, and what's really unique about, specifically, we, we haven't talked about the fact that your role is very like dependent upon. Hard tech resources, like, like a lot of the work you're doing with computer science and eSports, you know, requires subscriptions to software and requires materials and spaces and reimagining learning outcomes like beyond just written on paper, like actually [00:26:00] teachers trained up on, on hardware that they don't even know.

Heidi Baynes: Well, and, and that,

Cate Tolnai (she/her): and I wanna

Heidi Baynes: yeah.

Cate Tolnai (she/her): live the, you live the talk. And I guess that's, that's really, that's the way that, feel like you've really impacted me as someone in my professional learning network is like when I see Heidi's in the room, I have this sense that things are buttoned up, that people are ready that even if they're not ready. She is going turn not ready into, ready into what it's supposed to be like. Wherever they're at is where Heidi, you know, wants where Heidi has, has kind of, created a space for them to be. And the beautiful thing is you make failure acceptable. You make risk taking acceptable because you're living in a space that's pretty unpredictable because tech is unpredictable. So. You. I've never had a chance to tell you that, but

Heidi Baynes: Oh,

Cate Tolnai (she/her): truly how I feel. When, when you're in the room,

Heidi Baynes: [00:27:00] you're gonna make me teary today,

Cate Tolnai (she/her): well, I

Heidi Baynes: I, I appreciate that because I, again, I'm mindful of all that teachers already have to do, and here I come along with like, Hey, do computer science too, and like no one. No one needs. Okay. Everybody needs computer science. Lemme back up. But no one needs one more thing on their plate than me saying, by the way, now you're gonna learn to program a computer.

I mean, that's, it's not realistic. I know that it's not. And so I appreciate that because I do try to, to make, those learning experiences accessible no matter where you are. And, and, yeah. I've really, I'm gonna say grown up. I've really grown up in the teaching profession with permission to fail. And I, I, I can't speak for every educator.

I, you know, stakes have been so high over the last few years and [00:28:00] criticism so easily dealt out. that I feel like it's a complete conjecture, but I feel like it, it must be hard to feel like you can fail right now with. With, just the state of the world and, and the, the pressure on educators, and so I do, I I appreciate that.

I, it is okay to fail because you circle back and do it again.

Cate Tolnai (she/her): Totally.

Heidi Baynes: There's very few things in life that can't be fixed or relearned or very few. We could do a different podcast on the things they can't, but it.

Cate Tolnai (she/her): I feel like you just booked yourself four more times

Heidi Baynes: Right, right. I did. I did. That would be a sadder podcast on, and, and cut this part out. But like, things that you can't fix, but really in life and especially in the classroom, there's, there's a lot of things you can fix.

I know you're on a time schedule. I know you're on a pacing guide, but you know, [00:29:00] we can, we can relearn, we can redo that lesson. We can apologize to a student if we snapped. I had my those days as well. I still think about students that. maybe didn't know how much I cared about them, and I still wonder how they're doing.

You know, it's like

Cate Tolnai (she/her): Mm-hmm.

Heidi Baynes: we, we all have a chance the next day to, to start fresh or retool that lesson. Yeah. And I don't, I'm losing my train of thought, but I, I, I just feel like when the heart is there and the education and some of those other things. Can fall away a little bit.

Cate Tolnai (she/her): Mm-hmm.

Heidi Baynes: because the point is that students learn and progress and I know meet the standards and please don't put this online and have me disparaging the standards.

Cut that out. You know what,

Cate Tolnai (she/her): out.

Heidi Baynes: cut that out, Damon. But you know what I mean? Like if, if the students aren't engaged, [00:30:00] and Cate, you're so good at this, right? If they're not engaged and they're not seeing the relevancy of the learning. They're not gonna learn it anyway. So taking that time to connect with them and make them feel like it's okay.

You didn't, you didn't get it right the first, second, third, 10th time. We're gonna keep working on it or we're gonna come at it another way until you get it.

Cate Tolnai (she/her): Mm-hmm.

Heidi Baynes: And it same with working with educators. Yeah.

Cate Tolnai (she/her): Yeah, no. Same with working with

Heidi Baynes: Mm-hmm.

Cate Tolnai (she/her): I mean, that's, that's the truth right there, because the kids won't even get it if the teachers don't understand that it's okay to fail five times. yeah, have that in common. okay, so, One quick little tidbit. And Damon, I'm not sure where you wanna put this little next chunk into, 'cause I don't think it belongs at the end, however I wanna ask it. so you described this really supportive environment that you had at the beginning your [00:31:00] career, and then you alluded to the fact that it wasn't always like that. And you don't have to please feel no pressure to name names. That's not what this is about. this is not the vengeance episode, but What do you, did it look like when you didn't have that support? Like, and then, yeah, what did it look like? And then what would, what do you wish you could go tell that version of you?

Oh, okay. Start with, oh, that one got heavy.

Heidi Baynes: I spell that version of me.

Cate Tolnai (she/her): What, what do you think? What, I don't even know how I asked that.

What did you, what was that? What did I

Heidi Baynes: What did it look like when I didn't have that support? I,

Cate Tolnai (she/her): Okay, I'll ask that again. Lemme ask that again.

Heidi Baynes: okay.

Cate Tolnai (she/her): what did it look like when you didn't have that support?

Heidi Baynes: I'm gonna be careful here, Damon. We may have to cut some of this out, but, it felt like chaos when I [00:32:00] didn't have that sort of support and, and as I've been talking to you and reflecting on where I was in different parts of my personal life in relationship to how I felt in these different. Situations with Right.

Different roles and just different situations, I think back, to just feeling like I was constantly at a loss of either what I was supposed to do, what I was supposed to be doing. Exactly. Or like we said a few minutes ago, like, how, how do I fix this issue? Like I, I kind of just felt like I was on an island and.

Left to just figure things out. And, and maybe that's shaped me to where I am today because one of the things I love best about my work is solving problems. We often encounter things that don't have an answer or, [00:33:00] I like to create things that didn't previously exist. Right? And so maybe that was really an educational blessing that.

Cate Tolnai (she/her): Hmm.

Heidi Baynes: years that I felt a little lost and felt on my own because it taught me how to, to, to fill a gap or to, okay, like, this doesn't exist. I need this thing. No one's gonna provide it for me. I guess I'm on a, on my own, so I'm gonna create X, Y, Z because that's what I need or what my students need.

And, and so even though I look back at that question. I could identify times where I felt, I wanna say unsupported, but I, I wanna be very careful because every place that I've worked has had really well-meaning people that I think wanted to be supportive, but there's been circumstances, whether it's organizational leadership or [00:34:00] you know, bigger things at play that made that difficult.

And so I, I. Again, Damon be very careful with these words because I haven't worked very many places, so it's very easy to point. So let, maybe we cut out all of this except for the fact that the times that I struggled are the times I think created an atmosphere that allowed me to be the problem solver that I am now.

And so maybe,

Cate Tolnai (she/her): a light bulb moment.

Heidi Baynes: yeah, so, so maybe I'm grateful for those times that felt chaotic.

Cate Tolnai (she/her): Oh good.

Heidi Baynes: Yeah.

Cate Tolnai (she/her): me think of chaos in my life. I've

Heidi Baynes: Yeah,

Cate Tolnai (she/her): grateful for that chaos,

Heidi Baynes: haven't either and I'm having a moment right now.

Cate Tolnai (she/her): I think I am too. Like maybe that's why like my strategic mind has grown exponentially the last eight years because. Or 10 years or 12 years, because I was in a space [00:35:00] where strategy couldn't exist because we were reacting so much. And so now I'm like so dependent on strategic thinking because it's afforded me a sense of calm.

Heidi Baynes: Yeah.

Cate Tolnai (she/her): Hmm hmm.

Heidi Baynes: It. I think. Yeah,

Cate Tolnai (she/her): in a therapy session right

Heidi Baynes: I think we are too, because I come at things with a sense of calm in a way I probably didn't 25 years ago, at least on the, even on the inside, there's a lot of things that I just like, you know what it will be, what will be it

Cate Tolnai (she/her): Mm-hmm.

Heidi Baynes: done all that I can to make this thing go or to convince of this idea and.

It's gonna be or it's not. And if it's not, I'll pivot to something else. And I think that comes from the chaos.

Cate Tolnai (she/her): Maybe, and I will say that like what you just, just put words to is what you're, you're [00:36:00] it feels like to be around you. And that's what I was describing, I think is when, when you're in the room, it feels like it's gonna be okay because I think you're doing what you just said. You're doing

Heidi Baynes: Well, because it is gonna be okay.

Cate Tolnai (she/her): this

Heidi Baynes: Right?

Cate Tolnai (she/her): lovely. What a

Heidi Baynes: I appreciate.

Cate Tolnai (she/her): a lovely afternoon with you.

Heidi Baynes: I mean, it is, it's gonna be okay. I tell people this all the time,

Cate Tolnai (she/her): is.

Heidi Baynes: gonna be okay.

Cate Tolnai (she/her): there's no such thing as an ed tech emergency, and then we had a pandemic, so I stand corrected.

Heidi Baynes: Right? That, and I definitely felt the stress and the urgency. Of that for sure. We all did in the ed tech world. I think we're all still recovering.

Cate Tolnai (she/her): Yes,

Heidi Baynes: but yeah, I, I, I feel like we've been through a therapy session. Good luck Damon.

Cate Tolnai (she/her): do. I know right now. How at it, chop it up. Okay. people want to connect with you, Heidi,

Heidi Baynes: Mm-hmm.

Cate Tolnai (she/her): could they find you?

Heidi Baynes: you can find me on LinkedIn.

Cate Tolnai (she/her): [00:37:00] Mm-hmm.

Heidi Baynes: my profile is lacking, but you can find me on LinkedIn. just Heidi baes. I.

Cate Tolnai (she/her): Now we'll put it in the show

Heidi Baynes: Okay. And then, email is h bains at rcoe us.

Cate Tolnai (she/her): I

Heidi Baynes: You can find me there. You can still find me on X, but I'm not really there. but you can find me again. That's at Bains, Heidi.

Cate Tolnai (she/her): Okay.

Heidi Baynes: otherwise I gave you my email already, right?

You can, yeah.

Cate Tolnai (she/her): it on there.

Heidi Baynes: But.

Cate Tolnai (she/her): And, and I think it would be fun too, to share, like, because we talked about the fact that you've been around since the dawn of the internet in education, then, I know that I'm gonna wanna follow up and just share, maybe get from you a couple links to like some of the eSports stuff that you've done. because I know that that's, that could be such an incredible inspiring. Project for some educators that are like, I'm just not feeling like I'm connecting with my kids. Like, well, what if, what if we bring, you know, eSports or what if we bring computer science? Or what if [00:38:00] we bring, you know, e even if it doesn't have to be as serious as that.

Like what if we bring in a, you know, a, a tool that Heidi happened to talk about on this website? Like, I don't know, you and I can talk after, but, I think there's so much to be said about, you know, the feedback loop and, and here we are full, full of it, ready to share it.

Heidi Baynes: Follow it. Yeah. I just,

Cate Tolnai (she/her): it.

Heidi Baynes: I, no, I wanna thank you for inviting me on and, and yeah, just express my gratitude to you and, and all of the. Folks out there that have built this professional learning community and network over the years. and all of the districts that I work with and schools that I work with, they're, I mean, they're the ones that make things possible.

If they don't show up and the students don't show up, then I'm here in a vacuum. So, and I'm really grateful for, the position I sit in and everyone that's been so lovely and generous with their time and ideas that. I get to put [00:39:00] together, in, in my role and, and do fun things with. So

Cate Tolnai (she/her): You

Heidi Baynes: thank you. Thank you.

You are the best. Appreciate it.