Reflection of My Practice as an Instructional Technology Coach
Description and evidence of how I have addressed the 8 components of the ISTE Coach Standards:
Evaluating and reflecting on past practices allows individuals to improve their efforts and provides support and direction on what needs to be reinforced and what needs to be modified for future coaching experiences. The reflection process is critical in identifying effective methods and the success of efforts to improve the coaching practice.
As I reflect back on this academic school year..."WOW" is the best way for me to sum up what a powerful year this has been. Not only have my teachers and students grown significantly in the area of educational technology, I have grown tremendously myself. After serving Rutherford County Schools as an ITC as many years as I have, I believe it would be easy to get "stuck" in old patterns and routines. This year has proven to me that you are never to old to learn new and innovative ways of approaching tasks.
- Accomplishments I am proud of: This has been a wonderful school year and I feel so blessed to be a part of a great team. As I reflect back on this year, I will always think of the implementation of 1:1 in the core academic classes at Oakland Middle School as my proudest accomplishment. I have been in this business for a long time and I never thought that I would ever see a 1:1 school in my career. So, walking the hallways and seeing students working on laptops has been a real joy.
- Issues I found frustrating: Ironically, my proudest accomplishment has also been my biggest frustration. The implementation of 1:1 classrooms has been extremely frustrating. Please understand, the frustration has been well worth the excitement of seeing student hands on keyboards, but the organizational component of having over 900 laptops has been very challenging. I feel like I have touched every unit in the building a dozen times. Opening a new annex mid year contributed to the organizational chaos. The tagging and then retagging of equipment has been extremely time consuming. I have also realized that I take it way too personally when a unit is damaged. I am working very hard on myself to not get upset when one gets broken. Fortunately, the support and appreciation shown to me by the administration, teachers, and students helped me to get through this difficult process. In other words, the rewards were well worth the labor.
- Areas of most improvement: My area of most improvement would hands down be in the area of coaching...specifically, the Coaching Cycle. This school year, it finally dawned on me that I was neglecting one of the biggest components of the Coaching Cycle which is reflection. Previously, my reflection piece consisted of crossing paths with a teacher in the hallway and stopping for a moment to chat about the lesson. I have learned this year that the reflection piece is critical to improving instruction for student success. Only by analyzing what did and did not work will improvement be achieved.
- What would I change from this past year: As always, I would wish for more time...more time to spend with the students, more time bonding with my teachers, more time assisting with lesson plans and resources...just more time...
- When did I feel joyful or inspired by my work: The most inspiring and motivating thing for me is hearing a student or teacher give me the "ah ha" moment. I love seeing the look on the face of another individual when I have taught them something new and they are awed by the the new learning.
- How do I hope my clientele remembers about me this year: When my teachers and students look back on their interactions with me this school year, I hope they think of me as patient and helpful in everything I do. I also hope they see the passion I have for my role in creating the best educational environment I can for all learners.
- How was I helpful to my colleagues this year: The entire role of an instructional coach revolves around helping others in the building whether that be faculty, staff, administration, or students. I have spent the year fulfilling that role in everything I have done. Just a few of my actions would be assisting in interpreting data, lesson planning, attending PLCs and providing input, working with students in classrooms, implementation of the 1:1 blended learning classroom, etc.
- What was the most valuable thing I learned this year: The most valuable thing I learned this year is that I am never to old or experienced in my position that I can't learn more on how to be most effective. The main source of growth for me this year has been through the Bold School book study and the coaching meetings held by Dr. Erica Tate. This book study has given me a theme for next year and has encouraged me to make intentional decisions targeting my instructional content for my faculty during the 2019-2020 school year. Additionally, I can finally with confidence say that I understand the Rigor and Relevence Framework. I look forward to sharing the Bold School concept with my faculty.
- What was my biggest mistake? How can I avoid making it again next year? I don't know if this is actually a mistake, but I feel like I didn't get enough opportunities to address the faculty whole group this year. We have limited number of faculty meetings in our building due to the fact that our principal sends out a detailed email every Sunday night addressing issues for the following week. Due to this fact, we only have had a faculty meeting about once every 6 weeks to 8 weeks. So for the next school year, I will reach out to the whole group through several other methods. For example, I have planned to do a monthly newsletter next school year to highlight my Bold School Strategy for the month. I will also include in this newsletter a section for technology news and announcements for teachers. In addition, I plan to use self created videos more to reach more teachers at a time when sharing resources and strategies.
- What went better this year than I thought it would? Students using the one to one technology went much better than I had ever dreamed it could. While of course, we did have accidental breakage of some screens, for the most part, I was pleasantly surprised at how well the students and teachers took care of their technology.
- What was my biggest organizational challenge this year? Again, I hate to keep referring to the laptop implementation issue in my answers, but to be honest, it was the main focus of my entire year. The organizational challenge of creating labels, applying labels, covering the applied labels with clear tape, scanning the labels, massaging inventory data spreadsheets, delivering laptops, taking laptops back up, checking the inventory spreadsheets again, and finally, housing the laptops for the summer has been one of the most intensive organizational tasks I think I have ever done. However, I see how my hard work has paid off as we collect them for storage over the summer. It has made the inventory process very easy.
- Knowing what I know now, would I still choose to be an ITC if I could go back in time and make the choice again? Absolutley! Earlier in my career, I just knew that my calling was to be an administrator. I came so close so many times by landing in the top 3 candidiates for an administrative position. I remember wondering why I kept falling short in the interview process...now I know. I truly believe that this position is the position I was meant to have. My love of teaching combined with my love of technology as made this job the perfect fit for me. I hope to enjoy working in instructional technology for many, many more years.