[ARCHIVED] Tech Coaches: What is your biggest challenge this year?

[teachercast]

As I start a new school year in a new school with a new staff and new set of Tech Guidelines... I'm finding that I am faced with many challenges this year.  All of which I'm excited to take on as I help move my new district forward.

What are your big challenges this year and how are you looking to overcome them?

CC:  @scottdennis ‌

[GideonWilliams]

Moving into our 4th year of Canvas I have a number of targets for this year:

• Introduce yearly audit of Canvas courses and provide feedback for staff on courses design and impact (this is going to be one of my professional targets). I was very lucky to have a conversation with James Wells who has developed this for his college and he was kind enough to share me some of his ideas
• Reconcile (I think that is the best word to use) the relationship between OneNote Class Notebook and Canvas - a big challenge and one with wider implications for Canvas especially  the impact of the stylus
• Begin the Portfolium project to see the impact of eportfolios at our school (I have been given some money to test out this newly acquired tool and early thoughts are very encouraging - especially the Learning Paths)
• Continue to encourage our staff to develop their digital literacy skills and develop more integrated resources for Canvas that engage users, improve workflow and reduce workload (Quizzes, H5P etc)
• Try to live up to the Canvas Advocate role that I was very kindly nominated for....!

[scottdennis]

We are very happy to have you, Gideon!

[KristinL]

This is our 5th year with Canvas, and while I have only 20% of my time dedicated to Canvas engagement and support, here are some of my goals:

• Excite colleagues to build home pages that are as welcoming as their classrooms. I hope to work with building administration to review home pages for required information and develop workshop opportunities for instructional design how-tos and tips.
• Align our building technology goals with activities in Canvas to make it easier for colleagues to demonstrate their knowledge and mastery of these skills.
• Make Canvas professional development "bite-sized" and "customizable" by offering casual sessions centered around Canvas features, sending newsletters with timing based on Release Notes, and open office hours.
• Find time for professional learning for myself!

Overall, I think the biggest challenge is finding time for and prioritizing professional growth. ...and that's for my colleagues and for administration. There are always so many things on our task lists, and I wish that professional learning didn't slip down on the list as far as it does sometimes.

[teachercast]

Totally Agree! Finding time for everything is always the most difficult thing for any Tech Coach!

So ... how do you do it?  How do you make yourself as efficient as possible?

[KristinL]

I think I'd be lost without Google Calendar and Trello.

I block out time for my own lesson planning and student assessment a few times a week, set reminders/priorities and add notes to items in Trello, and say "thank you" every time Gmail nudges me for a follow-up.

[teachercast]

How are you using Trello as a Tech Coach?

[KristinL]

I have four different Trello boards for work.

1. Personal

2. Coaching

3. Tech Office (team board)

4. Images/Communications Work

On my Coaching board, I have lists for different topics, and then I have colleague's names on individual cards with a word or two about their project. I'm able to use the colorful tags to categorize them even more, and I enjoy adding attachments from Google Drive to keep notes collaborative. I use the notes on the cards themselves as memos. The "due date" helps me keep track of things without mudding up my Google Calendar. Another feature I enjoy is being able to rearrange my cards by priority...and being able to see which colleagues to connect for peer collaboration.

[isobel_williams]

hi  @KristinL ‌

Thanks for showing me Trello

Working a treat on some projects I am doing 

[KristinL]

That's awesome!! :smileygrin:

[cdavitt]

Finding time is nearly impossible so we got a bit creative. We have hosted a few coffee&canvas sessions before school. We buy coffee and bagels to help incentive people to come. I was shocked, we had 16 high school teachers show up. While we had about 125 teachers, 16 was a HUGE number based up things we had done in the past. We did the same at both middle schools with about the same number show. 

Our next idea is cake&canvas. We will bring a Sams/Costco cake in during lunch to help draw a few people in to talk about how things are going, generate new ideas and talk through their issues.

For those who can't come in the morning or lunch, we are also looking to do chip&canvas after school.

A dream is to offer time as currency. Example would be to give the teachers 6 hours of time they can spend on canvas during 1st semester. They can spend it in one full day out of the classroom or in two half days. The only requirements are to come with a plan/goal, bring a PLC partner and work in our office not their building. We have found working in their building can be detrimental, too many things pull their attention away.

[rosalita_santia]

I agree hosting Canvas sessions are a hit. I am hosting Canvas sessions after school "Café  Tech" and this is helping  our elementary school teachers. It also helps when other teachers share what they are doing or how they are using Canvas.

I need to get a bit more creative with my sessions. Our teachers need time to explore, collaborate, and design their course/courses...this is my biggest challenge...time!!

I love your Cake & Canvas idea! 

[GideonWilliams]

Teachers sharing is always the best thing!

[lauren_sayer]

We are at the end of our year here in Australia so the first thing I am going to do is take a deep breath.  However the focusses we are playing with for the new year are:

• Ensuring we use modules in courses really well 
• Shift both ours and our staff mindsets in course development from a set and forget model to an agile iterative improvement model.  
• Make time (not find) time to learn from the community
• Work on how Onenote and Office365 integrate with Canvas and finally
• Look at how other non K-12 use the api to support learning and learn from these people. 

I look forward to growing and getting better with the community over the next 12 months.  I will say though that I am looking forward to a long summer break first 

[GideonWilliams]

If you get the chance to look at the PowerBI stuff from CanvasCon in Barcelona. Very exciting stuff and lots of potential to help support Canvas audits.

[lauren_sayer]

OOh thanks I will search for this