5.2 Professional Learning
Candidates develop and implement technology-based professional learning that aligns to state and national professional learning standards, integrates technology to support face-to-face and online components, models principles of adult learning, and promotes best practices in teaching, learning, and assessment. (PSC 5.2/ISTE 4b)
Artifact: Coaching Journal
Reflection:
The coaching journal was completed to focus on an individual teacher and demonstrate effective coaching to improve her technology skills in the classroom. In completing this coaching journal, I had to schedule three separate coaching sessions with one teacher and coach her during each of these sessions. In addition, a conference period was held after each coaching session to reflect and make plans for future implementation and coaching. This particular teacher responded well to each of the coaching sessions and easily adapted and made changes in her classroom as a result. I completed this coaching journal independently while collaborating with the teacher being coached.
Standard 5.2 sets the foundation for the development and implementation of professional learning to align to state and national standards and integrate technology that supports face-to-face and online components while modeling adult learning principles and promoting best practices. This artifact demonstrates my ability to develop and implement coaching sessions to address teacher technology use. These coaching sessions aligned to state and national standards by following the standards outlined by Learning Forward’s standards for professional learning. Example state and national standards the coaching journal aligned to included implementation and outcomes. Additionally, the coaching sessions were completed using face-to-face coaching methods to be sure to address all the needs of the teacher. Yet, the completion of the coaching sessions also addressed online learning by coaching the teacher to use more online instructional components in her classroom.
This artifact also modeled principles of adult learning by keeping the coaching session content meaningful and authentic to this individual teacher and identifying clear learning goals for each session. In this manner, the teacher was able to get the most out of the coaching session by participating in sessions that followed the principles of adult learning rather than meaningless professional development that she may or may not be able to apply to her classroom. The coaching sessions also promoted best practices in teaching, learning, and assessment by using several forms of coaching referenced in the Knight text. Best practices used in teaching included modeling and co-leading a class, while a best practice used in learning involved using a rubric developed by both of us, and a best practice used in assessment included having post-coaching meetings to discuss and assess the previous coaching session.
Completing the coaching journal was quite beneficial for me, especially from the perspective of being an instructional technology coach in the future. I enjoyed the coaching sessions not only because I was able to learn more about a fellow colleague, but because I feel like we both learned so much from the coaching session. Conducting the coaching sessions presented a new set of challenges for me. I have experience coaching athletics, but coaching my peers is a different concept entirely. I think the most beneficial thing I learned from the coaching was how to be an effective communicator by being sensitive to the feelings of others while still encouraging them to make changes. In doing this coaching journal process differently, I would like to have time to conduct more coaching sessions. We made so much progress during these sessions, but this particular teacher would have benefitted even more from having additional follow-up sessions that address the implementation of the new strategies which would promote continuous learning by the teacher and myself regarding these strategies.
The coaching journal was beneficial from a faculty standpoint for several reasons. First, the individual teacher was able to receive one-on-one coaching which impacted her teaching for the better and indirectly impacted student learning as well. Additionally, this teacher was able to communicate her new developments with other teachers and provide some of her own coaching in the process to further develop additional faculty members. As a final faculty development standpoint, the coaching process further developed my coaching expertise which will benefit other teachers during future coaching sessions. The impact of the faculty development can be assessed in a couple of ways. First, the openness of faculty to embracing changes and incorporation of new technology should increase. Additionally, faculty should become more open to coaching from their peers and the peer coaching skills of other teachers should also increase.
The coaching journal was completed to focus on an individual teacher and demonstrate effective coaching to improve her technology skills in the classroom. In completing this coaching journal, I had to schedule three separate coaching sessions with one teacher and coach her during each of these sessions. In addition, a conference period was held after each coaching session to reflect and make plans for future implementation and coaching. This particular teacher responded well to each of the coaching sessions and easily adapted and made changes in her classroom as a result. I completed this coaching journal independently while collaborating with the teacher being coached.
Standard 5.2 sets the foundation for the development and implementation of professional learning to align to state and national standards and integrate technology that supports face-to-face and online components while modeling adult learning principles and promoting best practices. This artifact demonstrates my ability to develop and implement coaching sessions to address teacher technology use. These coaching sessions aligned to state and national standards by following the standards outlined by Learning Forward’s standards for professional learning. Example state and national standards the coaching journal aligned to included implementation and outcomes. Additionally, the coaching sessions were completed using face-to-face coaching methods to be sure to address all the needs of the teacher. Yet, the completion of the coaching sessions also addressed online learning by coaching the teacher to use more online instructional components in her classroom.
This artifact also modeled principles of adult learning by keeping the coaching session content meaningful and authentic to this individual teacher and identifying clear learning goals for each session. In this manner, the teacher was able to get the most out of the coaching session by participating in sessions that followed the principles of adult learning rather than meaningless professional development that she may or may not be able to apply to her classroom. The coaching sessions also promoted best practices in teaching, learning, and assessment by using several forms of coaching referenced in the Knight text. Best practices used in teaching included modeling and co-leading a class, while a best practice used in learning involved using a rubric developed by both of us, and a best practice used in assessment included having post-coaching meetings to discuss and assess the previous coaching session.
Completing the coaching journal was quite beneficial for me, especially from the perspective of being an instructional technology coach in the future. I enjoyed the coaching sessions not only because I was able to learn more about a fellow colleague, but because I feel like we both learned so much from the coaching session. Conducting the coaching sessions presented a new set of challenges for me. I have experience coaching athletics, but coaching my peers is a different concept entirely. I think the most beneficial thing I learned from the coaching was how to be an effective communicator by being sensitive to the feelings of others while still encouraging them to make changes. In doing this coaching journal process differently, I would like to have time to conduct more coaching sessions. We made so much progress during these sessions, but this particular teacher would have benefitted even more from having additional follow-up sessions that address the implementation of the new strategies which would promote continuous learning by the teacher and myself regarding these strategies.
The coaching journal was beneficial from a faculty standpoint for several reasons. First, the individual teacher was able to receive one-on-one coaching which impacted her teaching for the better and indirectly impacted student learning as well. Additionally, this teacher was able to communicate her new developments with other teachers and provide some of her own coaching in the process to further develop additional faculty members. As a final faculty development standpoint, the coaching process further developed my coaching expertise which will benefit other teachers during future coaching sessions. The impact of the faculty development can be assessed in a couple of ways. First, the openness of faculty to embracing changes and incorporation of new technology should increase. Additionally, faculty should become more open to coaching from their peers and the peer coaching skills of other teachers should also increase.