Eduro Personal Project

Coaching fundamentals

I began observing my colleagues with the purpose of coaching them. I went into this unit with having no idea what I was doing. In the first course, the importance of establishing a relationship with your teacher partners was stressed, yet I did not focus on that. I figured because I had a personal relationship with both of the individuals I was going to work with everything would be fine. After reflecting on my approach, I realized that just walking up to them and telling them I wanted to coach them to make them better could have seemed like judgement. I should have begun our conversation when both of us were able to have a conversation, and I should have begun with questions. It was crucial to approach the situation discovering what these teachers wanted and needed, not what I thought was best for them.

A coaching strategy for building relationships is demonstrating vulnerability with your mentee through acknowledging areas for development.

The lessons learned in this unit have made me a better colleague and teacher because of the emphasis on perspectives, relationships, and questioning.

Sharing and growing your PLN

My biggest takeaway from this unit was that building a quality PLN takes time. I added the word quality, because too often I have followed a few people, read some Tweens, borrowed some resources and called this my PLN without any authentic engagement.

I have begun sharing on Twitter mostly. The sharing began as a way to promote my program and school, however as my PLN has grown the sharing has also taken the form of reaching out for feedback. Often comments from my PLN come without invitation but are appreciated. Through my PLN, I have improved assessments through seeing them through different perspectives.

This unit taught me the importance of a PLN, however I have yet to harness the potential of mine.

Coaching Essentials

Even though I had been provided excellent role models for coaches that helped prepare me for conference presentations, I did not reflect on these experiences prior to embarking on my first experience attempting to coach.

the coach began with questioning by asking me what I wanted to get out of our session. He then asked me what I wanted the participants to get out of my presentation.

He began and ended his feedback on a positive note. This was my first major presentation and I was nervous. His positive feedback put me at ease and allowed me to present with confidence. This made it much easier for me to accept the feedback on improvements needed to be made.

He demonstrated how the slides look can add to my presentation. He showed me that lining up photos and changing the color and timing really added to what I wanted my participants to take from my presentation. He knew to do this because he asked questions.

I also like the idea of beginning and ending on a positive note. Even though individuals seem ok with feedback, it is hard to hear criticism especially when it is something you have put so much work into.

This unit has helped me reflect more on the type of feedback I provide to my peers, students, and athletes.

Coaching from theory to practice

This unit not only guided me to evaluate my coaching style, but my style as a teacher. I recognized that my current coaching style is to sit back and observe and not interact.

I find I often do this as a teacher and a coach of sports as well. I need to utilize questions more and recognize what coaching style is relevant for particular situations.

This unit has not only benefited me but also my colleagues as I have taken the lessons learned and plugged them into my culture of coaching project.

Personal project mid point

Reflection is always a good thing and this was a very good point. Even though my original goal had drastically changed, it was a good time to look back at how I approached coaching when this course first began. I have prided myself on being a reflective individual, however, this course inspired me to reflect my on what was important to me, but the various interactions I had and the purpose of my personal project.

Innovative pedagogical approaches

For several years, my school has focused on opening up our students’ work to a wider audience. I found most of my students did not embrace this when I provided it as an option for an assessment. While we were remote learning, I assigned my students the task of creating project that shared advice on how to deal with being isolated and going through remote learning. I informed them I would share their work. I found the students were very excited to learn how much their work was utilized and shared. Through this experience I learned that I need to provide them with authentic opportunities instead of just saying “here go do this”. It needs to become something they do, a habit for them to buy into what I am asking them to do.

Digital citizenship in the classroom

This unit had the most impact on my community because of the focus on the wellbeing of our students. I really took to heart the importance of the documents focused on digital citizenship being “living breathing documents”. This should be a document that evolves with the students and the school. Additionally, child friendly and grade appropriate language is crucial to truly reach all students. Digital citizenship should be part of a schools culture and curriculum not a stand alone activity.

Leading the Digital Shift: Technology for Leaders

This unit reminded me of the importance of acquiring student input. I believe as educators, we all do a great job gathering student input in our classrooms, but through the Learning Walks, I learned how it is important to gather student thoughts in other classrooms as well. Just as I learn about myself through observing others, I learn about my classroom when I ask student about their learning in other subjects.

The Learning Walk has become an addition to my Culture of Coaching project.

Supporting Your Parent Community

I have seen school involve parents through information nights, walk about's, and other activities. I have even involved some parents are resources in my classes, but this unit taught me more ways and reminded me the value of involving the parent community. My current school is fortunate to have an individual whose focus is identifying parents and community members that possess valuable resources. I have begun to utilize this information.

Because of this unit, I extended my personal project to include a page for parent resources. These resources for meant for teachers to connect with parents as well as inform parents. This site will go beyond, what we are learning, but extend to informing parents about deeper happenings in the classroom and encourage parents to take part in the Culture of Coaching at SIS.