1. What resources did I share this week? This week I shared the data I've gathered from my mentoring project, as well as some time-tested favorites, such as the Technology Integration Matrix, my good old OPTIC observation tool, and some of the Formative Assessment Tools from the New Teacher Center. Over the past several years, some of these frameworks have come in handy time and time again. They give me a guideline for thinking and keeping my focus.
2. What did I intend to be the impact of my resources on others' learning? I especially like the Formative Assessment tools, such as the Meeting Log/Collaborative Log when I'm working with individual teachers over any extended period of time. It's a great way to keep the focus and work on our goals, and a way to keep positive steps moving forward, while acknowledging and dealing with challenges that arise (clearly supported with help), and also taking a moment to celebrate the success of the progress the teacher has made. I hope that others will use these as discussion threads when doing similar work.
3. What actual impact could I discern? Overall, I think some of my negativity about the long term effects of my efforts came through, as others expressed similar concerns with the idea that once the mentee is no longer supported on a regular basis the forward momentum may come to a slowdown or a complete halt. One colleague took this a step further, proposing ideas for how to encourage teachers to become tech mentors for each other. In my district we do not have technology coaches, and are not likely to get one any time soon, so I think this might be a good idea to pursue. However, she is also correct in stating that without the support of leadership for something like this, teachers would not be very motivated to add the unofficial title and duties of mentor to an already busy load of work if there was no support for such work from leadership.
4. What will I do differently next week? I need to get my head around this project in terms of how I want to frame it for research. Reviewing my data has taken me a lot of different directions in terms of what I've learned about mentoring, technology, teacher motivation, professional development, etc. I want to find a way to prioritize my learning from this and start thinking about it from one specific purpose. Also, my final interview with my mentee is this week, so I'm sure that will add to my thinking about this.
5. What resources did others share that made a difference to my learning? Probably one of the most important things I saw was that several others in the class were using reflective logs with their mentees. This is such a great idea (wish I'd thought of it!), as reflection is such an important aspect in our practice anyway, and writing down your thoughts about a process of learning as you experience it can be really valuable. Being able to look back on these logs could open up so many valuable discussions - ones that would be difficult in a twice-monthly meeting where the teacher is being asked to recall all that has happened in the previous two weeks. I'm not sure it's a practical thing to ask all the time, but when mentoring in a process that is so new to some teachers, like technology integration, it's useful to ask them to think reflectively about their practice. I'll definitely be incorporate reflective logs in some of my future endeavors in this area - specifically technology integration!
No comments:
Post a Comment