Today we’d like to introduce you to Kimberly Massey.
So, before we jump into specific questions about the business, why don’t you give us some details about you and your story.
I am an assistant principal now, but the idea of Coaching with Kimberly was developed when I was still teaching Kindergarten before I met with a team I was able to lead. Early in my career, I was identified by my administrator as a teacher with a voice and keen leadership skills. As a result, she encouraged me to develop a “New Teacher Support Team” group in our school building. This group I would create would be a safe place for teachers with three years or less of teaching experience to share concerns, ask questions, and learn more about how to maneuver through challenges they could face as a novice teacher. Occasionally, I would ask a veteran teacher to come in and talk to the group about more specific topics to help them grow even more in their career to become successful and love their job. This quickly became a passion of mine and I felt there were more educators who were new to the classroom that needed that same support but weren’t fortunate enough to have a group tailored to them in their building. From that point, I created an Instagram page @coachingwithkimberly to spread what I learned from teaching that I knew would help teachers around the world gain confidence in themselves, their teaching abilities, and their careers.
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
It hasn’t been the smoothest road but it hasn’t been all bad either. As we all know, developing a following on social media can be difficult and I’ve slowly but surely gained more followers, however, on most days I still don’t feel like I’ve made enough followers for the mass of educators I know are on Instagram to see. Sundays are the days I push out new content regularly and the @coachingwithkimberly views are always heavily increased on Sunday but then begin to decline throughout the week. To me, it’s not the numbers in aspect of page popularity I’m looking for; instead it’s about the number of teachers I know need to see and hear the content I post weekly. The teacher turnover rate is at an all-time high across the nation and if I can change the mind of a couple of novice teachers a week through the content, I post then I will feel like I have done my job as an educator who has been in that same place feeling overwhelmed but learned to overcome.
Coaching with Kimberly – what should we know? What do you do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
Coaching with Kimberly was created originally to create a teacher community. A place to share what I learned while I was in the classroom and break topics down in layman’s terms that made it simple for the new teachers to understand. Education is oversaturated with acronyms that add to the frustration level of a new teacher who hasn’t yet learned the terms while sitting in meetings trying to keep their head above water. All too often, new teachers are losing sleep, personal time, themselves, and their love for teaching because there are so many small things they aren’t aware of going into the classroom while also trying to ensure they are teaching their students the mandated state standards. This is where my “Sunday Spills” in my Instagram instastory stemmed from, knowing exactly what makes new teachers uncomfortable and wanting to be their voice of reason.
The Instagram account then grew to me making videos tailored to parents occasionally as well. At one point, I had an influx of parents following my page and direct messaging me questions on how to better serve their children at home academically and how they can become more involved in their child’s classroom to be of help to the teacher without being overwhelming to the teacher. From there, parents from all over began inquiring about their child receiving tutoring services from me. I scheduled in person tutoring sessions for those near me and even set up a google drive to upload lessons that were accessible for families who were not in my area to access and review. I am most proud of how my Coaching with Kimberly has grown into its own thing based off of one idea. What started as a thought to help new teachers has turned into that and more. I provide new teachers with relatable content weekly, connect with parents who want to be involved, tutor students in several regions, and most importantly, I uplift educators and help them feel more comfortable being who they are in their classroom.
What moment in your career do you look back most fondly on?
The proudest moment of my career has been seeing a post I shared and explained in detail about the different tiers of instruction in education reaching over 500 educators via Twitter and Instagram. Teachers, leaders, and education groups from all over connected with my post and contacted me for nearly a week straight to gain more insight on my thought process of tiered instruction.
Contact Info:
- Email: kimberlydmassey@gmail.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/coachingwithkimberly/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Coachingwkimberly/
- Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/leadingwithkim
Image Credit:
Jerome Coverson Jr.
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