Coaching Stories - Alyssa Smith

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
  

Before Coaching

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. 
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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. 
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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. 
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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.

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.

Read more of Cindy's Coaching Stories here.