VSTE

Virginia Society for Technology in Education

UnisonEDU

Two Things That Can Make or Break a Tech Coach

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Written by UnisonEDU founder and VSTE Board member, Patrick Hausammann. Connect with him at @PHausEDU on Twitter.

1. Empathy

The one thing that has made the biggest impact in building and maintaining relationships with teachers in my ed tech coaching role has been staying empathetic. My constant standby is to remember where I started out with ed tech and proceed from there. Always remembering that you once knew nearly nothing about the topics and how hard you’ve worked to become an expert can help you to relate to teachers at nearly any stage of technology integration.

There should never be a time when teachers feel a question they’ve asked is stupid, silly, or beneath you to answer. Each question should be fully listened to, clarified if needed, and investigated fully (as needed), and responded to with respect. When possible, be fully transparent and honest about how you discovered the answer and learned how to do the things you’re asked about. If you don’t know an answer or just discovered it, share that openly and thank the teacher for pushing you to continue learning and discovering.

I can assure you that starting at a high level with everyone, never differentiating, and not recapping the basics are all great ways to damage relationships and ensure you’re reaching and connecting with a small percentage of those you seek to assist.

Instead, begin every planning session you employ with an empathetic mindset reflecting on those you’ll be meeting with. 

Where is their expertise?

What have they requested?

What goals do they seek to achieve?

Finally, what scaffolds can you implement to help them each step of the way?

2. Credibility (knowledge & experience)

The second (and equally as important) element that can make or break an ed tech coach is credibility in the form of having both the knowledge and expertise to excel at technology integration and training. It is incredibly valuable if this experience is grounded in classroom teaching and learning. It can be hard for some teachers to relate to and find you credible if you’ve never taught and managed a classroom of your own. If you haven’t had this experience, you should advocate for taking over a teacher’s classroom for lessons and co-teaching as often as possible. Both of these teaching opportunities can cement your teaching experience and credibility for teachers.

In addition to having actual teaching experience, you should be the lifelong learner you implore your teachers to be. Your colleagues should know that you constantly seek opportunities to learn more to be able to better support their needs. Your knowledge and drive to continue learning should take you to learning connected to tech tools, technology integration, and best practices of teaching, learning, grading, and more. When teachers can clearly see that you’re not just a tech person, but a teacher as well (even primarily), your words and recommendations will be heeded much quicker and with more acceptance.

Using BookCreator to organize for Your Classes and Parents

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Written by UnisonEDU member, Denyse Phelps. Connect with her at @LavenderOwl24 on Twitter.

I came across BookCreator at a conference for librarians during a workshop.  Once I attended, my mind just went on overload because there are so many things you can do with this program. Create original books, student created books, presentations, and projects, but I really believe this would be a great way to organize for your students and your parents.  BookCreator allows you to make each book you need with a cover to match. It even has templates if you prefer.  So, you could do lesson books, enrichment books, study guides, reference guides for certain concepts like in math, organize your class schedule, important paperwork, field trip paperwork, collection of student work and the list goes on and on. These are books that will be on your class virtual bookshelf and easily accessible.

Here are three ways you can use BookCreator.  One will be for your classes, the other will be for your parents and the third one will be for you.  

  1. Use BookCreator to organize your lessons that you want students to have choices with, add enrichment activities, and extend learning. Students can also make books that show skills they learned and share with all students in your class to study for upcoming quizzes and tests. Everyone gets to learn, create and share in order to prepare! 
  2. Use BookCreator for your parents as a guide to keep them informed about lessons, information for upcoming tests, how your classroom works, expectations for students and parents, it is a great way for your parents to learn about you, classroom special events and so much more.  It is a great place to organize and house all your school or class newsletters too. It could be a place where all important information is housed like a classroom manual.  Parents could also see the books their children have made as well. These books can even be printed out as keepsakes! 
  3. Finally– you can use the program to keep important dates together in one book, take notes at faculty meetings, or just have fun and create books for your classes to read.

Don’t wait, go check out BookCreator.  Make a free account or pay for one that has even more bells and whistles.  Start learning how to make interactive books to extend learning and understanding in your classrooms.  Plus, it is FUN!

What’s  A Meme Got To Do With It?

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Written by UnisonEDU founder, Patrick Hausammann. Connect with him at @PHausEDU on Twitter.

In my years within education, very few things have helped me connect with students as quickly and well as humor. Humor has the great dual benefit of creating both a sense of safety and connection at the same time as it helps boost retention. Think back… when you’ve laughed (I mean really laughed), did you have any concerns for your safety at that moment? Did you worry about not fitting in or being connected to those you were with? Do you have a tendency to remember things more that are tied to funny moments or to things that are just part of a normal day?

Humor and laughter are a big part of positive memories for many people and students. Why not use it in the classroom when we can? Here are some great resources to check out to build upon the thoughts and ideas that may be swirling around after your reading of the introduction: 

One great way I’ve meaningfully incorporated humor into my classes over the years (in addition to only the best dad jokes), is the use of memes. Memes work because they’re quick & relatable. They present the content in an easily digestible way that allows students to show mastery of their learning and teachers to quickly gauge students' understanding. The added bonus of humor makes the activity both more enjoyable and more memorable.

Meme: One does not simply invade Russia in winter.
Meme: If you cut my class I will look for you. I will find you.

Meme’s are also great within the classroom because they are simple to create and take little time to do so. Even if used only as an exit or entrance ticket, they can prove to be a worthwhile addition. I also found them valuable as study tools, note enhancers, and concept reinforcers. The slide deck linked below will provide you with the links throughout this post, some more meme examples, a templates & resources for meme creation, and numerous examples of meme use throughout education. 

Slide image for the presentation "What's a meme got to do with it".

 

https://bit.ly/phaus-smemes

 

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Sketchnoting

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While it's a form of notetaking that has been around for a little while now, some may not be aware of sketchnoting as applied to student use. This method of notetaking helps to summarize thoughts in a unique way. Originally posted in September of 2020, author Chad Fisher provides his take on this for use with students. Connect with him on Twitter at @Chad_the_ITC.

Sketchnoting is something that has been around for a little while now. This method of taking notes is a little different than your typical outlines and takes a lot more thought in the planning of your drawings. But that can be the beauty of sketchnoting. You really have to conceptualize what you're hearing and make sense of it in order to place it into some type of drawing that can make sense to you.

Last year I was asked to come into a classroom and talk about some possible digital options that students could use for creating sketchnotes. One option that I thought of is called Autodraw. This online tool is part of Google's experimental labs and has been in use for several years now and isn't the only tool online that students can use. Autodraw is a little different from other drawing applications though in that users don't have to have the best of drawing skills in order to make or draw things. You just need to start drawing something and the app will make suggestions as to what it is that you're trying to draw. You just select the closest object to what you wanted and it takes the place of what you were drawing. It's not always 100% accurate but I was surprised at how well it actually worked.

A Sketchnote by Sylvia Duckworth ( https://sylviaduckworth.com/) from https://www.edtechteam.com/blog/2018/08/eduslam-how-to-sketchnote/

The Autodraw app lends itself very well to sketchnoting but doesn't only need to be used with notetaking. Drawings created in the application can be downloaded and then reused in whatever way that is needed or required. So if there's a reason why you need students to draw online consider this as a good option for those who feel they lack the necessary drawing skills.

With the current lack of participation by many students who may be working virtually, Sketchnoting may be one avenue to think about to get students more involved. Yes. Not all students may enjoy working with this notetaking technique but some may. Why not at least give it a try? Even if students don't use the online method and instead use old fashioned paper and pencil they may get more out of listening to their teachers doing online presentations or videos.

Solving the Problem of Notebooks in a Digital Classroom

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Although many of us have begun to conduct learning as we did before the pandemic, this former post suggests the use of digital notebooks for use with students may still be beneficial. There are definite takeaways from the methods used over the last couple of years. Maybe this is one of those for you and your students. Former UnisonEdu member Biz Summers originally wrote this article in August of 2020. You can connect with her on Twitter at @BizzyITC.

4 types of notebooks

As we attempt to prepare for a year of new challenges and rethinking our teaching-style, I’ve heard incredibly innovative ideas. I’ve heard teachers prioritizing accessibility and student voice like never before. And as I hear all these ideas, I think that teaching might never be the same again, even when it’s safe for us all to be back in the classroom. That is, with one exception: the interactive notebook. Reimagining the notebook--with its engaging activities and cloze notes--is a challenge for many. Although there is no perfect duplicate, I offer the following suggestions.

Microsoft’s OneNote Class Notebook provides the closest digital approximation to a traditional notebook, but it also presents the most hurdles. If you’re not in a Microsoft district, go on and skip to the next paragraph now. However, if you and your students have access to Office 365, this may be a great solution. Class Notebook provides each of your students with a digital Notebook that only you and they can access. With a few clicks, you can push content to each student, and they can type or draw or add images to the pages that you send them. I don’t know of another tool that so closely mimics the interactive notebook experience, but there are a few drawbacks. OneNote can be used on a phone or tablet, but it takes up a lot of space on the device--too much, if several teachers are using this. For this reason, OneNote is only ideal for a class in which each student has their own, unshared laptop.

A much more flexible solution is available in Google Slides. Teachers can create a notebook in which each slide is a notes template and use Google Classroom or their LMS to deliver those activities and templates to each student. There are so many creative ways to organize these Slides, and because this is a popular technique, great templates are only a short Google away. The Slides notebook limits you only in how far in advance you can plan. Unless you have all of your note templates planned for the year, you’ll have to push out notes over the course of many assignments, which means that instead of one cohesive notebook, students have multiple files to review.

A more traditional approach is to remember that our new normal is not our forever normal. Eventually, most of us and our students will return to a traditional classroom. To this end, students might be best served by keeping a traditional notebook with paper and pencil. Although this does make the “interactive” portion challenging, we know that students who are headed into higher education will need note-taking skills, and synchronous meeting time is an excellent opportunity to model that while delivering content. And in a distance learning situation, students can’t say, “I left my notebook at home!” 

If none of these solutions feels just right to you, I challenge you to consider the purpose of an interactive notebook. I believe our most common goals are that students will have a centralized place from which to study and that they will actively engage with the material we are teaching. If a traditional notebook is no longer an option, how else might we help our students meet these goals? For example, what if a teacher kept a blog covering the content for the year, and asked students to engage with that blog via comments or games or activities within their LMS? If we consider the “why” behind the notebook, what other creative solutions can we find that will help us continue to transform the way we teach?