my notes from: #METC_CSD Motivational Technology Coaching and Professional Development

“Students – what are the needs of the students? Each student comes in with different needs.”

Goal - Getting students comfortable with 21st century skills,

Motivate – Tech Coaches need to motivate staff to want to make some sort of change. The keystone to bringing about a change are the administrators. Working with an administrator to infuse technology in their work and discussions with staff will help to model the use of technology and how it can play a roll in the classroom.

Coach = PR person.

The structure: Build trust – take baby steps

As a coach, whatever you can do to use the web tools more regularly the more exposure people will have an have a stronger interest in learning about them or actively use them. 

With the reluctant learners, start slow and small. The first steps: the coach does the work and the teacher infuses your work into the lessons until they become comfortable with it.

Find that staff member who loves to try everything, your success student. Share the tools you find with them, have them try new softwares and web tools. They will give you the sense of accomplishment and share what they liked and did not like, then find the reluctant learner to work with and to develop technology  into their everyday use.

Confidence is a key issue with “reluctant workers” giving them the sense of comfort or a zone of comfort is the key. Know your staff. Get the teachers to “take the risk” Give them the soft cushy place for them to land, no judgment, guide them and use patience with them. Remind your learners that tech issues happen to all of us. “No stress, no panic” becomes the mantra to follow when tech issues occur. 

The group then talked to one another about “coaching strategies that work for you” “Viral approach. Giving the teachers step by step directions that include pictures. 

Tools for creating visual rich instructional guides:Print screen, screen cast video, jing video.

“Braindump - share what ever you know about the topic.”

Light the fire ; Enthusiasm is the key. Steer away from the negative and guide into a solution. (documents on the metc session site)

Make a plan about the project/goal/etc

Connect with yourself as a coach. Carve out time for your learning within a week otherwise your plate turns into a platter and things begin to spill over. Stay connected – Conferences, list servs, portal, twitter,

onto PD 

Getting a structure in your district is crucial.

Differentiation is the key to successful professional development

Using a 2 tier approach to PD – 1st tier is for learning about the software, tool, or hardware. 2nd tier: creating and implementing a unit promoting the tool or software that was learned.

(break out time) “What infrastructure do you use for pd or what is missing?”

• Creating a centralized storage palace for training or lessons.

• Putting people together by similar interests and levels.

• Teach parents tech – use it to send home through group email various technolgoy tips. Allows user to choose a custom greeting and a video on various  tech support, or tidbits: http://www.teachparentstech.org/
  

Reffering sites: The prezi, Teach Parents Tech, jing video, screen cast video, the session on METC wiki