ISTE Coaches Standards

I am most comfortable with the collaborator, learning designer, professional learning facilitator, and digital citizen advocate standards. As the New Teacher Mentor in my building, curriculum writer for secondary English Education, and presenter for Keeping the Wonder, I have had a variety of opportunities to engage and collaborate with educators to design learning materials.

As part of the ISTC702 (Educational Leadership and Technology) course, we had a few opportunities to develop learning facilitator plans and reflect on the ISTE standards. For one of the assignments, I created a presentation on the digital citizen advocate standards. My goal was to present an engaging, interactive session applicable to educators and students on the importance of making informed decisions on what and where we post.
Below are some examples of the slides I created for the Digital Citizen Advocacy project:

In the ILPD781 (Seminar in Supervision) course, we had real-world applicable collaboration activities in which students were paired to observe digital teaching and coaching methods. Through the various activities, we developed trusting relationships, engaged with different content areas to learn about developmentally-appropriate scaffolds and ideas, and made suggestions for improvements to student learning.

I struggle with the Connected Learner standards because although I present professional development, I do not seek out PLCs or other opportunities specifically on coaching. The ILPD781 course was my first experience with actively using language to coach other educators. I’ve now have two student teachers who I’m learning to coach, but I did not receive formal training on how to coach. Because I have had limited coaching opportunities, I do not feel that I am ready to coach others on these practices.
When it comes to using data, I often use informal data and observations to drive my teaching practices. I also use rubrics and grade data as a vehicle for lesson planning and reflecting on student understanding. Outside of my classroom and my own teaching, I’ve had limited experiences with effective data analyzing except through my experiences with the School Improvement Team. Admittedly, I have somewhat of a cynical perspective when it comes to data because data is easily skewed and in many cases subjective. With that said, the class I took on Evidence Based Decision Making helped me contextualize and see the value of data. Looking forward, I want to see how I can blend data analysis with coaching.

In a perfect world, I’ll land a future job that allows me to continue to teach and coach in a hybrid model. I feel intrinsically motivated to learn more and improve specifically on my coaching practices. The first standard I’ll focus on is Data-Driven Decision Maker. I know a lot of instructional coaches use data, and if I am to be a coach for a variety of teachers in different disciplines and grade levels, I want to strengthen my knowledge and skills in regards to data tracking, data analysis, and data improvement.
The second standard I’ll focus on is Professional Learning Facilitator, particularly 4.5c. I am very passionate about both attending and providing quality professional development to teachers and truly believe in the impact it can have on the entire school community. As a teacher leader, I know improving our professional learning experiences will help improve teaching and learning in my roles as an educator and as a coach.