Running head: COACHING JOURNAL- FLICKER 1

Coaching Journal

Lisa A. Flicker

Kennesaw State University

October 2017

Dr. Campbell

August 2017
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Coaching Session 1: 10/3/2017

Strategies

The first coaching session I had was initially going to just be with Ms. Hernandez. A first

year teacher and my new Social Studies content partner. I had planned to go over some iTunes U

implementation strategies that she could then use with her own course as she has it set-up, but is

confused with the day to day utilization of it in the classroom. Ms. Hernandez was not as

confident with how to give students directions for assignments or how she wanted to set up the

assignments to be turned in to iTunes U. She needed a plan that would work efficiently for her.

Ms. Hernandez was still feeling very overwhelmed. New teacher, new school, new

platform, new environment. Yet, she was not the only one. We had veteran teachers slightly

frustrated and who desperately were requesting some immediate help. Therefore, when our

Personalized Learning Coach heard I was going to meet with Ms. Hernandez on this specific

topic, she asked if Mrs. Wright and Mr. Getty, Mrs. Wrights team teacher, but also works with

6th grade Special Education students, could join as well. Mrs. Wright is a language arts teacher

on my grade level who has not been as supportive of the switch from One Note to iTunes U in

our school. Mr. Getty did not have a strong allegiance to One Note so he has been fine with this

transition, he just was having some technical difficulties seeing how the total picture would all

come together (S. Getty, personal correspondence, 10/3/2017).

In this group, I had one very soft spoken young teacher and two very strong and opinionated

veteran teachers. My strategy with this coaching session was going to be from the partnership

and reflection sections of our Knight text (2007). However, I needed to also consider that of

equality and dialogue, and especially with the strong personalities and the varied teaching styles

and experiences in our small group (Knight, p. 53). I knew that I needed to incorporate and foster
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lots of authentic dialogue. In regard to the dialogue aspect, and as discussed in our text by Knight

(2007), the group I was with needed to feel comfortable stating how they were feeling but also

safe in the fact that they could share what they wanted, ideas they had, and to know that we, as a

group would discuss them, mull them around, and try and come up with solutions or strategies. I

did not want Ms. Hernandez to get swallowed up by the strong personalities that made up the

other two, so I had to make sure she was included, listened to, and heard.

Once in our small group session, I explained that we were here to talk about what was

working and what was not. I explained that I would provide some possible strategies for

streamlining their courses to better meet their content and delivery needs. I wanted them to

understand that I had failed several times when starting out, and I still learn each time I use this

platform. I continued to add that I now typically learn through the eyes of my own students as

they see things a little differently than I do. When I shared some of my specific failures, Mrs.

Wright then shared one she was having that was very much upsetting her and Ms. Hernandez

then shared one of hers. Although they had not yet come to the stage of really implementing this

platform with students, and they were all at just at the setting up assignments stage, they just

could not understand how this would all fit together. When I had them enroll in one of my

courses and pretend to turn in an assignment, they were then able to visualize it much better and

to see how some of the pieces in their own class could fit together.

After that, I had each teacher in our small group share some other concerns they had, we

discussed them, problem solved with our courses open, and with one of mine displayed on the

projector. They were already enrolled in one of my courses, so I could show them strategies for

how they could possible lay out their courses as we problem solved their concerns step by step.

Mr. Gettys main concern was in regard to how a specific assignment could be uploaded and
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then shared with his students. He wanted to also learn how they would turn in their assignment

and how that would look on his device. That was an easy concern to work out and especially by

using my own course. We all played with the different courses we had available, redesigned, and

gave one another some feedback. This time we had together very much reminded me of how the

concept of praxis was supposed to look and as was described in the Knight text (2007). We were

all recreating by using what we had in front of us, brainstorming to come up with new ideas. We

were a small group, so it was very easy to be able to work with all three teachers in a very

relaxed setting. We ended up using both planning periods for that day. It went quite fast.

Skill and Affective Changes

The major change that I noticed was with Mrs. Wright. She had been so negative and upset

about the mandatory switch to iTunes U, and had been very vocal about it around school. She

had tried speaking to the personalized learning coach about her unhappiness with the change and

with the principal. It was twofold, I think. The first part was in regard to her feeling that she

already had everything set up in One Note and now she was being asked to create a whole new

course in iTunes U. I very much understand that frustration. I wanted to make it as simple as

possible for her. The second part was that she just had no idea how to use this new platform and

had worked, last year, with a teacher who was very much against it.

Once we were able to sit down and I could spend some real time delving in to her questions

and concerns, it started to make more sense to her. She started to see the total picture of how this

platform worked and that it was not difficult. In fact, Mrs. Wright saw that it did offer to more

than One Note and had a gradebook as well, which One Note did not offer to her when she had

previously used that platform.

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Ms. Hernandez was at first quiet in the group. She could have easily been overpowered by

the other two very strong personalities. Although, Ms. Hernandez is not naturally a negative

person, I was concerned that she would be swayed by the negativity that may be exhibited by the

two other members of our group. Luckily, as I tried to set the tone as positive, the others

followed through. If I saw that the conversation was swaying to subjects slightly off task and not

productive to what we were trying to accomplish, I would try and focus them back in. Ms.

Hernandez was very in tune to this and was helpful in participating by sharing her concerns or

asking for advice on how she could use iTunes U in specific situations. As the other two teachers

were very much veteran teachers, we all enjoyed brainstorming ideas together to help come up

with some strategies we could all use. I shared some I liked and explained how some of them

were through trial and error and that you can always tweak them at any time to meet the needs of

each class or course you create. As we collaborated, the negativity and the nervousness with

using iTunes U seemed to diminish. Ms. Hernandez knew she needed to just spend some time

playing with it at home, creating in her own quiet space some additional assignments. She had

the copy of my course from last year to work with, she just needed to look it over and make it her

own. Mr. Getty was doing well, he had some assignments created, he would be able to work with

Mrs. Wright on their first deployment of an iTunes U lesson together and he was also ready to

move forward with his small group 6th grade classes.

Reflection on Challenges and Solution

This small group session was very eye opening to me in several ways. I had been so excited

about just working with Ms. Hernandez on iTunes U training and helping her make my copied

course her own. I wanted her to understand how this all worked and how to use this in her
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classroom with her students. She was so overwhelmed. When Mrs. Francis, our personalized

learning coach, asked for the other two teachers to join us, I was a bit nervous. I knew how

negatively Mrs. Wright felt about iTunes U and I had never really worked with Mr. Getty before.

I very much wanted Ms. Hernandez to like iTunes U and to feel comfortable using it, and

especially as we were planning together on the same content and working closely together and

this was our schools initiative. This was also the format we would be using to relay personalized

learning strategies through to our students. I did not want the negativity I had heard from Mrs.

Wright to have any kind of influence on Ms. Hernandez.

I was very concerned that Mrs. Wright would come to our meeting incredibly negative and I

needed to make sure that I set the tone from the start in a positive way. I knew Mrs. Wright well

enough that I had to prevent the negativity from seeping through right at the beginning.

Therefore, I made sure to begin, to let Ms. Hernandez share some of her enthusiasm, also

knowing that Mrs. Wright would not try and change that. She would feed off of it, and that she

did. Once that occurred, I knew we were all going to work wonderfully together. Mr. Getty, I did

not know well, but knew well enough to know how easygoing his demeanor typically was. He

was a great source of knowledge for us to tap in to for strategies, and especially from the special

education side. This was an incredibly productive session, and one that I gained a lot more

insight in to the colleagues I work with and the strengths in their own contents that they teach. I

also learned some additional strategies to consider in regard to adding in more visuals to my

courses, just as the other teachers in our group will implement as well.

One of the biggest challenges for me, though, had been when our county went from just a

traditional iTunes U course that we could use with the students, to having them access iTunes U

through managed Apple IDs. This also affected the ease in use with teachers in my school and
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then negatively affected how they felt about iTunes U. This change to an Apple ID format has

made it a bit more complicated for both teachers and students with the additional login

information and passwords needed. There have been glitches, and several of the glitches have

occurred with Ms. Hernandezs account. As we were working, she was still having some

difficulty uploading assignments to her course. She was having difficulty sometimes accessing

her course and performing basic functions. We were going to have to contact Brantley, in the

central office, to help fix this situation. I had met him last year when I was having those same

issues. We had already tried going through the technology person at our school, but it had not

worked. He had then sent her to contact Apple directly, and that did not work. I was not aware

until our coaching session that it was still going on. Therefore, at our session, we sent an email to

Brantley together to ask for help. He did, and it was not a day later that her course was up and

running perfectly!

As I reflect on this session, I can honestly say that equality and dialogue was definitely

achieved through all of us working together. Relationships were enriched and were able to grow,

and various viewpoints were listened to and respected. I gained much in regard to reflection by

learning and understanding some new ways to use my own course, and especially from the

viewpoint of a Special Education teacher, like Mr. Getty. This was a very enlightening coaching

session for me.

Coaching Session 2: 10/13/2017

Strategies

I was able to just meet alone with Ms. Hernandez for this coaching session. We actually

were able to meet during our Backwards Design Day that was given to us as a professional
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development and planning day by our principal. Since we would be able to have some

uninterrupted, quality time to work alone, I took this time to also plan one our coaching session

around technology tools I knew Ms. Hernandez was a little unsure about using in her own

classroom. She very much wanted to use them, but had yet taken the opportunity to do so. When

we had planned before together, we had put these in as options to use, and Ms. Hernandez would

say she would, but then, at the last minute, she would change her mind. I had determined that it

was most likely due to the fact that she was not as familiar with these tools and how to use them.

One of the technology tools that she had used before but was not sure she was using it to its full

potential was Nearpod. She had just assigned it when she had a sub, never having created one on

her own and never understood how it could really be used with the various activities. Today, was

a perfect opportunity to discuss this tool and how to best implement it as I was having my

students complete a Nearpod lesson with the sub. I wanted to utilize the strategy of modeling

with Ms. Hernandez, and todays session would be the perfect opportunity. I could go in to my

classroom at any time and model with my own students or even those of Ms. Hernandez.

In regard to the 7 principles as discussed in our text by Knight, I wanted to focus more on

dialogue and praxis for this session. Dialogue in that I needed to be able to have a discussion

with Ms. Hernandez on what her real concerns were and how she wanted to use this tool or for

what purpose. I needed to be a good listener and to not put my preferences above her needs. In

regard to praxis, we both needed to understand the situation she was facing and how she was

feeling about that and to brainstorm ways together to provide comfortable solutions for her to

manage a technology tool that she will want to implement in her room (Knight, 2007). I listened

to her needs and we chose to work on Nearpod for this coaching session.
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Ms. Hernandez had set up her Nearpod account during a previous content meeting that we

met together. I shared with her the one I was using with the students today and we went over that

Nearpod together. I went over the various activities that the students would be completing on

Georgia and the Revolutionary War. I then determined that it would be much more valuable for

her to see me model this tool with my students and to be able to visualize all of this in real life.

Ms. Hernandez had never used the live version of Nearpod before, having just assigned it in the

student directed mode. We went to my classroom for the next class period and I modeled with

my class the lesson. Showing Ms. Hernandez what Nearpod looked like live with the students for

the first few slides and activities and then I switched it back over to the student directed side. She

and I went back in the Media Center, where we had been meeting, and debriefed about the mini-

session in my classroom. We discussed what we both thought went well, what she liked and

thought she was comfortable with. This was also an opportunity for us to discuss what she was

still confused or unsure about with Nearpod and its use.

Skill and Affective Changes

The timing of this session and the ability to be able to also go in to my classroom to show

Ms. Hernandez, firsthand, how I use this tool with my students could not have been more perfect.

She was able to see how both the students and I interacted with one another in a live version. She

saw the engagement level and how I was able to give feedback. When we discussed this back in

the media center, I could see how she was figuring out ways to use this and could now see

herself utilizing this in her own classes. Ms. Hernandez and I worked on a Nearpod for

SS8H3bd, which includes the Articles of Confederation and the Constitution. We put in various

activities and created ways that students could show their learning and mastery of this standard. I
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went over how to look over student results and how to pull a PDF version of those results. We

set a specific day to use this Nearpod and determined a specific day and time that we would go

over the results together. This would be at our next content meeting the following week.

Reflection on Challenges and Solution

I was not sure, at first, how much I could show Ms. Hernandez with Nearpod as she has used

it before. However, the Nearpods she has used were ones I have shared with her from my library

or ones she has just found on line. She had not yet created one on her own to see all of the

options available. I find that in order to fully understand an app or specific tool you need to

create one using all of the features available to truly understand what that tool is capable of. Ms.

Hernandez is very in tune to that aspect of her own learning, and always mentions how she is

going to do that. I have just found that she has said she will, and perhaps does, but then, unless I

follow-up with her, she does not mention it again. That is where the whole concept of her being

overwhelmed by the various requirements and initiatives at our school have her going in so many

directions. However, we have to also mix that with her being a first year teacher. Just very over-

whelming. Therefore, I must make sure the tools that I choose to either introduce to her or

choose to delve more deeply in with her during our coaching sessions are ones that will be of

value to her. Specifically, that these tools will be able to allow her to more easily meet the needs

of all her the learners in her classroom, that they are time saving, easy to use and to learn to use

and create products on, and that she seems to have an interest in using her class.

As Ms. Hernandez had already used Nearpod and had a somewhat good comfort level with

it, I thought this would be a good tool to use with our coaching session. Ms. Hernandez was

invested in learning about it, she and I partnered in creating one together, I was able to model the
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use of one with new features to her, and I helped her to understand some different features she

could use to help her students to gain even greater and more depth meaning in the standards we

were covering. I feel that this session was very successful. She seemed positive with this tool and

even more comfortable with the idea of creating her own, and on her own the next time.

In regard to my own coaching, I feel that this opportunity taught me the very valuable need

of being an active listener. I needed to make sure my mind did not wander on to the thousand

other things constantly running through it, the lists I would make, the items I needed to check

off, the parts still needing to be accomplished. I needed to focus on the person in front of me and

their needs and to shut the rest out. I also learned that I cannot fix a problem in a way that may

work for me, this has to be something that is suitable and comfortable to the person I am

coaching. In other words, it has to really be on their terms and what they are able to manipulate

to make their own and to feel comfortable for them to use. I felt that our coaching session on

Nearpod contained these positive attributes and was definitely beneficial for Ms. Hernandez as a

session that provided a more in-depth look in to a tool she had used before but was not as

comfortable creating her own samples on nor did she understand the full capabilities provided

within this tool.

Coaching Session 3: 10/24/2017

Strategies

Today, Ms. Hernandez and I were able to meet during our regular planning time. This week,

our principal scheduled a meeting free week, which made scheduling a much needed coaching

session for us very easy. Meeting free weeks mean that we do not have to have content or grade

level or professional learning meetings during that week. He usually schedules them once per
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semester. Our focus for today was on Formative and how it can be used as an assessment tool in

the classroom. I am trying to introduce Ms. Hernandez to specific technology tools that will

enable her to be more efficient in her classroom, whether in regard to classroom management,

assessment and keeping track of where students are in real time, or with apps that will enable her

to personalize her learning strategies for her students.

Formative was also the tool I had thought could be used for Ms. Hernandez to then be the

expert in and share with her fellow new teachers to Holcomb Bridge MS during their next New

Teacher Orientation Meeting. I very much love that strategy of having those you mentor and

teach to then become the teachers, or mentors, for others. It shows that they not only mastered or

learned the tool but very much understand how to create and recreate additional options or

products from it. They can explain how to use this and are comfortable modeling this process or

tool to others. This goes along and supports my goal of incorporating the concept of Praxis in to

my coaching sessions with Ms. Hernandez. As discussed in our text, by Knight (2007), when he

explains how praxis is brought about through exploring and stretching and recreating (p. 49). I

wanted and needed to create my coaching session in that format for Ms. Hernandez. Therefore,

we were going to work together to create on Formative, to use the tools available to see what

options we had, and to brainstorm ideas for her to use within her own classroom setting in the

next few weeks.

Skill and Affective Changes

In the Technology Adopter Survey that I had Ms. Hernandez take for me before our

coaching sessions began, she had mentioned how a major concern she had was in regard to

creating lessons utilizing technology tools and then not having those tools work for her when she
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needed them to. Therefore, I suggested she always have a backup plan just in case. Something

that is relevant and that could be used just in case. A plan that can always in the back of her mind

be adjusted in a moments notice to fit what she is doing with her class. Once I showed her some

examples I have and how I have modified some tech tools I use to not have to solely rely on the

internet, but students can show their work by creating a foldable and using the textbook resource,

she felt much better. We had managed to get over that obstacle by collaborating together and

creating some back-up plans for her to fall back on, as needed.

Furthermore, when Ms. Hernandez stated in her Adopter Survey that she uses technology

about once a month to assess and that she would like to utilize technology tools more in order to

do this, I knew this needed to be a focus for at least one of our coaching sessions. Ms. Hernandez

and I needed to work together for her to understand how this particular tool of Formative can

help her to be more efficient. At that point she was not sure how to balance management and

technology and put that together with assessment. Formative would help her to accomplish this

goal.

However, and in regard to technology coaching, Formative is an assessment tool I felt would

help Ms. Hernandez to understand where all of her students are in real time and to help her to

adjust her lessons to meet the needs of all of her students. By having her sign in as a student and

take one of the assessments I have created, she was able to see what it looked like from both the

student point of view as well as that of the teacher. She liked that she and I could share

assessments and that they could be linked to our standards. I showed her the different ways

students can sign in, whether from the QR code, a link or by having her set-up classes ahead of

time for the students. We went over the various formats available with the assessment questions

and how she can even upload images, graphs and maps for the purpose of adding questions
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directly on to those images. We discussed how it is nice to be able to add visually appealing

questions for students who are used to these types of visual stimulations and also happen to use

them in their everyday lives.

By the end of this coaching session, Ms. Hernandez had under her belt a couple of new

assessments to be able to use with her classes in the upcoming weeks. One was a Ticket out the

Door, one a short quiz, and one a Ticket in the Door. She was excited. She knew how to use this,

created her own, and felt much more comfortable with the idea of managing her class while also

utilizing this technology tool.

Reflection on Challenges and Solution

I felt so much more comfortable in this coaching session. Ms. Hernandez and I have gotten

more comfortable with one another and there was just a more relaxed feel that has now emanated

in our relationship together. I knew she felt this as well as she was more honest in her responses

about the tools we were discussing and whether or not she really felt she would be implementing

them or even if she wanted to.

Furthermore, in choosing this technology assessment tool to work on with Ms. Hernandez, I

also learned much more about the various features currently offered on the site. I use this tool

fairly regularly in my own class, but, as with everything, you get in to a rut, and sometimes do

not always check to see which new features it may have created and you tend to rely on the same

old format each time. By choosing this tool, I wanted to make sure there was nothing new that I

could show her, and that I was covering everything that could be useful to her for her own

instructional uses. As I did this, I found new features and was overwhelmed by all that had been

updated to this site and that I had not even realized. I was so very excited to share this during our
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coaching session and I made sure to create and implement an assessment using several of these

features on my own classes. I loved the voice over option and thought that would be fantastic to

use as a strategy for my ESL students. Ms. Hernandez could do the same with her ESL as well as

her other students needing this type of modification as a tool to succeed.

I also learned that Ms. Hernandez may not be as easily open to adopt to new technology and

ideas as I had previously thought she was. She had filled out her survey to reflect a certain way,

but as I have gotten to know her even more, I have come to understand that she does need a bit

more time to reflect and jump on board to a concept before giving her full endorsement or even

using it on some type of regular basis if she chooses to do so. Although, I would keep her in the

same grouping I had with her Adoption Survey, I just feel she is not on the strong end of that.

However, this coaching session may be the one I feel was the most impactful. I very much saw

that she was fully engaged and comfortable. I felt that she liked this tool and could very much

visualize herself using this. Once she left I realized that I thought we should arrange for her to

either come in to my class to observe me using this tool or for me to come in to her class. We

could also team-teach during that segment and use it together with the students of the class. We

scheduled to do so on Friday, 10/27/2017. However, her team teacher during that class period

was not at school. We are going to try and arrange this for Monday, 10/30/2017. I feel this will

give Ms. Hernandez even more confidence and may give her some more ideas for how best to

use this tool with her students. We will discuss how this modeling/joint teaching session went

together during our planning time that afternoon.

If she deems that Formative is a tool she could become very fluent in, I feel that she may

choose to present this at her New Teacher Orientation Meeting the following month. I had run

this idea by her and she was open to it. I know she wants other teachers and faculty at the school
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to know who she is and her specific strengths and for others to feel she is contributing to our

school. By mentoring other new teachers in an assessment tool that could be beneficial to them

and their students, she does understand how this could help her to achieve her goal of becoming

a productive member of our school community.

As a coach, through this process, I have learned that time is something very valuable and

that I need to appreciate that it is very much needed in building relationships. First of all, finding

the time to juggle my own school as a teacher, as a student at KSU, and the wife and mother of a

senior in high school is very difficult. However, we all seem to have obstacles to finding time

and the more creative you are, the better the outcome. Several of our sessions were utilized by

either double dipping on to other meetings or work sessions or through a Meeting Free Week

that we were given. However, time is also needed to nurture and build a close, safe, and trusting

relationship with those you are coaching. If you do not understand where they are coming from

and what they need and they do not believe in your true desire to help and ability to try and find

the answers for you, then your coaching sessions will not be as valuable.
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References

J. Hernandez, personal communication, October, 2017

S. Getty, personal communication, October, 2017

P. Wright, personal communication, October, 2017

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

Corwin Press.