What Does a Virtual Instructional Coach Do?

 Have you ever struggled to explain to people what it is you do all day? 

At the intersection of virtual teaching and instructional coaching, I feel this. Many of the excellent resources for instructional coaching are geared toward in-person classrooms. 

What does a virtual instructional coach do? The same thing they encourage their teachers to do: Borrow, Adapt, Innovate.

Here is a graphic I made to explain my role to my teachers. 

Click here to view in Canva

This graphic adapts the 5 coaching approaches in Jill Jackson's book, 

How to Coach Teachers to Teach (almost) Anything.

Raking Leaves During a Tornado: Managing Grading in an Online Class

Do you feel attacked when you open your To Be Graded list?

 Nearly every online teacher has been in a situation where the grading inbox seems to be an avalanche of work that needs attention, feedback, and evaluation. There are even days when a teacher grades one assignment only to return to find the queue has grown by 5. 

While most of the advice available begins with the beginning, course design, there are things a teacher can do TODAY to manage the load. Then, the teacher can find time to plan for the future, to minimize the storm of grading next semester.

What to do TODAY:

Wrangle the TBG Monster (To Be Graded):

1. Search for or scan for items that are easy to grade. Eliminate short assignments, assignments with rubrics attached, and anything that is for completion. Return any blank assignments, documents that are not shared, or other errors in submission.

2. Sort by Date: Feedback is most impactful when it is timely. If an assignment is more than 5 school days old, the student has moved on to other topics. Give it cursory feedback, grade, and move on.

3. Triage: For any remaining assignments, consider what needs first attention. Any assignments that are part of a larger project need feedback so the student can continue to work. Unit tests may not be as urgent, as they are summative in nature. 

4. Set a goal. When would you like to be caught up? Divide the number of assignments by the number of days and set a goal. Plan to reward yourself in a small way each day and in a big way at the end of the time. 

You did it! You tamed the beast of TBG

Now, prepare for effective grading practices: 

• Selective: Give feedback ONLY on the skills or standards being measured in an assignment.

Every assignment does not require feedback on every possible aspect. Review the assignment directions, rubrics, and standards covered. Restrict your feedback to only those items.

• Example: An assignment asks a student to summarize a short story. This assignment is assessing the student's reading comprehension. The teacher can omit feedback on grammar, punctuation, and other writing standards. It may be tough, but RESIST. This assignment is not assessing those skills. If the course is well designed, those skills will be assessed at another time. 
  Also, too much feedback overwhelms students and may have a negative impact on growth.
• Specific: Use details from the student’s work to give specific feedback.
• Example: Rather than saying, "I know you can do better" say "Take a look at the dependent variables again. Notice how they impact the independent variable at step 6."
• Balanced: Give a mixture of positive and constructive feedback
• Use a feedback sandwich of 1 positive, 1 constructive, 1 positive comment. Be aware of tone, which is difficult to convey. Consider using the record feature to leave audio feedback.
• Task-Based: Comment on the work, not the student. Say, “You provided great support for your claim” rather than “You are a great writer!”
• Transferable: Given feedback that contributes to the student’s overall growth. Refer to course objectives to give feedback that can help in future assignments as well.
• Timely: Feedback is most effective when given soon after the student submits work. If work is more than a few days old, assign a grade and move on.

Look to the future!

Once the grading storm passes, a teacher can look toward the future. Many aspects of quality course design can prevent future grading natural disasters.

1. Consider the design and alignment of the course: Be clear about course level, unit level, and lesson level objectives. Ensure that assessments are only assessing what is covered in that unit. Use rubrics and other LMS tools to leave yourself breadcrumbs so you remember what to focus on for each assignment you grade. 

2. Use a variety of assessment types: Use objective and subjective assessments. Use a mixture of graded and completed assignments. Be sure to communicate to students that certain assignments, such as rough drafts, may have feedback even when they receive full credit. Incentivize the utilization and review of feedback. 

3. Use feedback libraries. Use a spreadsheet or tools within your LMS to copy frequently used items of feedback. Capitalize on this tool by making this feedback more robust. Link to helpful support materials. Provide detailed examples. Save these in a format that makes them easy to insert into assignments time after time. 

4. Let Students Drive: Consider providing some answer keys for students. Ask them to self-grade and submit their graded copy along with a reflection. 

You can tame the TBG Monster in your online class!

*Images generated with Adobe Firefly. Prompts given in Alt Text

Did you know?! Canva Accessibility Checker

 Did you know Canva has a built-in accessibility checker? Find it in the File menu under View Settings:

The checker even has AI built in to help you generate alt text quickly and easily. See demo below:

If you are looking for even more info about best practices for accessibility, check out this webinar from Canva. 

You can also check out resources from CAST here for UDL guidelines. 

Free Template: Blooket + ChatGPT

 Freebie Alert: At the link below, find a tab with the ChatGPT prompt and a tab with the Blooket csv format.

Template in Google Sheets

1. Customize the provided prompt in ChatGPT to generate a table of questions.
2. Copy the questions starting in 3B of the CSV template.
3. Save CSV tab as a CSV >File>Download>Comma Separated Value
4. Create Blooket Game
5. Import Questions with Spreadsheet Import option
6. Edit/Review Game and Save
7. Have fun!

Using AI? Student Facing Graphic

 

Student Conferences: Maximize the Value of Conference Time

Conferences can be hard.

You have:

• determined which students need support.
• communicated, usually multiple times, in order to find a time to meet.
• held a conference with parents/students/other staff.

Now what?

First, setting the conference up for success is important. 

See my previous post on managing virtual parent/teacher conferences. 

During the conference, keep the goal in mind. SMART goals, that is. With as much student input as possible, set a short-term goal that is measurable. 

Next, consider these tips to ensure you get the most return on your efforts to meet with students.

1. Manage Your Communication. 

Where possible, you want to build relationships with students. You do this by tracking previous conversations so that each meeting feels like a continuation of the relationship. I use several Google tools to manage my communication with students and families.

Google Sheets: I use a Google Sheet to keep a list of my students. I use this list to email students my newsletter each Monday. Then, I have columns that record pertinent info, such as IEPs, preferred nicknames, family situations, etc. At conference time, I added a column for communication, which I will cover in more detail below.

Google Calendar: I schedule my meetings in Google Calendar. Where possible, I have students select the time. This way, Google Appointments will automatically send reminders the day and hour before the conference. If I make the appointment, I also make an email that I schedule to be sent the morning of the conference to remind everyone of our meeting. 

Google Docs: In the calendar invite, I click Take Meeting Notes.

This creates a doc with the meeting time and attendees. Before the meeting, I made a few notes and set a few action steps. Then, I copied the link for this doc into the conference column of my spreadsheet. Each time I meet with that student, I return to that doc, make a new meeting note, and continue the conversation. 

2. Communicate the results of your meeting with all involved.

After the meeting, send a quick summary of the goals that were set and the agreed-upon timeline. Remind of tips and tools that will be needed. 

3. Schedule a follow-up.

While you have the person there, decide if you will need to meet again. Often, students will be more diligent in completing a task if they know someone is checking in on that soon. 

A follow-up to a conference can mean a few different things.

Do you need to schedule another meeting? If a conference is exceeding 15-20 minutes, it might be time to offer some goals and a follow-up meeting to check in on those goals. This keeps the student's attention and gives them an opportunity to demonstrate some responsibility for learning. 

Even if you do not set up another meeting, schedule a reminder for yourself to check in with the students and parents on the goals set during the meeting. 

Celebrate all successes. With this robust tracking system in place, you can easily celebrate small wins. Send a card or email when a student meets a goal. Acknowledge that they have gained a grade level since they started meeting with you. Be sure to emphasize the value they have gained for putting in the extra effort.

Conferences can be hard, but they can also be worth it!

How AI Saved me an Hour Today

Tools Used:

1. ChatGPT

2. Canva

    -Magic Design

    -Bulk Create