What's Next??

I have mentioned before that I am ready to take the leap and leave the classroom. I just feel that I am ready to do bigger and better things. But my issue is always, what't next?? What is it that I want to do next in my educational journey.

A couple of years ago I decided to get my Admin 1 certification. I thought maybe getting into administration is what I would like to do next. While I have had many people tell me that I would be good in administration, I am just not sure if deep down I want that to be the next step. 

After I finished my certification, I taught for another year in the classroom and then decided to apply for assistant principal. I made it into the second phase and then was told I wouldn't be getting to the next round where I would interview for a position. Deep down I was kind of happy because again I just wasn't sure this is what I wanted.

In the fall I was invited to attend an aspiring leader's program. This program is focusing on the role of assistant principal and has taught me a lot about not just administration, but how to be a good leader in general. It is also helping me realize that I am just not sure it is the next step for me.

One thing that I really enjoy when it comes to teaching is helping other teachers. I enjoy being able to share resources/thoughts, support ideas, and answer questions. I really struggle internally when I see a teacher who needs this extra support and I am not able to fully help or support them because I am still in the classroom. This is especially hard when it comes to new teachers. I was so fortunate that during my first few years of teaching I had a very supportive math resource teacher, reading resource teacher, and instructional coach to help get me through those years when we are just trying to stay afloat.

I know a lot of people say this, but we HAVE to find a way to support our teachers. Teaching is tough. I am in year 11 and I still feel like I am trying to figure things out. Now, we are throwing in this pandemic teaching. Some are 100% virtual, some are hybrid, and some are in the classroom trying to figure out how to teach with social distancing.

The more I think about it, I think my first step out of the classroom needs to be some type of teacher support role. Whether it is resource teacher, coach, mentor, whatever, I need to help my teachers. Because ultimately when you are helping the teachers, you are helping the kids and that is where my heart is.

My goal in 2021 is to make things happen. Somewhere out there my job is waiting for me, I just have to find it.

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Peer Coaching Part 2

After finishing the Peer Coaching book (see previous post), it really had me thinking about how I could take that back to my school.  The past two years I have tried to run some sort of professional development around technology in my school and personally I feel that it was only somewhat successful. I think I feel this way because I was trying to reach the whole school, but was only getting through to about 8-10 people.  I wasn't looking at this 8-10 people as successful in the grand scheme of things.

This book made me realize though that I don't need to hit the entire school. I need to start small and only reach a handful of people and actually focus on helping them throughout the entire year.  When it comes to professional development this book mentions that in order for professional development to be effective, "teachers need about 50 hours of professional development to improve in a specific area." (p. 26) However, as teachers we often attend 1-2 day training on a topic and then are expected to soak everything in, turn around and use it in our classrooms. That is what I was expecting from the professional development I was giving.

So here is my plan for this year...
At the beginning of the year I will explain to the staff that I would like to hold professional development around integrating technology again, however, I want them to have a say in what PD they would like. I will ask for those teachers who would like help to fill out a Google Form. This form will not only ask for what specifically they would like help with, but will also get their planning times and whether they would be willing to meet after school. I am hoping to get about 5 people who truly want help integrating technology on a long-term (ie. full school year) basis. The idea would be that we can meet before or after school to look at lesson plans and determine where they can integrate technology into their lessons. Ideally, I would then like to go into their classroom during my planning time to observe or help with the lesson so that I can provide feedback. I would also invite them into my classroom during their planning time so that the teachers can observe my students using technology as well.

This past year we had a technology team with 3 other people. I would love to get them involved as well, seeing as that we all have different areas of strength when it comes to technology. If they are interested as well, then we can each take on the task of "coaching" other teachers and be able to reach more people if the interest is there or they can offer additional assistance to the people that I am already helping out as mentioned above.

Ultimately, if I can get 5 more people at our school extremely comfortable with integrating technology in their own classrooms, then hopefully in future years they can then turn around and help coach others in the school so that eventually everyone in our school is comfortable integrating technology!

Stay tuned this fall and we will see how this goes if my principal is ok with the idea!

Book Review: Peer Coaching

 

This year I was the Title 1 Technology Facilitator for my school and at the end of the year I was given this book for some summer reading. Honestly, I looked at and immediately thought, how does this pertain to me? I'm a classroom teacher. We don't have coaches at my school. I doubt this is in the budget. So why? But I decided to give it a go and I am so glad that I did!

The book walks the reader through an introduction of what a coach is, why we should have coaches, and then takes you through the preparation necessary to become a coach and the roles of a coach. While I don't see peer coaching in my near future, I was able to take many ideas from this book into my every day teaching and possibly bring some ideas back to my principal.

One of the first take-aways from this book is that there should be collaboration between teachers, and in order to have this collaboration teachers must have respectful and trustworthy relationships. Another important aspect of collaboration is communication. In order for teachers to collaborate, they must have strong communication skills that include active listening, paraphrasing, and questioning.

My second take-away is around feedback. When collaborating with a teacher (whether in a coaching role or not), we have to begin moving away from "nice conversation" and focusing on the teacher. Instead, we need to focus on the students and how engaged they are in a lesson, as well as, ask probing questions that will allow reflection on teaching practice and lessons.

Another take-away is that a learning activity can have four characteristics. It can be a standards-based task, engaging task, problem-based task, or technology enhanced task. An effective learning activity should have some characteristics from each of the four characteristics. The tasks that we are asking students to do should include real-world problems and develop 21st century skills. These real-world problems need to have meaning to the students and draw on their current knowledge, skills, beliefs, and passions.

Once a learning task has been created (more specifically, once you have identified what it is that you want the students to know and be able to do), you need to include standards. There are three types of standards. First, curriculum standards. Then each learning task should have a 21st century standard, as well as, a technology standard.

An effective learning task should have directions that offer the students a "road map to solve the task their teacher outlined" (p. 126). It should also give students choices in what and how they learn. This task should also have assessments. There should be an end-of-activity lesson, but should also have formative assessments throughout the task that give the students opportunities to receive feedback.

The last take-away for me focuses on integrating technology. This quote sums up many teachers thoughts perfectly, "When it comes to integrating technology into classroom learning, part of the teachers' dilemma is deciding what technology to include." Another problem is that new technology is created so quickly that teachers don't feel like they can keep up. This is where collaboration with teachers comes in handy. If there is a type of technology that a teacher would like to use, but is not comfortable using, there may be a teacher in the school that is comfortable that would be able to help that teacher. Another possible solution is letting the students have choice when it comes to choosing technology. Let's be honest, most of them know more about technology that we do! I love to use technology in my lessons and I guess I have never really thought about it this way, but I really liked how this book says that technology supports a learning task. We should never think about technology first, but rather come up with a learning task, connect it to standards, and then determine where technology can be added to the task. "Technology is not transforming learning; it is just a tool the students in these activities used to reach the goals of the learning activities." (p. 145)

If you are someone who is interested in becoming a Peer Coach or starting a Peer Coaching program at your school, this book is a good place to start!  If you are not interested in Peer Coaching, but would like to learn more about collaboration and how to create effective learning tasks then this book is for you as well.