Coaching and the SAMR Model

As an eLearning Coach with the Evansville Vanderburgh School Corporation in Evansville, IN, I am asked a lot of daily questions ranging from tools and strategies, to troubleshooting tech problems, but I rarely consider the SAMR Model when conveying my advice.  The reason for this is that I haven't made it a consistent practice yet.  So if I were to utilize the SAMR Model in guiding my decisions where should I begin?  Time to plan!

First, I have to acknowledge the skill level of the staff member(s) I am attempting to support.  Taking traditional content, jumping past the SAM or SMAR just would be too overwhelming for staff - baby steps! Instead, building relationships with teachers to truly their tech abilities, openness to new ideas, and agreeable to change is paramount before rolling out a new tool and discarding a previous strategy.

Second, as awesome as technology is, and can be, the lesson structure shouldn't START with technology.  Instead, after determining the assessment, then backwards mapping, looking at the content through the lens of "How can this content be more engaging, more rigorous, and promote higher student achievement?" is the next essential piece of this process.

Then, once a tool is identified as an option to really unlock student understanding and mastery of the content, a discussion of its implementation is warranted.  Only when a teacher feels empowered and confident with the technology, will the desired outcomes of the lesson be realized.  How I build confidence with the teacher(s) is by offering the following levels of support:

1. I model the tool in a lesson with students.
2. I co-teach the lesson with the teacher.
3. I offer tech support, i.e. in the classroom to support the students with tech troubleshooting.
4. I discreetly sit as a passive observer for a debrief afterwards.
5. I follow up with the teacher at a later date.
6. Some combination of the preceding.

When teachers feel that this endeavor can be shared with someone that won't judge or evaluate them, they are much more likely to try the technology.

In conclusion, to tie all of this back to the SAMR Model, determining a tool and its use in each classroom is as an individually different process each time.  There isn't a one size fits all approach, so when using the SAMR Model in helping to make decisions, my advice to myself, and anyone else reading, differentiate for each teacher based on the information suggested above.

Go to http://elearningcoach.weebly.com/pd-strategies.html to search for PD resources you might consider for your next PD Session with teachers.