Ask The Tech Coach

In this episode of “ Ask the Tech Coach ,” Jeff and Nick discuss several strategies for working with teachers of all grade levels, subject levels, and most important, skill levels. It’s easy to create one type of professional development session, but what happens when you are working with a group and a teacher is struggling to understand certain concepts. In today's podcast, we provide helpful tip...

In this episode of “ Ask the Tech Coach ,” Jeff and Nick welcome a roundtable of Tech Coaches onto the podcast to discuss the most important topics facing Tech Integration Coaches today! This Weeks Topics: Tech Coach Websites Examples of Tech Coach Websites http://www.joshchoward.com/ <–Rockstar https://sadiecreates.com/ <–That’s mine, whatever 🙂 https://teachingforward.net/ – Jenn’s websit...

In this episode of “ Ask the Tech Coach ,” Jeff and Nick discuss several strategies for working with staff members to provide the best professional development possible. What are the best ways to provide professional development? Face to Face (1:1) Working with teachers privately Classrooms Hallways School Meeting Rooms Tech Coach office Face to Face (1: Group) Lunch and Learns After School vs Dur...

In this episode of “ Ask the Tech Coach ,” Jeff and Nick share secrets about what makes a fantastic and usable Tech Coach website. With so many options, both paid and free, available, it’s easy to spend a ton of time creating a digital hub that nobody uses or wants. The secret to any website is to make great content and make sure that your users have it available to them BEFORE they know that they...

In this episode of “ Ask the Tech Coach ,” Jeff and Nick take a look at several things a Tech Coach can do to create positive relationships with their teachers, administrators, and support staff members. How To Create a Great 1:1 Relationship with Your Staff Members Having empathy for staff members while getting your job done Don’t take everything personally. Always ask them how they are doing. It...

In this episode of “ Ask the Tech Coach ,” Jeff and Nick discuss our latest post “The Great Learning Management System Debate” and share several ways that Tech Coaches can assist their school districts in creating a digital learning environment in all classrooms. In this episode, we discuss: Tech Coaching with Learning Management Systems What does a Digital Classroom look like? How do you share yo...

In this episode of “ Ask the Tech Coach ,” Jeff and Nick take a look at faculty and department meetings and discuss several solutions for choosing the best topic that will help to set up a great year of working with teachers and students. The art of School District Professional Development Weekday vs Weekend PD Sessions How to choose the best topic Tech Coach Choice Picking something you are passi...

In this episode of “ Ask the Tech Coach ,” Jeff and Nick answer the questions you have emailed, tweeted and left voice messages about. In this episode, we discuss: How to best keep track of your teacher interactions Best way to communicate with your teachers? How should Tech Coaches be using Social Media to promote classroom activities and student achievement?   Join the TeacherCast Instructi...

In this episode of “ Ask the Tech Coach ,” we welcome Kerry Gallagher, Sean Hackbarth, and Michael Krauszer on the program to discuss the many things that happen in the first month of being a Tech Coach. For so many of us, the first month is filled with excitement but also misery when things don't go so well. What is important is that we all learn how to get our first few staff encounters to be po...

In this episode of “ Ask the Tech Coach ,” Jeff and Nick discuss why it’s important to start the school year off on the right foot. So many times, tech coaches want to jump in and impress their teachers with how much they know and how big their website is. In reality, this is the opposite. In order to have a successful start to the school year, it is important that you ask questions of your staff...

In this episode of “ Ask the Tech Coach ,” Nick and Jeff look at the many ways that school districts can assess the technology skills of staff members. For many tech coaches, the collection of useable and actionable data is the basis for their entire programs. In this show, we look both at traditional surveys that tech coaches can use as well as nontraditional assessment methods for quickly identi...

In this episode of “ Ask the Tech Coach ,” Nick and Jeff take a look at several great ways to stay digitally organized while being an Instructional Technology Coach in multiple school buildings. In this episode, we discuss: Reflections from Episode 11: “Three Things Every Tech Coach Needs To Start The School Year” Website ThoughtsFree vs Paid WebsitesFor School For Home To Build a Brand Recommenda...

Congratulations, it’s a new school year and you are about to walk into the new term as an Instructional Technology Coach. The first thing that usually goes through your mind is a ton of questions. What is a Tech Coach? What does my school district think a tech coach is? How will my staff find me and my thoughts and ideas? What is most important to any Tech Coach is the ability to hit the ground ru...

In this episode of “ Ask the Tech Coach ,” we sit down with Jon Corippo and Marlena Hebern to discuss their new book Bring Your Teaching into Focus: The EduProtocol Field Guide available now from Dave Burgess Publishing . In this episode, we discuss: What is the State of Professional Development? How do we teach the 4C’s in less than 90 slides? EduProtocols (Lesson frames to use with any content,...

In this episode of “ Ask the Tech Coach ,” we sit down with Mike Lawrence and Dr. Sam Patterson to talk about the State of Professional Learning. Together, we take on the topic of Innovative Professional Development and share our thoughts about how we can create a culture of learning in our school districts that encourage teachers to think outside of the box. In this episode, we discuss: The state...

In this episode of AskTheTechCoach, we look at Formative Assessment Tools that can be used in the classroom. This week we were asked about different kinds of online assessment tools teachers can use besides websites such as Discovery Education, PBS, etc. for Science? Formative vs Summative Assessments When we discuss assessment tools, we have to look at both Formative and Summative assessments. Fo...

This weeks question came from a middle school science teacher who asked the question “Do you have any good recommendations on virtual tours of body systems, dissections, etc?” There are a plethora of app and websites teachers can use for analyzing human anatomy and/or participating in dissections. Some of the favorites are: Dissections: Virtual Frog Dissection – This program allows you to watch vi...

Keynote … PowerPoint … HaikuDeck … SlideShare These are all wonderful presentation programs. I can honestly admit that I use them just about every time I put together a presentation or prepare for a keynote. With these programs, you can create any type of slide that your heart can imagine. They are simple, elegant, and come on both the desktop and mobile platforms for all to enjoy. However… whenev...

Let's face it… we are all going digital whether we like it or not. Everything about our relationships, professions, family, and now even our classrooms is digital. Due to the fact that we need to look at a screen for any piece of entertainment or knowledge these days it's time to redefine what exactly is and isn't in the world of educational technology. Let's first go back in time together. Here i...

Sphero has just rolled out their new programming platform and community center, Lightning Lab. With this app Sphero positions SPRK programming alongside Scratch and other web-enabled platform. With Lightning Lab, users can have access to all of their programs no matter which device they use to sign in as the programs travel with the user's profile. Lightning Lab will make it even easier to use the...

The Foos Studio brings programming into the game design. With The Foos, students can not only learn about game design, but how to create dynamic content playable by the world. Last year during CSEDWEEK The Foos was introduced to the world. The cute characters helped students understand programming fundamentals, and it was so fun they asked for more. Grant Hosford, CEO of Codespark and Foos creator...

Have you ever wondered what the best app is for doing Chromakey (Green Screen) on the iPad? In this episode of Ask the Tech Coach, we share with you our favorite video app for your classroom. What is the best app for doing Green Screen on iPads? The #1 Green Screen app for the iPad in Education, now available for the iPhone too! Green Screen by Do Ink makes it easy to create incredible green scree...