Sunday, October 7, 2007

agent change agent











Education 107 - Bringing the NETS Standards to the Classroom

Quiz #1

Part One - Multiple Choice
Instructions: Please choose the best response for the following question. You MUST choose only one answer.

1. You are operating as a Technology Coach in a suburban high school with a full-time faculty of sixty-seven teachers. One of your main objectives is to engage teachers in developing rigorous learning experiences for students that demand one of the newest NETS Standards: Creativity. Which of the following is the most effective strategy to be a true change agent:
a. Conduct a full-day workshop during a scheduled in-service day, providing teachers with 'sand-box' time and department level collaboration. Create avatars.

b. Communicate one-to-one in a non-threatening fashion with the teachers you believe are the early-adopters and hope for a pay-it-forward process with the rest of the faculty. Share bagels.

c. Distribute copies of NETS Standards in faculty mailboxes and request faculty meeting time to discuss the need for change in instructional practice. Quote bloggers.
Consider: You have x days/years (circle one) to achieve the aforementioned objective.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Although B could be good, it's a bit presumptuous to assume that these teachers will have time/desire to pay it forward (if you know them well, though, it may be a safe bet).

I like A. Allows departments to differentiate their foci and make the experience more directly applicable to their needs. Sandbox collaboration allows for good idea development in a short period of time.

Perhaps more importantly, you've acknowledged that their busy schedules require significant time to be set aside to learn this new stuff, and that the district believes it's important enough to cover in an entire in-service day, not on prep periods or after school here and there.

In other news, I just said "differentiate their foci" on the Internet.

Anne Van Meter said...

Assuming choice A: Are we allowed to share coaches across districts on days like these? That way we could break it up a bit more and tailor the tools shown/played with. What do you think?

ken said...

@damian: I do believe you are first w/ the 'differentiate their foci', but I take claim to first uttering the expression 'differentiate their focaccia'. I was @ an Italian eatery marveling @ the vast array of bread choices.

@anne: Sharing coaches would be ideal, but we would need to determine the skills that each coach could bring to the in-service to avoid redundancy. Although, to be quite honest, I fear that there are coaches out there that are not really up to the speed they need to be in order to 'be out front' and serve as 'change agents'.

Anonymous said...

Just out of curiosity, was C in your top 2 choices, Ken?

Anonymous said...

I choose A, reluctantly.

ken said...

@damian: C...um...not in my choice manifest, but I feel that sometimes district initiatives follow the 'C' method.

And how many times do we responsibly read those articles that appear in our mailboxes?