Reflection:

The standard outlines how technology coaches can be agents of instructional change as well as being technology experts within a school working with teachers, students, administrators, and board members across eight elements within teaching, learning, and assessment. Essentially this standard enables the coach to create and sustain true change, but also tasks the coach with multiple responsibilities as this is the standard with the most elements. Coaches begin with updating, if needed, content standards and student technology standards across grade levels. Once standards are relevant and current, coaches utilize research based learning strategies to align tech programs accordingly and assist in turning classrooms into student centered learning environments. Technology practices in the classroom should help make learning meaningful and allow higher personal interest from students and multiple ways for them to showcase their knowledge. Coaches work closely with teachers to choose tech sites and programs that focus on ways students can be creative which will allow them to go beyond traditional and foundational knowledge and create space and interest for higher order thinking skills. Technology in the classroom aides teachers in differentiating their instruction and personalizing the experiences for their students. Coaches may also assist teachers in choosing sites that feature materials that can accessed by a wide variety of students within the UDL model that promotes content to be accessible to all learners. In addition coaches guide staff in choosing technology assessments that can be adaptive and then support staff to collect, analyze, interpret, and communicate the data. 

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As a classroom teacher I have approached elements of this standard within my school in a variety of ways working closely with parents, teachers, and building administrators to showcase the daily benefits of utilizing technology in the classroom.

 

Artifact 1:

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For the past four years I have volunteered my time in the evening to conduct "Tech Night". On Tech Night parents of my classroom are invited in to have an opportunity to spend time working with the websites we use in class to best understand their features and how the sites could enhance their child's academic work at home. I feel that this a way to engage the parents, excite them, and demonstrate how the sites can improve their child's academic experience by how adaptive and personal the experiences can be. My Tech Night has also inspired another colleague in the building to have a similar evening for her parents. Similar to Tech Night I also created an evening for parents and students to come in during the week of Hour of Code (https://hourofcode.com/us) to code with each other to further promote the importance of technology, programming, and creativity. My hope is that these special evenings stress how important technology is and will be in the students' lives while also creating a supportive community between school and home.

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Artifact 2:

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My frequent use of Kahoot (https://kahoot.com/welcomeback/) also touches on many of the elements in this standard. In our classroom Kahoot is used for my purposes. Kahoot interactive quizzes can be used for instant assessment as students' progress is easily observed in a bar graph after each question. Essentially a teacher could adjust their lessons daily on the performance and data the Kahoot quiz can provide. These quizzes are also an incredible pre-assessment prior to a lesson. For example, if you were going to teach the difference between common and proper nouns you could start the lesson with a quick Kahoot quiz to gauge what prior knowledge the students have on the skill. In addition to playing Kahoot quizzes students in my class are tasked with creating their own Kahoots. Recently a group of students chose to do a Kahoot as their final project after researching fast land changes on Earth. The website allowed them to challenge themselves to create content and to make the lesson relevant the other students in the class had the opportunity to play their classmates' Kahoot. Last year I started using Kahoot as a homework tool to replace traditional paper and pencil work. I believe the interactive nature of Kahoots created more excitement and engagement for students to complete homework and provided weekly data of performance on each topic assigned. I introduce parents to Kahoot at Back to School Night in which they play a Kahoot based on knowledge they should have of their child's classroom and programs. I actively create my own public Kahoot quizzes to match current curriculum standards and student interest.