New Cycle: 2

Reflect on how your school culture has shifted since you started coaching this year. What roadblocks have you hit (or are hitting now)? What strategies did you use? What support do you need from your mentor and/or your principal?

Well, I just came off a whirlwind week preparaing for and hosting Dee's visit to our school.

I loved seeing him.

I think it grounded me and redefined / reminded me of the purpose of this program, the path I'm on, and the goals we have.

The staff and students in our school were so incredibly helpful and supportive before, during, and after the visit. Dee is an important part of this DLP proess and family, and I wanted everything to be as perfect for his visit as it could be.

I invited the local newspaper to come out and interview Dee. He IS a rockstar, after all, and rockstars should be in the paper! Our district had not released information about the DLP program to our community, so I though Dee's visit was a perfect opportunity for making the announcement and explaining the importance of the program to our community. The paper was more than happy to send a reporter and a photographer, and I look forward to seeing the article. (and will post it here when it is published)

One thing I noticed about Dee, the rockstar, was EVERYONE wanted to meet him, talk to him, interact with him, and basically, glue themselves to him the entire day! I shared him with the school, because, after all, the program is theirs, not mine alone. I didn't really get any 1:1 time with Dee, but, in a way, that was the best way to use his time. For instance;

I hosted a meet and greet with a light lunch so the administration, first cycle teachers, innovation advocates, and others could pop in, meet Dee, talk a little while, ask questions, and get a real feel for the program. I watched. I listened. I soaked it all in. Let's face it, I can call Dee every day. I have access to him whenever I need it. It was very important to me to have the administration and staff experience what I get to experience during every DLP meeting. I think mingling with Dee brought our school community very much closer to the program. Comments after Dee's visit solidified this idea for me. The program just became much more personal, much more important, much more meaningful to everyone involved with the preparation and participation with Dee's visit. Even the students were all a buzz about Dee's visit to the math class: "Mrs. Engler, tell Dee we figured out his math problem. Oh, and tell him we figured out even more after he left! When are you coming in to work with our class?"
I love it!

My administration; I invited the superintendent, the high school principal, the middle school principal, the assistant middle school principal, and the director of special ed. In some way, I work with teachers under the supervision of all these individuals. I wanted each of them to know, first hand, how special this program is to me and how important Dee's visit was to our school. They all thanked me for including them and for making them feel like they were all a part of the DLP process.

Even though the visit was positive, I need the support of my mentor and my administration more now than ever. The momentum of the program needs to continue to build and grow. A roadblock I've recently experienced is complacency. My administrative support is overwhelmed with student discipline, teacher supervision, program implementation, and other administrative duties. The DLP program runs smoothly, on a daily basis, but, yet, I still require support. My administrative meetings are becoming brief, with little discussion, limited interaction. This is not a complaint, it's a reality.

1st week, Second Cycle

I'm currently working with one of the Innovation Advocates, Paige.

Paige is an ELA grade 8 teacher.
She's had a lot on her plate this year.
She is also the new Wilson Reader/Remedial Reading Teacher. 

She thought she'd like to try blogging with her students.  They read The Pearl, by John Steinbeck, every year, so she thought this would be a good place to start.  She selected 6 "bloggers" to start things off.  I taught the girls how to access the blog, gave them the code, and started them off with making predictions.  The students, of course, hit the ground running and began blogging like rock starts. 

Adults underestimate the abilities students have, especially when it comes to using technology.  Paige was surprised at how well the students did with making the predictions.  They added "tags" at the bottom of their page, and they commented on one another's posts.  Surprisingly, they used perfect online etiquette, using complete sentences, positive language, and good writing skills.  We worked on chapter one entries today.  They picked up on the process of creating a new post very quickly.  Tomorrow, we will add more students to the team and get more interactions with the postings.

Paige and I talked about going to an Edcamp in Greenville, SC.  I'm excited that she might be willing to travel that far for a professional development opportunity.  She has two young children at home, so I wasn't sure if she'd be up for travel.  Hopefully, we both get to go and learn together!

My other coaching experiences this week are fun!  The computer teacher is working on the Google coding activity
https://csfirst.withgoogle.com/en/hoc2017#?utm_source=google&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=HOC17Email 

And his students seem to really love it!

I also did my first "sweep" observation.  I actually did that in Paige's room, because one of her classes has 13 IEP students and 4 regular ed students.  Many of the students in that class require a lot of redirection.  I wanted her to see a visual of who was off task and when.  The exercise was done very casually, but the data spoke volumes about who was off task, how many times, and during what portion of the class.  Very interesting data....predictable, but nonetheless, still interesting.

I had a tremendous breakthrough with a "new" teacher in the building.  Kristin is a secondary math teacher who was recently moved to the middle school.  She now teaches 7th grade students.  She is not happy about the transfer.  It was an involuntary move.  

She is very nervous with this group of students and misses her high school classes.  I offered to help her with a few things in the beginning of the year, but she said she was just too overwhelmed and using technology was not a convenient way for her to get accustomed to the new students .  I backed off and have gradually been sending her email tips, including her in the Google Classroom page, and checking on her from time to time.  Today, she came to my "office," which is just my old classroom transformed into a work space, and asked me to help her scan documents to make PDF's.  I helped her.  Then, she asked me to show her how to post the PDF's to the classroom.  She asked me how to create an assignment, how to post it, how to create topics, how to establish a due date, how to make a copy for each student, and how to use a PDF to Doc extension.  All in a period of 10 minutes!  SCORE!!!!!  She asked me to sign her up for cycle 3.......DONE!

End of the first cycle

So the first cycle is over.

I feel.....

Well......

Not sure.

I'm so happy.  In fact, sometimes I feel guilty about how happy I am. This job was tailor-made for me. I have my administrative papers, but I'm not a principal.  I'm a coach.  I love working with others.  I' was a cheerleader for years in school, and I"m a cheerleader at heart.  Coaching allows for that professional collaboration, but, at the same time, it also provides that natural opportunity to celebrate!  Cheering on my fellow colleagues when they succeed gives me great pleasure.  Coaching one period a day for all these years has been very beneficial, but it was never enough.  I've been wanting to be a full-time tech coach for years, and I feel as though my pumpkin has finally turned into the most luxurious carriage I've ever seen, my glass slippers are sparkling under my magnificent gown, and my prince charming is gorgeous!

The job:  Oh, how I love this job!  I feel as though I am making such an impact.  The teachers are using technology like crazy.  They are fighting over who gets the Chromebooks and who gets me in their classroom!  Right now I'm working on blogging, video lessons, online classes, lab simulations, and so much more.  Today was a great day....one of the science co-teachers asked me to help her use an online lab simulator with her students, and today, she was thrilled to tell me how well it worked and how much her students learned from the simulation experience.  Win!  Score!  Even by biggest critic in the beginning of the year asked me for help.  They are coming along nicely.

Another thing I love is every day is a new day, a new challenge, a new experience.  Are you getting the idea that "new" is a recurring theme here?  I needed new. I love new.  I'm embracing new.  What's really great is the other teachers are embracing it as well.  I am overwhelmed with how much the teachers are enjoying this position as much as I am.  I get excited messages from teachers telling me they found a good app or they are using a new online program or they want to go to a conference.  I love the newly generated enthusiasm.  They hate when I am absent from school!  LOL  I love that as well.  We've set up some "cloning" features so no one really misses me that much.  They all text me, email me, hangout with me.....and if that doesn't work, they find one of my kids.....yes, I have little "me's" planted all over the school.....I tell the kids, "I'm not going to be in school tomorrow, check on Mrs. S., and make sure her. blah, blah blah is working."  The kids then check in with me on hangouts and it's all good!  Some of the teachers are getting really great at helping one another as well.....they still text me and ask, "Hey, is it OK if I help Mr. J. with using that new app you showed me?"  They are growing...becoming independent learners, facilitators, innovators.

That leads me to the next emotion:
I'm a little sad
i'm nervous about this project coming to an end. 
I'm worried the district will not pick this position up and let me continue my work.  I'm not sure I want to be cut loose from Google Education, Ed Tech, and Digital Promise.  I take all of this extremely seriously and I feel as though this project (and I) have cred simply because of the association with the giants in education.
A huge part of me is terrified for it all to end.  But.....

Another part of me is very excited to see what's to come.
What's next on this journey?
Where am I headed?
Where will I lead others?
Where will they lead me?

Week 8

How did this week’s coaching / observations go? Share stories / examples / wonders / questions / successes / challenges from the week.

How did this cycle go? What was successful? What would you want to do differently next cycle?

What are your goals for next cycle?

This was a very busy week.
I worked with so many teachers on meeting goals, and it was fabulous!

Chantel:

Chantel is an ELA teacher....she's been teaching English for her entire career of approximately 20 years. She is excellent. Her student state assessment scores are always high. Her students learn a great deal about using the English language. Technology is rarely part of her daily lesson plan. Why is this so? We do not always have Chromebooks available for use in the classrooms. She comes up with ideas, but doesn't seem to use them, because it frustrates that the students cannot simply "take out the Chromebooks" to use them in class.

I've been taking baby steps coaching her to believe in the use of technology enough to start using it as much as possible, even if it means we have to beg, borrow, or steal Chromebooks for students to use. I was observing one of her classes this week, and I noticed the lesson was inflection and the State Farm commercial "That's my car?!" The commercial has a young girl getting a car for a present and she's so excited....then, a man sees his car has been vandalized and is upset. I thought this was a great lesson. I asked her how she was having students demonstrate the inflection and tone. She said they were just pairing up and acting it out with one another in the hall. I suggested using IPads to record their inflection. I arranged for Chantel to get an I Pad for her class, and she let them try it. They were very shy at first, but then, they loved it! I was so happy she took a chance. (We have a set of 8, 6 year old I Pads that we use for STEM classes, at times, so I arranged for her to get one for the class) It was a simple way to get the students using technology in order to meet a learning goal.

Christine:

Christine's father passed away a week ago. I took care of helping her at school with using a Google sheet to monitor student behavior while she was out on bereavement days. The sheet was not set up with a date/time, so teachers started changing information on the form and were confused about how to complete and submit the data chart. I took the sheet and turned it into a form, adding the areas needed by each of the teachers completing it. I set up a reminder on Google Keep so teachers wouldn't forget to complete it. When Christine came back, I walked her through the steps of using the form, showed her how to make her own for other students, and walked her through using Google Keep reminders. I created Screen casts for using forms and for using Google Keep and shared them in our school's google classroom for DLP. resources. She cried and thanked me for helping her stay organized, even though she wasn't in school. I was so very happy to be her coach and to be able to help her personally and professionally.

This job is so rewarding. I am so very grateful to be the extra set of hands, the resource, the helper, the facilitator, the mentor, the coach. It's amazing how busy my days can be, but the reward from the hard work is priceless. The teachers in my building are so grateful. They thank me constantly for helping them find the tools they need to complete a task or to enhance a learning goal, and they thank me for pushing them to try new technologies to help them improve instruction and to help their students learn.

The teachers are starting to get nervous that heir support system (me) will vanish next year. Like so many newly introduced professional strategies and programs, we often times expect teachers to embrace change, get on board, try new things, then we pull the carpet out from under their feet and watch them fall because we remove the support. I hope the support remains in place, because this is a great program. I don't say that very often about new ideas....but, this? This is good! It's better than good. It's working, the teachers are loving it, they are on board, and they want it to continue. And, I truly hope it does. :)