1.4 Diffusion of Innovations & Change
Candidates research, recommend, and implement strategies for initiating and sustaining technology innovations and for managing the change process in schools.
(PSC 1.4/ISTE 1d)
(PSC 1.4/ISTE 1d)
Artifact: Coaching Journal
Reflection:
During the fall of 2015, I worked alongside another teacher in my school to coach and guide her in the design and implementation of effective technology use in her classroom for teaching and learning. Throughout this process, I recorded my goals, strategies, outcomes, and reflections for each session in this Coaching Journal for the ITEC 7460: Professional Learning and Technology Innovation course. Over the course of six weeks, I was able to create a partnership with this teacher to identify her strengths, weaknesses, and willingness to adopt change to create a plan that was individualized to meet her specific needs and then implement the plan with her to meet a final goal.
In conjunction with the action and evaluation plan that was created for technology use in our school, one of the goals was to work with and mentor teachers in the area of effective technology use and specifically the learning management system, Canvas. For this coaching journal experience, I first had to select another teacher to coach and then do some research to find out what strategies and resources would be most effective for her teaching style and the content she wished to cover with her students. Once I decided upon Canvas and Padlet as two specific technology innovations I wanted to introduce her to and recommend for use in her classroom, things began moving very smoothly. From the adopter survey I conducted on her, she seemed willing to change what she was doing with technology from a teaching perspective, and that opened the door to conversation about other technology innovations that she might implement in her classroom. In the coaching sessions I modeled for her the design and use of these resources until she felt comfortable to implement them on her own and then I coached her through that process and gave her feedback on what went well and what she might consider doing differently in the future. The teacher was pleased with her final lessons she was able to design and implement and felt strongly that she could share this with her other social studies professional learning community members in hopes that they would be willing to try some of the same technology innovations thus continuing the change model throughout the school.
While I have worked with individuals and small groups to explore and implement technology innovations previous to this assignment, I learned as a technology coach that you must be flexible as our coaching schedule had to be adjusted multiple times because of other meetings or circumstances beyond our control. This was a great way of working one-on-one with a teacher to build her confidence and skills in technology in hopes that she might be able to continue and pass along her knowledge to someone else along the way to spread the technology literacy in the building. In the future, I would adjust this coaching journal to include the reflection of the teacher I am coaching as well. While I was able to go back and learn from the outcomes and my reflection from each session, there is a great deal of knowledge that can be gained from the feedback and reflection of the person I was working with. We did have some informal conversations about each session and what we wanted to accomplish during the next coaching session, a more formal survey or quick set of reflection questions would have been better to guide me in my growth as an instructional technology coach.
Although I was only working with one other teacher during this coaching journal assignment, I believe that a significant impact will be felt in our grade level from this coaching experience. Not only will the person I coached be able to go back to her content area collaboration group and share out the lesson we created to five other teachers, but I was able to hone my skills as a coach so that I can be more effective with each person I work with in the future. The impact of this coaching experience will be seen through the use of technology in the teacher’s classroom and the work that she is providing for her students as a direct result from the coaching sessions we had. As word spreads, professional development will increase as more teachers become interested in trying out some of the same tools and resources. This impact will be assessed through classroom observations and the growth of technology usage and interest to use technology throughout the school.
During the fall of 2015, I worked alongside another teacher in my school to coach and guide her in the design and implementation of effective technology use in her classroom for teaching and learning. Throughout this process, I recorded my goals, strategies, outcomes, and reflections for each session in this Coaching Journal for the ITEC 7460: Professional Learning and Technology Innovation course. Over the course of six weeks, I was able to create a partnership with this teacher to identify her strengths, weaknesses, and willingness to adopt change to create a plan that was individualized to meet her specific needs and then implement the plan with her to meet a final goal.
In conjunction with the action and evaluation plan that was created for technology use in our school, one of the goals was to work with and mentor teachers in the area of effective technology use and specifically the learning management system, Canvas. For this coaching journal experience, I first had to select another teacher to coach and then do some research to find out what strategies and resources would be most effective for her teaching style and the content she wished to cover with her students. Once I decided upon Canvas and Padlet as two specific technology innovations I wanted to introduce her to and recommend for use in her classroom, things began moving very smoothly. From the adopter survey I conducted on her, she seemed willing to change what she was doing with technology from a teaching perspective, and that opened the door to conversation about other technology innovations that she might implement in her classroom. In the coaching sessions I modeled for her the design and use of these resources until she felt comfortable to implement them on her own and then I coached her through that process and gave her feedback on what went well and what she might consider doing differently in the future. The teacher was pleased with her final lessons she was able to design and implement and felt strongly that she could share this with her other social studies professional learning community members in hopes that they would be willing to try some of the same technology innovations thus continuing the change model throughout the school.
While I have worked with individuals and small groups to explore and implement technology innovations previous to this assignment, I learned as a technology coach that you must be flexible as our coaching schedule had to be adjusted multiple times because of other meetings or circumstances beyond our control. This was a great way of working one-on-one with a teacher to build her confidence and skills in technology in hopes that she might be able to continue and pass along her knowledge to someone else along the way to spread the technology literacy in the building. In the future, I would adjust this coaching journal to include the reflection of the teacher I am coaching as well. While I was able to go back and learn from the outcomes and my reflection from each session, there is a great deal of knowledge that can be gained from the feedback and reflection of the person I was working with. We did have some informal conversations about each session and what we wanted to accomplish during the next coaching session, a more formal survey or quick set of reflection questions would have been better to guide me in my growth as an instructional technology coach.
Although I was only working with one other teacher during this coaching journal assignment, I believe that a significant impact will be felt in our grade level from this coaching experience. Not only will the person I coached be able to go back to her content area collaboration group and share out the lesson we created to five other teachers, but I was able to hone my skills as a coach so that I can be more effective with each person I work with in the future. The impact of this coaching experience will be seen through the use of technology in the teacher’s classroom and the work that she is providing for her students as a direct result from the coaching sessions we had. As word spreads, professional development will increase as more teachers become interested in trying out some of the same tools and resources. This impact will be assessed through classroom observations and the growth of technology usage and interest to use technology throughout the school.