Coaching
A New Dimension for Professional Development
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Examples of Projects |
John Swett | San Lorenzo | Montclair | Oakland
John Swett High School
Sometimes workshops are a great
way to hook teachers. Teachers at John Swett were to learn how to use
PowerPoint in the curriculum. The time was limited to less than a day
and there were over 25 teachers from every department. To
start, teachers focused on a curriculum topic, identifying one standard,
creating an essential question and subsidiary questions. They then collaborated
to define keywords and phrases with new search strategies to find appropriate
resources. In the process, they used PowerPoint (using a guide
and each other) to create a standards-based presentation that they could
take back to their classroom as a model.
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 Angela A. created a presentation on dance in Spanish cultures for her Foreign Language classes. |
 Lee F. created an animated presentation to help students understand Trig ratios. |
 Addy L. put a presentation together on meiosis. |
This was an exciting time for us to see teachers wanting to learn and collaborate. Teachers didn't even want to break for lunch! The next step is a follow-up coaching institute in the summer. Sometimes something simple like PowerPoint is the hook. Using standards and an essential question make it relevant.
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San Lorenzo Unified School District
The teachers have 3 full-time mentors who work with the eLearning program (4th grade teachers receive support for the student laptop program). One example created at Lorenzo Manor Elementary was a template to design a standards-based project around history and writing. Being a mentor is a lot of work. Most mentors are teachers and have been trainers. Some of the concerns they had involved:
- understanding other teachers as adult learners
- learning strategies to coach their colleagues
- designing activities to model to colleagues
- developing classroom management strategies for activities with laptops
One the mentors, John Gough, developed an interactive site based on the template for the teachers he is working with in the district.
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Montclair High School
This is Montclair's first year as a Digital High School. The teachers developed individual learning plans to identify who would be the mentors for each department and used CTAP2 and our assessment to identify all teachers' proficiency levels. One to two people were chosen as mentors for each department. Mentors worked with a coach to develop standards-based projects that would be shared with their department (refer to project page). The mentors created a school site using CampusGRID and web pages for their departments. Examples include:
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| Mentors have implemented and shared the projects with their departments who provided feedback and direction. A 2 day summer institute will be their opportunity to share their projects, the process, and skills necessary to teachers in other departments. Each of the mentors received a laptop. They wrote a proposal for the other resources needed to implement their projects. Next year they will mentor another teacher and work with their departments to create new projects. |  |
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Oakland Unified School District
 Virtual Museum Institute 2001 Agenda |
Last summer, we worked with Oakland Unified School District to develop a two week institute that focused on curriculum development for Language Arts and Social Studies 4th-8th grade teachers. A core group of teachers were invited to attend the Institute. The goals of the institute were for the participants to:
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During 2001-02 year, coaches worked with these teachers plus 15- 4th through 8th grade schools (AB1339). Many of the teachers from the institute became mentors at their schools and promoted collaborative projects with colleagues and with other teachers in the district.
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A community project is Bella Vista Park where students collect oral histories from neighbors. |
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Bret
Harte Book Review Check Out other Bret Harte Projects back to top |
 Jeopardy Jeffrey T., a teacher at 6th grade at Lowell Middle School, developed a Jeopardy version of 6th grade curriculum issues to get his students more excited about grammar and vocabulary. |
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Santa Fe Elementary is participating in Festival for Youth, a community service project where students collect oral histories from seniors at the senior center, plant gardens at the center, child care center and in front of the school, and are reading buddies to preschoolers. Digital pictures capture events. The website is growing. |
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Students at Montera Middle School are participating in a video conference with Chabot Space and Science Center. Check out their eMission. |
Check out more projects at
www.my-ecoach.com/coaching/sample_proj.html.
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Peter Hutcher, Director of Instructional Technology, is the lead for
the projects. Next year, around 59 schools will be involved in the AB1339
program. Several of the mentors have participated in the Intel Teach to
the Future program and have trained other teachers in the district. These
teachers will be part of the mentor team in providing support for the
program. CompuMentor
will work with the district team to provide support for the network and
infrastructure. CampusGRID
trained mentors how to use their templates for school websites. New projects
include streaming video and video conferencing including projects with
the Chabot Space and Science Center.
In the summer, mentors will be invited to develop a curriculum matrix
that defines grade level technology standards and performance indicators.
Teachers have been invited to develop a standards-based project to use
as models for the performance indicators.
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Presented by the My eCoach
team and teachers
Spring 2002 CUE Conference
updated for presentation at NECC 2002 Conference
If you would like to see more projects or learn more about how coaching can work for you, please contact us at 800.633.2248 or info@my-ecoach.com
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