Growing up, Amanda loved to read. Her parents would find her reading in different places all around the house, including in the bath tub during bath time. Amanda would be so engrossed in a book that her parents would often have to come and pull her out of the tub.
Her 3rd grade teacher nurtured Amanda’s love for reading, but that wasn’t the only impact Mrs. Linder had on her life. Amanda felt cared for and seen by Mrs. Linder. These feelings caused Amanda to want to be a teacher also, and when she grew up, Amanda became one.
Amanda worked in a school district in North Carolina as a middle school resource teacher. She then moved into increasingly challenging and specialized roles, including being a member of the behavior team, then the autism team, and finally working as a program specialist for the district’s SEL program.
In this Q&A, Amanda shares about her passion for working with students who’ve fallen between the cracks or were marginalized in the education landscape and how that passion transfers to her work as a Specialized Instruction Analyst on the Content team at Goalbook.
1. What inspired you to go into education?
My 3rd grade teacher, Mrs. Linder, left such a lasting impact. She was an awesome teacher and person in general. She made me feel like I was more than just a student to her.
We tell this story as a family all the time. I very specifically remember that my mom had to go out of town for work, and my dad didn’t know how to do my hair. Mrs. Linder told us to come to school early so she could braid my hair. And she did my hair the whole week. She made me feel really cared for.
Mrs. Linder also cultivated my love of reading. Each summer, she gave me a list of books that I could read that she thought I would enjoy based on the ones I read during the school year. She also introduced new genres of books to me. This was so poignant because reading was my favorite hobby. To this day, I love reading, and I’m more willing to try other genres.
I wanted to be like Mrs. Linder — to provide that same level of authentic concern, nurturing, and encouragement for students. This is what sparked my interest in being a teacher.
2. How did you first hear about Goalbook?
When I was working for the district, the instructional coaching team worked across departments. The team was looking for ways to support the general education teachers in providing wraparound services for a child so everything didn’t fall solely onto the special education teachers. I was looking for different options that included resources for writing IEP goals, and I found Goalbook. I was able to see and use examples from Goalbook Toolkit in that role.
I began to look for other opportunities outside of the school district when I was pregnant with my first child. Both the education landscape and my role were changing, and it was a tough field to be in after COVID-19. I saw that Goalbook had Part-Time positions, so I applied.
“One of the things I really liked about Goalbook was the intentionality to provide resources for educators to be inclusive of ALL students.”
3. What attracted you to Goalbook’s mission?
Two things stood out to me in Goalbook’s mission: 1) the value of helping teachers transform their instruction, and 2) the mission to help ALL students.
Many times in my past work, students with disabilities were either overlooked or marginalized. I have a passion for students with Autism Spectrum Disorder, but specifically for students classified as Level 3 on the Autism spectrum. There are not a lot of resources for these students, or for students with similar disabilities like communication disorders when they’re nonverbal.
I found myself creating a lot of resources for these students myself, so one of the things I really liked about Goalbook was the intentionality to provide resources for educators to be inclusive of ALL students. Goalbook recognizes, acknowledges, and creates intentional content for students who are marginalized or fall between the cracks.
What I love most about the Goalbook mission is the inclusivity and that it delivers on the promise to help teachers transform their instruction for ALL students. From the myriad of strategies and clear goals across various content areas, the follow-through of Goalbook’s mission is clear.
4. What does it mean to you to be a Specialized Instruction Analyst at Goalbook?
First and foremost, it means that I am working on content that is really focused on special education. We generate a lot of content, and while IEP goals are generally considered for special education, they can also be used as goals for general education.
So “Specialized Instruction” is geared more towards our students with mild to severe disabilities, students with physical disabilities, students with low vision or who are blind, students who are hard of hearing or deaf, you name it. The content is really focused on students whose eligibility criteria determine that they have an IEP.
As part of my job, I’m a project manager. As another part of my job, I’m an “Analyst” looking at data and metrics to help inform future work and determining things like whether I should make adjustments to the quality of the product or the project itself. This isn’t to say that the quality of something is ever bad, but we always want to be doing what’s best for the educator using Goalbook Toolkit and the interface they’re interacting with.
5. What does your day-to-day look like?
I review content for Goalbook Toolkit, some of which would be annual target goals and objectives, and edit those to ensure they meet our quality rubric standards. I also send contracts out to part-time contributors and content editors.
I make sure I’m on track with our project deliverables and timeline by frequently checking our shared project board.
My favorite part is the collaboration with other analysts on the Content team. I’m in constant collaboration with them to make sure we are aligned in our work.
6. In your current role, when do you most feel your work is contributing to improve the education system?How do you measure your impact on the education system? How do you know that your work is contributing?
A scary part about leaving the school district was the question: what about my students? They were the best part of my day. Seeing my students grow and learn skills we’d worked on for months was amazing. I was scared about losing that impact.
When we are able to create content that has, as of yet, not been available for educators, I feel like I am contributing the most. As users provide feedback, I get to truly see the impact of what we do. One time, I heard positive feedback just one day after some of the content I created was published. That was mind-blowing. I know that impact will trickle down to the students.
“Goalbook sets you up to be able to fulfill your professional dreams.”
7. What are one or two things you love here at Goalbook?
I do love everything, but if I had to name two things: it would be the people and the relationships that I’m fostering here.
I think about my manager and our team lead, who genuinely care about my professional growth and goals and help me plan actionable steps to meet those goals. But they also care about who I am as Amanda Walker, who I am as a mom, and who I am as a mom juggling full-time work. This is invaluable.
I’ve been in many different roles for various reasons, and I’ve always been ready for the next thing, the next challenge. But I get that challenge here at Goalbook. It’s set up for you to grow. This next part sounds cheesy, but it’s true. Goalbook sets you up to be able to fulfill your professional dreams. To have people on your team and managing you who actually care about you growing in the way you want to grow is amazing.
8. Which team activity has been your favorite?
My favorite in-person activity was during Winter Team Week 2023. The Content team took a class on making macarons. It was hilarious, and I learned there are specific skills needed to make macarons and that I need to stick to my day job — ha!
On a daily basis, though, my favorite thing to do is co-editing with my teammates. I get to see them, work with them, pick their brains, and it always leads to learning something new or gaining a different, new perspective.
9. What are you watching/reading/listening to right now?
Watching: The Resident on Netflix. I think it’s an old show, but I’ve gotten really hooked on that series.
Reading: This may sound boring, but I’ve been reading a lot of articles on chain-of-thought prompting. I’m trying to catch up to all the different prompting techniques in AI, so I’ve been really digging into AI.
The last book I read was The AI Infused Classroom by Holly Clark.
Listening to: The joyful sounds of four children running around the house.
10. Early bird or night owl?
Both? I’m the most unhealthy individual in this regard. We wake up early, and I stay up late. Sometimes I wake up early because I didn’t plan my kids’ homeschool lessons, so I want to quickly do that before they wake up. Sometimes I wake up early just to meditate. Other times my husband and I wake up early and have coffee time together to chat quietly and check in with each other.
When I stay up late, it’s usually to catch up on TV shows.
