Episodes

In this episode of “Ask the Tech Coach,” Jeff and Nick answer the questions you have emailed, tweeted and left voice messages about. In this episode, we discuss: How to best keep track of your teacher interactions Best way to communicate with your teachers? How should Tech Coaches be using Social Media to promote classroom activities and student achievement? Join the TeacherCast Instructional Coaches Network! Are you a Tech Coach or looking to become one this year? Are you searching for su...

In this episode of “Ask the Tech Coach,” we welcome Kerry Gallagher, Sean Hackbarth, and Michael Krauszer on the program to discuss the many things that happen in the first month of being a Tech Coach. For so many of us, the first month is filled with excitement but also misery when things don't go so well. What is important is that we all learn how to get our first few staff encounters to be positive ones so that we have a fantastic program that is built on relationships and not just on tech. ...

In this episode of “Ask the Tech Coach,” Jeff and Nick discuss why it’s important to start the school year off on the right foot. So many times, tech coaches want to jump in and impress their teachers with how much they know and how big their website is. In reality, this is the opposite. In order to have a successful start to the school year, it is important that you ask questions of your staff and get them to learn about your program and your intentions for working with them as a coach. It’s a...

In this episode of “Ask the Tech Coach,” Nick and Jeff look at the many ways that school districts can assess the technology skills of staff members. For many tech coaches, the collection of useable and actionable data is the basis for their entire programs. In this show, we look both at traditional surveys that tech coaches can use as well as nontraditional assessment methods for quickly identifying skillsets of individual staff members. In this episode, we discuss: Reflections from Episode 1...

In this episode of “Ask the Tech Coach,” Nick and Jeff take a look at several great ways to stay digitally organized while being an Instructional Technology Coach in multiple school buildings. In this episode, we discuss: Reflections from Episode 11: “Three Things Every Tech Coach Needs To Start The School Year”Website ThoughtsFree vs Paid WebsitesFor School For Home To Build a Brand Recommendations Preparing Staff Members for the New School YearCreating Summertime PD that has a year-long ...

Congratulations, it’s a new school year and you are about to walk into the new term as an Instructional Technology Coach. The first thing that usually goes through your mind is a ton of questions. What is a Tech Coach? What does my school district think a tech coach is? How will my staff find me and my thoughts and ideas? What is most important to any Tech Coach is the ability to hit the ground running on the first day. But how do you do this? There are many blog posts that agree that the ...

In this episode of “Ask the Tech Coach,” we sit down with Jon Corippo and Marlena Hebern to discuss their new book Bring Your Teaching into Focus: The EduProtocol Field Guide available now from Dave Burgess Publishing. In this episode, we discuss: What is the State of Professional Development? How do we teach the 4C’s in less than 90 slides? EduProtocols (Lesson frames to use with any content, and subject) The original: 8p*arts The latest: Cyber Sandwich The mindset and the goal of being t...

In this episode of “Ask the Tech Coach,” we sit down with Mike Lawrence and Dr. Sam Patterson to talk about the State of Professional Learning. Together, we take on the topic of Innovative Professional Development and share our thoughts about how we can create a culture of learning in our school districts that encourage teachers to think outside of the box. In this episode, we discuss: The state of Professional Development in 2018How are we personalizing Professional Learning? Voting with you...

In this episode of AskTheTechCoach, we look at Formative Assessment Tools that can be used in the classroom. This week we were asked about different kinds of online assessment tools teachers can use besides websites such as Discovery Education, PBS, etc. for Science? Formative vs Summative Assessments When we discuss assessment tools, we have to look at both Formative and Summative assessments. Formative Assessments are used throughout a unit to help teachers measure individual student learni...

This weeks question came from a middle school science teacher who asked the question “Do you have any good recommendations on virtual tours of body systems, dissections, etc?” There are a plethora of app and websites teachers can use for analyzing human anatomy and/or participating in dissections. Some of the favorites are: Dissections: Virtual Frog Dissection– This program allows you to watch videos about the steps and the tools of a frog dissection. Froguts– This is an amazing tool for sch...

Keynote … PowerPoint … HaikuDeck … SlideShare These are all wonderful presentation programs. I can honestly admit that I use them just about every time I put together a presentation or prepare for a keynote. With these programs, you can create any type of slide that your heart can imagine. They are simple, elegant, and come on both the desktop and mobile platforms for all to enjoy. However… whenever you are asked the question “What is Google Slides???” Please don't ever start the sentence by s...

Let's face it… we are all going digital whether we like it or not. Everything about our relationships, professions, family, and now even our classrooms is digital. Due to the fact that we need to look at a screen for any piece of entertainment or knowledge these days it's time to redefine what exactly is and isn't in the world of educational technology. Let's first go back in time together. Here is a question I want you to think long and hard about. What is the machine called that sits in your ...

Sphero has just rolled out their new programming platform and community center, Lightning Lab. With this app Sphero positions SPRK programming alongside Scratch and other web-enabled platform. With Lightning Lab, users can have access to all of their programs no matter which device they use to sign in as the programs travel with the user's profile. Lightning Lab will make it even easier to use the SPRK robot in the classroom because students can access te instructions and starter code inside of...

The Foos Studio brings programming into the game design. With The Foos, students can not only learn about game design, but how to create dynamic content playable by the world. Last year during CSEDWEEK The Foos was introduced to the world. The cute characters helped students understand programming fundamentals, and it was so fun they asked for more. Grant Hosford, CEO of Codespark and Foos creator, has upgraded the play and learning in the Foos by adding the Foos Studio. In the Studio students...

Have you ever wondered what the best app is for doing Chromakey (Green Screen) on the iPad? In this episode of Ask the Tech Coach, we share with you our favorite video app for your classroom. What is the best app for doing Green Screen on iPads? The #1 Green Screen app for the iPad in Education, now available for the iPhone too! Green Screen by Do Ink makes it easy to create incredible green screen videos and photos. Classroom-tested by kids and teachers, this app emphasizes ease-of-use and sim...