This semester has been filled with learning and personal growth not only with technology, but building relationships and understanding. I have spent the majority of this semester learning how to really listen, collaborate, and work effectively with my peers. Before taking this course I would have never thought that so much time and energy went into being an instructional coach. I have always had a healthy respect for many of them, but I was really unsure of what their roles were. Not only are our instructional coaches available to increase teacher and student learning, but they can be great listeners and they can really support our classrooms if we allow them to. Many teachers in our buildings do not see them as resources, which is extremely unfortunate.
This class gave me several opportunities to step outside of my comfort zone and work with a variety of individuals to increase technology use in our classrooms. From the beginning, interviewing my principal and surveying a variety of teachers concerning their technology use was really eye opening. My school offers two fully functioning labs, laptop carts in each classroom along with Smartboards, document cameras, and amplification systems. With the available technology I assumed that our teachers were using technology to provide authentic and meaningful learning experiences. Once I began reading the surveys I realized that the majority of our teachers were just using technology for remediation. There was a small population that was branching out and using technology for research, communication, and encouraging their students to create projects. Our teachers are not resistant to using technology, but are unsure of how to implement it effectively in their classrooms along with all of the other system wide initiatives.
Along with the interviews I enjoyed working with a variety of our teachers to increase their use of technology and show how many of these resources could be managed in their classrooms. The most interesting assignments this semester were the technology workshop and the coaching journal. These two assignments really gave me an opportunity to reflect on my interactions and what I wanted others to learn from me. This has also encouraged me and two other colleagues to create Techy Thursday’s which brings staff members together to want to learn and implement new resources in their classrooms. We take this opportunity to learn new resources, implement them in our classrooms, and then come back to share together how the process worked. These open lines of communication are the driving force behind this professional development and giving us a chance to learn from one another.
This class gave me several opportunities to step outside of my comfort zone and work with a variety of individuals to increase technology use in our classrooms. From the beginning, interviewing my principal and surveying a variety of teachers concerning their technology use was really eye opening. My school offers two fully functioning labs, laptop carts in each classroom along with Smartboards, document cameras, and amplification systems. With the available technology I assumed that our teachers were using technology to provide authentic and meaningful learning experiences. Once I began reading the surveys I realized that the majority of our teachers were just using technology for remediation. There was a small population that was branching out and using technology for research, communication, and encouraging their students to create projects. Our teachers are not resistant to using technology, but are unsure of how to implement it effectively in their classrooms along with all of the other system wide initiatives.
Along with the interviews I enjoyed working with a variety of our teachers to increase their use of technology and show how many of these resources could be managed in their classrooms. The most interesting assignments this semester were the technology workshop and the coaching journal. These two assignments really gave me an opportunity to reflect on my interactions and what I wanted others to learn from me. This has also encouraged me and two other colleagues to create Techy Thursday’s which brings staff members together to want to learn and implement new resources in their classrooms. We take this opportunity to learn new resources, implement them in our classrooms, and then come back to share together how the process worked. These open lines of communication are the driving force behind this professional development and giving us a chance to learn from one another.