The
Inside Ticket from My eCoach®
Past Issues
Issue #13-December 2005
- A Note from the Founder and President
of My eCoach, Barbara Bray
- Team Spotlight The Washington
State Technology for Learning Disabilities (TLD) Project
- Featured Project
- Featured Resources and Products
- What's New at My eCoach and Upcoming
Events
- Grants and Contests
1.
A Note from the Founder and President of My eCoach,
Barbara Bray
We wish you a very happy and safe holiday! One of the reasons
we created My eCoach Online is for you to be able to join
our learning community from anywhere at anytime: even on a
freezing, rainy or snowy day. In fact, I'm writing this message
in front of a roaring fire late on a stormy night! Holidays
are for family and friends but don't forget that you are part
of a growing and vital community.
With that said, enjoy your break and perhaps
sip some hot apple cider while logging into My eCoach Online
and see what's happening from your team and others in the
community. Submit some of your favorite pictures or websites
to the eLibrary, create a project you can use with your students
in January, or write a blog and posts with our easy wizard.
The more you share the more the community benefits.
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2. Team
Spotlight The Washington State Technology for Learning
Disabilities (TLD) Project
Written by eCoach Jill Hallows
The WA State Technology for Learning Disabilities (TLD) project
(part of the Federal Enhancing Education Through Technology
Grant) provides technology, professional development, and
strategies to assist teachers in integrating technology into
their instruction for learning disabled students. My eCoach
is used to deliver ongoing technology tasks for teachers to
complete as they learn to integrate equipment they received
in the grant into their teaching. My eCoach is also used to
collect feedback on their experiences. This guides the direction
of ongoing professional development delivered throughout the
duration of the project.
My eCoach has given the TLD project a "pulse" and
is in constant use, changing all the time. We are so excited
about this feeling of new life. In addition, My eCoach has
made the overall management of the grant project much easier.
The items below will give you an idea of how it helps us:
- At the beginning of each month I (project administrator)
create a course where I assign specific technology integration
and other project related "tasks" to teachers
participating in the grant.
- At the end of each month teachers give a report on assigned
items in an ILP (Individual Learning Profile) along with
a description of how it went as they incorporated the assigned
tasks into their teaching. The ILP then becomes a living,
progressive, professional development portfolio for both
the teacher and their eCoach.
- The grant project evaluator (RMC Research, Inc. in Portland)
also has access to these portfolios so she can collect data
and document teacher growth.
- Teachers use eCoach email, the Discussion Board and Post
a Resource to share ideas and information as they go along.
- When teachers share technology integration ideas with
one another, they suddenly see the need for sharing their
lessons via the Lesson Builders in My eCoach Online.
- Because we are using new reading/writing/study software
with students (TextHelp Read & Write Gold), support
personnel at TextHelp Systems are part of our eCoach team.
They monitor the discussion board where Q&As are posted
when teachers have questions or technical issues.
Thanks to my eCoach, David Tucker, we are still discovering
exciting new ways to use this program and look forward to
hearing what others are doing.
TLD
Project Website
More My eCoach Team News
Congratulations to My eCoach Members Héctor Pérez,
Jackie Lee, and Alice Packard of the Earn While You Learn
Fellows Program Team who recently won Rampus-KCI Innovation
Awards. The seventh annual Innovation Award recognition dinner
honored local educators with exemplary technology programs
or projects that benefit the Silicon Valley educational community:
- First Place: Héctor Pérez, of Mountain
View High School, Mountain View Los Altos Union High School
District
- Honorable Mention Awards: Jackie Lee and Alice Packard
from El Toro Elementary School, Morgan Hill School District
Find the winning projects on the new KCI
website.
If you would like to share some news about
your program, email Leilani.
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3. Featured Project:
Fourth Grade Bridge Systems, Graphs, and Place Value
Mike Meade: Newport, WA
Essential Question: How can I use my problem solving,
group work, math and information gathering skills to build
a great bridge?
Summary: This is a fourth grade integrated math, science
and technology project where students understand bridge systems
through research and hands-on projects. Find step-by-step
lessons in the Teacher Guide along with handouts, research
links, assessments, and a Student Guide.
Check it out at:
Teacher
Guide
Student
Page
Would you like us to add your
project to our eLibrary and be considered as a featured project?
Follow these steps:
- Use the appropriate builder checklist
to ensure that all components are in place. To download
the checklist, go to the Builders section in My eCoach Online
and click on “Download Handouts” under the WRL,
Activity, Custom, Inquiry, or UoP builders.
- If you have an eCoach, ask he or she to
review your project or ask a peer to review your project.
- Email the URL of your project to Head eCoach
Leilani at leilani@my-ecoach.com
4.
Featured Resources and Products
Pearl Tong Collection: My eCoach staff
member Pearl Tong recently submitted pictures from Singapore,
Malaysia, and Hong Kong. Check out her pictures of animals,
city scenes, and other points of interest from her trip. Go
to the eLibrary and type Pearl Tong in the Search box.
Holiday
Resources and Projects search through the Holidays
and Events sub-directory in the eLibrary for clip art, pictures,
and projects to use in the classroom.
The eLibrary
provides free resources to anyone on the web. You can
find copyright-friendly pictures, clip art, video and audio
clips, handouts, web site links and book information. We need
your help in keeping the eLibrary free. You can do this by
purchasing
a book from the eLibrary. Click on the Click here to
purchase this book link to buy a book from Amazon.com.
Thanks for your support!
Featured Products in the Store: Sara
Zimmerman Art
Greeting cards and prints featuring nature inspired reproductions
of original art by Sara Zimmerman. You can choose from 32
selections. Sara Zimmerman lives in Truckee, CA in the Sierra
Nevada mountains with her husband, Rob, and two dogs
To submit a resource to the eLibrary, login
to My eCoach Online, go to the eLibrary, then click the "Submit
a Resource" link.
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5. What’s
New at My eCoach and Upcoming Events
New Coaching Programs
Alameda, California
Support providers and new teachers from Alameda Unified School
District Beginning Teacher Support and Assessment (BTSA) program
will be using My eCoach to improve teaching practice and build
a professional learning community. The Alameda BTSA program
will serve as a pilot for the East Bay Consortium of BTSA
programs.
Cayman Islands
John Gray High School Technology Integration Project (Cayman
Islands) will use My eCoach Online with John Shillito as the
Head eCoach to support 6 eCoaches representing all departments.
The eCoaches will develop at least 10 technology-rich lesson
plans between January and June 2006. John is working with
his eCoaches and the My eCoach staff to input Cayman Islands
standards, develop a skills profile for the eCoaches, and
create an evaluation criteria to provide feedback on the efficacy
of the program as a pilot for all of the teachers in the school
and possibly for other coaching programs in the Cayman Islands.
Oakland, California
The Oakland Unified School District Urban Math Project will
begin using My eCoach Online to support math teachers from
four of the districts middle schools in most need. Up
to 3 eCoaches will work with the teachers combining face-to-face
and online coaching through after school workshops and virtual
collaboration and communication.
Educational Service District 105 Washington
Educational Service District 105 is using My eCoach Online
to build a professional learning community supporting 35 math
teachers across several districts in South Central Washington.
Math Integration Specialists Catherine Ball and Laurel Carpino
are the eCoaches who will help the teachers on enhancing research-based
mathematics instruction through the integration of technology
as part of the NO LIMIT! (New Outcomes: Learning Improvement
in Mathematics Integrating Technology) program in Washington
State.
New Features in My eCoach Online
Improved Individual Learning Plan
- customize Individual Learning Plans (ILP) in My eCoach
Online to track and monitor professional development
- customize top and side labels in ILP
- give each of your ILPs a name
- provide a place for eCoaches to comment on your ILP
- create a reflection blog to the ILP as a way of journaling/writing
notes about their progress and as another way for receiving
supportive feedback from their eCoach
- export their ILP to a printer-friendly version in .rtf
format
Enhanced Team Discussion Board
- sort topics and posts by topic, author, date posted and
last activity
- view number of replies to each post
- hide, show, and thread all posts
- ability for authors to edit or delete posts and replies
Message Center
- bcc and cc email features available when sending My eCoach
Message Center mail
- option to receive email notification to your normal email
account for mail sent through the Message Center (select
this option in your profile)
Recently Added Standards Sets
- Arizona Academic Standards
- National Performance Music Standards
- National Staff Development Council Standards
- North Carolina Standards
- Wisconsin Professional Teaching Standards
Standard Sets in Progress: Cayman Island Standards,
Minnesota Academic Content Standards, Oregon Content Standards
Professional Learning Communities Standards: We have
drafted Professional Learning Communities Standards that will
help our members create successful learning communities. We
want our members and friends to be a part of the process in
establishing and approving these standards so please provide
us with feedback by emailing Barbara
or if you are a member, reply to Barbaras Professional
Learning Communities blog.
Upcoming Events
(CAIS) California Association of Independent Schools -
Menlo Park, CA January 23, 2006
Online Professional Learning Communities Workshop
Barbara Bray will present an all day hands-on workshop for
K-12 teachers at the CAIS Technology Professional Development
Day conference. As members of My eCoach Online, participants
will create a hotlist of websites and collaborate with another
teacher to publish their curriculum online. Participants will
receive an account as part of the workshop.
Register today at www.caisca.org. Cost: $20 also covers light
lunch. For program information, contact Anne Marie Schar (650)
321-1991 x124, or annemarie@mid-pen.com
East Bay CUE (Computer Using Educators) presents Cool
Tools for Learning II Alameda COE, Hayward, CA January
21
Barbara will be presenting her nationally recognized Into,
Through, and Beyond workshop. This 3 hour morning workshop
has participants creating activities that extend the curriculum
while meeting the standards. In the afternoon, Barbara will
present the Coolest Tips and Tricks session showing new resources
and ideas. Cost: $40 for members - $70 for non-members. Register
online at www.ebcue.org.
NCCE (National Council for Computer Educator Conference)
Portland, OR February 7-10
My eCoach will be at the NCCE conference in full swing. If
you would like to schedule a meeting with Barbara Bray at
the conference, please contact Leilani.
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6. Grants, Contests,
and Fundraising
Check the updated WRL
for new grants and contests for teachers and schools.
Please let Barbara
know about any upcoming funding opportunities so she can add
them to this WRL. We also can work with you if you plan to
pursue any grant and want to include My eCoach.
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