Krystal+MDE

Faces of Me  My Destination Postcard



**Name**: Krystal Weiss


 * Role**: media type="custom" key="23877646"


 * Campus ** : Memorial Drive Elementary

These are things that I want to think about in order to make "The Number One Focus Question" happen: How will I support teacher's thinking as they enter into a new paradigm?
 * Focus Question **:The Number One Focus Question: How will I foster collaboration in my teachers so that their learning goals are realized and so that they can then become models of the process for their students?
 * 1) ====How will I support their thinking about me as a coach while fostering a positive relationship?====
 * 2) ====How will I support their thinking around fear of trying something "new"?====
 * 3) ====How will I support their thinking about what it means to use technology in the classroom?====
 * 4) ====How will I support their thinking about best practices and changing their pedagogy?====
 * 5) ====How will I support their thinking about reflecting, revising and sharing their journey?====
 * 6) ====How will I support them to see obstacles/failures as stepping stones/opportunities?====

How will I reach my teachers as a coach this year?
 * 1) ====What is the best way to communicate my ideas?====
 * 2) ====What is the best way to present learning opportunities?====
 * 3) ====How do I present myself as a coach?====
 * 4) ====How do I foster relationships with my teachers?====
 * 5) ====How do I set limits without creating conflict?====

How will I challenge my teachers to embrace the new paradigm this year?

**Resources**: //s// // earch for existing resources (articles, websites, blogs, videos, etc.) that will help you address your sub questions - please be sure to tag (PL + EA) and add them to our [|Diigo] // media type="custom" key="24064384" rss url="http://scoopoftechnology.blogspot.com" link="true" description="true" number="5" date="true"
 * [[image:student learning wordle.JPG width="480" height="270" align="right"]]

Leading Learning Girl Climbs Mountain, Finds More Mountains on the Other Side!
 * PL Activity 1:
 * How will you communicate the efforts of your teachers (EA and other)?(illuminating the bright spots - blog, wiki, Twitter, etc.)
 * How will you encourage, manage and support sign-ups for in-class support and/or planning time (iCal, Google Calendar, etc.)
 * How will you maintain consistent and transparent communication with your building administrators?
 * How will you leverage your communication tools to bridge the efforts of EA teachers with those of non-EA teachers?
 * =====PL Activity 2:=====
 * 1) Individually, design a teacher resource, activity, or mini-challenge to test-drive in the next month.
 * 2) Post to our Professional Learning activity
 * 3) Gather feedback from team - adjust, modify, tweak
 * 4) Try out resource, activity, or mini-challenge during the month(s), documenting plan, process, execution and reflection and collecting artifacts from teachers engagement.
 * PL Activity 3:
 * "First 5 Weeks" - Using CSI thinking routine, paint a clear picture of your reality



I have been very conscious of my efforts to make sure that I am being collaborative. I have used a lot of collaborative language--let's think about that together, I'm not sure about that-what do you think, I have this idea-do you think that would work for you? It looks like collaborative language to me is a lot of questions--and I've asked a lot of questions (including through a staff survey) to find out where my teachers are and where I can begin to help them. I've tried to communicate to them what my mission is, that I want to be there for them in their instructional technology journey...and to show them what that means to me. I've made training a priority this year--I'm offering more before/after school training than I ever have and if someone can't come I'm trying to schedule time with them during their planning. I feel that in order to gently guide them in this effort I have held back a lot of the enthusiasm that others might see as perhaps aggressive? I'm not sure if that is the right word... But when I'm excited about something I tend to charge full speed ahead and maybe bulldoze others in my path. I have seen time and time again that for the most part, people on my campus see this as rude and don't look at the message, just how it is presented. So I have tried to tamp down my inner bull in a china closet, but sometimes it makes me feel like I'm losing my message and a little bit (or all of) the spark that I kind of like about myself. I want to support my early adopters more in the next few weeks. I want to see if I can get into their classrooms more, meet with them during their planning periods and listen to what their goals/hopes/fears/frustrations are. I think I have set my sights on the whole school, but realize that if I model my fabulous coaching for the EAs that there will be some trickle down. How will I measure my achievement? I think by looking at my calendar and seeing how many times I've actually met with my EAs I will have a tangible measure. I hope to see some collaboration coming from my support, and that collaboration will be another indicator of my success. For a while I had stopped blogging because I wasn't sure what my voice was. Last week I wrote a couple of posts and realized how much I love it. I think that I am hilarious (which may or may not be true), but I LOL for real as I am writing, and that makes me happy. Even if no one reads my posts, I've had fun writing them and in posting, I am also giving myself a chance to reflect on my learning. I also love to make things pretty--why just send out a piece of text when it could be a fancy piece of text? I use PicMonkey to make cute graphics, and seeing those cute graphics makes me happy.
 * How did your actions, language and priorities support your vision/mission as an Early Adopter iCoach (aka your destination postcard)?
 * In what ways did your they dilute your efforts?
 * What goal will you set for yourself to act toward in the next few weeks?
 * How will you measure your achievement?
 * What specific strategies will you use to keep your own "optimism and hope alive"?
 * PL Activity 4:
 * **Reflecting Forward, January 2014**
 * Review your post from our Reflecting Forward activity in October
 * Consider the responses you posted to each question...
 * How did your actions, language and priorities support your vision/mission as an Early Adopter iCoach (aka your destination postcard)?
 * In what ways did they dilute your efforts?
 * What goal will you set for yourself to act toward in the next four weeks?
 * How will you measure your achievement?
 * What specific strategies will you use to keep your own "optimism and hope alive"?
 * Reflect on the goal you set for yourself...
 * How is that goal evident in your every day actions, language and priorities?
 * I think that it is evident. I offer to help and to guide in every conversation and end every email with "I'm here to help!". I offer trainings based on what teachers tell me they need, even if just in passing, and try to accentuate the bright spots.
 * What have you been able to achieve, given your efforts?
 * I've been in classrooms to help with projects more this year than last. It has been wonderful. More teachers are coming to me and saying "I heard you were in so&so's classroom to help with X, would you come to help me too?" The trickle down effect is working!
 * What specific strategies have you used to keep your own "optimism and hope" alive (Developing A Positive Mindset)?
 * Yikes. To be honest, none. I 've done a really horrid job of keeping myself hopeful and optimistic. Our campus has been a bit of a war zone--EA versus "old school" and it has taken its toll on me. I have been pretty negative and down-trodden lately.
 * In what areas would you find additional support helpful?
 * I need help with the developing a positive mindset.
 * How will you continue to "seek the small wins" and "illuminate the bright spots"?
 * I'm going to be persistent with my teachers about sharing what they are doing in their classes with me! I'm going to make a true effort to get to team plannings so that I can offer my services and schedule times to see great teaching in action. I'm feeling a renewed sense of energy around making peace on our campus. It shouldn't be about teaching styles and who gives what for homework. It should be about growing kids that are lifelong, self-directed learners.
 * PL Activity 5:
 * PL Activity 6:
 * PL Activity 7:
 * PL Activity 8:
 * PL Activity 9: