1.4 Diffusion of Innovations & Change
Candidates research, recommend, and implement strategies for initiating and sustaining technology innovations and for managing the change process in schools.
Candidates research, recommend, and implement strategies for initiating and sustaining technology innovations and for managing the change process in schools.
Artifact - Coaching Journal
During my first semester, for my ITEC 7460, Professional Learning and Technology Class, I was required to keep a coaching journal to document my efforts to collaborate with teachers in order to improve technology integration at North Paulding High School. This journal serves as a guide for what I see that is happening in our classrooms and what can be done to improve technology use.
The coaching journal was a great experience which helped me overcome my feeling that I was imposing on teachers when I approached them about collaboration and showed me that I could truly be catalyst for change. I saw this happen in my 5th session with the teacher I was coaching. She needed help finding a better way to communicate with parents. At the time, she was exporting her contacts into a spreadsheet and then individually typing emails to each parent, a very time-consuming process. Not having access to her classes in my electronic grade book, Infinite Campus, I asked her to log in for me and let me play around. While looking at her grade book I discovered a module call Infinite Campus Messenger which would allow my teacher to send a form email to her students inserting the appropriate student name with the matching parent email address. After our initial excitement, we were very let down when our test emails failed. Not to be outdone, I discussed this feature with my principal and he promised his support if I wanted to pursue getting help from the system technology department. Over the next few weeks I worked with our Infinite Campus technology specialist at the county offices ironing out the kinks in Messenger. My school became the pilot school for testing this module. Now Messenger works seamlessly. It is used by our administration to email all our stakeholders and by teachers to email parents concerning their students’ grades and upcoming assessments. Failing grade and missing assignment emails are also sent out on a weekly basis to keep parents informed of their students' progress. This year, Infinite Campus Messenger is used system-wide to facilitate communication among all stakeholders. It all started with my Coaching Journal.
Because of my efforts to connect with teachers and then document this endeavor in a journal, I became a catalyst for change at the school system level. This experience has helped mold me into a more effective technology leader. As I reached out to teachers, I was able to identify a need, recommend it for implementation, and troubleshoot the technology with system-level personnel. I continue to keep a journal as I become a technology leader in my school and am always trying to improve it. I have begun keeping it in OneNote because this tool is easy to use, quicker to open than getting pen and paper out, and easier to sort and organize than a notebook. I will continue to look for other ways to improve it.
I was lucky that my first efforts at keeping a coaching journal had such a dramatic impact on communication across the district, but teaching and learning have also been impacted as I continue to coach and to document my teachers’ needs and concerns. As a result of this project, I have helped numerous teachers individually with technology in their classroom. .
During my first semester, for my ITEC 7460, Professional Learning and Technology Class, I was required to keep a coaching journal to document my efforts to collaborate with teachers in order to improve technology integration at North Paulding High School. This journal serves as a guide for what I see that is happening in our classrooms and what can be done to improve technology use.
The coaching journal was a great experience which helped me overcome my feeling that I was imposing on teachers when I approached them about collaboration and showed me that I could truly be catalyst for change. I saw this happen in my 5th session with the teacher I was coaching. She needed help finding a better way to communicate with parents. At the time, she was exporting her contacts into a spreadsheet and then individually typing emails to each parent, a very time-consuming process. Not having access to her classes in my electronic grade book, Infinite Campus, I asked her to log in for me and let me play around. While looking at her grade book I discovered a module call Infinite Campus Messenger which would allow my teacher to send a form email to her students inserting the appropriate student name with the matching parent email address. After our initial excitement, we were very let down when our test emails failed. Not to be outdone, I discussed this feature with my principal and he promised his support if I wanted to pursue getting help from the system technology department. Over the next few weeks I worked with our Infinite Campus technology specialist at the county offices ironing out the kinks in Messenger. My school became the pilot school for testing this module. Now Messenger works seamlessly. It is used by our administration to email all our stakeholders and by teachers to email parents concerning their students’ grades and upcoming assessments. Failing grade and missing assignment emails are also sent out on a weekly basis to keep parents informed of their students' progress. This year, Infinite Campus Messenger is used system-wide to facilitate communication among all stakeholders. It all started with my Coaching Journal.
Because of my efforts to connect with teachers and then document this endeavor in a journal, I became a catalyst for change at the school system level. This experience has helped mold me into a more effective technology leader. As I reached out to teachers, I was able to identify a need, recommend it for implementation, and troubleshoot the technology with system-level personnel. I continue to keep a journal as I become a technology leader in my school and am always trying to improve it. I have begun keeping it in OneNote because this tool is easy to use, quicker to open than getting pen and paper out, and easier to sort and organize than a notebook. I will continue to look for other ways to improve it.
I was lucky that my first efforts at keeping a coaching journal had such a dramatic impact on communication across the district, but teaching and learning have also been impacted as I continue to coach and to document my teachers’ needs and concerns. As a result of this project, I have helped numerous teachers individually with technology in their classroom. .