Using a Flexible Edtech-Focused Coaching Cycle to Provide Personalized Support

Purpose & objective

Objectives: Participants will
-Learn how to utilized coaching cycles to provide personalized professional learning for teachers.
-Dig into research that supports the coaching cycle model.
-Dig into resources that can be used or remixed to support the coaching cycle steps.
-Design a plan to take back to their school, district, or another context.
-Collaborate with other session participants while designing a plan for implementing coaching cycles in their own school, district, or another educational context.
-Walk away with a coaching plan that includes the implementation of coaching cycles and research to explain to others the importance of implementing their coaching plan.

Educational or infrastructure challenge: Coaches are not available in every school. This cycle is flexible and while it is designed with edtech in mind, it can be used by administrators, coaches of all types, lead teachers, and mentors who support teachers in their schools.

Models employed: Resources and research from the ISTE book: The Edtech Coaching Primer. This book discusses how structuring an edtech coach can support school and teacher growth. This coaching cycle is featured as a chapter in that book.

Outline

Getting to know participants- This will take approximately 5-10 minutes and will inform much of the discussion. Example- lead teachers, full-time coaches, and administrators are 3 very different groups. When it comes time to put participants into collaborative groups, this information will be helpful to ensure there is collaboration with job alike individuals.

The research- This will take approximately 15 minutes. We will begin by creating a word cloud together about what participants think good teacher PD looks like. We will then take a look at research that demonstrates the most effective practices in professional learning. All research articles will be avalible for participants.

Coaching Cycles Overview- This will take approximately 10 minutes. We will do a quick dive into the coaching cycle and the resources avalible so participants can see the whole picture prior to diving deep into each component.

Creating the plan- This will take the majority of the time (the exact timeframe would depend on the time allotted for this session- the more time, the deeper participants can go) as it is where participants will work together and design a plan for using coaching cycles in their own school context. In small job alike groups, participants will be provided a planning document. The facilitator will then guide participants through each of the stages of the coaching cycle by:
-sharing the main objectives of the particular stage of the cycle
-sharing resources designed for that particular stage of the cycle
-providing time for collaboration and strategizing for how those resources could be used or edited to fit the participant's needs
-providing time for participants to share out to other groups their thoughts and ideas for how each stage could be utilized in their job and their school or district.

The real world- This activity will take approximately 10-15 minutes After creating their plan, participants will participate in a reflection protocol where they will reflect on the hurdles they may meet when trying to implement their plans. This will be used as an opportunity for collaboration among all participants to think through some of these possible hurdles and consider how they may be able to avoid them.

Closing- The session will close with participants sharing highlights of their plans with the group in hopes that we can be inspired by the ideas of each other. (approximately 10 minutes with room to continue the conversation asynchounously).

Supporting research

The Edtech Coaching Primer: Supporting Teachers in the Digital Age
Edtechcoachingprimer.com