Supporting Tech Coaches

1. Supporting Tech Coaches SLATE Conference Tuesday, December 4 1:30-2:30 PM Dr. Andy Mork, EdD.

2. Content • Introduction • The Rationale • Coach Selection • Support Frameworks • Resources • Meetings • Visits • Linked Resources • Success Stories

3. Introduction • Dr. Andy Mork, EdD. • Former • Elementary Classroom Teacher (3rd and 4th grades) • Art Teacher (K-8) • Environmental Educator (naturalist at Wolf Ridge ELC in Finland, MN) • Current • Technology Integration Specialist Coach • 3 new district technology integration foci for 2012-2013 • 1 to 1 at Superior High School • 3 Technology Staff Development Days • 11 Building Tech Coaches

4. “The only focus of coaching is to improve student learning.” ~ from Mary Lou Ley Rationale

5. The Rationale • Coaching is critically important work. Technology can easily become about the stuff and the tools. • Teachers get comfortable with their own teaching style (and technology use) and do not want to change. • Coaching makes an impact on learning. Research backs this up. (will share resources) • When we had one coach for our 6 elementary schools, we did not see that the coach was equally effective in each building.

6. “At the back of my mind all the time: We are building leaders.” ~ Andy Coach Selection

7. Coach Selection • Willing, Not Able • Veteran teachers • Teachers who demonstrate instruction in line with our district vision, mission, and goals. • Principal endorsement • What the coaches asked for- • That their students will come first before coaching. • Reassurance that tech skills are not the most important thing. • Training • Collaboration and connections with other coaches

8. “Educational change is technically simple and socially complex." - Jeffries (1997) and Fullan (2001) Support Frameworks

9. Support Frameworks • Because some of our tech coaches had not had any coach training (our district had received EETT funding and Mary Lou Ley provided peer coach training from 2010-2012) we decided that training and meetings would be very important to: • Provide a knowledge base • Share some resources, tools, and expectations • Provide a framework for coaches’ learning and growth that was organic and based on constructivist principles

10. Support Frameworks • We trained our tech coaches with: • One half day crash course in the importance of coaching • Training in problem solving (detailed later) • One full day devoted to screen casting, movie making, and advance powerpoint (recording, etc.) • One half day meeting per month- share one tech resource or tool; share technology integration from their classroom and their current building focus; read an article about coaching; and compose next meeting agenda and action steps (example of technology use document)

11. “What coaches do each day influences what teachers do and that, in turn, influences what students know and do.” ~ Killion, 2008 Resources

12. Resources • We have read several powerful articles about coaching that has stimulated dialogue. All 6 of these are on the SLATE link for this class. Three of the best and most challenging coaching articles are: • Dennis Smart’s (2011) Patience and Partnership • Elisa MacDonald’s (2011) When Nice Won’t Suffice • Joanne Killian’s (2008) Are you Coaching Heavy or Light? • And 3 other key resources we used were: • ISTE’s NETS- C • Elena Aguilar’s (2011)- Four Conditions Essential for Instructional Coaching to work • Dealing with Problems- from Senge (2005)

13. Dennis Smart’s (2011) Patience and Partnership Best quote: And what we’ve learned, and what shows up in the evaluations, is that teachers learn best when two conditions are in play: colleague-to-colleague instruction and direct classroom practice in a low-risk, peer-supported situation.

14. Elisa MacDonald’s (2011) When Nice Won’t Suffice • Best Quote: • A team affected by the culture of nice can look high-functioning on the surface, but signs of an unhealthy culture may exist: Teachers rarely question each other’s and their own practice, assumptions, and beliefs…. Teachers recommend strategies for the presenting teacher to apply, but don’t critically reflect and apply them to their own instruction.

15. Joanne Killian’s (2008) Are you Coaching Heavy or Light? • Best Quote: Coaching heavy requires coaches to say “no” to trivial requests for support and to turn their attention to high-leverage services with the greatest potential for improving teaching and learning.

16. ISTE’s NETS- C • Best Quote: • Under Visionary Leadership • Implement strategies for initiating and sustaining technology innovations and manage the change process in schools and classrooms

17. Elena Aguilar’s (2011)- Four Conditions Essential for Instructional Coaching • Best Quote: • Condition #1: School culture. Teachers, as well as administrators, need to see themselves as learners, eager and capable of improving their practice when given support.

18. Dealing with Problems- from Senge (2005) • Best Quote: • People “shift the burden” of an underlying problem to other solutions- well-intentioned, easy fixes which seem extremely efficient. The easy fixes only address the symptoms, and make the underlying problem worse. As the symptoms clear up for the short term, the system loses its abilities to solving the underlying problem.

19. “So the question I am left with is- What problem does the district seek to solve through tech coaching?” ~ tech coach Meetings

20. Meetings • The coaches expressed their main concern during selection- How could they stay connected to what others were doing in other buildings? • Share outs on resources • Updates on • What the coach is doing/using in their own classroom • What the coach is working on in the building • This has allowed our coaches to stay connected, learn from each other, and in the process demonstrate another fundamental of constructivism- that learning is social. People retain more and learn deeper when they can share and teach one another.

21. “In the online course, I learned information and created an action plan. I was then able to adapt instruction based on more access to digital resources.” ~ Negative Nathan on whether the PD was valuable Results

22. Results • We are in the process of gathering data to compare student achievement results based on the technology integration work of the past few years. • Anecdotal evidence of higher student engagement. • Overwhelmingly positive reports and comments about tech staff development days. • Reduced absences on staff development days. • Increased teacher engagement in peer leadership- 45 staff facilitators • High teacher engagement with requests, suggestions, ideas, and questions for web coaches. (48% said to change nothing about the tech days) • Quick time for implementation, adaptation, and creation. • Increase in positive anecdotal evidence from many building principals about the types of learning and instructional delivery in classrooms.

23. “Go make the magic happen!” ~ Andy Empowering Coaches

24. Empowering Coaches • Our building tech coaches have a lot on their plate with teaching and tech coaching, so I …. • GET OUT OF THE WAY! • Check in- Yes. Micro-manage- No. Importance of training and having a common vision and language.

25. “… and you paid for it… How?” - Everyone we share with How Did We Get Here?

26. How Did We Get Here? • How did we go from no tech coaches, to 3 web coaches & 1 tech coach, then to 11 building tech coaches in 2 years? • Tech director position was replaced with Technology Integration Specialist Coach and moved to Department of Curriculum and Instruction and out of technology (2011) • Broadband grant funded 2 web coaches, district funded 1 (2011) • District network specialist moved to tech coordinator (2012) • Leverage UWS interns to free up classroom teachers to become half time tech coaches (2012)

27. Resources and Questions • Check the link for this class on the SLATE site • Questions and comments from Today’s Meet

28. Success Stories • A first grade teacher with little coaching experience… • Shares his vision for digital learning to be a part of RTI with his first grade teammate, configures the first grade RTI time to include independent digital learning stations, which then becomes a model for the rest of the school. He is now able to see the school’s adoption as he became a building tech coach.

29. Success Stories • A high school English teacher whose projector had sat unused in the back of his room for 5 years…. • Describes his concerns and difficulties, listens to the tech coach, tries strategies with some successes and failures, shares them with the coach, makes adaptations, starts regularly using digital tools to model deconstructing a text, asks for a mounted projector, now uses it everyday, has a vision for more effective uses, researches options for other tools, and adapts his instruction to better meet what the students need.

30. Success Stories • In a building that had no functioning tech team, tech coach, and two computer labs…. • The tech coach and library media specialist (LMS) work with the principal to show the instructional benefits of web 2.0. Within two years, there are 3 tech coaches and five total labs (3 COWS), requirements to use a resource like Livebinder or OneNote for instruction as well as to do one flipped lesson for all staff, and monthly tech cafes (Friday 30 minute meetings) for the LMS and other tech voices to share resources and new digital learning developments.

31. Success Stories • A teacher who frequently complains about not knowing about any school events, changes, or meetings… • Was frantically searching for her action plan she created during the Intel Collaboration Course on the Tech Staff Development Day because she wanted to be able to use her work during common planning time with her team.

32. Success Stories • Last year we had 2 people using OneNote in the district in September…. • We currently have over 200 teachers who use it as a tool for student collaboration- (tools for assessment like the ability to search by author and to restore previous versions), and as a way for teams to share and collect student data.

33. Success Stories • September 2011- One teacher used Turnitin.com as a way to collect assignments and check for plagiarism. • More than 20 middle and high school teachers use Turnitin.com and now use the blind peer editing tool to teach editing and provide feedback for students.

34. Success Stories • The high school art festival used to just be a collection of student work…. • Now students record podcasts including their work and a personal artist statement (common core connection). The art teacher combines them into a movie and plays on screens throughout the festival.

35. Success Stories • Teachers struggle with a way to convey and meaningfully communicate reading fluency with parents…. • Now students record podcasts including their reading source and themselves reading.

36. Success Stories • A student with special needs had not physically written more than one word at a time ever…. • His teacher works with the LMS to quickly learn the basics of a slate, and within one class period of using the slate, he writes his first four sentences ever. • A student who was attending school 40% of the time… • Attends 90% of the time once she gets her 1 to 1 laptop. • The teachers who complained about the 1 to 1 and the mandatory training… • Volunteer to be mentors to the grade 10-12 teachers who will start the 1 to 1 next year, and confess how valuable the training was.