Tech Peer Coaching By the Numbers

Faculty from every FUSD school has, at some point, participated in the Tech Peer Coaching program.

Marking Progress: The NATICC Years

As part of the grant project, FUSD tracked coaching impact utilizing a variety of benchmarks. These ranged from formal assessments for teachers and students to collaboration logs and other forms of reflective, anecdotal documentation. The documents below describe each data source and what it measured as well as its frequency and results.

• Marking Progress (2007-2008)
• Marking Progress (2008-2009)
• Marking Progress (2009-2010)

Anecdotal Evidence

• See also: Coaching Chronicles

At the conclusion of the grant project phase in Spring of 2010, exit interviews were conducted with principals, collaborating teachers, and tech coaches to uncover the specific successes and challenges experienced by participants and to find out the perceived impact of the project on teaching skills and student learning.

1. What has been the greatest success in your coaching experience?

• I think the greatest success has been watching the change in my collaborating teachers. One in particular has become much more comfortable with technology integration to the point where she now emails me ideas about things she has found that work with her kids. I would never have imagined such amazing success and her surge of leadership solely based on technology peer coaching.
• Bringing my collaborating teacher into the 21st Century!
• My greatest success gained from this coaching experience is the motivation developed in others in the building. I know that both my collaborating teacher and principal are very excited and motivated by the integration of technology into our school.
• The greatest success in my coaching experience has been creating a working, effective, and efficient PLC with the collaborating teacher. Together we have been able to create, modify, and adapt lessons by integrating them with technology that effectively teaches students academic content.
• My greatest success was getting my collaborating teacher to embrace the value of technology in teaching. It excites students and they are more interested and motivated.
• Now that I have been through this program, I am able to better help my students with technology questions and concerns.
• Moving my classroom and my teaching into a more modern era that the students respect and learn better from
• I have become abetter teacher and my students have learned a lot. They have never gone so far with math concepts before including technology.

2. In addition to time, what has been the greatest challenge in your coaching experience?

• Getting everything to work when you need it to work is always a challenge. The lesson here is, “Always have a Plan B.”
• The greatest challenge was lack of equipment for the collaborating teacher. My classroom is downstairs from my collaborating teacher, so in order to share, we had to haul it a long ways.
• It is difficult to identify a challenge that does not relate to time!
• It would’ve been better had I been able to pick my own collaborating teacher instead of being assigned one by the principal.

3. What impact has coaching had on your teaching?

• It has caused me to be more excited about teaching, especially subjects that are not my strengths. It has also freed up some time for me to be present for the kids that really need extra attention or help, due to the technology in our rooms.
• It has made me reflect more on my own teaching and how I am implementing tech into my lessons.
• The coaching experience has allowed me to gain so many great ideas from my collaborating teacher and develop a stronger relationship with her.
• I can see that how you use the technology is as important as what type of technology you might select to deliver information. PowerPoint and Internet have been overused in some situations and have turned students off to their use.
• I am happy to spend more time searching for neat websites and tech tools for addressing 2^ndgrade standards and units when I can picture how the kids will love it.
• I love for my students to know that I am still learning, too.
• I have become more introspective in my teaching. Seeing another teacher work in ways different than my own has opened new windows for me.
• It made me feel confident in teaching, knowing that I’m preparing my students to meet the global demands of technologically-inclined workforce worldwide.
• Although I have always known the value of technology integration, being able to participate in this program has helped me fully realize the true value of using technology in the classroom. Thanks to this, I applied to be the Tech Coach at our school for next year, in order to share all the things I have learned with my colleagues.

4. What impact has coaching had on student achievement within your classroom?

• My students were far more engaged this year and really looked forward to any lesson that incorporated technology. There were moments when I didn’t have to be in the front of the class because they ran the class on their own. They love being the teacher at the SMART Board. I think this brought a new sense of ownership to the kids that made them look at their learning in a different way. We showed great growth this year from pre to post. I credit part of that to the use of technology.
• The impact of coaching this year has made an unbelievable impact on the student achievement in my class. No matter the content area, student struggles have lessened. The motivation and engagement of students has improved drastically and the use of technology in one-on-one interventions has made a great impact on student math understanding in my class.
• I have been teaching my present grade level for 13 years. I really do believe that the results I am getting from some of the same lessons I have taught in the past have been greatly improved overall, through the integration of technology. Teaching and modeling to them has been easier and I am sure they understand what I want them to do better.
• One of the biggest impacts is the change in students’ views of the computer from being a tool for finding and playing games to a tool for creating.
• My students are much more engaged when I use technology! They are in tune, falling out of their seats, dying to get up to use the equipment. They LOVE it!

Additional Comments from Principals:

• This is a wonderful program. The collaborating teacher has learned a lot from her coach. The two did a whole lesson that incorporated many aspects of technology. The video they did was priceless and even had bloopers! I am looking forward to this next year!
• Thank you fordoing this program and including our school!
• I have enjoyed watching the teachers getting excited about technology integration this year. I feel this collaboration will continue next year. Thank you!