Coaching Sessions

Madison L. McDuffie
PL & Tech Innovation ITEC 7460
Dr. Anissa Vega
Kennesaw State University

1st Session
Strategies:
During this session the teacher expressed her concern regarding her students math fluency skills and how there
are too many online tools that the district has invested in that do not seem to be effective. Currently there are
two online tools that are not interventions, but merely assessments of the interventions and not very helpful. In
a previous discussion we talked about using the online tool MobyMax to determine what skills the students are
missing. The teacher who is a known technology leader in the school is familiar with MobyMax but has not had
the time to figure out how to use the tool and set this up for her students. During the session we focused on
determine who would use the tool and when the students would be introduced to it. Logins were made for the
students and we created a short presentation for the students on why they were using the tool and some tips on
how it works. One of the teachers main concerns from her survey was that her students are not always ready to
use tools that she introduces because they tend to lack even basic computer skills.

Skill and Affective Change(s):

Within the next couple of days the teacher implemented the tool after our discussion and the students seemed to
respond well to using the tool. Also the presentation seemed to eliminate any confusion about how the tools
was used.

Reflection on Challenges and Solution:

I felt as though the first coaching session went well. Obviously it helps to work with someone that wants help
and who is typically open to using new technology tools. I felt very good about really focusing on that teacher
and her classroom needs, and was open to communicating what I thought she may need from her survey results
and if my interpretation was accurate, which was the clarifying strategy. Also, using teacher choice as a
coaching strategy helped with immediate buy-in and ensured that the focus was on that teacher and her students.
What I learned is that something as simple as communication and asking questions can improve collaboration.

2nd Session
Strategies:
Now that the students have taken the placement exam in Mobymax and started their individual learning plans
the question in this session is what would you like to do now to support these students? Where are they and do
you agree with where the program has placed them? We discussed how in most cases the program was accurate
but that if students did not take the placement exam seriously they were stuck learning how to tell time when
she really wanted them to work on other skills. During this session we logged in to her teacher dashboard and
looked at individual students to see what they were working on versus her observations of their classroom
performance. We created a spreadsheet to organize where students were placed initially, and where she hoped
to push them by the end of the quarter. We also worked on modifying some students course of study by adding
or deleting specific lessons.

Skill and Affective Change(s):

I noticed that the teacher was fully committed to making full use of the program to provide remediation for
students and to close some learning gaps.

Reflection on Challenges and Solution:

So far the tool has also been relatively easy to implement. I think this is the reason that she is so willing to
continue its use. One challenge has been when the teacher has other responsibilities that get in the way of a
plan. For example in the middle of this the school had parent-teacher conferences and this happens over the
course of three days. During this week and the week leading up to that many teachers spend all of their time
preparing for these meetings with parents. This is just one example of obligations that interfere with plans, on
top of other meetings. Although Friday morning planning is designated for professional development, the
school focus right now is literacy. It would be helpful maybe if during the Friday morning planning part of the
time was designated for technology implementation and impact check-in (if this was done on a larger scale).
3rd Session

Strategies:
So far the program has been used regularly for the students in the bottom quartile and several of them are
experiencing recognizable growth. During this session the teacher wanted to discuss how to expand the use of
the program for all her students in preparation for the Georgia Milestones, especially given that district tests
showed some significant areas in need of improvement. Together we further explored the capabilities of the
program and discovered that we can assign a grade level test to all students to determine how much of the grade
level content has been mastered so far. Then we decided to disable the placement test, and automatic lessons so
that we may later decide the focus areas for a group of students. We also decided to make use of the worksheets
provided in MobyMax so that we may assess the student gaps, work on the specific skills, and then re-assess the
students. This way we can see specifically if the intervention was effective and if the students showed growth.

Skill and Affective Change(s):

The teacher was able to jump right on making the additional logins for the other students independently and was
very excited about the other discoveries we made. The main idea here was to save some time creating long
study guides that the students would not be willing to complete and to use something more engaging for the
students. Since then the students have already taken the grade level assessment and the teacher has reviewed
their performance on her own.

Reflection on Challenges and Solution:

Before this process even started the teacher expressed her frustration that teachers are rarely allowed time to
really learn how to use a tool and to implement that tool. I think it was more effective that we stuck with one
topic throughout this entire coaching session, and that together each session we collaborated on how to best use
the tool. I think it was also effective that we were being realistic about needing user-friendly tools with quick
set-up as teachers have little time to dedicate towards this type of planning.