The Complete EdTech Coach

An Organic Approach to Supporting Digital Learning

Adam Juarez, Katherine Goyette

• Publisher: Dave Burgess Consulting, Inc.
• Year: 2020
• ISBN:
  9781951600570
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Education General

As former teachers, Adam Juarez and Katherine Goyette understand the need for educational technologies to be implemented with care, purpose, and collaboration. In The Complete EdTech Coach, they offer both aspiring and longtime edtech coaches a comprehensive plan for developing programs that truly serve students. With Juarez and Goyette's guidance, you'll learn how to meet educators where they are while still offering them the support necessary to reach for what's possible. What's more, you'll be equipped with pedagogical tools that will help you make a difference in every classroom—from high-tech to no-tech—every day you're on the job.

Part I

Philosophy

"We need edtech coaches in school to help make technology more engaging and available to students and teachers in the classrooms. Technology can be scary but an edtech coach can make the use of tech in the classroom a smooth and easy transition for all teachers."

Jessica Reed, MA, SPED teacher from Alabama

1

What Is Organic EdTech Coaching?

“Edtech coaching has been invaluable in my teaching and classroom structure. Being in the thick of things in my lesson building, I might not see opportunities for technology to be used, especially in a lesson I have been doing for years. Katherine has given me a plethora of ideas and resources that are easy to use and my students are very engaged in.”

Krystal Poloka, Science and STEM Teacher, Woodlake Valley Middle School, Woodlake, California

We use the term edtech (educational technology) rather than tech (technology) purposefully. First and foremost, we are educators. An edtech coach is not IT (instructional technology). Our job is not to fix printer settings or to order new light bulbs for projectors. YouTube videos can teach you how to use a technology tool. An organic edtech coach focuses on building and guiding: building relationships with educators of all levels, and guiding them in designing learning experiences that accelerate student growth toward academic goals. An important component of an edtech coach’s role is to be a connected educator. Being a connected educator includes growing their PLN in addition to staying abreast of trends in edtech via the various certifications offered by edtech companies. These certifications include such accolades as Google for Education Certified Innovator, Microsoft Innovative Expert, and Newsela Certified Educator just to name a few.

Districts that employ tech coaches rather than edtech coaches are wasting their money. They may as well send their teachers to YouTube or hire additional IT staff. Edtech coaches are credentialed teachers. As mentioned above, administrators should be guided to leverage your experience as a classroom teacher and not diminish your value by using you as a tech tool trainer. Effective edtech coaches do not focus on tools. Rather, they guide educators to lead with learning, to weave technology into lessons in a way that facilitates student collaboration, communication, creativity, and critical thinking.

When edtech coaches lead with learning rather than tech, they may find that there are instances during which it is more effective to use a no-tech or low-tech strategy to best meet the learning goal.

Katherine

I met with a teacher recently who was interested in using Google Forms to collect data for her students. As I asked this teacher deeper questions about the learning goals of the lesson, it became clear that in this instance, the technology would be a deterrent, a distraction, and time waster for the task. I listened for a moment and then said, “To be honest, I think Post-its on a few pieces of chart paper would be most appropriate for this task.” The teacher paused. “Interesting,” she said. “So, I don’t have to use technology all the time . . .”

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Adam

Since I connected with Sylvia Duckworth, who has written several books about sketchnoting, I firmly jumped on the sketchnoting bandwagon. Sylvia is an expert on it and will show you many ways to sketchnote with and without tech. As I have promoted sketchnoting with the teachers I serve, I used a paper-pencil sketchnoting model. No tech at all. Teachers I coach one-on-one and work with in PD sessions realize afterward that no tech was used, and it is OK. Then they ask about how tech fits in. I tell them, in this case, it comes afterward. Sketchnoting fulfills the learning while tech, whether it be via website design, a collaborative video platform or screencasting, enhances the learning demonstrated by the paper-pencil sketchnoting. The learning is enhanced in how the sketchnoting gives kids a visual method of expressing ideas while the tech offers a platform to display their learning to an authentic audience for feedback. Edtech in this manner is organically integrated.

As an edtech coach, never forget that you are a teacher first. Our focus must always be on learning first and technology second. Do not be afraid to suggest low-tech or no-tech options if they are most conducive to the task. This will increase rather than decrease teachers’ respect for you as a coach who has their best interest in mind. This shows teachers that you are not there for your own agenda of increasing tech implementation, and reveals your vision of putting student learning at the forefront—no matter what. Edtech coaches who guide teachers to no-tech solutions when most appropriate for the learning goal are far more likely to be heard when they suggest a technology tool.

Organic edtech coaching occurs in a teacher’s, administrator’s, or fellow coach’s natural edu-environment. Organic edtech coaching believes that coaching trumps professional development. It requires boots-on-the-ground coaches who are in classrooms, PLCs, planning meetings, staff meetings, and PD (professional development) sessions. Facilitating PD centered on an app or strategy in the staff room is not organic integration. Organic edtech coaches are on the front lines helping those they serve to integrate edtech while coaching them to identify and plan learning goals and targets. Organic edtech coaching leads with learning, never with tech.

Organic edtech coaching is inclusive of all educators. Educator and author Michael Fullan suggests you “use the group to move the group.” You may want to start with your more eager-to-learn educators to build a buzz and some confidence, but do not shy away from those who are hesitant. The biggest coaching wins you can have are with those who are initially hesitant. Organic edtech coaching builds upon and validates the strengths of all educators, especially veterans who may be uncomfortable with edtech. Teachers may fear you are trying to change how they teach, but as educator and edtech coach Joe Marquez says, “Edtech doesn’t change how you teach, but how you reach students.”

Organic edtech coaching does not begin with a technology-centered framework. Rather, it is learner centric. Edtech integration is best cultivated through the lens of the 4Cs (collaboration, creativity, communication, critical thinking). The 4Cs focus on the learners we serve, not simply the technology they use. In our experience, if you plan with the 4Cs in mind, the tech will take care of itself.

2

Coaching Trumps PD

It is through job-embedded coaching that we build educator belief in students’ abilities, provide just-in-time support, and foster relationships. Be with those you serve. Begin by walking among them, present on the physical or virtual campus, and then join them in their work with students.

As a walking coach, be explicit about your intent, and don’t be the sheriff. In most situations, edtech coaches are teachers on special assignment (TOSA). In the hierarchy of a school district, they are lateral or at the same level as teachers. In many instances, edtech coaches, and other content coaches, too, are viewed as quasi admin. If this is the case, teachers may view the edtech coach as a sheriff of sorts, which can make coaching relationships difficult. Being viewed as the evaluator is common.

In the very beginning of Adam’s edtech coaching career, he nearly fell into this trap. He was inadvertently asked to be a sheriff. At this time, the district schools were moving toward being one-to-one in the classrooms. The schools had Chromebook carts (COWs) teachers could check out. His first edtech coach mandate was to get teachers trained on Gmail and the rest of G Suite. At this time, training the teachers to implement the usage of Chromebooks was in its infancy. After a district admin walk-through, the superintendent was curious as to why the vast majority of the Chromebook carts were sitting idle in the storage room and not being checked out and used. The superintendent reminded the site admin team that they paid good money for these Chromebooks and they have an edtech coach. They wanted to see their investment in technology put to good use.

Receiving constructive criticism from your boss, in any form, can be uncomfortable, so it seemed natural to work with the site admin team to game-plan getting those COWs out of the pasture. In an effort to act on the feedback of the superintendent, Adam was instructed to report to admin which teachers were using the Chromebooks and how they were being used. This is a perfect example of a situation where an edtech coach is being branded as a sheriff. To avoid this trap, Adam responded, politely, that following this path could make him lose all credibility and trust with teachers. Again, this wasn’t the site admin’s intent, but it was an easy trap in which to fall.

But there was an alternate solution—one that would better support and sustain an organic edtech coaching model. If the admin team was provided with a menu of apps and strategies in which teachers and students had been coached after classroom visits, they could then walk classrooms and have conversations with teachers about the 4Cs and implementation. This approach did not portray the edtech coach as a sheriff: it supported the superintendent’s vision for implementing edtech, gave the site admin team a frame of reference, and maintained credibility and trust with teachers.

In Katherine’s first year out of the classroom, she spent a great deal of time and thought creating a digital walkthrough form that she completed when walking classrooms. While this was designed with positive intent, it was far too complex and felt evaluative to the teachers that were being served. The form had checkboxes that were selected when particular instructional strategies and technology were integrated in the classroom. It quickly became apparent that, as edtech coaches, it is important to provoke reflection among the teachers we serve, not to appear evaluative. While Katherine communicated to teachers that the walkthrough forms were simply documenting a snapshot of time, they felt evaluative nonetheless. There were so many checkboxes on the form that even if great things were happening in the classroom, teachers focused on the boxes that were not checked. It felt negative.

The next year, Katherine reworked the feedback form. The content of the form came from the staff themselves, not from her. The forms asked what the teachers would like Katherine to look for in the classroom visits. Their response? “Keep it simple.” These teachers asked that the revised form contain only four checkboxes, reflecting the presence of students engaging in the 4Cs. Katherine also added a short answer option to note “Commendations.” Any inquiries or suggestions were done in person, not in writing on an impersonal form.

The simplified form was very effective. Educators loved both the simplicity and the fact that the content came from their vision for improvement. Katherine took a summary of the form to a staff meeting one day. In the past, an edtech coach would have presented the results and provided suggestions on how to improve. However, this would feel evaluative and top-down. Instead, Katherine gave results to the educators themselves, who celebrated growth and made their own plans as to how to continue to improve their methods of using no-tech, low-tech, and high-tech methods to engage students in the 4Cs. The approach was organic. It grew according to the needs and observations of those doing the work.

Building relationships is crucial. Katherine recalls walking through a classroom and witnessing a teacher panic as her students were unable to join her Google Classroom. Neither the teacher nor the students could find the classroom join code on a page they’d used only a day prior. As an edtech coach, Katherine knew there had been an update of the Google Classroom platform and was able to provide immediate support to this teacher and her students. If an edtech coach had not been present on campus, this teacher may have abandoned this valuable organization and communicatio...