Learning to Be an EdCoach and Am I Enough for My Teachers?

Learning to be an EdCoach is proving to be one of the hardest things I have ever done. I keep asking myself the same question over and over---Am I Enough for My Teachers quickly followed by What exactly is the role of an Instructional Technologist? Coming from a classroom environment where I was the center of my own world and created my days to be, for the most part, what I wanted them to be--I understood my purpose. I understood how to evaluate my students and then design instruction for them based on their needs.  I know in my new role, the idea and basic concepts are similar, but working with adults is very different. For one, all of my teachers are not conveniently located in one classroom together all learning the same material. I use to complain that it was challenging to teach 30 students in one class where 25 of them had IEPs (Individualized Education Plans). Well, now I assist approximately 100 staff members from multiple content areas, varying degrees of ability, and like students-- a mixture of personalities. I guess you can say my new job is like having a classroom with 100 kids who all have an IEPs. Don't get me wrong. I love the challenge and I adore my fellow educators, but I keep asking myself if I am "Enough".

One thing I have realized about my new role is that it's really hard to accept that simply "being there" for my teachers can sometimes be "enough." By nature, I'm a fixer. I want to help people with what they are struggling with and then "fix it" somehow. I want to ease their burdens and find ways to lighten their workload, so they can truly enjoy teaching--which is why I know so many of them came into education.

One problem I see teachers facing in education today, which I have noticed a significant regression in over the last eight years, is the ability to engage students and sustain their engagement for an entire class period. In a day and age where teachers are competing with the constant calling out of gaming devices, Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, text messages, Google, etc, education is really evolving. The days of lectures and note taking and students passively participating in their own education are drawing to a close. Now, students are demanding to be active participants in their education, and they don't want to waste time being filled up with information that they can just Google and learn about in five minutes. They want to locate the info, and then actually "do" something with what they know.

As an educator there are several things about the changing face of education that excite me, and many which discourage me too. Personally, I became an English teacher because I loved reading books and then talking about them--I still do. My favorite part of the school day, as a student,  was hurrying to my English class, so we could escape for 60 minutes a day and fall in love with fictional characters. In my ideal world, I was going to come into my own classroom every day and my students were going to fall in love with those same fictional characters I was in love with, and we would have these really awesome, charged book discussions.  In actuality, I've had very few classes where this happened.

The students of today want to be innovators. They are growing up in a world where information is at their fingertips, and time well spent to them does not involve being filled up like a pale of water. This is where I come in as an Instructional Technologist. My job is to help teachers figure out what to do with today's kid. How can we develop lessons that blend the "best of both worlds" per se? Personally, I feel there is still much value in a little bit of lecture. Yes, the internet is great for researching and learning about information quickly, but it cannot replace a fired up History teacher describing in detail Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor and inciting a desire in those students to want to learn more about the aftermath of this attack. My best days in the classroom were when I became so involved in our topic of discussion that I left it all "laying on the floor" by the end of the class and emotionally moved those students.

But, I also understand this cannot be an everyday approach anymore and because we have the technology tools at our fingertips when need to also cultivate our students' own desires to explore, learn, and create on their own. Because truly, the only way to really tell if someone understands something would be to have them teach it to another person.This is where I see us moving forward with instruction as educators. This is where I see myself coming in, and this is where I think our students will shine the brightest--if given the opportunity.

My goals moving forward as an ITF or EdCoach are to find ways to help my teachers begin to integrate technology and incorporate best teaching practices into their classrooms, effectively. I want to have conversations around the purposes behind "why" we choose to deliver certain lessons one way or the other and "why" and "if" the tools we are selecting to use are the most effective. I want to try to move away from incorporating technology just for technology sake or just because it makes the product look cooler, but work towards developing truly rich lessons and units where all components were chosen with a true purpose in mind. If we can start having these conversations and moving in this direction, we will certainly be a school who cannot be stopped!

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