Coaching with Kinders

This school year, I had the pleasure of working with three kindergarten classes and their teachers. I was amazed by the talents of these five-year-olds!

Attention Teachers of Students Grades 5-12!

Here is an opportunity to share with your students- from the Michigan Council of Women in Technology!

Leaving Dearborn: A Tribute to Heroes, Visionaries, Friends, and Students

It is with bittersweet emotion that I announce my departure from the Dearborn Schools. On May 2, 2023, I will be joining the team at Wayne RESA as the Learning, Innovation, and Technology Consultant. Dearborn has been my home for 23 years as a teacher and technology...

GPT-Proof Writing Prompts

Here are some examples of ELA (English Language Arts) prompts that are designed to be GPT-proof: Write an original short story about a character who experiences a major life change, such as moving to a new city, starting a new job, or going through a personal crisis....

What do the Technology Coaches do?

Like most other districts across the country, the Dearborn Schools employs Technology Coaches to support teachers, students, and administrators. But what exactly do they do?

Giving Audio Feedback on Student Work + Tips

“Hundreds of studies of feedback have been published and reviews of these studies routinely conclude that feedback is the most important or nearly the most important variable affecting the amount and quality of student learning.”

Among my favorite things about educational technology is that it can help teachers give more effective feedback. One way to do that is using audio feedback.

Resources to Start the New Semester

As we get started with a new semester, here are a few resources and reminders to help you get started on the right foot.

Encountering AI in Student Writing

There’s a lot of buzz lately about AI in writing. How do we counter this phenomenon? What should we definitely not do? And can we actually work with it?

Before You Hit Send

Some additional thoughts on email if you’re an educator…

Email for Teachers

One of our most useful tools and, sometimes, one of our greatest sources of torment is email. When things go well, it can be our greatest ally in communicating effectively with students, parents, and colleagues. However, it can also be a source of tremendous stress if...

Stayin’ Alive Center

Check out the Tech Coaches’ Podcast
ArchiTECHs of Learning

Our latest blog posts…

Interpreting iLearn (Moodle) Quiz Data

Interpreting iLearn (Moodle) Quiz Data

One of the many advantages to using Moodle (iLearn) in addition to the flexibility of the Quiz module (the number attempts, shuffling questions, inserting variables into numerical questions) is the wealth of usable data you can glean from each quiz.  Bryant science...

Mr. Belknap’s Two-Draft Reading Lesson

Mr. Belknap’s Two-Draft Reading Lesson

I've had the good fortune of teaming up with English Language Arts teacher Mr. Jacob Belknap from Edsel Ford to find ways to integrate technology into his instruction.  Recently, Mr. Belknap and I used Google Hangouts to hold a video conference to discuss how he could...

Snow First Graders and Google Slides

Good things are happening at Snow Elementary!  In Julie Serazio's first grade classroom, students wrote about things they are thankful for, and why they are thankful for them.  Students had very creative ideas!  Now it was time to digitize them! First, we took those...

Assistive Technology at Geer Park

Assistive Technology at Geer Park

Geer Park's Special Ed Resource Teacher, Jen LeClair, is pioneering a new way for her special education students to use Assistive Technology in their general education classes.  Because some of her students struggle with fine motor deficits, Jen and I put our heads...

iLearn: Claim-Evidence-Reasoning

iLearn: Claim-Evidence-Reasoning

Several teachers in secondary science have begun using an argumentative writing protocol called "Claim-Evidence-Reasoning", or "C-E-R".  Students use this protocol to generate a claim about a particular issue or concept, then support their claim with evidence....

Blog Theme of the Month

Blog Theme of the Month

Check out this new blog that is designed to teach you how to use a popular blogging theme!  We created a test blog that shows teachers how to use the design elements of the popular blog theme called "Cute Frames."  By scrolling through the blog, teachers are taught...

Data-Driven Instruction with Moodle

Data-Driven Instruction with Moodle

Over the past several years, the Biology Team at Edsel Ford High School (Lorraine O'Brien, David Mayoros, Christina West, Michael MacPherson, and this author) has been using iLearn, Dearborn's Moodle Courseware, to assess student understanding and make instructional...

Coaches’ Corner: A Google Docs Session

Attention all teachers: ​Next Wednesday (November 11), the Tech Coaches will be holding their first regular "Coaches Corner" session from 3pm to 5pm in the Fordson High School Media Center. This session is designed to introduce you to Google Docs, how it works, and...

iBlog Training for Pre-K Teachers

iBlog Training for Pre-K Teachers

On Friday, I had the chance to work with the Pre-K teachers across the district to set up and customize their iBlogs.  Teachers got a hands-on experience setting up, customizing, and updating their iBlogs.  They exchanged ideas for making their blogs more interactive...

Revolutionizing Assessment with iLearn

This semester, several teachers have begun administering assessments on iLearn.  One of these teachers is Ms. Kelley Murphy, science teacher at Bryant. Kelley uses iLearn to create quizzes that involve color pictures, drag-and-drop fill-in-the-blank questions, and...

Video Conversations in Spanish

Video Conversations in Spanish

Students in Mrs. Jedrzejowski's Spanish classes at O. L. Smith this semester have been using Chromebooks and the Screencastify extension for Google Chrome to record their conversations with their peers. Students are first given their task and are then invited to find...

Model Courses Project UPDATE

Model Courses Project UPDATE

Model Courses on iLearn have begun to grow exponentially.  Over the past 2 weeks, the Tech Coaches have been creating model activities using their own pedagogical expertise, as well as content that has been imported into the Dearborn Educational Curriculum, or DEC....

girl logs into Chromebook with student number written on card

Technology for Lifelong Learning

As technology increases exponentially, learners in the 21st century have the opportunity to go far beyond the boundaries of the traditional classroom.  The available technology provided by the Dearborn Schools allows students to interact in the digital community, collaborate with peers, and engage with the world from their seats in our classrooms.  The possibilities for learning know no boundaries online.  Learn how to help students become lifelong learners in the digital community.

Our Goal

The goal of instructional technology coaches is to help teachers become effective at using technology to provide the most technology-rich, positive learning environments possible.  To this end, we believe effective teachers…

  1. Facilitate and inspire student learning and creativity.
  2. Design and develop digital age learning experiences and assessments.
  3. Model digital age work and learning.
  4. Promote and model digital citizenship and responsibility.
  5. Engage in professional growth and leadership.

from Standards for Teachers.

collage of students working on Moodle

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