Coaching Project Goal:
My goal for this project was to develop a collaborative approach to one-on-one coaching with my colleague to improve her work as a teacher through using technology tools.
My goal for this project was to develop a collaborative approach to one-on-one coaching with my colleague to improve her work as a teacher through using technology tools.
Planning, Research and Standards:
In my own experience, I have responded well when I have received one-on-one instruction. When developing this coach plan, I wanted to see if the research would support my personal experiences. Parr found that effective teacher development and support needs to foster participation in a collaborative approach to technology implementation. (Parr et. al. 1999) As such, I wanted to make sure this experience was collaborative, and not just a top-down approach to learning.
This project met the following ISTE Coaching standards: Standard 1, Standard 2.a, 2.e, 2.g, 3.a, 3.e, 3.g, 4.a, 4.c, 6.c.
I created a video documenting the coaching I did with my colleague, which can be watched here.
In my own experience, I have responded well when I have received one-on-one instruction. When developing this coach plan, I wanted to see if the research would support my personal experiences. Parr found that effective teacher development and support needs to foster participation in a collaborative approach to technology implementation. (Parr et. al. 1999) As such, I wanted to make sure this experience was collaborative, and not just a top-down approach to learning.
This project met the following ISTE Coaching standards: Standard 1, Standard 2.a, 2.e, 2.g, 3.a, 3.e, 3.g, 4.a, 4.c, 6.c.
I created a video documenting the coaching I did with my colleague, which can be watched here.
Meetings:
I met with my colleague five times during the course of this experience. I also had two weeks of preparation. Below is an overview of our meetings:
Meeting 1: Needs Assessment. My co-worker and I met to figure out what she needed and what she was interested in learning about.
The next two weeks we did not meet; instead I focused on developing a plan that met her needs, as well as my coaching goals.
Meeting 2: Edmodo. This session was very hands on because my co-worker need to set up an account and play around with Edmodo’s features. She uses Facebook in her personal life so she was pretty comfortable with using it.
Meeting 3: Twitter. She had a personal Twitter account, so we set up a second one. I also showed her how to switch between accounts on her Twitter app on her iPhone.
Meeting 4: Digital Citizenship. We spoke about this every meeting, but during this meeting we discussed hypothetical situations and examples from our classrooms.
Meeting 5: Revisiting Edmodo and Using Twitter for Student Communication. We went back and talked about how things were going with using Twitter to tell her students about assignments and how they seemed to be responding to it.
For more detailed information, my weekly reflections are here.
I met with my colleague five times during the course of this experience. I also had two weeks of preparation. Below is an overview of our meetings:
Meeting 1: Needs Assessment. My co-worker and I met to figure out what she needed and what she was interested in learning about.
The next two weeks we did not meet; instead I focused on developing a plan that met her needs, as well as my coaching goals.
Meeting 2: Edmodo. This session was very hands on because my co-worker need to set up an account and play around with Edmodo’s features. She uses Facebook in her personal life so she was pretty comfortable with using it.
Meeting 3: Twitter. She had a personal Twitter account, so we set up a second one. I also showed her how to switch between accounts on her Twitter app on her iPhone.
Meeting 4: Digital Citizenship. We spoke about this every meeting, but during this meeting we discussed hypothetical situations and examples from our classrooms.
Meeting 5: Revisiting Edmodo and Using Twitter for Student Communication. We went back and talked about how things were going with using Twitter to tell her students about assignments and how they seemed to be responding to it.
For more detailed information, my weekly reflections are here.
Project Reflection
My original goal at the beginning of the project was to help my colleague learn ways she could improve her communication and teaching abilities through technology tools. Overall, I think I met my goal. This was confirmed by her feedback as well.
I enjoyed working with my colleague and I felt like it was more collaborative than anything else because she is tech savvy in her personal life, she just had not integrated it as much into her professional life. By using my skills as an educator, I was able to connect with her to improve her knowledge of technology tools, as well as increase her confidence in using technology in their classrooms. If I would do this again, I would spend more time going back to the tools we learned initially, to ensure that my co-worker was able to implement them into her classroom. I think I spent a lot of time teaching tools, but not enough time ensuring that the resources were connected to the learning and teaching that my co-worker does in her classroom. We did focus on this during our last session, but I think it would have been more effective to have done this throughout the entire project.
This experience solidified my competency in standard 4 because I was able to connect with my “student” and help her meet the goals of the coach project. However, I need to continue to develop my assessment and planning of the actual project plan to improve on standard 2. Finally, I think that going forward it will be important to find a way to reach more teachers, and not just the ones who are always open to trying new things (or who are my friends). But this felt like a good start.
Resources
Parr, Judy M. "A Case of Extensive Teacher Development and Support." Journal of Research on Computing in Education 31.3 (1999): 280-91.Proquest. Web. 29 June 2015.
My original goal at the beginning of the project was to help my colleague learn ways she could improve her communication and teaching abilities through technology tools. Overall, I think I met my goal. This was confirmed by her feedback as well.
I enjoyed working with my colleague and I felt like it was more collaborative than anything else because she is tech savvy in her personal life, she just had not integrated it as much into her professional life. By using my skills as an educator, I was able to connect with her to improve her knowledge of technology tools, as well as increase her confidence in using technology in their classrooms. If I would do this again, I would spend more time going back to the tools we learned initially, to ensure that my co-worker was able to implement them into her classroom. I think I spent a lot of time teaching tools, but not enough time ensuring that the resources were connected to the learning and teaching that my co-worker does in her classroom. We did focus on this during our last session, but I think it would have been more effective to have done this throughout the entire project.
This experience solidified my competency in standard 4 because I was able to connect with my “student” and help her meet the goals of the coach project. However, I need to continue to develop my assessment and planning of the actual project plan to improve on standard 2. Finally, I think that going forward it will be important to find a way to reach more teachers, and not just the ones who are always open to trying new things (or who are my friends). But this felt like a good start.
Resources
Parr, Judy M. "A Case of Extensive Teacher Development and Support." Journal of Research on Computing in Education 31.3 (1999): 280-91.Proquest. Web. 29 June 2015.