Tag:

coaching

Five Benefits of Instructional Coaching

by Diana Benner February 24, 2023

written by Diana Benner

Instructional coaching is a professional development approach that involves one-on-one or small group support for teachers. It is designed to help teachers improve their instructional practices and enhance student learning. There has been a lot of research conducted on the value that coaches can bring to student learning. Below are a few benefits of instructional coaching.

Individualized Support

Instructional coaches provide teachers with individualized support. The support given can be modified to fit the teacher’s specific needs and goals. This approach allows coaches to focus on the specific areas where the teacher needs improvement. As a result, teachers receive feedback that meets their individual needs.

Improved Instructional Practice

Through regular coaching sessions, teachers can receive feedback on their teaching practices. They learn new strategies and techniques, and they receive help on how to implement them in their classrooms. This leads to an improvement in the quality of instruction and an increase in student engagement and achievement.

Increased Confidence

Instructional coaches help build teacher confidence by providing them with the tools, resources, and support they need to succeed. This increase in confidence can lead to a more positive and effective classroom environment where teachers are able to create meaningful learning experiences for their students.

Professional Growth

Instructional coaches provide teachers with a chance to grow. According to Elena Aguilar, the majority of teachers want professional development; they want to improve their craft, be more effective, implement new skills, and see students learn more. Through regular coaching sessions, teachers are able to reflect on their practices. In addition, they can set goals for growth and receive support in achieving those goals.

Improved Student Learning

Ultimately, the goal of coaching is to improve student learning outcomes. By providing teachers with the support they need to improve their instruction, instructional coaches help to create an environment where students are more engaged, motivated, and successful.

Instructional coaching is a valuable tool for teachers looking to improve their teaching practices and enhance student learning. Therefore, whether you are a new teacher or an experienced one, coaching can provide you with the support, guidance, and resources you need to achieve your goals and achieve success in the classroom.

February 24, 2023 0 comments

Instructional Coaching

Part 2: Getting Started with a Student-Centered Coaching Model

by Emily Horn September 30, 2022

written by Emily Horn

Have you read my previous post, Part 1: Student-Centered Coaching Says Focus on Students Not Teachers? If not, head there to get an idea of what it means to take on a student-centered approach to coaching. In order to get things going with this coaching model, Diane Sweeney suggests five steps in her book, “Student-Centered Coaching: A Guide for K-8 Principals.” Let’s dive in!

Step 1: Defining your role with school leadership.

Working with school leaders is important. It’s also important to define your role. What will the role of “coach” look like specifically, and how will the leader work to support that role? Make sure you’re on the same page about each others’ roles with regard to coaching so that it’s clear for you, the leader, and the staff. Here is a great checklist offered by DianeSweeny.com that outlines calibration between leadership and coaches and a few other actions for getting started.

**Checklist offered by DianeSweeny.com**

Step 2: Defining the model to staff and gauging interest.

Work with leadership to make sure teachers know exactly what student-centered coaching is and is not. Communicate this to all staff, and then, seek to learn who is on board with coaching to gain momentum. Sweeney suggests polling staff to ask about interest and goals.

Step 3: Scheduling time with interested teachers.

Meet with teachers to discuss their interests in coaching and get the conversation on student learning goals started. This helps shift the focus to being student-centered instead of teacher-centered. Once goals are set with teachers, it’s time to work on setting up an impactful schedule based on the coaching cycle.

*Download the Danielson Group’s* “Six Clusters to Support Teacher Growth and Student Learning: A tool for collaborative observation,
professional conversations, and engaged teacher learning.”

Step 4: Organizing coaching cycles.

Coaching cycles are usually 6 to 9 weeks of regular planning meetings (one 30 or 50-minute meeting per week) and classroom visits for observation, co-teaching, and modeling (usually 1 to 3 times per week). The goal is based on student learning data. Teachers can complete 1 or 2 cycles during a school year, and coaches can usually manage 4 to 6 teachers at one time.

Step 5: Build your schedule.

Create an agreement with the teachers first. Then, once the expectations are clear, you can develop your coaching schedule for the first coaching cycle with this information in mind. It is recommended that your schedule be public, updated every trimester or quarter, and weekly planning meetings and classroom visits be added to the schedule.

***Download the Partnership Agreement***

Find out more information on Diane Sweeney’s website, which has some great infographics and information. Here is a blog post about the phases of implementation that you might find helpful and a detailed checklist for principals and coaches.

getting started with student-centered coaching

NOTE: “The Essential Guide for Student-Centered Coaching” serves as a replacement for “Student-Centered Coaching: A Guide for K-8 Principals,” which is no longer in print.

You’ve got just two weeks left to register for TCEA’s Conference for Educational Coaches (CEC)! Don’t miss out on the chance to learn from your peers in the field. Gather up ideas, best practices, and strategies to maximize your impact as a coach or instructional leader and to promote student learning. Attend in person or online October 12-13 and walk away excited to implement everything you’ve learned!

Register now for CEC!

September 30, 2022 0 comments

Instructional Coaching

Part One: Student-Centered Coaching Says Focus on Students, Not Teachers

by Emily Horn September 23, 2022

written by Emily Horn

If you’ve been working in education in a position that includes coaching, you might be familiar with Research-Led Coaching (Jim Knight), Cognitive Coaching (Elena Aguilar), Bambrick-Santoyo’s Six Step Model, and other coaching models. Today, we’ll explore Student-Centered Coaching (Diane Sweeney). There’s a LOT to unpack in Sweeney’s model, so we’ll focus on defining the model and outlining the coaching cycle. Then, in part two, we’ll go over getting started with student-centered coaching. Are you excited? I am! Before we dive in, here is some research on the effectiveness of student-centered coaching that you might find interesting.

student-centered coaching research — ***Download the Research***

What Is Student-Centered Coaching?

Sweeney explains that coaching should be less centered around “what the teacher is doing or not doing,” executing a program/curriculum, and the coach as an “expert” holding the teacher accountable. Instead, she suggests that the focus be placed on the program/curriculum as a tool, collaboration in setting data-informed learning goals, and the coach as a teacher partner. Shifting the focus to designing instruction for students based on discussion, reflection, data, and standards means shifting the focus off of the teacher and teaching techniques.

student-centered coaching definition — Quoted from **DianeSweeney.com**

This shift sets teachers and coaches up for success by removing some of the roadblocks that come with directly challenging the beliefs and practices of teachers. A teacher-centered approach might look like convincing a teacher to try out a specific method or strategy that they aren’t currently using as suggested by the coach. A student-centered approach would look more like the teacher and coach discussing student learning data, agreeing on and setting the goals, collecting more evidence, and making decisions together to adjust instruction based on the evidence. That said, discussing and determining what can be used as student evidence for goal setting is a big part of the process, so formative assessment is at the very heart of this coaching model.

What’s the Role of Student Evidence in Student-Centered Coaching?

In order to adjust instruction to better meet the needs of students and set goals, teachers must identify 1) what students already know and can do, 2) the standards that students need to know, and 3) how to instruct to meet these “need to knows.” Using formative assessment to draw these conclusions requires teachers to know the curricular standards, be able to implement formative assessments, and be able to execute varied instructional strategies.

One thing that stands out to me about this model is the correlation between formative assessment data and the consequent natural differentiation of coaching for each teacher. When decisions are made collaboratively about instructional goals based on data, the coaching goals can be clear, differentiated for each teacher, and less likely to meet with resistance. Teachers want the focus to be on the students, so why not base our discussions on what data shows students need?

What Are the Stages in the Coaching Cycle?

Sweeney suggests six stages for a student-centered coaching cycle to “provide a framework for designing ongoing and in-depth work with teachers.”

Stage 1: Set Standards-Based Goals. Standards-based goals are designed to move student learning forward and are designed for students. Growth cannot be measured without these goals.

Stage 2: Develop Targets. Learning targets are a breakdown of the goal. They provide a vision and criteria for what students will need to know and do to meet the goal.

Stage 3: Pre-Assess. Establisth the baseline student proficiency level through a quick formative assessment.

Stages 4 and 5: Co-Plan and Co-Teach. Co-plan with your teachers to ensure a smooth co-teaching process. This step will be tailored along the way.

Stage 6: Post Assess. Measure student progress toward learning targets and determine next instructitonal steps.
Quoted from “Student-Centered Coaching Cycles,” by Diane Sweeney, DianeSweeney.com

When moving through this coaching cycle, it’s important to document the process through note-taking. Sweeney provides a Results-Based Coaching Tool for small groups and a Student Evidence Note Catcher on her website. And, even though this book has been replaced by “The Essential Guide for Student-Centered Coaching (2020),” I find her guiding questions for student-centered coaching in “Student-Centered Coaching: A Guide for K-8 Principals (2010)” (22) to be helpful and relevant.

guiding questions for student-centered coaching

What do you think of this model? Is it the same or different from how you or your school approaches coaching? How would you go about implementing something like this? If you’re interested in knowing more, check out “The Essential Guide for Student-Centered Coaching,” by Diane Sweeney. As I mentioned early, it’s the 2020 replacement for “Student-Centered Coaching: A Guide for K-8 Coaches and Principals,” which was published in 2010. Leave a comment to share your thoughts. Stay tuned for Part Two: Getting Started with a Student-Centered Coaching Model!

Read Part 2: Getting Started with a Student-Centered Coaching Model

September 23, 2022 2 comments

Good Teaching Professional Learning

Three Resources Put Coaching at Your Fingertips

by Miguel Guhlin February 19, 2022

written by Miguel Guhlin

If you wish you had easy access to coaching quotes, digital tool recommendations, and models, these three timely resources can guide your thinking and make your work a little easier. Let’s take a look at how you can access them.

Connecting Learners

At the 2021 Campus Technology Specialist Academy, I facilitated a coaching session and decided to start the session with quotes, an activity I adapted from Zaretta Hammond’s book, “Culturally Responsive Teaching and the Brain.” The activity has participants reading quotes and then responding to a question. They share their quotes and reflections with others in the group. While Zaretta suggests a piece of paper for a kid-friendly activity, I built an app. As you can see from the image below, participants referred to the app while engaging in the activity.

Resource 1: Coaching Reflections App

The Glides app includes quotes from some of my favorite coaching guides, such as:

Elena Aguilar, author of “Coaching for Equity”
Dr. Katie Alaniz, author of “Collegial Coaching”
Zaretta Hammond, “Culturally Responsive Teaching and the Brain”
Jim Knight, “The Impact Cycle”
Diane Sweeney, “Student-Centered Coaching”

My instructions for participants included the following:

On Your Own

Get the app available at https://tceact.glideapp.io.
Pick a quote to read and reflect on. A discussion question is included for each quote.

With Others

Find someone else in the room to chat with. When you do, you will have 5 minutes to:

Share your quote with them.
Discuss your reaction or response to the quote.
Ask them to share their quote and reaction with you. Discuss.
Repeat the process with another person until time has expired.

Quote Activity to Break the Ice

To be effective, coaching must be moving. How are teachers moved? Dr. Katie Alaniz says:

Effective coaching must be able to move teachers from just using tech to transforming the learning as a result of technology use.

That’s a powerful quote, right? We all know that coaching has a profound impact on changing how we teach and learn.

The coach’s role is, as Elena Aguilar points out, to “build the capacity of others.” How do you get that done? You ease their learning. That’s why I enjoyed listening to session participant conversations. They started with a powerful quote then added their own experiences. What a mix!

Resource 2: Powerful Digital Tools

When attending a session at the Campus Technology Specialist Academy, there’s an expectation for technology to be omnipresent. Since I am engaged in constant creation, I thought I’d share my digital tool picks. While coaches need not be experts on technology, continuous growth is a goal for them as well as teachers.

To make that easier, I created a list of coaching tools you can access online, also included in the Coaching Reflections app. I have organized them into several categories, including:

Classroom Helpers. These are tools that you can share with a classroom teacher to make their life easier.
Digitize It. This includes ways to digitize content from comics to keep to digital scanner apps.
Image Editing Tools. When you start creating content, you will soon need to edit and create images. These are my favorite tools for getting the job done.
Note It. Some people like to make post-it notes, etc. This short list gives you some popular tools.
Project Management and Content Curation. Project management is key area, especially when working with many campuses and groups. Sharing select resources with various groups of people is a big part of content curation. These tools will support your efforts.
Video/Audio Recording. Working on something technical? You may need to record a quick video walkthrough or tutorial.
Virtual Office. Take advantage of tools that allow you to meet at a distance.

Resource 3: Coaching Models

Wish you had a quick overview of coaching models? Be sure to explore the videos included in the CoachReflection app. You will find a wealth of videos that took hours to curate and locate for you. You’ll love the great points these folks make.

You can also find essential information about these approaches:

The Journey Starts Now

Begin your coaching journey with the Coaching Reflections app. Additionally, TCEA also offers a Campus Technology Specialist Certification for educators working with teachers on integrating technology in the classroom and curriculum. You can also read more articles on coaching on Tech Notes.

Feature Image Source

Photo by author

February 19, 2022 0 comments

Educational Research Leadership

How Principals Can Support Instructional Coaches

by Miguel Guhlin February 5, 2022

written by Miguel Guhlin

Are you an instructional coach? If you are, then who’s the one person you want in your corner, supporting your efforts? If you said, “campus principal,” you are spot on. Research shows that, without principal support, many initiatives at the campus level fail. Whenever I wanted to push a technology initiative for the good of students and staff, I visited the principal. My campus principal knew how to bring people together, to problem solve and collaborate.

Let’s take a look at some of the ways principals can support instructional coaches. We’ll begin with three important aspects of introducing coaches to campuses.

#1: Cultivate Culture and Climate

If you are a principal, you are immediately responsible for the culture and climate of your school. Ignore the former at the risk of the latter. This truth became evident to me early on in my career. May I share with you how that happened?

When a colleague and I visited a campus in an urban school district, we were both shocked at the wave of negativity there. We felt it as soon as we stepped into the building. The campus radiated an aura of despair and sadness. Teachers we met with confirmed the feeling.

How had this happened? Even though the principal appeared happy and positive, the underlying culture appeared broken. Trust was lacking. The only values that mattered were the principal’s. Finding out why was easy. Understanding how took years.

Image Source: Culture and Climate

As an instructional coach, when you step onto a campus, you must share the values and norms of that space. Without that shared culture, you will fail. One person who can introduce you, who can vouch for you, is a principal who is in tune with campus culture and climate.

Actions to Take

The climate and culture of school mediate the principal’s impact on learning (source). Some ways to do that include:

Identify existing school culture before trying to change it.
Make culture (values) and climate (behaviors) transparent to all.
Focus on long-term cultural goals to strengthen the learning environment.
Achieve real change when you start with school culture, rather than the way the school works.

Culture and climate are bound together. Culture is the values and norms of a school, while climate is the behavior. Researchers report that norms, values, rituals, and climate are all manifestations of culture. Some define culture as shared norms, climate as shared perceptions.

Building a coaching culture involves focuses on shifting unwritten rules. You are shifting values, norms, behaviors, and practices. These build the foundation needed to spread a coaching mindset and practices. The goal is to ensure that coaching becomes a key part of the campus’ identity (adapted from source).

A culture-sensitive principal can assist coaches in navigating the campus cosmology. That is, how everything at that campus came to be. That includes its origin, its development, and what the people there value, as well as how those values manifest themselves in the behavior of a campus. If you want to foster a culture of learning and growth, do what Jim Knight suggests. “Principals need to do what they expect their teachers to do,” says Jim Knight.

Consider taking these actions on a consistent basis, adopting them slowly over time.

Model the actions you want teachers to enact.
Work together with staff to identify campus values and behaviors before changing them.
Adopt norms, values, and rituals together that reflect who you are as a campus.
Immerse instructional coaches in the campus culture and climate.

#2: Embrace Evidence-Based Approaches

Brain-based learning research has powerful implications for what we do in the classroom. But they also speak to our work as campus leaders. Engage the brains of students and staff with approaches that start positive. Work hard to cultivate emotional and physical safety in meetings and interactions. Communicate often, chunk learning, and use collaborative inquiry. Combine the new and unusual to maintain interest in activities that aid learning. Culturally Responsive instruction, wellness, and Social-Emotional Learning are critical.

Adapt evidence-based, instructional strategies for use in classrooms. The work of Mike Bell (author of The Fundamentals of Teaching) combines John Hattie, Robert Marzano, and others. The result is a way to cut low-effect practices that detract from learning. Bell brings together three areas, shown below, and offers up a five-step process.

principal's guide

Image Source: Video, The Fundamentals of Teaching

The five-step process relies on these strategies:

Prior knowledge
Presenting new material
Setting challenging tasks
Feedback and improvement
Repetition and consolidation

You can find a summary of these ideas and others in the Amazing Lesson Design Outline (ALDO). It contains specific suggestions about strategies and digital tools.

principal's guide

Image Source: DianeSweeney.com, Lessons Learned: Team Coaching Cycles During Hybrid and Distance Learning

#3: Clarify the Coaching Vision and Model

As the instructional leader, involve coaches and campus staff to clarify the coaching vision. Decide on a specific coaching model. This can involve the following actions:

Articulate clear roles and responsibilities for coaches.
Outline a menu of services.
Set up a schedule for one-on-one, small group, and large-group coaching activities.
Use coaching cycles, and debrief coaches/teachers to ascertain effectiveness.
Avoid combining appraisal and coaching; keep them far apart.

“Create rich opportunities for teachers and coaches to work together,” says Diane Sweeney. The focus must be on “key strategy or instructional practice.” She goes on to encourage you to track how students progress in combination with a new practice.

Begin your journey to supporting instructional coaching with these three guideposts. You will find the negotiation and conversation can be powerful and work affirming.

February 5, 2022 0 comments

Professional Learning

Ten Ideas for Tech Coaches to Help Their Teachers Grow

by Ali Worsham September 23, 2021

written by Ali Worsham

Being a tech coach these days can be a bit daunting. Teachers were thrown into the deep end last year, and they’re still overwhelmed. Yet we know as coaches that we have to keep moving our teachers forward to help them find confidence and success with technology integration. In this blog, I’ll share ten fun ways that my team and I help our teachers grow.

Coach with Fun PD

As tech coaches, we strive to make ed tech PD enjoyable, approachable, and, most importantly– applicable! Think of all the training you attended as a teacher that was a repeat of what you’ve already learned, or even worse, it had nothing to do with your content or classroom. We never want our teachers to walk away from tech training feeling defeated or like it was a waste of their time.

Give teachers options on what training to attend so that they are excited to be there. If they’re interested in the topic, it’s a lot easier to coach them.
Keep your training light-hearted and approachable.
Create a theme to tie it all together.

Each August, we host Tech Fest to kick off the school year with ed tech enthusiasm. Check it out here!

Flex Your Tech with Badging

Creating a badging program like this one has built a fun platform for us to continue to grow educators while incentivizing them with awesome prizes. We have seen so much growth from this program alone, and each year, teachers find themselves in friendly competition with their colleagues over who can earn the most badges, win a prize first, and fill up their lanyard before the rest of the school. As a coach, it’s such a fun way to reward teachers for integrating technology into their lessons while encouraging them to try new tech tools.

Breakfast for Badges

Our local Chick-fil-A has been so generous to sponsor our department and our teachers, and they’ve donated free breakfast gift cards for us to use with our staff. Breakfast for Badges changes throughout the year to keep it exciting, and we love delivering happiness in the morning. Here are examples of some Breakfast for Badges incentives:

Earn three badges in a month
The grade level with the most Lunch and Learn participants
The first person to complete the Try-Athon that week

Fun Badges

Create different badges that might help teachers smile, feel seen, or recognize their efforts outside of the official badging program.

Sometimes our teachers’ favorite badges are the ones they “unofficially earn” from a tech fail they persevered through or from finally jumping on a tech trend after everyone else tried it first.

Techie Teachers and Trophies

In the 2020 school year, we paused official badging and tried to just encourage teachers to make it through and find what worked for them. To help with that, we created the Techie Teacher nomination and trophy. Each month, teachers and students could nominate a Techie Teacher who integrated tech into their lessons. Each nominee earned a Chick-fil-A breakfast gift card, a techie teacher badge, and a certificate. And the techiest of them all earned a trophy.

Try-Athon

We got this idea from TCEA last year, and it was so much fun! Each week during the Try-Athon, teachers had (voluntary) tasks to try, and all they had to do was try the task and report back. Since we did this in the spring around testing season, we focused on test reviews and growing your PLN. Check it out here. Thank you to Lisa McLaughlin (@limclaughlin7), Kerri Sparkman (@mstechie_2002), and Chesley Madsen (@ChelsMadsen) for sharing this idea at TCEA!

Coffee Tech Chats

Sometimes teachers just need to chat about technology without a real plan or topic in place. During the shutdown of 2020, we hosted weekly virtual coffee chats that turned out to be a hit. Teachers had space to ask questions that they’d never asked before, share ideas with other teachers, and talk about what works and doesn’t work. It created a positive community of teacher support that carried over once we came back to campus. Sometimes, we even made the chats themed or had a topic to launch the discussion.

Be a March Madness Coach

Jump into the March Madness fun with a Techie March Madness competition. Each week, teachers vote for their favorite tech tool in each bracket until we find the most loved tech tool for the entire district.

Social Media Presence

Everyone is on social media these days, and it’s a great way to reach teachers in a different way. We use our team Facebook page the most to share events we are putting on, shout out to teachers and schools doing awesome techie lessons, and so much more! We even just started a department TikTok so we can make fun ed tech-inspired videos.

Coach with Collaboration and Co-Teaching

Sometimes the simplest things are the most effective, like collaborating with your teachers and co-teaching a tech lesson when they’re trying something new. It takes the pressure off of the teacher so they can enjoy the process and walk away with a positive experience!

September 23, 2021 3 comments

Podcasts

Seven Great Podcasts for Educators

by Andrew Roush July 15, 2021

written by Andrew Roush

Sometimes professional learning comes from events, courses, and other organized programs. Other times, we can learn casually, perhaps even passively, with podcasts while commuting, relaxing on the beach, or whatever you’re up to this summer.

Podcasts are like little bursts of learning directly to your ears — that is, if you find the right ones. For those of you looking for powerful educational podcasts this summer, we have a few suggestions that can help you absorb useful information, no matter what else you’re getting up to.

The Cult of Pedagogy Podcast

Hosted by 2021 TCEA Convention & Exposition speaker Jennifer Gonzalez, this podcast focuses on ed tech (of course!), but also explores education policy, teaching strategies, and classroom management over a wide range of interesting interviews.

The House of Ed Tech Podcast

Chris Nesi’s podcast often includes live video streams, highlights from conferences and events around the country, plenty of guests, and naturally, the latest in educational technology.

The Shake Up Learning Show

This show is hosted by popular digital learning coach and speaker Kasey Bell, who you may also remember from the TCEA Convention & Exposition. She covers everything from coaching to tech tips each week.

The Creative Classroom with John Spencer

Former teacher and current professor John Spencer shines a light on new ideas, especially those meant to bring creativity, passion, and wonder into the classroom. Check this one out for your dose of big ideas and inspiration.

C3: Connecting, Coaches, Cognition

Violet Christensen and Courtney Groskin, who have previously joined us on our own TCEA podcast, host C3: Connecting, Coaches, Cognition. It’s a podcast designed to give quick bites of advice for instructional coaches, with many thoughtful guests and plenty of ideas for everyone in education.

Google Teacher Podcast

Also hosted by Kasey Bell and her co-host Matt Miller, this podcast is your key to unlock all the abilities, changes, and tools that the ever-present Google has to offer. If you use Google products regularly, you’ll want to keep up with the Google Teacher Podcast.

TCEA’s Ed Tech Club

Of course, no list could be complete without our very own offering, the Ed Tech Club, where we talk about everything from SEL to timely tips, share insights for TCEA events, and more. Our summer hiatus is a great time for you to catch up on our back catalog of more than 90 episodes.

What educational podcasts do you listen to? Share them in the comments!

Photo by Christina Morillo from Pexels

July 15, 2021 0 comments

CTO/CIO Cybersecurity Leadership Technical Support

Checklist: Learning with Technology

by Miguel Guhlin May 26, 2021

written by Miguel Guhlin

When schools take a look at campus educational technology efforts and how the technology is being leveraged for learning, they need to keep a few points in mind. This checklist focuses on three key areas you can use to do that. Let’s take a quick look at each area.

checklist

Key Area #1: Impacting Growth

When discussing growth, it’s almost always student growth you need to consider. That is, are students able to show growth from beginning of the year to the middle and end of the year? How about from year to year? When adapting technology for use in the classroom, you need strategies that work. You can use this free app to get some insights and access digital tools. All strategies have an effect size. What you are looking for is the pairing of one digital tool that amplifies the positive effect.

Another key checklist component is ensuring that you have a well-established coaching program. Kickstart your coaching program with this easy to use multimedia text set.

checklist

Get a copy of this multimedia text set

Key Area #2: Supporting Technology

You’re not alone if you find yourself wondering, “How long will it take to get technical support?” This particular area of the checklist focuses on technical support and response time. What’s more, it addresses two sore points with end users.

The first is being able to check the status of an help request (a.k.a. trouble ticket). In one small urban school district, the help desk lead “improved” his numbers by assigning active tickets to an inactive technician account. This made them “disappear” or appear as closed in the help desk system. Ensuring that end users can check the status of their help requests can stop fraud like that.

checklist

The second sore point? Safeguarding sensitive data. It’s important that the district or campus have a process in place for protecting data. What’s more, it’s critical that all staff be a part of that process.

Key Area #3: Planning for Anytime, Anywhere Access

checklist Wondering how to provide anytime, anywhere access for students and staff? It’s been a big issue for both small and large schools and districts. One of the most important ways to achieve this is to establish clear standards for all locations. In this way, you can ensure everyone has the connectivity they must have at the point of need.

Go Even Deeper: Become a Data Guardian

You can find the best ways to secure your data and device(s), as well as what you put in the cloud, plus even more, with TCEA’s affordable, self-paced Data Guardian course. Learn more here.

Learning with Technology Checklist

Here’s the learning with technology checklist which can be used to help you gauge how you are leveraging technology. The goal is ensure a positive impact on teaching, learning, and leading at your campus. Although the checklist has evolved since its creation, you can find the original in this Google Doc.

Get the PDF version for printing (Updated: 9/2/2021)

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Photo by Volodymyr Hryshchenko on Unsplash

May 26, 2021 0 comments

Chromebooks Content Areas Good Teaching Google Tips and Tricks Professional Learning

Tips, Tricks, and Tech Tidbits: Attitude, Choice Boards, Coaching, and ELAR

by Lori Gracey February 11, 2021

written by Lori Gracey

I just got back from attending the virtual TCEA 2021 Convention & Exposition and I’m thrilled to share some of what I learned there with you. Hold on to your horses and let’s go!

An Attitude First Aid Kit

tips and tricks

What resonated with me most this week was not a new tech tool or website, although I did see lots of those (and I share a few at the end of this blog). It was, instead, a remark from one of our thought leaders, Bonnie St. John. Bonnie told us that she found the need to “Create a first aid kit for my attitude, a collection of things on hand that can quickly shift my attitude from negative to positive.” Wow, what a game changer! I need to have on hand a kit of items that can help me take charge of my negative attitude when it springs up and get back into positive territory. The kit may include, for me, specific musical pieces, dark chocolate, a photo of my children and husband and another of my chickens (it makes me laugh).

What might be in your attitude first aid kit? If you’re not sure, here is a guide for you and your colleagues to use as a team-building activity in creating your attitude first aid kits. And Kylie Lloyd liked this concept so much that she created a Jamboard template that you can make a copy of to help her students to this.

tips, tricks, and tech tidbits

Digital Choice Boards Out the Wazoo!

The fabulous Janet Corder and Joan Gore provided a wealth of examples and best practices when using choice boards with students. They even included some choice boards for administrators, choice board templates, choice board assessment ideas, and so much more. You do not want to miss this!

The Coaching Continuum

Ashely Parker shared this continuum of coaching an adult learner (image below) that makes a lot of sense to me. And, what’s more, it allows me to plan what my next step with a teacher I am working with should be. I’m afraid that sometimes I stay on Level 1: Connection too much as I keep trying to provide the learner with resource after resource and don’t provide any follow-up and coaching to get to Level 2: Consultation.

Emoji Writing Prompter

Ian Byrd designed this quick and easy Random Emoji Generator writing prompter for busy teachers. Opening the page will produce an emoji that the student should write about. When he runs out of things to say, he can select “And Then” and another random emoji will be produced next to the first one to continue the story. This can go on for as long as the student likes. (Note: Some of the less than perfect emojis are included in this, so your student might get a toilet or the poop emoji.)

Reading Vine

Finding good reading passages that have comprehension questions and Lexile ranges can be difficult. And finding them for free is almost impossible. But luckily for strapped educators everywhere, there is Reading Vine.

“Rather than a one size fits all curriculum, Reading Vine offers supplemental reading practice that can be personalized to fit a student’s or group’s exact needs. Teachers, parents, and tutors simply choose appropriate passage text/questions as desired, and then save, download, or print it out and share with the students.” The site has reading sets and reading passages for grades K-12 and for Lexile ranges from 0 to 1300+. All of it is searchable by skill set, age, word count, Lexile, genre, and topic. And did I mention that it’s completely FREE??? The teacher has to register to use the site, but there is no other charge for its use.

Tech Tools

Finally, I do want to share with you a few of the technology tools that were new to me from the convention. Have you heard of these?

Body Synth – Move different parts of your body in different ways to make music with this fun site. It uses your device camera to track your movements and it is so much fun! You can hear the music as four different instruments, use your voice to play a chord, and adjust the sensitivity to make it work for big or small movements. I can see this being used in PE, obviously, but also as a movement break in all other classrooms.
Chromebook App Hub – This website has lots of resources, as you would imagine, about teaching with Chromebooks. But the really wonderful part of it is that it has an idea section called Idea Sparks. These are already-created lessons from other educators that work great on a Chromebook and they are, of course, free to use. You can also filter them by category, subject area, age range, and general learning goal.
Newspaper Front Page Template – There’s no such thing as too many templates. So add this one that has students create the front page of newspaper to your collection. This can be used in almost any content area, as well as working on determining if a news story is fake or real. The template is available for Google Slides and PowerPoint. (By the way, the provider SlidesMania has literally hundreds of great templates to use the classroom. They are created by educators and are ALL FREE!)
Wordwall – This is another site that helps teachers create a variety of interactive teaching resources such as quizzes, match ups, word games, and more. Each resource can be completed online or printed out. The Basic (i.e., free) plan is limited in that you have access to only 18 types of interactives and, more sadly, can only create five total resources. However, there is no limit to how many of the more than 10 million interactives already created by other educators that you can access and use with your students.

I hope you found at least one new tip, trick, or tidbit in this blog. If so, please drop me a line in the Comment section below about what you found interesting or useful. I’ll be back soon with even more!

February 11, 2021 2 comments

Leadership Professional Learning

Just-in-Time Coaching with Discord

by Miguel Guhlin February 10, 2021

written by Miguel Guhlin

Need just-in-time instructional coaching support? Want to ask a colleague for help? You may be doing that anyways, cobbling together smartphone calls and text messages. You may be running a Google Meet on one computer, a Zoom on another. For the former, you’re chatting with your colleagues with video/audio off. In the latter, you are teaching your class of middle schoolers. Oh, what a complicated mess of apps, windows, and devices.

Looking for more information on coaching for results? Check out this blog entry with a roundup of coaching links.

What you need is a dedicated platform for just-in-time coaching support. In this blog entry, you will learn about one solution in wide use.

Introducing Just-in-Time Coaching

Did you know that 57% of staff have an expectation of just-in-time learning? It’s true. Most of us want to learn something at the point of need when it’s relevant. When it’s not relevant, learning is a waste of time and costs time, effort, and money (Source: CEB Research).

Some of the benefits of just-in-time learning include:

Enhances productivity, accuracy, and learning on the go
Speeds up learning when it is relevant and relevance motivates learners
Facilitates access to up-to-date information and knowledge
Ensures knowledge retention

With so many benefits, how can we seize on just-in-time coaching to support staff learning? Some suggest these seven best practices, of which only the top three appear below:

Assess what’s currently happening
Figure out what’s needed just in time
Chunk the learning to make it bite sized and easy to process

Keeping these best practices in mind ensures your coaching conversations are relevant.

Coaching Conversations

discord Conversations and dialogue are at the heart of just-in-time coaching. Actions, which serve as the foundation of relationship building, must involve reflection. Fears and insecurities about how a teacher facilitated a lesson must surface. Putting a focus on teaching and learning and on student growth centers those conversations.

In a traditional, face-to-face situation, it’s easier to have these conversations. But what happens in a hybrid learning situation? Often, teachers struggle to get just-in-time support. The instructional coach may sit on the sidelines, watching learning unfold. How can you provide play-by-play coaching support as it happens?

You can scaffold coaching conversation in many ways. Here are a few:

Results Based Coaching Tool (shown above) via Diane Sweeney
Instructional Coaching Cycle (PDF) via Instructional Coaching website
Maps for Coaching Conversations via Kathy Lott (@kathylott)
Danielson Framework for Teaching

How can coaches provide support to many educators engaged in remote teaching or to educators teaching face to face, but extremely busy? One approach is to rely on a tool gamers have used. Let’s take a look at it, ok?

discord

Introducing Discord

Discord, a free web-based tool with apps for your chosen device, offers digital spaces. These digital spaces include a place for topic-based text channels. What’s more, they include audio and video support.

The different channels and @mentions make it much easier to keep information straight. The voice chat is fantastic for one-on-one meetings during my teacher’s office hours. We can hop in a voice channel and have a conversation. Using Discord brought us closer together as a physics class (adapted from source: Student Comment).

In a real way, Discord makes it possible for you to overlay text, audio, and video over what’s happening. This means that while using any device, including smartphones, teachers can have an “on the spot” coach who can support them in the midst of instruction, near or far.

Setting Up Discord

You can set Discord up via their website, then get a QR code to share with coachees. Let’s walk through the process.

Step 1: Get a Free Account

Go to the Discord website and register for a free account. Once you do that, you can move to step 2. (Note that you can get an app for your phone, as well as a desktop app for your computer. If you are on a Chromebook or don’t have install rights, you can use your web browser to access Discord. When you set up your server, you can enable two-factor authentication (2FA) for security. There are other useful settings for security.)

Step 2: Set Up Your Own Discord Server

In this no-cost process, you set up your own server to house conversations you will have with coachees.

discord

You will see a follow-up window to start the conversation:

discord

And then you’re ready to start:

discord

Step 3: Customize Your Server

Ready to start? Not quite. You need to invite your coachees, add a fancy icon, send messages, etc. You will also need to set up your channels. Discord offers you text chat channels, not unlike Slack. What’s more, you can set up voice channels that are exclusive to you and a coachee. This makes voice communications easier to track since your one-to-one exchanges end up in one space. Another benefit is that you aren’t relying on text messages with audio notes embedded. Instead, you check one app such as Discord to track text channels and voice channels centered around your coachee.

In the screenshot below, you can see how channels are organized in the left sidebar, while who is online appears in the right. How’s that for just-in-time communications?

discord

Step 4: Invite Friends, er, Coachees

Ready to invite your coachees to Discord? You’ll want to grab a link to share. You can set time limits on how long the link works, as well as the maximum number of uses. That helps enhance the security of your server.

discord

Step 5: Set Up Text or Voice Channels Specific to One Person

You can set up exclusive text channels to have conversations with your educators. These can be text messages, but also offer the opportunity for voice chats. That is, you can create a voice channel and then invite your coachee to join. You have complete control over how long the conversation lasts. This even includes temporary voice chats.

discord

Make Just-in-Time Coaching Easy

There are a lot of possibilities for using Discord for just-in-time coaching. It’s easy to set up and use and works well with a variety of devices. Give it a shot.

Feature Image Source

Photo by LexScope on Unsplash

February 10, 2021 0 comments

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