Standard 3.5
Helping others through problems that may arise is one of the main tasks that technology leaders have to handle. In this experience I worked with a colleague and coached him on Web 2.0 tools and helped him implement this in to his classroom. Throughout this experience I was tasked with setting up a minimum of 5 sessions to help coach my colleague in the implementation of technology and keep a journal of these sessions and experiences. I used a colleague that was across the hall and taught the same subject as I do to help him create effective lessons with technology. Not only did we work to create effective lessons but I was able to work with this colleague to support him when troubles with technology resources would arise. Throughout the 5 sessions, I worked with my colleague on three meaningful Web 2.0 tools. First I worked with him to learn about Google Docs and how to use it in his class. I have been using Google docs for a while now and have made it a part of my weekly assessments. The next tool that I worked with him on was an online learning platform that our school system has put in place. It is called My Big Campus, and this platform was put into place to help teachers create an online learning experience for students. With these sessions on My Big Campus I helped him get to become familiar with the site and then create lessons with technology to place on the site. The site is not just a starting point but a great place have students collaborate with one another through discussions. The last tool I coached him to use was called Kahoot. This tool is a great way to review material and make it more engaging for your students. I worked with him to create review games for his students when the learning was ready to be assessed. With all of these tools I coached my colleague on what to do when the technology resources do not want to work the way they are supposed to
During this experience not everything was perfect. I was tasked with showing my colleague how to implement technology in the classroom, but I also had to show him what to do within the means of what we have available at Moody high School. Moody High School has a huge infrastructure problem, and this has been the hardest part about coaching colleagues to implement technology. So I have had to teach myself and my colleagues how to troubleshoot situations with infrastructure we do have. Included in infrastructure problems, resources can act up and quit working at any moment. Students will definitely forget their usernames and passwords to some of the resources being used. One particular example that I helped my colleague with was with a new student in his class. With the tool My Big Campus, students are not automatically put into the system for this tool. So what do you do for this student when you have posted an assignment in My Big Campus? I had to learn this the long way but I worked with this teacher to create the assignment in a different medium that was accessible to all. I coached this teacher to use the school website. We used the same information that was posted in My Big Campus and copied it a word documents with links to the teacher section of the school website. Here students will be able to get on the internet and go to the school site and select the correct class and complete their work. In another example, working with google docs, some students may have been working with PowerPoint presentation. The assignment was to be turned in through Google Docs, so students would have to transfer their work over to Google Slides. This is not the case, Google Docs has the ability to upload work that was created in other applications and still share it with who it needs to be shared with. This was an easy fix to me, but my colleague felt stressed that he would have to grade in two different mediums. In this experience, I had to convince my colleague that technology was useable even with our current situation. The reason for convincing comes from his past attempts to use technology with most of them failing. Most of the troubleshooting I coached him on was minor such as, what if students do not have internet at home or what if students do not have active emails? These were the types of situations that are an easy fix. The best fix for bandwidth issues was to have students in groups with one computer rather than three or four computers. Each student having their own computer will create havoc at our school because of the bandwidth issues we have. Basic hardware problems in his classes were more along the lines of computer updates, sign on issues (which our coordinator helped with), and bandwidth issues which caused the internet to be slow. I was able to coach patience and again more group work rather than individual work. This was the easy fix to bandwidth issues that we have no control over.
I learned a great deal from this experience. The first thing that I learned was that I could help others learn to use technology effectively and work to circumvent issues that may cause teachers to quit using these resources. My first few years of teaching I was always the one who kept trade secrets to myself, but now I could not imagine anyone going through their normal class without technology tools. I also learned that more and more teachers are becoming skeptics of technology only because of the infrastructure problems that schools, especially mine, are facing because of budget shortfalls. With quality troubleshooting support and training teachers will be able to continue to bypass infrastructure problems and work to create a better learning environment. If I had to do anything different in this experience I would extend the length of the coaching sessions which would allow for more time to help teachers with support on issues that come up. I would also spend more time in their classrooms to see if some of the issues could have been avoided. This would take help from my administration adding another planning period to help get to teachers classes. While this particular experience lasted 5 sessions, my colleague still comes to me for help and to pick my mind. By extending the period of coaching I would be able to give a broader base of experiences for my colleague to draw from. By coaching and mentoring my colleague, students in his classes will receive more engaging lessons as well as become more familiar with technology that they may come in contact with in their future jobs. For the school, the more teachers that are creating more engaging and authentic learning experiences, the better our students will be prepared for future experiences. Moody High Schools ACT scores will be the best way to assess this learning in the long run, but in the short run student involvement and engagement in the classroom will be the best assessment. The short-term impact will have to involve observations not only from the technology leader but administration.
During this experience not everything was perfect. I was tasked with showing my colleague how to implement technology in the classroom, but I also had to show him what to do within the means of what we have available at Moody high School. Moody High School has a huge infrastructure problem, and this has been the hardest part about coaching colleagues to implement technology. So I have had to teach myself and my colleagues how to troubleshoot situations with infrastructure we do have. Included in infrastructure problems, resources can act up and quit working at any moment. Students will definitely forget their usernames and passwords to some of the resources being used. One particular example that I helped my colleague with was with a new student in his class. With the tool My Big Campus, students are not automatically put into the system for this tool. So what do you do for this student when you have posted an assignment in My Big Campus? I had to learn this the long way but I worked with this teacher to create the assignment in a different medium that was accessible to all. I coached this teacher to use the school website. We used the same information that was posted in My Big Campus and copied it a word documents with links to the teacher section of the school website. Here students will be able to get on the internet and go to the school site and select the correct class and complete their work. In another example, working with google docs, some students may have been working with PowerPoint presentation. The assignment was to be turned in through Google Docs, so students would have to transfer their work over to Google Slides. This is not the case, Google Docs has the ability to upload work that was created in other applications and still share it with who it needs to be shared with. This was an easy fix to me, but my colleague felt stressed that he would have to grade in two different mediums. In this experience, I had to convince my colleague that technology was useable even with our current situation. The reason for convincing comes from his past attempts to use technology with most of them failing. Most of the troubleshooting I coached him on was minor such as, what if students do not have internet at home or what if students do not have active emails? These were the types of situations that are an easy fix. The best fix for bandwidth issues was to have students in groups with one computer rather than three or four computers. Each student having their own computer will create havoc at our school because of the bandwidth issues we have. Basic hardware problems in his classes were more along the lines of computer updates, sign on issues (which our coordinator helped with), and bandwidth issues which caused the internet to be slow. I was able to coach patience and again more group work rather than individual work. This was the easy fix to bandwidth issues that we have no control over.
I learned a great deal from this experience. The first thing that I learned was that I could help others learn to use technology effectively and work to circumvent issues that may cause teachers to quit using these resources. My first few years of teaching I was always the one who kept trade secrets to myself, but now I could not imagine anyone going through their normal class without technology tools. I also learned that more and more teachers are becoming skeptics of technology only because of the infrastructure problems that schools, especially mine, are facing because of budget shortfalls. With quality troubleshooting support and training teachers will be able to continue to bypass infrastructure problems and work to create a better learning environment. If I had to do anything different in this experience I would extend the length of the coaching sessions which would allow for more time to help teachers with support on issues that come up. I would also spend more time in their classrooms to see if some of the issues could have been avoided. This would take help from my administration adding another planning period to help get to teachers classes. While this particular experience lasted 5 sessions, my colleague still comes to me for help and to pick my mind. By extending the period of coaching I would be able to give a broader base of experiences for my colleague to draw from. By coaching and mentoring my colleague, students in his classes will receive more engaging lessons as well as become more familiar with technology that they may come in contact with in their future jobs. For the school, the more teachers that are creating more engaging and authentic learning experiences, the better our students will be prepared for future experiences. Moody High Schools ACT scores will be the best way to assess this learning in the long run, but in the short run student involvement and engagement in the classroom will be the best assessment. The short-term impact will have to involve observations not only from the technology leader but administration.
itec_7460_unstructured_fall_14.doc | |
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coaching_journal-_mr._campbell.docx | |
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File Type: | docx |