Digital Journal #3
Yearlong Professional Development Plan for AMS
This week’s assignment indicated that I use the data gathered from the Technology Needs Survey in week 2 of my coursework. Thankfully, I received concrete, actionable data as a result of that survey. With the help of my mentor teacher, Ryan Allison, we made an initial 8-session professional development plan directly after assessing the data. I then took my notes and feedback from both my mentor, Ryan, and my mentee, Holly, and developed an intensive 8-session, year-long professional development plan that I will be pitching to my Instructional Leadership Team at Atascadero Middle School for the 2026-27 school year. The 8 sessions cover digital citizenship, classroom management, AI in education, and student creativity.
When meeting with my mentor this week, Ryan proposed several helpful technology tools that I had not considered yet for each of the topics, including a new photography editing tool called Affinity that was recently purchased by Canva and has been brought under the Canva for Education umbrella, allowing all district employees and students access through district licensing. Another helpful suggestion from Ryan was the idea to create half of the sessions for asynchronous learning, allowing teachers more flexibility in accessing the content. As a result, I will build out a Google Classroom to host all content, and 4sessions will be in-person, allowing 4 sessions to be delivered asynchronously. I also changed the order of the sessions as a result of meeting with my mentee, who agreed that staggering the AI content-specific sessions out over the year would be best to reteach and give educators multiple opportunities to experience new and emerging technologies. Holly’s feedback was very positive, and she agreed that it met the needs she has also observed for our district and school site.
Obtaining both qualitative and quantitative data is a critical step in the technology coaching role, as it directly informs the technology needs on campus, provides feedback on the effectiveness of current coaching efforts, and helps to identify areas of support. At the middle school level, coaches have many different stakeholders to support, including multi-subject and single-subject educators, students, administrators, and families. Knowing the needs of all stakeholders improves overall support, so having multiple forms of feedback is valuable.
Quantitative feedback, such as survey results, exit tickets, assessment data, and tech usage reports, including participatory rates, provides measurable evidence for the efficacy of various technologies on campus and helps to identify trends. Qualitative feedback, gathered through observations, small group discussions, interviews, and conversations, offers insight into stakeholder experience and feelings with technology. This can provide a better vision for the reasons for the data gathered and helps the technology coach to better support what is working and what areas may need additional support.
Whether supporting educators in small groups or in one-on-one settings, ongoing collaboration and conversation are critical in helping stakeholders feel supported. As a technology coach, it is my job to make sure the people I serve feel connected, confident, and courageous with their technology use in their individual classrooms. As I receive feedback, I can customize and tailor my approach to each individual’s needs in their classroom, encouraging them when facing challenges and celebrating their wins when it comes to technology use with students.
The ISTE Standards for Coaches that most align with collaboration and continuous improvement are ISTE Standard 3: Collaborator, ISTE Standard 4: Learning Designer, and ISTE Standard 5: Professional Learning Facilitator. ISTE 4.3 Collaborator focuses on cultivating coaching relationships and personalizing support for educators. ISTE 4.4 Learning Designer includes modeling instruction design models for educators and designing meaningful technology-rich learning experiences. ISTE 4.5 Professional Learning Facilitator highlights the use of data and reflection to create effective and quality professional learning opportunities.
By combining qualitative and quantitative feedback, I can make more informed decisions, strengthen my partnerships with colleagues, build rapport and trust, and continuously refine my own coaching practices. A balanced approach assures that I am choosing to model effective technology integration while supporting staff and student needs for the Atascadero Middle School campus.
