3.1 Classroom Management & Collaborative Learning
Candidates model and facilitate effective classroom management and collaborative learning strategies to maximize teacher and student use of digital tools and resources. (PSC 3.1/ISTE 3a)
Artifacts: Coaching Journal
For standard 3.1, I chose to use the Coaching Journal that I created in ITEC 7460: Professional Learning & Technology Innovation. This artifact documents my coaching sessions with my first grade collaborative teacher. During the beginning of our semester my principal identified three individuals that would be receptive to five technology coaching sessions. I ended up doing my coaching sessions with a fellow educator that I currently have collaborative plan with each week.
During our technology coaching sessions, we spent a great deal of time talking, brainstorming, and building a genuine relationship together so we could learn from one another. Building that relationship together really set the foundation that we needed to learn from one another and open the lines of communication. Each of our coaching sessions always started off with us just discussing the strengths and weaknesses of her students, concerns implementing technology into the first grade curriculum, managing resources, students, and system wide expectations while providing her students with differentiated instruction. I modeled and facilitated several of the instructional coaching strategies defined in our textbook, Instructional Coaching: A partnership approach to improving instruction by Jim Knight. The partnership approach to coaching that I decided to implement included both modeling, co-teaching, and the opportunity to collaborate with her.
In our sessions we focused on introducing new tools and techniques into her teaching while maintaining classroom management. One of the tools that I modeled into her class was Discovery Education. With this resource I modeled for her how she could create a Discovery Education Board to fit into her current IB planner. On this board we compiled videos, technology resources, and books for her students to view online to place on her board. Along with these resources we brainstormed two culminating tasks and rubrics for her students to choose from. The key element in her classroom management, while using this resource, is making sure that the students are actively participating in the learning process. While we were creating the board we chose tasks and resources to keep her students actively engaged while providing them with authentic learning tasks.
I enjoyed my coaching sessions with my collaborative teacher and I learned a great deal from working with her. She has a unique personality and outlook on life. Looking back on our coaching sessions together, if I had to change anything I would have liked to have introduced her to more productive tools. She was very bogged down with learning and maintaining many of the system wide resources. Unfortunately, my system does have a lot of resources and this can become overwhelming. I believe in this case that she needs to pick and choose which of these resources are best for her students.
These coaching sessions was completed with my collaborative teacher at my school. The impact of our coaching sessions can be assessed through my coaching journal and feedback from my collaborative teacher. Also, the impact from these coaching sessions can also be seen in the implementation of technology in the first grade curriculum.
During our technology coaching sessions, we spent a great deal of time talking, brainstorming, and building a genuine relationship together so we could learn from one another. Building that relationship together really set the foundation that we needed to learn from one another and open the lines of communication. Each of our coaching sessions always started off with us just discussing the strengths and weaknesses of her students, concerns implementing technology into the first grade curriculum, managing resources, students, and system wide expectations while providing her students with differentiated instruction. I modeled and facilitated several of the instructional coaching strategies defined in our textbook, Instructional Coaching: A partnership approach to improving instruction by Jim Knight. The partnership approach to coaching that I decided to implement included both modeling, co-teaching, and the opportunity to collaborate with her.
In our sessions we focused on introducing new tools and techniques into her teaching while maintaining classroom management. One of the tools that I modeled into her class was Discovery Education. With this resource I modeled for her how she could create a Discovery Education Board to fit into her current IB planner. On this board we compiled videos, technology resources, and books for her students to view online to place on her board. Along with these resources we brainstormed two culminating tasks and rubrics for her students to choose from. The key element in her classroom management, while using this resource, is making sure that the students are actively participating in the learning process. While we were creating the board we chose tasks and resources to keep her students actively engaged while providing them with authentic learning tasks.
I enjoyed my coaching sessions with my collaborative teacher and I learned a great deal from working with her. She has a unique personality and outlook on life. Looking back on our coaching sessions together, if I had to change anything I would have liked to have introduced her to more productive tools. She was very bogged down with learning and maintaining many of the system wide resources. Unfortunately, my system does have a lot of resources and this can become overwhelming. I believe in this case that she needs to pick and choose which of these resources are best for her students.
These coaching sessions was completed with my collaborative teacher at my school. The impact of our coaching sessions can be assessed through my coaching journal and feedback from my collaborative teacher. Also, the impact from these coaching sessions can also be seen in the implementation of technology in the first grade curriculum.