Do

Identify the part(s) of your plan you were able to implement (given the nature of leadership work, your project may actually continue beyond submission of your capstone portfolio).

Due to COVID-19 causing school closures the ways in which I implemented my capstone were different than expected. However, I was able to work with teachers in my district and collaborate with teachers across the nation to create engaging, digital content! I was not able to host trainings or sit with teachers one-on-one in person but, I did host multiple zoom trainings, and did zoom calls with teachers to help them utilize digital content as we moved to remote teaching.

How successful was your plan of action at addressing the challenge? Which stakeholders and practice or program were impacted? How do you know (site evidence)?

I would say I was highly successful. School shut downs forced all of us to take our teaching practices online and integrate technology into every lesson. I not only achieved my goal of helping teachers within my building better use and integrate technology into their teaching and professional practices but I was also able to participate in online groups and share templates and tutorials with teachers around the world at all different levels of education from elementary through university level. See map and other evidence below.

Overarching Competencies

Technological Facility

It was more important than ever that I and my coworkers had the technological facility to teach remotely. I was suddenly researching, and fielding questions from coworkers and parents. I recorded and uploaded 49 videos to my youtube account (See evidence F). Some of these videos were tutorials for other teachers, some for parents, and some were lessons that my students could access from any device. I created a graphic to help parents and teachers as students were suddenly learning from home (see evidence H).

Continuing Learning and Education

I had become both google certified and seesaw certified earlier, I also added Edpuzzle, and Screencastify certifications. I participated in these online training programs because I knew these platforms would be useful for remote teaching and I wanted to be a helpful resource for my coworkers. I added published activities to my Seesaw ambassador account for other teachers in my district and nationwide to use (see evidence I). The evidence below shows how I participated in professional learning communities online to contribute to the learning of others. Participating in facebook group allowed me to learn with and from teachers internationally. I was able to share created resources far beyond my own district (see evidence J).

Evdence F

I made several youtube tutorials, one was viewed by over 1500 teachers internationally.

I shared resources in professional groups on facebook. These resources were used by almost 1500 teachers and used for training purposes in other districts.

Evidence G

Foundational Competency

Explore and Challenge Inequity

I assisted parents and teachers in connecting to digital learning as schools closed. I encouraged teachers to use platforms that could be accessed through clever and their google accounts to make it easier for both parents and students to access the lessons from home. I held tutorials and zoom calls for teachers to upload their content to youtube to make it more accessible to all. I supported teachers in creating their content and helped teachers create digital incentives for students to participate from home. I was also able to collaborate with and support teachers from various communities with different ages, ethnic backgrounds, cultures by participating in facebook groups. Below is a map of professionals I was able to assist and collaborate with to create engaging materials for students. I was able to create resources for a diverse international population, and help their teachers engage them in their classrooms! (see Evidence I and J for diverse populations)

Evidence H

Equity of Access

I created this graphic to assist teachers and parents who were struggling to help students get connected during distance learning to increase equity for students.

Evidence I

User-Friendly Resources

I used what I had learned in my ambassador training to create resources that would be simple for teachers to assign, with clear directions for students at home. I recorded directions verbally for diverse populations and published these for teachers to use with students. Nearly 1200 teachers used these resources.

Evidence J

Working with Diverse Populations

I collaborated with, and created resources that were used by students and teachers internationally. Facebook groups allowed me to work with teachers from preschool to University level from all over the world. This map shows just some of the areas that were reached by resources I created.

The red stars denote professionals and student populations I reached. The blue house is my home school district.

*This is a sample of the populations I worked with to serve as an example- I have worked with and will continue to work with professionals of different cultures and backgrounds.

Instructional Competency

Coaching and Mentoring

As I stated above, I held multiple zoom meetings, fielded phone calls and emails to help ensure teachers in my building experienced as much success as possible as we moved to remote learning. Pictured below are some examples of resources I created (see evidence K and G) and meetings that were held to help teachers begin to utilize this technology themselves (see evidence J). COVID-19 did present a bit of a challenge in this area as I could not physically sit down with teachers who needed help. Creating youtube tutorials that I could make public to teachers in my school, district and even in some nationwide teacher groups helped me overcome that challenge. I also hosted zoom meetings and shared my screen or had others share their screen with me in order to teach the technology.

Evidence K

Training

I held whole staff, one-on-one, and small group online trainings to assist teachers in utilizing digital tools and platforms to better serve their students.

Evidence L

Professional Resources

I created resources for professional use (tracking student communication for example) to assist the school with keeping track of student engagement during closures.

What obstacles, if any, did you encounter? How did you address them?

One of the major obstacles I encountered was parent and teacher frustration with accessing some resources remotely. That is why I created the graphic (see evidence H) to assist teachers in explaining to parents how to connect. It is also why I started publishing youtube tutorials to help both parents and teachers. Another obstacle I had not anticipated was Mobymax. Our school was given free access and our administrator encouraged us to use it. I and one other teacher in the building were the only ones familiar with the platform. I held a zoom training to help teachers set up their accounts through clever and begin assigning work. I had phone calls, zoom calls, and emails with individual teachers to help them find usage information for students so they could speak with parents about what their child had been doing and helped them find and create the best format to share information with students and parents.

Given the outcomes, describe any changes you might make to the Capstone project plan of action.

I did not become level II google certified, this was an initial part of my plan of action. This is still a personal goal of mine, but it is not what the teachers I was supporting and working with needed from me at this time. I expended time and effort elsewhere- becoming more proficient in platforms that they needed assistance with. Going forward I would change my plan of action to create a centralized hub for templates and resources that I have created for teachers instead of sharing each resource or activity individually. This would be helpful so teachers and parents would have one place to go to look for the information they need instead of having to comb back through previous emails, messages, or posts to find what they are looking for. This hub would include links to templates, tutorial videos, and helpful graphics that could be shared with students and parents to better facilitate online learning. I would house all of these things on a google site.

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