Oct+3,+2009

=**ISB Coaches Team Meeting Agenda **= Understanding = U Informing = I Recommending = R Deciding = D || Participants: **Teresa, Kelly, Kim, Dennis, Troy** Great conversations about how to utilize technology as a tool for learning. Concerns about the number of teachers attending lab sites. || 1. General catch-up 2. Enter your time || All (10 min) || Ideas:
 * < Date: **Fri., Oct. 1, 2009** ||< Time: **12:30-2:05** ||< Place: **MS Skybox** ||
 * < Facilitator/Timekeeper:
 * Dennis** ||< Recorder: **Kim** ||= **Purpose:**
 * **Task** || **Guiding Question** || **Background/ Process** || **Person / Time** ||
 * **Warm-up** || //How's the week been?//
 * **Book Club ** || //What can we learn from the Jim Knight book that will help us in our role as coaches? Or a discussion about coaching light vs. coaching heavy?//
 * utilize a spreadsheet to track what aspects of coaching we've done with teachers
 * utilize a survey/spreadsheet to see what teachers need/want/have done
 * participate in goal setting with teachers so that we can tap into their passion
 * work with admin to ensure that late adoptors participate
 * how do you balance relationships with discomfort to coach heavy?
 * Teaching styles, relationships, experience all come into play for the success of coaching heavy
 * Roger's Adoption Curve
 * Next step: try using the spreadsheet idea 3 ways:
 * 1 common spreadsheet for all coaches with every teacher's name - here we'll list the dates we work with teachers and a brief phrase of what we did
 * 1 individual spreadsheet for each coach with all teachers they work with - here we'll list the four major experiences we want teachers to have (1:1 planning, modeling, lab sites, side-by-side, etc)
 * 1 divisional spreadsheet for tracking who is moving forward

Thoughts from Joellen:  The most important transition strategy is to know with absolute clarity what one’s goals are as a coach and be willing to choose working toward the goal rather than on something else. What many coaches fail to do it to remember their priorities. When they do, coaching is light. Helping others understand the purpose of coaching is another strategy. Saying no when asked to do something that doesn’t carry weight in transforming practice to benefit students is one way coaches help teachers understand the value of the position and appreciate it more fully.

I am certain technology coaches feel an extra burden of coaching in an area where there is some inherent fear. However, literacy and math coaches, as well as others, deal with some of these same fears. The difference in my view is that it is easier to make the fear known in technology and less easy to do that in the other content areas. || Kim to lead--she has more sources for us to consult in relation to this. (30 min) ||
 * Difficult Conversations
 * [|Moving Coaching from Light to Heavy] || Kim
 * **Coaching** || //What have been the most effective coaching experiences this year in terms of improving student learning? How do we know? What remain our biggest challenges? How can we problem-solve?//


 * Science project where teachers revised curriculum to focus on Nichada Lake, end result was students asking deep questions.
 * Extended math labsite with Robin B prompted deep reflection and quality differentiation.
 * TOK
 * Grade 4 Influence unit

Thoughts (1st successes and then challenges) || Teresa (30 min) ||
 * Will be important to be in the room as an observer to see how learning is improved.
 * Focusing on students, not the logistics of way the program works
 * Drop in and drop out of labsite means that they might not see the long-term effects. Pre and post sessions are needed to make the most out of labsites.
 * Best learning comes from being a labsite - we may need to ensure that every teacher has the experience of being a labsite teacher over the course of the year.
 * Extended labsite over days is most effective
 * Helping teachers make things relevant for themselves and their students
 * How will ensure long-term transfer beyond individual labsites?
 * Can teachers generalize and apply to new situations? Until they can, we won't see transfer to different teachers/subjects/departments. || Think-Pair-Share
 * **Support for ourselves** || //How can we safely and productively share our frustrations?//

Will discuss this next week. || Discussion || Kelly (20 min) || Parking Lot – Items on our plate for future meetings: