Running head: COACHING JOURNAL 1

Coaching Journal

Stacey Shoats

DeKalb County Schools

PL & Technology Innovation

ITEC 7460

Brian Nicholas

April 12, 2017

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Coaching Session 1: March 15, 2017

Strategies

I met Ms. Momon as a result of serving on our schools Resource Development

Committee. One day I was sharing with Ms. Momon that I needed a colleague to coach for a

class assignment and she said she was willing to help out. We are both introverts but we enjoy

spending time with one another. I decided to use a one-to-one interview as a strategy to

communicate the concept of the partnership philosophy and coaching. Knight (2007) contends

that interviewing is a good way to gather information about the school, students needs, and

teachers challenges.

Interviews are also effective for communicating the partnership philosophy. I explained

the partnership philosophy a set of principles that foster equality, voice, choice, dialogue,

reflection, praxis, and reciprocity (Knight, 2007). These principles allow authentic respect for a

teachers professional knowledge allowing them to choose how they learn, what they learn, and a

reflective discourse role in the praxis process in which they determine what information from the

professional learning experience will be most useful for meeting the diverse needs of their

students.

Skill and Affective Changes

I needed to assess Ms. Momons level of technology integration in her classroom. I

asked her to complete the LoTi Digital Age Survey for Teachers. I will use the data to identify

goals that we can work on together. I perceived that she is truly interested in enhancing the

learning experiences of her students. She cares that her students are able to communicate using

digital tools.
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Reflections on Challenges and Solutions

The only challenge I foresee at this time is time itself. We are both graduate students

who teach and have families. Making a schedule to meet with one another means making a

commitment to make time to plan, prepare, model, and observe. Ms. Momons personality test

indicated that she values her time. Her personality test also indicates that she prefers just the

facts and step-by-step procedures.

Coaching Session 2: March 27, 2017

Strategies

I think a cognitive approach to coaching will be most effective. Knight (2007) contends

that cognitive coaching involves using reflective questions to encourage others to think about

their actions. Cognitive coaching involves three interrelated elements: a) a planning

conversation, b) an event which usually is observed by the cognitive coach, and c) a reflective

conversation. In this coaching session, we analyzed the data from the LoTi Digital Age Survey

and determined that Ms. Momon had never used technology to develop complex higher-order

thinking skills.

Mrs. Momon and her students use technology resources at least once a week. According

to Mrs. Momons responses, she plans lessons for her students that require them to use digital

resources, but they never used technology to complete online tasks that emphasize complex

thinking skills. Her students never used social media to pursue inquiry based learning. Although

her students use digital resources to practice basic math literacy skills, they rarely engage in

relevant and challenging self-directed learning experiences. Although she models the safe use of

digital resources, her students rarely collaborate beyond the classroom walls.
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Skill and Affective Changes

Ms. Momon wanted to learn how to use a tool that would allow students to communicate

their ideas about concepts while supporting the diverse learning needs of English Language

Learners (ELLs) and special education students. I noticed a change is Ms. Momons skill set.

Instead of me showing her the different Web 2.0 tools, she discovered a tool that I was familiar

with but that she was not.

VoiceThread is an interactive digital tool that allows students to collaborate and construct

response using multimedia tools. Students will be able to record, type, or videotape their

individual responses as well as provide constructive feedback for responses of others.

Unfortunately, the tool did not work on the student workstations due to network constraints so

we had to find another tool that would work within the network.

Reflection of Challenges and Solutions

The district network poses issues with the functionality of Web 2.0 digital tools. The

computer lab is also equipped with desktop computers that do not have built-in video cameras or

external microphones. We have to look for a tool that imports videos with ease and allows

students to record with a headset and a microphone. The other solution is to look inward to

district approved software that may meet the needs of the students and learning outcomes. We

settled on OneNote as a tool for this process.

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Coaching Session 3: April 11, 2017

Strategies

I planned to use the strategy of modelling to show Ms. Momon how to use OneNote to

build a page that she could share with students so that they could respond to a video imported

from Khan Academy. Knight (2007) contends that modelling is an effective strategy to observe

critical behaviors that a conducive to a change in teaching behaviors. I was abruptly taken off of

my regular schedule to accommodate the orientation of third, fourth, and fifth graders to the

online assessment tools.

Looking forward, we will use the observation form to pre-conference, observe, and

reflect on the experiences that will lead to the integration of Microsoft One Note into a math

lesson. Knight (2007) contends that involving colleagues in the process solidifies a commitment

to complete the process with fidelity.

Skills and Affective Change

Ms. Momon is in the process of learning the basic functionality of OneNote prior to

observing me use it as an instructional strategy. In this circumstance technology skills have to be

developed in tandem with pedagogy and content. We had to start at the foundation of teaching

her how to use OneNote software in order to understand how it functions with a lesson. By the

end of our interaction, Ms. Momon learned how to add plug-ins from Khan Academy, add a

video to a page, and add a recording to the page.

Reflection on Challenges and Solutions

Coaching takes time. It takes time for the coach to learn, so they can teach others what

they know. Coaching is easier when you work with colleagues that are willing to be coachable.

Coaches have to have the time to learn, teach, model, observe, and reflect. The necessity of time
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that coaching consumes is a great justification for the solution of hiring technology coaches

because classroom teachers cannot do it all. You have to partner with the client in order to pay

attention to their needs.

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References

Knight, J. (2007). Instructional Coaching: A partnership approach to improving instruction.

Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin .