View my ISTE Coaching Standards Survey
The standards that I feel most comfortable with are 4.2 Connected Learner and 4.3 Collaborator. This is not to say that I am actually comfortable with these standards, but that I have limited experience with them relative to the others.
Standard 4.2 Connected Learner is what I feel the most comfortable with at this point in my educational journey. First, this course will b e my first step in mastering the ISTE Standards in order to serve a as a model for others in the field at some point in the future (Standard 4.2a). Also, my fellow cohort members are my first professional learning network that will help develop our coaching practice as we learn about emergent, effective pedagogy and the learning sciences (Standard 4.2b). Last semester, I worked with teachers to develop eLearning courses using the Articulate Rise 360 eLearning authoring tool. To do this, we applied multimedia design principles and pedagogy based on current research. We also included formative assessments throughout the design that provided immediate feedback to learners. Finally, we are working together to reach our goal of becoming instructional technology coaches. We regularly reflect on successes and struggles through discussion boards and virtual meetings as we work to improve our coaching and teaching practices in this course and throughout this program (Standard 4.2b).
I feel that my connection to Standard 4.3 (Collaborator) has its roots in the eLearning experience I had during the COVID school closures. I established trusting and respectful relationships as I worked with teachers on my second-grade team to identify and evaluate digital learning content to help achieve the learning goals of our diverse young students. I would also work one on one with teachers that were overwhelmed by the technology being utilized to show them how to manipulate the interfaces in order to achieve the intended learning outcomes. This included planning lessons that incorporated these technologies as well as modeling how to use them. An example that comes to mind is incorporating whiteboard.fi for use during math. I found that students could readily learn to use the whiteboard interface and it was a highly effective tool that allowed teachers to observe students working without the need to have them share their screens in a Google Meet.
I feel the most challenged by Standard 4.7 Digital Citizen Advocate. I believe meeting its sub-standards will be tough, though not impossible, particularly as they pertain to students. I work with seven- and eight-year-old students. Standard 4.7.a requires coaches to encourage teachers and students to engage in civic engagement through technology and to work on challenges that will help to improve their community. This would take a special effort with my young students that would require me to either find areas within my curriculums to work this in, or to employ my own ideas outside of the curriculum. I am thinking that our science unit on erosion and pollution might be a way to get students engaged in using technology to get others involved in solving the problems that they create in the Chesapeake Bay and its estuaries. I also have very little personal experience with stimulating civic engagement to promote a cause for the betterment of a community, but will work to gain knowledge and experience towards this goal.
Standard 4.7.a is not the only aspect of Standard 4.7 that I plan to address during our course. I also believe that it will be challenging but feasible to work with my students to address Standard 4.7.c. I am currently drawing a blank as to how I will support students to critically examine their online media sources as the sources that they currently use are provided by the district. I suppose that I could find other sources to compare them to, and have students identify and analyze differences between the information that these sources present. This would help my students begin to see that not all online sources are credible and instill the idea that bias and/or misinformation can produce results that can lead them astray. This will require me to think about the curriculums that I currently teach and what I can do to incorporate this standard into them, another focus for me to work on during this course. I will also need to locate resources to ensure that I am properly considering my students’ diverse backgrounds and needs to ensure that I approach this standard in a highly effective manner.