Coach to Develop Leaders

For this part of the course, Tom and I initiated a thorough review of the main axis of our  strategy to support and empower the learning leaders at Kaohsiung American School: the existing KAS Tech Ambassadors program. The resulting analysis spans over 6 pages which we agreed would not be suitably reproduced in this forum. You can click on the following link to review the full content of KAS Tech Ambassadors. As for the content of this forum post, I will share an excerpt of my personal reflection:

Diana Beabout’s words during her visit at Kaohsiung American School still echo loudly in my office:
“The Tech Ambassadors are lighthouses, beacons for other teachers.(from What Are Innovators Like? Everett M. Rogers 1962 p.55).

It is clear that their lights shine, reflect, and inspire others.

Following the success of a session held by the Tech Ambassadors, one of our ELL teachers hosted an Authors’ Tea this week. In a meticulously time-controlled environment, ELL students shared their personal narratives to an audience of students, faculty and administrators who in turn shared their feedback before moving to a table hosted by another author.

In fact Year 3 started with a bang. A Tech Institute was institutionalized to improve the technology training of new staff. Its content is articulated around a draft of our Learning Technology Framework which teachers need to master to be proficient with technology at KAS.

Speed Geeking, a Professional Development Workshop

The initial push was reinforced one month later with a very energetic Speed Geeking session masterminded by the Tech Ambassadors during PD day.

Speed Geeking for Professional Development


The feedback gathered from this event was overwhelmingly positive. Speed Geeking was the inspiration for Authors’ Tea.



One of the biggest hurdles the Tech Ambassadors have had to navigate in the past 3 years is the diversity in workshop attendance. Clearly 10% of the faculty represents 90% of the attendance. While we are working on incentives to make the workshops more appealing, we can attribute this to two main causes: a) teachers who postpone the prioritization of technology projects because of time management issues and b) a nearly perfect realization of the 3 carriage train (Leading Innovation: the 3 Carriage Train) where only the very middle of the middle carriage represents the overwhelming majority of attendees.

Looking back at the Tech Ambassadors program in the light of this course, I realize the major blind spot of this initiative. Once I recognized them as early adopters and enrolled them in the program, I always expected the Tech Ambassadors to be leaders. I took for granted they would realize themselves as leaders. All of this without any help from me… A major change of direction this year which will be reflected in the our final project are the steps we will take to nurture the Tech Ambassadors leadership skills.

This post belongs to a series of posts I originally published for my course on Eduro, Coaching: from Theory to Practice taught by Kim Cofino.
ASSIGNMENT - Develop a strategy for supporting and empowering learning leaders in your school. Share your strategy in a reflective post.

Comments

  1. […] presentation in front of Kaohsiung American School’s educational technology trailblazers, KAS tech ambassadors. Don’t miss them during the coming up professional development days and of course at […]

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  2. […] work. A complete Google Apps mashup! We love it and yet of course did not expect any less from Tech Ambassador Margo. Watch Ellie’s video to appreciate the quality of this multi-layered […]

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