First Week: Wow!

I must say, the first week of coaching went off without a hitch, so to speak.

I feel as though the teachers in my building still have questions about what a coach actually does.

First scenario:

Kathy, a very anxious, but wonderful teacher, asks me a question about signing out the Chromebook carts.  I answer her.  I ask her if she's doing anything special with her classes and if she'd like me to come in to help her implement a tech component.  She says, "No, I'm good."

I begin leaving her room, and she says, "Wait, I do have a question about Google Docs."

She asks the question, and that leads to a second, third, and fourth question.  Before I know it, she's brainstorming ways the two of us can work together to improve the way she presents her Google classroom lessons to her students, more innovative ways to use Docs, Forms, and Slides in her lessons, and, possibly, moving forward with some other tech ideas (with video) that she's wanted to use for a while now, but she did not think she could "pull it off alone."

When I left the room, she said, "So that's what coaching is all about!"  I said, "Yes, it is!"

Wonderful feelings flood my heart after this meeting!  I'm making a difference, and coaching is working!

Today, I have a full schedule:  special ed in the morning, setting up individual classes for each student, making assignments that are UDL friendly, using speech to text for one student, online flash cards for another.  Great stuff.  The afternoon is packed with ELA lessons.  The teacher is new to using Google Classroom.  She's a little afraid to give up all the hundreds of paper copies she uses with her students.  I explain the simplicity of it all being located within Drive and the classroom itself.  We discuss the organizational benefits, but we also discuss how we can simplify her day by eliminating the copy machine!  LOL  She is completely on board!

The downside:  I had one teacher answer "NA" to each question on the needs survey.  He even wrote "NA" for his room number!!!  That's OK, though...he ate a doughnut from the box I brought in this morning and thanked me as he passed me in the hall.  I'll take that as a "maybe someday I"ll let you in."