Standard 5.2
Being a technology coach comes with some unfamiliar territory for me. I am teacher of children and have not had to teach to adults. This standard is best served by the coaching experience from the fall of 2014. I had the opportunity to work closely with a fellow teacher and help him work to implement technology tools in his classroom. My colleague happens to teach the same subject and is across the hall from me. He is a younger teacher who has only been teaching for 4 years. In the pre-survey I distributed to my colleague he had reservations about trying new things, because he felt what he was doing was good enough. Being able to guide this teacher through new tools and see how adding these little things made a difference in his teaching abilities. This guidance would serve me well in working to satisfying International Society for Technology in Education standards. The standard I focused on was standard 2-C. It is the goal of this standard to coach teachers and model engagement of students in local and global interdisciplinary units in technology. I feel the aspects of this artifact relay the goals of this standard.
When the project was assigned I had to find a candidate who would be willing to be coached on certain technological tools. I sent an email to my department and hoped someone would be willing to help me out. When my colleague across the hall emailed me back I felt relieved but also anxious. Through our time together at Moody High School, we have spoken several times about some professional development sessions we have attended and the parts of those sessions he liked. I immediately asked him if he would take a pre-survey for me to help me develop a plan of professional learning. I created the survey on Google Docs and emailed him the link. He took the survey and in a few days we were setting up times to meet. From his survey my colleague had stated that he would like to learn more about Google Docs and how to use it with his students. In the first few sessions the plan I had developed was to model Google Docs uses and then help him come up with ideas to implement in his classes. While modeling the uses of Google Docs I showed my colleague how this tool serves students at school and away from school. Students can use this tool online as an alternative to Microsoft Office as well, which is a need because not all students have access to this away from school. My colleague seemed to like the ability of giving feedback through Google Docs and it being real time. He was able to use this benefit immediately through writing assignments, rather than the traditional paper and pencil assignment. Through our sessions I also modeled how this tool can be used in group work. Students no longer have to work on projects together, but can share it with each other and fulfill each student’s part of the assignment as long as there is internet access. While coaching my colleague I used techniques like I would use for students but in a more mature tone. The one technique I used was “I do, You do.” Here I was able to effectively show how to use and then help him use it right after. During this time, I was also able to help him trouble-shoot certain situations that arise at our school. Additional tools I helped coach my colleague learn were Kahoot and My Big Campus. Kahoot was a tool I wanted to show him to help bring interactive review games to his class. Students use their phones as the clickers to answer the questions you create or available quizzes in the archives. This session was great because he was able to engage his students in a new way while reviewing for a upcoming assessment. In our last session my colleague wanted some help creating online lessons for his classes through My Big Campus, which is the online learning platform our system purchased. In this session I was able to help my colleague create engaging lessons using the platform to have a blended environment in his classroom. Using this platform I modeled how to use Web quest to create a more student-centered lesson. This session was built around modeling how to integrate online learning and face to face learning in one classroom. He really like this type of lesson and expressed his interest in doing others. In each session I modeled how to use the tools and then allowed him to experience them. Some of the tools of My Big Campus would allow him to give online assignments without having students in class. Each time I modeled a tool, I gave him the best way to use the tool to his advantage. This way he would use it correctly to teach and assess learning.
This project was not as difficult as I thought it was going to be. Teaching students is easy to me, but teaching a colleague I thought would be tough. Come to find out that I had a good coaching experience because my colleague was easy to work with. I learned a great deal about myself during this experience. I have always found myself to be sociable and that attribute helped me to make it through this project. I also learned that not every teacher is willing to change the way they teach. Out of the five emails I sent out to my department, this colleague was the only one to respond. While they are all about you doing something new and cool, they may not be wanting to do it themselves. If I could change something about this project I would involve the county technology integration specialist. I would involve her to help me with tactics to help guide me in my coaching. I had the book to help me with strategies but there is no one better than a real person who has done this before. Their expertise could have helped me to be more effective in my delivery. This coaching experience not only helped me but help my colleague. He has continued to use the tools I showed him as well as wanting other tools to use. This type of experience will only help me be able to help other teachers in the school. If I can help others this will change the learning environment in turn creating better learning experiences for our students. This can be measured by observations, and student engagement in classrooms. We should see students become more active in the classroom because of this new learning environment being created.
When the project was assigned I had to find a candidate who would be willing to be coached on certain technological tools. I sent an email to my department and hoped someone would be willing to help me out. When my colleague across the hall emailed me back I felt relieved but also anxious. Through our time together at Moody High School, we have spoken several times about some professional development sessions we have attended and the parts of those sessions he liked. I immediately asked him if he would take a pre-survey for me to help me develop a plan of professional learning. I created the survey on Google Docs and emailed him the link. He took the survey and in a few days we were setting up times to meet. From his survey my colleague had stated that he would like to learn more about Google Docs and how to use it with his students. In the first few sessions the plan I had developed was to model Google Docs uses and then help him come up with ideas to implement in his classes. While modeling the uses of Google Docs I showed my colleague how this tool serves students at school and away from school. Students can use this tool online as an alternative to Microsoft Office as well, which is a need because not all students have access to this away from school. My colleague seemed to like the ability of giving feedback through Google Docs and it being real time. He was able to use this benefit immediately through writing assignments, rather than the traditional paper and pencil assignment. Through our sessions I also modeled how this tool can be used in group work. Students no longer have to work on projects together, but can share it with each other and fulfill each student’s part of the assignment as long as there is internet access. While coaching my colleague I used techniques like I would use for students but in a more mature tone. The one technique I used was “I do, You do.” Here I was able to effectively show how to use and then help him use it right after. During this time, I was also able to help him trouble-shoot certain situations that arise at our school. Additional tools I helped coach my colleague learn were Kahoot and My Big Campus. Kahoot was a tool I wanted to show him to help bring interactive review games to his class. Students use their phones as the clickers to answer the questions you create or available quizzes in the archives. This session was great because he was able to engage his students in a new way while reviewing for a upcoming assessment. In our last session my colleague wanted some help creating online lessons for his classes through My Big Campus, which is the online learning platform our system purchased. In this session I was able to help my colleague create engaging lessons using the platform to have a blended environment in his classroom. Using this platform I modeled how to use Web quest to create a more student-centered lesson. This session was built around modeling how to integrate online learning and face to face learning in one classroom. He really like this type of lesson and expressed his interest in doing others. In each session I modeled how to use the tools and then allowed him to experience them. Some of the tools of My Big Campus would allow him to give online assignments without having students in class. Each time I modeled a tool, I gave him the best way to use the tool to his advantage. This way he would use it correctly to teach and assess learning.
This project was not as difficult as I thought it was going to be. Teaching students is easy to me, but teaching a colleague I thought would be tough. Come to find out that I had a good coaching experience because my colleague was easy to work with. I learned a great deal about myself during this experience. I have always found myself to be sociable and that attribute helped me to make it through this project. I also learned that not every teacher is willing to change the way they teach. Out of the five emails I sent out to my department, this colleague was the only one to respond. While they are all about you doing something new and cool, they may not be wanting to do it themselves. If I could change something about this project I would involve the county technology integration specialist. I would involve her to help me with tactics to help guide me in my coaching. I had the book to help me with strategies but there is no one better than a real person who has done this before. Their expertise could have helped me to be more effective in my delivery. This coaching experience not only helped me but help my colleague. He has continued to use the tools I showed him as well as wanting other tools to use. This type of experience will only help me be able to help other teachers in the school. If I can help others this will change the learning environment in turn creating better learning experiences for our students. This can be measured by observations, and student engagement in classrooms. We should see students become more active in the classroom because of this new learning environment being created.
coaching_journal-_mr._campbell.docx | |
File Size: | 17 kb |
File Type: | docx |