Innovative Inquirers
  • Home
  • Blogs
    • My Professional Blog
    • My COETAIL Journey
    • My MALDT Progress
  • Publications
  • Videos
  • Curations
  • Coaching Stories
  • Connect

My Professional Reflections Blog

Adventures in EdTech, Student Agency, Inquiry, and Coaching.

Coaching Stories - Sam Gray

1/16/2022

0 Comments

 
Picture
Teacher: Sam Gray (@samaugustgray​)
School: Chadwick International - Songdo, South Korea
Grade: 4
Coaching Cycle: October 2021 - December 2021
Goal(s): 
  • To help students use technology to develop agency
  • ​ISTE Connection: Empowered Learner
Picture

Before Coaching

Picture
Sam was eager to shake up his timetable and get students working on things they prioritized themselves. He decided to start with math lessons, as we felt this would be the easiest transition point for the students. Prior to coaching, math lessons were dictated by the teacher and the process was linear for all students.

During Coaching

As we met and reflected, Sam’s lessons began to open up. Sam offered choice in the order of when to complete math tasks. Students had 3-4 activities for the week and thought about which ones they wanted to complete first, and why. Through student interviews, we found that students were happy to have choice, but were struggling with the amount of time given. We reflected and made changes based on student input. Students then started to use a Padlet to reflect on their goals and evidence their learning of different math strategies. This was an easy way for Sam to quickly check in with each student’s progress, even if he did not have the chance to sit with them individually.
​

Near the end of the math unit I came in to teach the class how to use Clips to create video tutorials of their choice of math strategies. This bit of extra creativity gave the students an energetic boost to engage with their math.
Picture
Picture
Picture

Looking Forward...

Picture
Sam is keen to continue with another coaching cycle. He wants the students to take more responsibility of their learning, while giving him the time to confer with students and find out where individual needs can be met. The momentum his class has gained is growing with excitement. 
Read more of Cindy's Coaching Stories here.
0 Comments

Coaching Stories - Alyssa Smith

1/12/2022

0 Comments

 
Picture
Teacher: Alyssa Smith (@alyssasmith727​)
School: Chadwick International - Songdo, South Korea
Grade: 3
Coaching Cycle: October 2021 - December 2021
Goal(s): 
  • To help students use technology to develop agency
  • ​ISTE Connection: Empowered Learner
Picture

Before Coaching

Picture
Picture
Alyssa is an innovative educator who seeks the best for her students. Due to Covid restrictions and distance learning, Alyssa’s teaching practices were constrained. She did not feel like she was teaching her truth. 
​

Students were participating in more whole group lessons than ever and lacking the ownership and agency over their learning that used to ignite her classroom. They would look to her instead of to themselves every step of the way.

During Coaching

Alyssa and I spoke about the learning happening in her class. The students were already using Padlet in class to record their goals, but Alyssa wanted the responsibility for updating to be on the students, not her. In addition to goals, we decided students would record separate steps they might take towards their goals, and finally, evidence of their learning. 
​

Students needed support to identify steps to take to reach their goals, so a strategy Alyssa chose was to offer multimodal learning opportunities. Students could choose how they would like to learn or practice a skill. Eventually, they would use blocks of time 2-3 times weekly to update their goals, steps, and evidence by color coding so they could easily see whether goals were not yet started, in progress, or met. Once a system was in place, Alyssa and her co-teacher Rose could confer easily with the agentic and confident learners. 
​

The IB’s Action Cycle was also a large part of goal setting for Alyssa’s class. Students choose, then acted, then reflected on their learning. Having this clear cycle made it easier for students to think critically about their learning. Students also had the opportunity to pivot or persevere on their goals when the time was right.
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture

Looking Forward...

Alyssa’s class is eager to continue having ownership over their learning. I witnessed first hand the excitement the students had when they got to choose how they learned. This multimodal approach takes a bit of planning, but works for all subject areas and keeps the students actively engaged in a meaningful way.
Picture
Picture
Read more of Cindy's Coaching Stories here.
0 Comments

Coaching Stories - Maisie Bradley

1/10/2022

0 Comments

 
Picture
Teacher: Maisie Bradley (@maisie_bradley)
School: Chadwick International - Songdo, South Korea
Grade: 5
Coaching Cycle: October 2021 - December 2021
Goal(s): 
  • To help students use technology to develop creativity and communication skills
  • ISTE Connection: Creative Communicator
Picture

Before Coaching

Picture
Students were not confident in different ways of publishing/creating. Most students were using Docs to publish their writing. Some students commented about using drawing apps at home, but most were not using these talents for school projects.

During Coaching

I came in while students were preparing to publish their narrative writing pieces. I showed them three new tools to explore (Keynote, Scratch, and Canva). Maisie practiced offering different tools like Book Creator and Google Slides for #booksnaps and other activities. Students were excited to try a variety of tools, and started to give good reasons for choosing a tool to publish in. After a few short weeks students were using at least six different tools when I came in for an open-ended publishing day.
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture

Looking Forward...

Picture
Because of working on these goals, Maisie and I came to the realization that the grade 5 How We Express Ourselves unit (currently taught by specialist teachers) could be an opportunity to cover some of these gaps. Students could be thinking about how they can creatively express themselves when publishing or showing new understandings, including purpose, audience, and the tool they choose. In the future, when selecting mentor texts for literacy units, grade 5 teachers can also consider widening the range of texts to includes ones that are not published in a book - this could include videos, interactive stories, websites, podcasts/audio books, etc.
Picture

Read more of Cindy's Coaching Stories here.
0 Comments

Coaching Stories - Diana Suk

1/10/2022

0 Comments

 
Picture
Teacher: Diana Suk (@dianasuk)
School: Chadwick International - Songdo, South Korea
Grade: 2
Coaching Cycle: October 2021 - December 2021
Goal(s): 
  • To help students use technology to develop agency
  • ISTE connection: Empowered Learner
Picture

Before Coaching

Picture
As Diana is new to Chadwick International, an easy way to teach math was with the whole class doing the same activity. However, even with the hands-on activities, it was difficult for Diana to confer regularly with all of her students. It was also difficult to check to see if the students were really understanding the lesson through the games. Diana wanted to be able to hold herself accountable to incorporate the standards for mathematics and hold students accountable to their learning. Diana was also keen to step up student agency opportunities in her class in order to allow students to have choice, voice, and ownership with their learning. ​

During Coaching

Picture
Diana’s class caught fire with agency. The students understood the structures straight away and loved having ownership of their choices in math class. The planning that went into choosing stations for the week was mirrored near the end of the unit as the students prepared for their assessment project. Students used their newfound planning skills to schedule the steps they would need to complete the task. Students reflected on their progress and evidenced their learning in Seesaw along the way.

Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture

Looking Forward...

Picture
Diana and her class are keen to continue learning utilizing methods, like Studio 2: Math, that promotes student agency. Students are not only accountable for their learning, but they have ownership of it as well. Diana is able to confer with students more often and has a better grasp of student needs and growth.
Picture
Picture

Read more of Cindy's Coaching Stories here.
0 Comments

Coaching Stories - Charisse Patacsil

1/10/2022

0 Comments

 
Picture
Teacher: Charisse Patacsil (@cha_patacsil)
School: Chadwick International - Songdo, South Korea
Grade: 3
Coaching Cycle: October 2021 - December 2021
Goal(s): 
  • To help students use technology to develop agency
  • ISTE Connection: Empowered Learner
Picture

Before Coaching

Picture
Students in Charisse's class learned the same lessons at the same time, with some differentiation and small groups. Everyone was working towards the same goals (which were teacher made, known, and led). 

During Coaching

Charisse took lots of risks with her students. She wanted to focus on different modes of learning (play, write, draw, act, etc) as well as who students learn best with (individual, partners, small groups, teacher-led). She created structures to help this happen in her classroom using Google Slides as a tool for visual thinking routines. Students often reflected on Approaches to Learning and set goals for themselves about these skills. Reflecting on learning and practicing math with different learning modalities helped students to improve their self-knowledge. This helped the students have voice, choice, and ownership of their math learning.
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture

Looking Forward

Picture
Charisse and her New Teacher Intern are looking forward to having their students set more of goals across multiple subject areas. They will be talking to other grade three teachers about evidencing the learning happening from their goals, and are thinking about using the MoSCoW method (Must, Should, Could, Won’t) to help structure students’ plans to reach their goals.

Read more of Cindy's Coaching Stories here.
Picture
0 Comments
    Picture

    Cindy Kaardal

    ​Passionate PYP Educator and EdTech Integration Coach in South Korea.

    Former PYP Coordinator and Head of Computing Curriculum/ICT.

    Apple Distinguished Educator 2019, Google Educator L2, Microsoft Innovative Educator, Book Creator and Seesaw Ambassador.


    Picture

    Picture

    Picture

    Picture

    Picture

    Picture

    Picture

    Picture

    Picture

    View my profile on LinkedIn


    Archives

    February 2023
    January 2023
    January 2022
    November 2021
    October 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    July 2020
    March 2020
    January 2020
    October 2019
    September 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    October 2018
    August 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    November 2017
    October 2017
    August 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017

    Categories

    All
    Apple Teacher
    App Review
    Collaboration Tools
    Google Certified Educator
    Inquiry
    Inquiry Cycle
    IPad
    PYP
    Student Examples
    Video

    RSS Feed

Proudly powered by Weebly
  • Home
  • Blogs
    • My Professional Blog
    • My COETAIL Journey
    • My MALDT Progress
  • Publications
  • Videos
  • Curations
  • Coaching Stories
  • Connect