INDIVIDUAL TEACHING TECHNOLOGY ASSESSMENT

Individual Teacher Technology Assessment Narrative

Megan Endicott

Kennesaw State University

INDIVIDUAL TEACHING TECHNOLOGY ASSESSMENT

Ms. Colleen Greathouse, 5th grade teacher, at Dolvin Elementary School is a member of the

school Vanchise Team, or teacher technology team, due to her interest in technology integration in the

classroom. As a teacher with less than five years of teaching experience, it was her enthusiasm for

technology that earned her spot on the team. Ms. Greathouse reached out to be coached to better her

practice. To begin, Ms. Greathouse took two separate surveys in effort to identify her levels of

technology integration and implementation as well as assess her ability to adopt new innovative

technology in her classroom. The fifth grade team at Dolvin Elementary School is departmentalized;

therefore, Ms. Greathouse teaches math and science. Her classroom is outfitted with eight shared iPads

for classroom use, six laptop computers, and a BYOD classroom environment. In addition, her classroom

contains an Epson Brightlink Interactive Whiteboard.

Levels of Technology Use and Change

Based on the results from the Levels of Technology Integration survey, Ms. Greathouse believes

that technology has a high impact when used effectively in the classroom. She uses various types of

technology programs several times throughout the day, focusing on the standards, and usually in

connection with learning software programs. Ms. Greathouse also ensures she integrates technology

tools through her instruction and materials daily. In our meeting, Ms. Greathouse clarifies that she

believes that technology-rich lessons have increased the level of student engagement in her classroom.

Ms. Greathouse consistently uses Google Suite and discussion boards in her classroom which fosters a

collaborative-rich learning environment. She suggests however, that an area of weakness is

communication with peers, parents, and / or members of the community and additional project-based

learning integration ideas. She clarified in our meeting that the focus would be more on the members of

the community as she collaborates frequently with teachers and students through Google Suite. I feel

that Ms. Greathouse would rate at a Level 4B: Integration or Routine on the LoTi scale. Her students are

exposed to higher-order, real-world authentic tasks; however, are missing on the collaborative, student-
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driven classroom environment. Digital tools are not being used to support student creativity and

products.

Ms. Greathouse also took an adoption survey to assess her level of integrating innovative

concepts through technology. She demonstrates a high level of willingness to adopt new ideas into her

own practice. She feels that she is consistently able to keep up with the technologies as they arise and

successfully implement them into her classroom. While she feels that technology is a necessary

component for her classroom, she also finds that she doesnt necessarily incorporate it in all of her

lessons. She would rather spend time getting to know the technology prior to teaching her students to

iron out all of the details, but is ready to dive in right away with new ideas with excitement and energy.

Her passion and excitement for technology and its use in her classroom has led her to volunteer to

facilitate Get & Go, Stay & Play after school professional development sessions at Dolvin Elementary

School on various technology tools. Her willingness to take risks and try new things rates her very high in

regard to adoption and would label her as an Early Adopter.

Technology Training Needs and Coaching

When asked, In which areas would you like more assistance in incorporating technology in your

classroom? Ms. Greathouse wanted to focus on integrating technology tools to promote collaboration

with members of the community and fostering a project-based learning environment. She states that

the biggest hurdle to overcome is the lack of access to technology tools. In effort to provide support,

Ms. Greathouse feels that job-embedded modeling with peer and expert coaching would provide the

best results for her classroom. We plan on focusing on the partnership method where there is a vision

of professional development grounded in the belief that people learn and live best when they come

together as partners. (Knight, p.5) Due to Ms. Greathouses current level of adoption of technology

integration, I felt the peer coaching model would best fit her needs. (Beglau, M., Hare, J. C., Foltos, L.,
INDIVIDUAL TEACHING TECHNOLOGY ASSESSMENT

Gann, K., James, J., Jobe, H., ... & Smith, B. p. 13) We will begin with a specialized coaching plan that will

be developed collaboratively. The process will be based on the peer coaching plan set forth in

Technology, Coaching, and Community (Beglau, M., Hare, J. C., Foltos, L., Gann, K., James, J., Jobe, H., ...

& Smith, B, 2011) with suggestions from Jim Knight in Instructional Coaching: a Partnership Approach to

Improving Instruction. (Knight, J., 2007) of enroll, identify, explain, model, observe, explore, and refine.

During our follow-up meeting, Ms. Greathouse and I discussed her current content-standard in science.

Our goal is to collaborate with ways to reach out to community members or professionals in the field

that would be able to help students with their PBL project focusing on the standard. In addition, she

would like to find ways to integrate technology for collaboration and co-planning in the student

learning. To begin, I will model a lesson on how students can use their familiar Google Suite as a

collaborative tool to set and track goals for their group. Prior to the lesson, Ms. Greathouse and I will

create a checklist of items with things she likes and dislikes about the lesson. In addition, specific points

of reference will be made in relation to device management and student behavior. Following this stage,

Ms. Greathouse and I will meet to hold a dialogue to discuss the data points from the observation. I will

ensure to focus on the partnership dialogue. A partnership is enhanced when people listen to each

other with care. Providing an opportunity for people to speak is only one half of the challenge.

Facilitators have to listen authentically, empathetically. (Knight, 2002) The dialogue will be used to

develop the plan for implementation. I will schedule an observation of Ms. Greathouse implementing

new strategies and collaboration through Google Suite with her students using the same checklist we

created for the modeled lesson. We will meet once again and discuss the data points from my

observation notes. This process will continue until Ms. Greathouse has successfully adopted the use of

Google Suite for collaborating and co-planning learning with her students on PBL projects.

Reflecting along the way is important. In Knights article, Partnership Learning Fieldbook, there

are two ways to reflect: the reflection in action and the reflection on action. To reflect in action
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occurs while people are in the midst of an activity. (Knight, 2002) While our final step will be a

reflection on action. Reflection enables people to become more aware of their tacit knowledge, to

understand the assumptions that are implicit in their actions, and to get the feel for what they are

learning. (Knight, 2002) This happens after the activity. Reflecting on where Ms. Greathouse began and

where she ends in her journey will be important as well as the coaching process. Ms. Greathouse will be

asked to share with her colleagues how she used Google Suite to demonstrate co-planning learning and

collaboration as a way of demonstrating her knowledge and understanding.

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References:

Beglau, M., Hare, J. C., Foltos, L., Gann, K., James, J., Jobe, H., ... & Smith, B. (2011). Technology,
Coaching, and Community. In ISTE, An ISTE White Paper, Special Conference Release
Knight, J. (2007). Instructional coaching: a partnership approach to improving instruction; Thousand
Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.
Knight, J. (2002). Partnership Learning Fieldbook; Laurence, KS: The University of Kansas Center for
Research.