The Importance of Coaching; An Interview with the CFF Coach, Mr. Shumski
What is the "Classrooms for the Future" goal?
The goal of Classrooms for the Future (CFF) is to transform and enhance how educators teach and students learn. Through the CFF initiative we will be giving our students the tools they need to compete and succeed in the high-skills, knowledge-based workforce of the 21st century.
After teaching for 34 years why would you take a position as a “Classrooms for the Future” Instructional Coach/Facilitator?
After teaching for 34 years, I took a position as an instructional technology mentor at North Schuylkill JSHS and now at Minersville and Tri Valley because I saw firsthand how technology in a classroom excited students. I started using a SmartboardTM about five years ago in Reading and Social Studies. Students loved the interaction of various educational websites. I’ve used Nettrekker.com, unitedstreaming.com, Brain POP, and quia.com etc. for years. So many times over the last four years I said to myself, can you imagine how great it would be if every student had a laptop. With laptops in the classroom every student could be engaged at the same time viewing and reviewing topics and, most importantly, working on the skills that the data shows they need help on. As an embedded technology instructor in the classroom, I savor the time co-teaching, co-investigating, and co-researching with the students and teachers. As a coach, it’s fun and challenging to communicate and collaborate with your colleagues in order to co-plan and co-produce performance and project-based projects using the best possible online sites and software to complete lessons that meet all the PSSA standards and anchors. Meeting deadlines with their project-based and problem-based lessons are a slice of the real world that brings responsibility and self discipline to the students. It’s rewarding and exciting to watch the students perform their tasks: word processing, using digital still and video cameras, and uploading and downloading film and music to their projects as they design and create their digital storytelling presentations. It is so rewarding to see the student’s faces when they’ve completed their final product using a new technology skill for the first time. You see and feel their sense of accomplishment and you share their joy. In fact, the classroom teacher and coach feel the same sense of accomplishment. The CFF instructional coach in every district impacts every core teacher, student, and administrator. The goal in every CFF school is to engage the students in new or redesigned lessons with HOTS, Higher Order Thinking Skills, and NETS, the National Educational Technology Skills, to create lessons that use technology and Web 2.0 skills seamlessly.
Why does PDE want “Classrooms for the Future” schools to have an instructional technology coach or facilitator? What does research tell us about the implementation rate for new learning?
Research tells us that instructional coaching is the catalyst for high school reform. Professional Development without follow up has an implementation rate of only 10 percent. In other words, the expensive equipment will take up space, be pushed to a corner and collect dust. Recent research from the University of Kansas, Center for Research on Learning, indicates that by using the coaching model, the implementation rate rises to 85 to 90 percent. This is why PDE is using this model. It is my hope to be a part of creating an environment at NS within which teachers and students use 21st century skills and use the technology seamlessly. That means, we will use the interactive whiteboards, projectors, laptop computers, the individual’s choice of software or web 2.0 ware that best enhances and completes the project-based lessons as easily as we use pencil and paper.
How do you feel about the committment made by CFF teachers and the kind of changes that will be made?
I congratulate all PA teachers for embracing the CFF technological initiative and making the commitment to take two 3 credit courses titled the "Need for Change" and "Teaching in the Core Area of Science, Social Studies, Math, and Science." Our teachers are experts in their field. They know the content inside and out, and are willing to make the shift happen and change the pedagogy. The change isn't drastic. In most cases it's not changing their lessons but redesigning the lessons they have in order to reach for the top of the new Bloom’s Taxonomy which is "create." It’s helping change the classroom from a teacher-centered room to a student-centered room. Students shouldn't be powered up all weekend with video games, cell phones, iPods, texting and chatting online and then power down when they come to school. We want them to be powered up at school also, and use all the technological equipment, the best software, internet sites, and web 2.0 skills like blogs, wikis, Google Docs, Google Earth, and other free as well as paid educational and interactive websites to research, create, produce, and present their projects using communicative and collaborative skills.
Posted by Stan Shumski at 10:18 PM
