Journal Session 1

In my first session with Mrs. C, I used the modeling strategy and the reflection
strategy, I wanted her to see my lesson with technology and to see how the
students were engaged and how the class was ran. Knight states, A simple
example illustrates how tactic knowledge shapes our actions ( Knight 2007). Mrs. C
needed to see how with the right directions and the teacher being a facilitator, that
the students are engaged and exploring own their own. Modeling lessonsprovide
a chance for teachers to learn many teaching techniques that are not written in
teachers manuals. I did this through a web Quest that also had stimulations on a
topic about Autism in my classroom (our novel focused on a child with autism). Then
I made sure to give Mrs. C the lesson plan for the day, so she knew what was being
covered and what the expectations of the students were, and I had her take notes
on what she observed so that we could talk about her observation in the reflection
part of the strategy.
After observing one of my lessons we had the reflection part. She had questions and
concerns but was more excited after seeing a technology lesson happen
successfully. We talked about the technology elements and troubleshooting (this is
where most of her questions were) and we talked about what clear directions were
for the students and the importance of patience the first time that you do anything
new with the students when it came to technology. I told her that check list direction
sheets were great for when students use a new technology or are asked to create
something with technology. She took notes on everything and shared with me
challenges that she thought would happen in a technology lesson yet did not
happen in the classroom. I explained that challenges could happen, its not always
smooth, but thats the exciting part of any lesson wither there is technology or not

involved in it. After our meeting, she shared that she gained a lot by seeing the
lesson at hand and felt excited about implementing more technology in the
classroom since she enjoyed seeing the lesson. I think this was a solution for her
being nervous about taking on more technology in the classroom and I think this will
show change in her attitude and confidence.
Journal Session 2
In session two I meet with Mrs. C to help create the lesson that she wanted to do,
creating her own social studies WebQuest. I used two strategies here: employing
authentic listening and Understanding your audience. Knight mentions, in
order to become better listeners, ICs need to learn to distinguish between
experiencing and evaluating during the conversation ( knight 2007). So I took that
reminder and really listened with honest, empathy, and respect for what Mrs. C
concerns, questions, and ideas were. I think she had great ideas and having already
known the tool of Weebly. I was ready to combine my technology knowledge of the
tool and her content knowledge to build this first technology lesson for her. By
understanding my audience, I knew to take each step one at a time and I really tried
to hone in on her learning preference and that learning preference was modeling. I
walked through every step in my on Weebly account with a WebQuest that I had
created in prior lessons. We went through every step of making the webQuest
together and I asked questions along the way: setting the account, creating links,
pages, adding videos and documents, etc.
The changed I noticed most about Mrs. C is that she was more hands on and the
questions that she had were more about technology as opposed to having questions
such as, can I do this? and will there be issues? The more time she spent on
Weebly and working with technology, the more creative she became and she

wanted to use all the elements that the website had to offer. She wanted videos,
and sound clips, and links all embedded in her webQuest. The only challenge that I
faced myself as a coach was patience for how slow everything went. We really did
go step by step and I felt that I needed to remember my audience and know that if I
rush her, I will lose her in this process. That was a struggle for me, but seeing the
final product (there three meetings working on the webQuest) I was able to
overcome and appreciate the strategies that I used. After these past few sessions, I
feel that we made the right decision in choosing a webQuest. I feel that now she can
make blogs, websites, embed videos to her Edmodo- all by showing her how to
complete these in her WW11 quest.
Journal 3
After the WebQuest was completed, I wanted my next strategy to be observing
and reflecting on the lesson with collaborative data. I liked seeing her work
and my own hard work being implemented in the lesson. I made sure to take note
on the lesson, her teaching, the students engagement, and the overall atmosphere
of the lesson. The students were engaged and were watching the videos, seeing the
photos etc. that were placed on the webQuest. When asking the students about
what they are doing, they seemed engaged and willing to learn. I used a checklist
that I created for the 7460 class for checking off all the elements of the teachers
and the students behavior. I made sure that this was also the same checklist that
she had when she was watching me model the technology lesson. On the check list,
I did take note of several times when there were a lot of questions from the
students; it seemed that she was becoming overwhelmed. This was a note that I
wanted to address in our reflection session. Im sure it was weird for her having a
colleague observe her, it was weird for me at first, but I think that teachers need to

watch and observe best practices from other teachers and so I feel as though we
both got something out of it.
After the lesson, she and I meet during planning to discuss what we both saw and
explore the data and the student samples that were completed in the class that I
observed. I need to remember from knight, This meeting, like other aspects of the
ICs process is based on the mutual respect (knight 2007). After talking about her
challenge of not looking overwhelmed with so many questions from the students, I
explained to her that this would ease up just like in any lesson. The first time is
going to cause many questions for the students. The more direction that we can
give the students the better chance they have to be more successful in the lesson.
When we looked at the data (the student samples) there is part were many
students struggled but after looking at the webQuest, I can see that it was the
directions that might have been confusing, so we learned to always double, triple
check the work and see if the students will understand it.
Journal Session 4
During the discussion of the lesson, I wanted to use the strategy of providing
constructive feedback. As Knight States, no one is ever motivated by
punishment (2007). So I wanted to not focus on the negative (her frustration level,
the confusing directions at time) but focus on the positive first. I first gave her great
feedback about how the students were engaged and how the webQuest looked
great. I then brought up the constructive feedback about how to improve the
direction and to not let frustration get to her. We talked about strategies on how to
fix this. MY biggest struggle/ challenge in this session was that I needed to know my
audience. Mrs. C tends to be sensitive so I wanted to always stay positive and to

make the feedback helpful in a way that meant that nothing in her lesson was
broken, it just needed a little improving before it was final. I think she took that in a
positive way and learned from it. We left the session with her wanting to fix the
webQuest for next years use and to start the next task which was using technology
for an assessment.
I think as a coach, I have seen myself change by how I present everything. I usually
can be overwhelming and very excitable which the kids love (I have been called the
energizer bunny more than once in my teaching career) but with these coaching
sessions, I became a better listener and more patient. I needed to slow down. I think
this paid off with this past session of really going over the observation and giving
feedback and listening to Mrs. Cs concerns. Our last session is going to be looking
at her technology use with an assessment and looking at the goals that she started
the year with.

Journal Session 5
Now that we are in November, Mrs. C has used technology a few times for
informative and formative assessments. She has used Kahoots as a great, engaging
informative assessment and a Prezi for formative. She had the students create a
Prezi on what they learned about the Holocaust in the WW11 unit. After looking at
her goals and talking about change and the tactics that we can use to show
others that change is good as long as you are on solid ground and know
the school culture.

From these sessions, I feel that I can be a successful IC or even a great

administrator one day. The key is to know your audience, to get people to jump on
board with you, to listen, to use data, model and observe, and lastly and to me most
importantly, to collaborate with one another so that everything has a purpose and
we can grow and build the lessons in our school, and I think that Mrs. C and I have
done that and I look forward to seeing coach again and overcoming the challenges
such as having someone who is afraid of technology or can get overwhelmed with
technology and with their challenges- I can work on mine which is having patience
and be a better listener to the adult learner.

Knight, J. (2007) Instructional Coaching: A Partnership Approach to Improving

Instruction. Thousand Oaks: Corwin Press.