How Do You Know What You Don't Know?

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?

Empathy

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 what other teachers are going through? 
• Am I able to empathize as well as that teacher did?

Week 1 Performance Task

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 elementary background, he has much more teaching experience than I do, and he is just an interesting fellow that will be fun to work with. In addition, if his experience is positive, I believe he will make for a good proponent.

Just having the role of “Technology Coach” causes people to have predispositions about me and what I do, one of which is that I will always be looking at technology. While that is something I will look at, I am more interested in seeing what teaching practices will have a more positive effect on student learning outcomes.

As I have gotten to know the school, the school has gotten to know me

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 questions I had in the beginning were support questions, but with a school that had an influx of new teachers, starting the school year in an almost brand new building loaded with technology, it was expected.

In the first week of school an email was sent out inviting teachers to Wednesday night bowling. I am not a bowler, but I thought it would be a good chance to get to know my coworkers better. So far I have gone every week except one -- and I am still terrible.

And suddenly one day the dam of tech support questions broke a crack and an invitation to come in to introduce Chromebooks to 3rd Graders came. Then another came from the other 3rd Grade class. Then I was invited into a high school class to watch IB Trigonometry give their IA proposals. (Which was really cool).


Now
Gradually I have been asked to do more, and people are starting to ask me for more support and I am finding myself moving all over the school frequently logging more than 10,000 steps in a day. Invitations to come and observe continue to roll in and invitations to plan lessons for classes has begun. Next week I am giving a search lesson to the 10th Grade English classes and a Digital Footprint lesson to the entire 9th Grade class. And invitations to observe or pop into classes are coming more regularly.


The Title
The title of this post refers to my role in the school. As I have built trust with my colleagues, they have seen that I can be a resource, and now I feel myself being used more.