5.1 Needs Assessment
Candidates conduct needs assessments to determine school-wide, faculty, grade-level, and subject area strengths and weaknesses to inform the content and delivery of technology-based professional learning programs. (PSC 5.1/ISTE 4a)
Artifact: Individual Teacher Technology Assessmen
Reflection:
As part of the ITEC 7460 course, during the Fall of 2019, I completed an individual teacher technology/needs assessment to determine opportunities to improve student engagement in an otherwise sleepy 1st period ESOL Science class. In order to complete this assessment, I gathered data from personal observations, survey questions, and informal questioning about my co-worker’s classroom climate. The Teacher Technology/Needs Assessment began with a discussion about the participating teacher’s class and was followed by a classroom observation and survey to gather student feedback about the classroom climate. The second part of the experience, as detailed in the Coaching Journal, was the task of identifying strategies to help improve student engagement. I offered a variety of web resources and tools that the peer teacher might find beneficial in her classroom. The artifact was a needs assessment of an individual teacher and her classroom’s climate.
Standard 5.1, Needs Assessment, establishes the expectations for candidates to demonstrate the ability to conduct a needs assessment to determine school-wide, grade-level, and subject area strengths and weakness, and use the needs assessment to inform the content and delivery of the technology-based professional learning program. The creation of this artifact required me to conduct a needs assessment of a teacher at my school to determine strengths and weaknesses relating to student engagement and technology integration, as well as areas in which I could assume the role of technology coach to help her to meet the needs of her students. After completing the needs assessment, I was able to use the results to inform delivery of the professional learning that I would provide her during our coaching sessions. As I conducted the needs assessment, I was able to determine subject-level strengths and weaknesses. She was strong in her content knowledge, as well as open-minded to the ideas of integrating new technology and engagement strategies into her classroom. For these reasons I was challenged to analyze and use the needs assessment to determine what tools would be most beneficial to reach the goal of increasing student engagement in the classroom.
The completion of this artifact led me to recognize the important of collaboration between teachers and technology coaches. This collaboration is important so that teachers’ needs are heard and addressed. As an acting technology coach, I was able to assist a peer teacher by offering a variety of strategies for engagement, including technology integration ideas. Although, she chose to implement a non-technology strategy, I did identify ways to use technology to implement it similarly. If I were to change something to improve the quality of this artifact, I would create a survey to provide the teacher, to supplement the discussion, rather than rely on my notes from our conversation.
The work that went into creating this artifact impacted faculty development- my own personal development and that of a peer teacher- as well as her students’ learning. For myself, I was able to take on the role of technology coach and practice coaching a peer through the Impact Cycle process. The teacher I coached gained insight into the classroom climate and reasons behind her students’ lack of engagement and participation during her class. We were able to identify strategies to help with this, and the teacher noted that her students scores over the next unit test were significantly higher than prior trends. The impact could be assessed through analysis of student growth and progress on various assessments.
As part of the ITEC 7460 course, during the Fall of 2019, I completed an individual teacher technology/needs assessment to determine opportunities to improve student engagement in an otherwise sleepy 1st period ESOL Science class. In order to complete this assessment, I gathered data from personal observations, survey questions, and informal questioning about my co-worker’s classroom climate. The Teacher Technology/Needs Assessment began with a discussion about the participating teacher’s class and was followed by a classroom observation and survey to gather student feedback about the classroom climate. The second part of the experience, as detailed in the Coaching Journal, was the task of identifying strategies to help improve student engagement. I offered a variety of web resources and tools that the peer teacher might find beneficial in her classroom. The artifact was a needs assessment of an individual teacher and her classroom’s climate.
Standard 5.1, Needs Assessment, establishes the expectations for candidates to demonstrate the ability to conduct a needs assessment to determine school-wide, grade-level, and subject area strengths and weakness, and use the needs assessment to inform the content and delivery of the technology-based professional learning program. The creation of this artifact required me to conduct a needs assessment of a teacher at my school to determine strengths and weaknesses relating to student engagement and technology integration, as well as areas in which I could assume the role of technology coach to help her to meet the needs of her students. After completing the needs assessment, I was able to use the results to inform delivery of the professional learning that I would provide her during our coaching sessions. As I conducted the needs assessment, I was able to determine subject-level strengths and weaknesses. She was strong in her content knowledge, as well as open-minded to the ideas of integrating new technology and engagement strategies into her classroom. For these reasons I was challenged to analyze and use the needs assessment to determine what tools would be most beneficial to reach the goal of increasing student engagement in the classroom.
The completion of this artifact led me to recognize the important of collaboration between teachers and technology coaches. This collaboration is important so that teachers’ needs are heard and addressed. As an acting technology coach, I was able to assist a peer teacher by offering a variety of strategies for engagement, including technology integration ideas. Although, she chose to implement a non-technology strategy, I did identify ways to use technology to implement it similarly. If I were to change something to improve the quality of this artifact, I would create a survey to provide the teacher, to supplement the discussion, rather than rely on my notes from our conversation.
The work that went into creating this artifact impacted faculty development- my own personal development and that of a peer teacher- as well as her students’ learning. For myself, I was able to take on the role of technology coach and practice coaching a peer through the Impact Cycle process. The teacher I coached gained insight into the classroom climate and reasons behind her students’ lack of engagement and participation during her class. We were able to identify strategies to help with this, and the teacher noted that her students scores over the next unit test were significantly higher than prior trends. The impact could be assessed through analysis of student growth and progress on various assessments.