Wallenpaupack teachers benefit from technology coaching approach

Peter Becker, Tri-County Independent
·2 min read
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Wallenpaupack high school students are already benefitting, school officials say, from a new approach whereby the teacher is advised on utilizing the latest technology to apply to a lesson.

The school board heard a presentation on the approach, called "technology coaching", January 9, which included showing a modern day-style campaign video for President Andrew Jackson in his 1824 bid for re-election, challenged by candidate John Quincy Adams.

Technology Support Teacher Dan Granville worked with history teacher Rich McGinnis in this pilot example of what technology coaching can achieve.

Technology coaching, Granville explained, is a form of professional development, building a relationship between the coach and the teacher, allowing more hands-on experience on how they will make use of technology in the classroom. In the past they relied on a one-hour session which some teachers stated it wasn't enough time to figure how to apply and implement the techniques.

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According to Granville, technology coaching is a collaborative, ongoing partnership that is highly individualized and based solely on the teacher's goals and curriculum. It is non-evaluative in nature.

As an example, he referred to students using an electronic copier used to make a poster rather than paper and pencil.

"The 21st century skills used to make the online poster are skills that will be translated directly into the world outside of education when they graduate," Granville continued. "You can have a poster hanging in the hallway versus a poster on social media."

The teacher, he said, is encouraged to go a bit further than where they may have felt comfortable and achieve a new level of integrating technology, giving a much deeper education for the students.

Employing a newly instituted facet of professional development called Technology Coaching, Wallenpaupack History teacher Rich McGinnis worked with Dan Granville,Technology Support Teacher to implement the history teacher's goals on a classroom project. The high school students analyzed the 1828 presidential election of incumbent Andrew Jackson, at left and challenger John Quincy Adams, at right, and created a 21st century campaign commercial utilizing propaganda techniques. A student did the voice-over. Similar to a modern campaign commercial, Jackson's claimed attributes were promoted and Adams' perceived faults were highlighted. This is a still picture from the iMovie used in the presentation.

Bridging traditional and modern

Granville referred to a situation in which McGinnis's history students seemed to lose the real-world connection creating a traditional campaign poster that hangs on a wall. They came up with a plan where the students would analyze a 19th century presidential election and produce a 21st century campaign commercial using propaganda tactics.

Knowing what his students needed, McGinnis developed a template for the students to use with iMovie software for the project. This strategy focused on the content rather than the technology.

Granville sent a survey to the high school faculty to collect data to structure a coaching experience for the teachers that is beneficial and promotes their success, he said. The survey asks what is the teacher's goals and what technology do they have in mind they would like to use.

The goal is to make technology coaching available for faculty in all grade levels. Wallenpaupack Area School District has approximately 325 teachers.

Granville said he has about 12 coaching cycles slated so far this school year, so far.

This article originally appeared on Tri-County Independent: Wallenpaupack Area teachers are getting high tech help for lessons