Sarah Miller

1.4 Diffusion of Innovations & Change

1.4 Diffusion of Innovations & Change

Candidates research, recommend, and implement strategies for initiating and
sustaining technology innovations and for managing the change process in schools.

1. Briefly describe the artifact and the context in which it was created. What was/were
your individual contribution(s)?
This artifact is my Coaching Journal and was created to reflect on my five sessions of
one-on-one coaching with a fellow teacher. I created the artifact on my own, but I used
Jim Knight’s Partnership Approach to do so.

2. Explain how this artifact demonstrates mastery of the standard/element under which it
is placed. See the portfolio rubric and watch the videos for more details on what to
include in your reflection for this question. You must respond to each of the items on the
rubric in this question! It is VERY IMPORTANT that you address ALL of the criteria on
the rubric. This one question may need to be several paragraphs long in order to address
all of the items on the rubric.

Research and Recommend

This artifact is my Coaching Journal, which used strategies I found through my
research of Jim Knight’s Partnership Approach. I took Knight’s strategy for coaching:
model, observe, explore, support, and reflect. I also found from my research that I
needed to use a partnership, coaching approach versus an “expert” approach. Knight
expresses that the best outcomes of coaching stems from showing teachers they
have great value and building a strong relationship.

Implementation
From this coaching, there were several school-wide initiatives that I was supporting:
increasing parent communication via website, increasing parent communication via
Remind App, and using benchmark data to drive personalized instruction. For many
teachers at our school, these initiatives were overwhelming, but it was especially
overwhelming for the colleague I coached because she was new to her content. I
knew that I needed to avail myself as a support for her.

Using Knight’s Partnership Approach, I coached Ms. Rees on: maintaining her
website, creating and updating an Interactive Table of Contents, designing and
sending an interactive study guide, and designing and interpreting a benchmark test
on USATestPrep. To make sure change actually happened, I provided follow-up
support.

3. What did you learn from completing this artifact? What would you do differently to
improve the quality of the artifact or the process involved in creating the artifact?
To improve this artifact, I would like to have a survey prepared to give after my
coaching. Having specific insight would be great to use as I am planning for new
coaching experiences.
 Sarah Miller
1.4 Diffusion of Innovations & Change

4. How did the work that went into creating the artifact impact school improvement,
faculty development, or student learning? How can the impact be assessed?

This field experience impacted faculty development. Ms. Rees was able to directly
see benefits in her classroom from some of our coaching sessions. In addition, I
have seen the math teacher on my team using the same resources Ms. Rees created
th
during our coaching, meaning she is having a positive influence on the 7 grade
math team.