Help Teachers
Mentor One Another
It’s an exciting, yet challenging time to be a
technology coordinator. Rapid changes in
technologies, including the ongoing development of new Web 2.0 tools and applications,
provide unprecedented opportunities for innovation in education. e multitude of emerging
technologies available presents many exciting
avenues for teachers to adopt new strategies
addressing today’s digital learners. How best can
we, as technology leaders, inspire teachers to
take advantage of these opportunities to engage
students in 21st-century learning?
Build a Professional Learning Community
Any professional development must be multifaceted, ongoing, and meet the learning needs
of the teachers adopting new technologies.
Characteristics of e ective professional
learning communities include:
• a focus on student learning
• collegial collaboration
• review/re ection of each teacher’s
professional practice
• feedback directed at individual improvements
• feedback directed at community improvements
AS I SEE “IT”
By Camilla Gagliolo
Establish a Cadre of Teacher Mentors
Powerful learning takes place when teachers
teach other teachers in a peer-to-peer network.
e creation of a cadre of teacher leaders serving
as peer coaches will help power up the professional learning community and provide differentiated professional development o erings.
Teacher mentors, when trained and comfortable
with integration ideas and technology tools, will
become advocates for new integration models
and widen support across the community. To
build a professional development program
with a cadre of teacher coaches, consider the
following steps:
• Identify early adopters and risk-takers who
are ready to explore emergent technology
integration ideas
• Plan collaboratively with a focus on
student learning
• Create a network of support by holding
regular meetings and short training sessions
• Provide extra training and learning opportunities outside the regular network (e.g., attend a
conference together)
• Co-teach in the classroom (e.g., provide the
extra support when implementing new ideas
in the classroom setting)
• Provide personal, ongoing, technical, and
pedagogical support
• Observe classroom learning with constructive feedback
• Celebrate success (e.g., share at sta meetings, post on a Web site, co-present at a local
conference, co-author an article)
• Create professional development opportunities led by teacher coaches
Also, consider creating a set of laminated
“keys” on a key ring containing information on
expert mentors/coaches in the learning community. Each key lists the name of an integration
tool and the name of the teacher/mentor who is
the local expert. ◾
Camilla Gagliolo, an
instructional technology coordinator with
the Arlington (Virginia)
Public Schools, serves on
the ISTE Board and is
chair of the ISTE International Committee.
