Mr Hammerlund

Each week, well almost each week, I send out a survey seeing what questions the staff has. Sometimes I am able to deal with these inquiries by email. These always seem to be the kind of issues teachers have, but aren't worth the time seeking an answer. Above is a section of my survey results. The highlighted box is what spawned this post. How do I know what I don't know? That is a good question. In fact, Donald Rumsfeld knew this too. My question is: if you know there are things you don't know, what are you doing to find them? Do you talk with colleagues? Do you read more about your subject? Do you engage with others online? And my question for myself is: How can I better support teachers who feel this way?

I was hired this year to be the first Learning Technology Coach at Kaohsiung American School. It is a great honor to be a part of the building and evolution of a coaching program. At the same time it can be very humbling as I learn my way around the school and the role which has led me to feel isolated at times. The other day I was making my way around the school and I visited one teacher's room. We were talking about his class, and how things are going for him because he is in a situation similar to me in that he is also new to the school and the country. At one point in our conversation he said, "I am glad I am not in your position. You have it rough being in a brand new role at the school." That little bit of empathy, that short phrase, made me feel connected and relieved that someone else understood, or at least thought about, what I was going through. I was no longer an island. Which left me with two questions I will carry with me: Am I in tune to w...

Share your thoughts on the process of selecting a colleague to work with, including at least one goal for your work with this colleague over the next six weeks. crossposted on the Eduro coaching forum. Before I started my journey in my new position at a new school, I was able to connect with some teachers. One of these teachers is currently enrolled in COETAIL, and when I get to the school, he immediately reached out for help with his Course 5 project. He has a very interesting project set up. When it came time for this week’s performance task, he seemed like a natural fit since we have been working together anyway. I was also interested in working with this particular teacher since he teaches high school English -- a subject that I know little about -- and the secondary English department has started a blogging initiative for students grades seven to twelve. The teacher I am working will be an interesting match for me: he is in the high school division whereas I have an ...

Before During the week of orientation or perhaps the first week of school, I don't remember when, I sent out a survey to all the teachers asking if it would be OK if I came into their classrooms to observe what they do. That way I would be able to understand their teaching styles, and get a feel for what the students are able to do. I didn't get many responses. (I thought I hadn't gotten any responses,  but that was because I hadn't set up notifications on that spreadsheet.) One thing I knew I wanted to do -- one piece of advice I heard over and over again -- was to build relationships. One way I had planned on doing that was through support with technology where I could, and being visible, but ideas totally stolen from  Colin Gallager . Then There was one day in the first week of school when I was just walking around before school started. I noticed teachers would call me into their rooms, or come out to talk to me about questions they had. A lot of the quest...