What Have We LEARN?

 

What have we LEARN?

     Now that I’ve done some deep reading on what it means to improve, I’m able to identify the realities that I want to achieve with teachers and students. I was able to start my coaching finally recently. In the first meeting I was able to speak with both of my coworkers of what to expect as the coaching relationship continued. I clearly explained to them about what The Impact Cycle was and the benefits of following this process through. 

     I was fortunate to enter into a coaching relationship with two of our newest teachers that both teach math at our high school. These teachers have been outstanding so far and have made an instant impact with the students at the school. In our initial meeting we were able to get some data and feel on the classroom environment. I setup a time so that I could go and observe their classes to get an even better picture of their current reality. 

     The goal after observing the classes was to allow the teacher to get a picture of the current reality by watching the video of their lesson. In addition to recording the teacher lessons, I made sure I took great notes. What did I learn from my observations? My initial assessment after observing both classes were very similar. Both teacher class environments lacked student engagement. 

     This was one of the first noticeable questions that I wanted to ask each of them. How can you improve student engagement? They had great lessons. They knew their material! They explained things clearly but yet their were only maybe two students consistently engaging back in conversation with the teacher. One of the teachers did a great job at calling out students to engage in the problem solving review question. I knew once I start reading chapter 4 of The Impact Cycle, I was on the right path in my questioning. 

     The Impact Cycle mentioned, “In particular, we needed teaching strategies that would increase student engagement and create safe learning environments. We also needed strategies for formative assessment so teachers could measure whether or not students were actually learning what was covered in class” (Knight, 2018, p.103). In chapter 4, I learned. I learned how to develop a playbook that describes teaching strategies. The four major strategies based on high impact instruction are content planning, formative assessment, instruction, and community building. 

     Another important thing that I had to learn after identifying the classroom realities amongst the two teachers was learning maps. “Learning maps are a form of a concept map teachers can use to ensure their lessons are clear” (Knight, 2018, p.106). These learning maps help the students review their lessons and take notes of key information. Checklists are another key element that I learned in this chapter 4 of The Impact Cycle. “The bulk of an instructional  playbook is made up of checklists foreach of the teaching strategies included” (Knight, 2018, p.107). The checklists should be precise, efficient, and easy to use. 

     I also learned that “once checklists are created, coaches share them with teachers to explain the new practices they are going to use to hit their goals” (Knight, 2018, p.111). One big thing that stuck out to me about the checklists and how it worked with the learning maps was realizing the importance of the students access to these maps. The students should have the maps present on their desks or tables to be able to follow along with the instructions. Having that visual of what is expected in the lesson will make for better connection to the concepts being taught. “Coaches can also search for

online video of teacher implementing teaching strategies” (Knight, 2018, p.126).

     After learning the effective ways to access teacher classroom reality, I could then start to help the teacher implement the practices that were suggested. The teachers and I will meet to confirm what direction we are going, and monitor progress. Chapter 5 was all about finally improving. I learned in this chapter that a lot of adjustments had to be made until goal is met. Planning and next actions would be implemented in the coaching relationship. “During the improve stage of the Impact Cycle, instructional coach and collaborating teacher move through a four-step process. They (a) confirm direction, (b) review progress, (c) invent improvements, and (d) Plan Next actions…” (Knight, 2018, p.133). 

     The effective use of digital learning tools in classrooms can increase student engagement, help teachers improve their lesson plans, and facilitate personalized learning. It also helps students build essential 21st-century skills. Because implementation of technology based instructional is so effective for increased student engagement, it’s important that some of these instructional strategies are implemented in the Impact Cycle especially in my partnerships coaching relationship. The students in the classroom seemed very disengaged. So because of that fact along, the technology based instructions play a key role in my current coaching relationships.  

     The article in Journal of Digital Learning in Teacher Education has a study about uses of technology based instruction to promote computational thinking. “In this case study, we present instructional strategies utilized by informal educators (i.e., parents) to facilitate computational thinking amongst five-to-seven-year-old children during two activities (a no-tech and a technology-based activity)” (Rehmat, Ehsan, Cardella, 2020). Studies like this will seek to show how technology based instruction can promote a more deep thinker and engaging student. 

Reference 

Knight, J. (2018). The impact cycle: What instructional coaches should do to foster powerful improvements in teaching. Corwin. 

Rehmat, A. P., Ehsan, H., & Cardella, M. E. (2020). Instructional strategies to promote computational thinking for young learners. Journal of Digital Learning in Teacher Education, 36(1), 46-62. Https://doi.org/10..1080/21532974.2019.1693942